E-Pro: Lotus Notes and Domino 6.5 Intro
Tags :Domino 6.5 Notes 6.5 Sametime
Notes/Domino 6.5 Preview
By Chris Miller
IBM and Lotus attacked the market more than a year ago with Notes/Domino 6 and its offerings of better mail management and spam control at the server level. They’ve also committed to a faster stream of product enhancement release cycles in addition to the normal fixes and updates.
Sure enough, the new Notes/Domino 6.5 release (planned for release in the fourth quarter of 2003) will soon give even more control to end users. Shops that already have Domino 6, or those just looking to upgrade from previous releases, should be testing the available public betas of this version.
Here I preview some of the improvements that Notes/Domino 6.5 brings to the Notes client, Domino Web Access (iNotes), and the Domino server. One confusing change in 6.5 is that the official names have changed for both iNotes and Sametime. The new names are IBM Lotus Domino Web Access and IBM Lotus Instant Messaging, respectively. To keep it simple here, I use both names together.
[RS: I cut all instances of “IBM Lotus” preceding subsequent references to product names.] ok
Notes Client
As vendors race to integrate their product offerings, IBM/Lotus starts 6.5 with a leap into awareness with stronger Instant Messaging (Sametime) integration. Presence awareness is lighter, faster, and streamlined into both the client and iNotes. It was previously possible to see the online status of team members in e-mail, but actual chat still relied on running the Sametime Connect client on the desktop. Instant Messaging (Sametime) now shows in your status bar as a seamless part of your client experience (Figure 1).
For example, when you wish to send an instant message, you can click the new toolbar icon (and here comes the cool part). A pop-up box appears that lets you type the name of the person to whom you want to send an instant message. I love that feature! I can quickly type a first, last, or partial name of someone, and Notes displays either a list of people who match or an automatic IM with the only available selection. For example, type Dave here at our office, and you get five billion optional names it seems. But Notes 6.5 will read the other aliases in the fullname field (as of this writing).
Some of you are familiar with the OpenNTF initiative and the OpenNTF mail template (http://www.openntf.org), with the new indicators found in the mailfile that show when documents have been replied to or forwarded (Figure 2). You can expect to see these features, which are very popular with users, in the new supported mail template. Lotus has stated in a public discussion forum that these changes are generated from customer requests for features and not from the OpenNTF design.
Taking the customer feature requests even further, you can also find the following abilities built into the standard template (note that these were current when I wrote this; they may be modified or removed when the product is fully released):
Follow-up: Lets the user set a flag that the message needs more attention at a later date. No more forgetting to act on those items at later times!
Unread view: Simply put, the ability to see unread mail only. If you don’t read all your e-mail at once, this is the view for you to keep up.
New time/date column: Now you can see the thread and response times of e-mails without opening them or checking properties.
Drag and drop: Lets the user drag a mail message to the calendar or to-do bookmark to make a “copy into”-style document.
Domino Web Access (iNotes)
The list of enhancements to Domino Web Access (iNotes) is quite large and should entice many organizations to look hard at upgrading - if not for the features, then definitely for the performance enhancements. It appears a large effort went into bringing more people to the iNotes client with the addition of Mozilla 7 as a supported browser. This gives Lotus the edge in reaching the growing number of Linux desktops.
The Instant Messaging (Sametime) links technology has been exploited and integrated, replacing the previous heavy Java applet. This, coupled with the new zlib compression, has reduced network utilization up to 70 percent, according to statements from Lotus on the performance of Domino 6.5 Domino Web Access (iNotes).
Not to be overshadowed by all the performance enhancements is a feature that many enterprises have asked for since the initial release of Domino Web Access (iNotes): The ability to easily customize the Domino Web Access (iNotes) template. You may now easily modify or customize the template to a company look and feel.
I found myself particularly eager to test these new abilities in Domino 6.5 Domino Web Access (iNotes) (note that these were current when I wrote this; they may be modified or removed when the product is fully released):
Send and file: I enjoy being able to file the message as I send it — a feature previously available only in the Notes client.
A personal dictionary: For all those odd words (e.g., new Lotus product names) not found in the Lotus dictionary that I use all the time.
Database size and quota information: No more excuses from the Domino Web Access (iNotes) users that they had no warning of how much space they were using.
Multi-window support: Users may now open calendar, mail, welcome, ToDos, and notebook in separate windows.
Reply with Internet-style formatting: For the user who just must have the “>” symbol in front of mail replied to
Support for name change requests: Nothing was more frustrating than having an all-Domino Web Access (iNotes) infrastructure and not being able to properly use AdminP for name change requests.
Mail rule for block sender: For those pesky co-workers you don’t want mail from anymore.
Mail Encryption: Send encrypted mail, and sign and verify Notes encrypted messages.
Domino Server
IBM/Lotus didn’t forget to offer a few quick tidbits for the Domino server itself. Notes/Domino 6.5 adds support[ok? yes] for Windows 2003 and Linux on the zSeries as server platforms. As a side note for those of you who wish to test loads, they have also exposed new server tasks to the Server.Load tool for IMAP and Domino Web Access.
Just a Peek
This is just a brief review of what’s to come in Notes/Domino 6.5. The product continues to develop, and IBM/Lotus is conducting usability tests and gathering beta testing feedback. It’s enough to create a plan to test now, and then implement this release when it becomes available later this year. Read the Release Notes (http://www-12.lotus.com/ldd/doc/domino_notes/6.5m2/readme.nsf) for a full listing of enhancements, and make your own informed decision from there. This move won’t be as large as a migration from 4.6x or 5.x to ND6, but there are some changes on the client (specifically, the new Instant Messaging (Sametime) integration into the client and how it functions) that will require some explanation for users. [edit ok? Yes and I changed the word web]
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On Thursday, September 11th, 2003 by Chris Miller
