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Monday, July 26, 2010

How To Add Sametime Web Awareness to Lotus Connections

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I while ago I had shared instructions on how to enable STLinks in Lotus Connections. STLinks was a way to add instant messaging awareness to any web application by using pure JavaScript.

Lotus Connections is integrated out of the box with Lotus Sametime. This integration, however, requires that you have the Lotus Sametime client installed, configured, and running in order for the awareness to work. A customer was asking me the other day if we could enable awareness without requiring the Sametime client. The answer is yes.

With the latest Sametime 8.5+ version there's an AJAX API for awareness similar to STLinks. Here's how you can use that API to add awareness in Lotus Connections:

1. Enable SSO between Lotus Connections and Sametime

2. The first step is to initialize the API. Add the following code to header.html

<!-- Adding for Sametime Awareness - START -->
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://stproxy.acme.com/stwebclient/dojo_1.2.3/sametime/themes/WebClientAll.css" />
<script type="text/javascript">
// Settings for the proxy
var stproxyConfig = {
// Replace with the appropriate server & port
server: "http://stproxy.acme.com",
tokenLogin: true, // We want to not display the login UI
isConnectClient: false
};

// Commmented following line since djConfig is already initialized by Lotus Connections.
// You will receive following error if you don't comment the following lines:
// djConfig.locale is undefined
// sap04/profiles/bundles/js/gzip_238210590/baseBundle.js
//djConfig = {
// parseOnLoad: true
// //isDebug: true
//};
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://stproxy.acme.com/stbaseapi/baseComps.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://stproxy.acme.com/stwebclient/dojo_1.2.3/sametime/livenameLight.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://stproxy.acme.com/stwebclient/widgets.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
// User ID and password
//var userID = "userID";
//var password = "password";
// Logged in correctly
function loggedInOK() {
// You can do other actions now that you are logged in
}
function logout() {
stproxy.login.logout();
}
// Error callback
function loginFailed(reason, error) {
// Something has gone wrong: display some information
alert("Error: " + reason + ": " + error);
}
// Log in anonymously
function loginUser() {
stproxy.login.loginByToken(null, stproxy.awareness.AVAILABLE, "I'm available", loggedInOK, loginFailed);
return true;
}
stproxy.addOnLoad(loginUser);
</script>
<!-- Adding for Sametime Awareness - END -->

3. Now add the following code anywhere in a page (for example, a blog or a wiki)

<div class="stmain tundra">
<div dojoType="sametime.LiveName" userId="luisb@acme.com"></div>
</div>

4. An alternative is that you would like to add it as field in a user's Profile page. To do so, modify profiles-config.xml to add an attribute that looks like this:

<attribute showLabel="false"
prependHtml="&lt;div class=&quot;stmain tundra&quot;&gt;&lt;div dojoType=&quot;sametime LiveName&quot; userId=&quot;"
appendHtml="&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;">email</attribute>

Enjoy!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

How To Drive Adoption For Your Enterprise 2.0 Deployment with Videos

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You may have heard this before, but I think it's worth repeating. I consider myself a newbie in the world of Enterprise 2.0. I started blogging internally at IBM about 4 years ago (even though our blogging platform has been around for almost 8 years). At the same time, I became an avid social bookmarker (again, even though our social bookmarking platform has been around for about 6 years). So what took me so long to get started?

Back in 2006, I was working in IBM's consulting organization. Deadlines were tight. Connectivity was scarce as I was constantly traveling. I was inundated in emails (most were from different people asking the same question) and stuck in mail jail. So did I really have time to "play" with these technologies? What's in it for me?

It wasn't until I caught up a video of one of our internal Enterprise 2.0 evangelists, Luis Suarez (which ended up being a recording of a Lunch-N-Learn I missed). The video concentrated on social bookmarking and how it's a great way to improve efficiency and productivity. What I really liked about the video was that it was focused on the employee and the benefits they would personally get from using these tools. After watching the video, I decided to give it a try, and got hooked!

And if you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that Lotus Knows I like Videos. To that end, an IBMer has produced a set of short clipss, each centered around a specific feature of Enterprise 2.0 (e.g. microblogging, wikis, file sharing, etc) and how it can solve day-to-day business challenges. Of course, these clips are centered around Lotus Connections, but I could see how these could be adjusted for other platforms. Thus, feel free to use these videos to promote adoption of your Lotus Connections deployment (or simply to get some ideas for your own).

File Sharing

Blogs

Wikis

Communities

Tasks & Activities

Microblogging

Profiles & Tags

Microblogging (Pt 2)

Social Bookmarking

I bet that one of these stories resonates with your day to day work. What's your favorite? Wikis really resonated with me.

Enjoy!

Friday, July 2, 2010

How To Accelerate iPhone 3G with iOS 4

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Ever since I installed iOS v4 on my iPhone 3G, my phone has been running extremely slow. Simple applications like Camera, Safari, Text Messages, and others were simply crashing. Other apps took about 45 seconds to 1 minute to launch. Typing was horrendously slow as each letter took 5-6 seconds to appear. The actual upgrade itself to iOS v4 took 5.5 hours, as you may have heard in my Twitter stream. Ugh!

I tried tips that were mentioned in the blogosphere, but nothing.

But then I got a fix! Yesterday, I got a note in my inbox how some users were experiencing problems while syncing their Mail, Contacts and/or Calendar after upgrading to iOS v4. While I wasn't having any specific issues syncing my Mail, I decided to take a peek at the technote published by Apple. The 'Symptoms' section had something very interesting:

Immediately after updating to iOS 4, some users may notice that Exchange ActiveSync Mail, Contacts, or Calendars do not sync, or sync very slowly.

The part about "very slowly" caught my attention and I decided to install the patch. I then installed the patch in less than 1 minute, restarted my iPhone 3G and voilá! Now I have an iPhone 3G with iOS v4 running very quickly (as quickly as it can run).

Therefore, if you are experiencing slowness in your iPhone 3G with iOS v4, I recommend that you install this fix: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3398

YMMV.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

IBM Lotus Connections is #1 Social Platform

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IDC (International Data Corporation) just published a press release announcing its new study called Worldwide Social Platforms 2009 Vendor Shares (if you want to download it, it costs $3000!).

According to the press release, the study found that even though 2009 was a tough economic year, the market for social platforms showed significant gains. In fact, revenue grew 55.9% year-over-year (some vendors grew triple digits from 2008-2009!). The total market size in 2009 was $369.7 million dollars.

Based on market share, IDC finds that the Top 3 Social Platform Vendors are IBM Lotus Connections, Communispace and Telligent. As you can imagine, I'm pretty happy to know that "my " product is #1 .

Take a peek at the press release here.