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Sametime/QuickPlace Tips Newsletter #4 from Rob Novak (SNAPPS)
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| July 18, 2006 |
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Sametime/QuickPlace Tips Newsletter: July 2006
Tips from the QuickPlace, Sametime, and Workplace Experts
Greetings!
Long time no see, you might say! And you'd be
right -- it's been some time since my last newsletter.
But boy do I have a good excuse!
If you haven't heard, there's a new conference
focused entirely on Sametime™ and
QuickPlace™ being held this September in the
US and Europe! Four IBM
Business Partners are at the heart of it all, supported
by great participation
from IBM product and development management. For
years I've wanted to put this together, and now with
a unique collaboration of partners and IBM, it's
become a reality...and has been the focus of my last
several months' work!
So this issue, in addition to a few helpful tips, I'm
proud to announce
Collaboration University, the first and only
conference dedicated entirely to Sametime and
QuickPlace
technical training. All the information you need
about
Collaboration University is on the website, and I've
provided some highlights below. To help familiarize
you with the event's speakers, this issue has a guest
tipper -- Carl Tyler from Instant Technologies, a
Beacon-winning IBM Business Partner well known for
his work and products for Sametime. Welcome Carl!
One final note before we get into the tips -- early
registration for
Collaboration University has two important
money-saving deadlines: a $400 discount ends
this Friday, July
21,
then there's a $200 discount until August 18. But
even without the discount, this conference
is a great value for anyone looking for in-depth
Sametime and QuickPlace training. You'll want to
register as soon as
possible because space is limited in both venues!
Well that's my commercial -- now on to the
tips!
Rob Novak, President, SNAPPS
rnovak@snapps.com
http://www.LotusRockStar.com
Under the Covers
Doing the impossible with HaikuCommonForms.ntf
Let’s say for a moment that you have QuickPlace 7
and decide you’d like to change some of the wording
on one of the standard forms. Or, you have a
legitimate gripe with the really ugly green buttons
that seem to show up throughout the product. No
matter what you do, you can't avoid them. Without
getting into a deep discussion about QuickPlace
architecture (find me or Satwik Seshasai at
Collaboration University for this riveting
conversation), suffice it to say that QuickPlace’s user
interface is a combination of things you can control
through custom themes and things you can’t easily
control because they’re part of the late-binding HTML
and JavaScript subform system found in a single
Domino template: HaikuCommonForms.ntf.
Before you go digging into this template, take some
time with documentation and examples. Make sure
you understand the difference between custom
themes, database form definitions like Page and
Imported Page, place and room templates, and the
system form/subform design elements that are the
underpinning of it all. With changes to subforms, you
can:
- Change standard wording
- Change defaults on attachment control view types
- Modify system elements like buttons
- Hide and show administrative options
- Hide and show customization options
- Apply user roles (like super user or manager) to
specific form or administrative functions
- Add system fields and change notification
options
HaikuCommonForms.ntf is found in the [domino data]
\quickplace\areatypes\ directory along with several
other templates and any placetype subdirectories
used by the server. This database can be opened
and its forms and subforms modified using Domino
Designer. That said, I urge caution, change control,
and initial and frequent backups! Another note of
caution, there are a couple subforms you can't
open. IBM doesn't use Domino Designer to put these
together, so just be careful.
Let’s take a simple change and describe how to
implement it. The bad news is there is no
incredibly simple way to find some of the design
elements -– there are 22 forms and 358 subforms.
Some of them are named in such a way that it’s
intuitive to find them –- such as the “h_StdPageEdit”
subform, where you’ll find code related to a page in
edit mode. Many of the subforms are in two parts,
with the second subform named the same as the first
but with “_Init” appended to the name.
For our purposes, let’s assume you want to change
the color of the animated bar that appears when a
page is being published. Of course, this change
would be part of more significant UI changes – but
I wanted to use a simple example to demonstrate the
technique. Our subform is
h_CreateAnimation, which you’d discover after
reading through several subforms and beginning to
see patterns in naming. Much to your amusement,
you find that the animation isn’t something as easy
as an animated graphic, but a progression of layers in
table cells. Funny, but it still works! Searching
through the JavaScript variables, you see that the
colors in the progression of the “meter” are defined
as “light” and “dark”:
var dark = '#6070a8';
var light = '#d0d0e8';
By making a simple substitution of the HTML colors,
you can change the colors of the publish progress bar
throughout QuickPlace:
var dark = '#660000';
var light = '#CCCC99';
So there’s a simple example. Modification of
HaikuCommonForms.ntf can be very powerful, and in
combination with theme, template and CSS changes
can get very “deep”. For example, a recent
modification (one that involved nearly 50 subform
changes) required that I create a new NOTESFIELD
or NOTESVAR type (you’ll see these at the top of
subforms). These can have some pretty funny
values, for example:
<NOTESFIELD NAME={h_SystemName}
initialVALUE=
{#B64#TgAAAEAABQAMAGhfU3lzdGVtTmFtZ
QEAAAAKA
q8AIgAKAJAAVgGuABgABQAMAGhfU3lzdGVtTmFtZa4AB
AC1AwMABwAMAAUACTBTMEUA}>
What’s going on here? The value is a compiled
@Formula using an unpublished API (they’re called
Haiku functions –- after the QuickPlace code name),
that is then Base-64 encoded. The "#B64#"
part
gives it away.
A best practice is to use comments and colors when
modifying subforms –- they do not affect the code
when it is rendered. For instance, my team always
comments the original JavaScript out, and colors it
green. Then our
replacement code is always blue. By doing this, it
makes it easier to find your modifications when
searching through a particular subform – something
you’ll appreciate on some of the larger ones that can
reach more than 3,000 lines of code.
When modifying HaikuCommonForms.ntf, you’ll need
to restart the QuickPlace server in order to apply
your changes. One major drawback to the flexibility
afforded by this template is that IBM hotfixes and
upgrades always come with a new
HaikuCommonForms.ntf database -– so your changes
need to be applied again. But if deep
customization is important, as it is for many of my
clients, it’s worth it for the occasional maintenance
headache.
Collaboration University™
Register Now! Sept 13-15 in Kansas City, Sept 27-29 in London!
I'm pleased to join forces with three
other IBM Business Partners and IBM to bring a new
kind of conference to life --
Collaboration University™. This unique
event, to
be held in the US (Kansas City) and Europe (London)
this September, is 100% focused on technical
information on Sametime and QuickPlace. With
Sametime 7.5 shipping almost simultaneously with the
event and exciting news about QuickPlace on the
horizon (there is a major hint there folks!), the
timing couldn't be better.
Your IBM Business
Partners bringing you this unique conference are
SNAPPS, Instant Technologies, Connectria and The
Turtle Partnership in London.
Why did we decide to have an event like this? It's
simple, really. There is a lot happening in the
collaboration market, and a lot of that is happening
at IBM. The sheer numbers of new products that
need coverage at industry conferences has the
effect of keeping sessions on products like Sametime
and QuickPlace a bit sparse. But with millions of users
of each, we figured it was a good time for the
industry experts on these products to come together
and fill the need for in-depth technical education.
Hence,
Collaboration University!
There are a few things about Collaboration University
that will make it a unique experience:
- Sessions are delivered by absolute experts --
RedBook authors, exam writers, partners with tens of
thousands of hours of experience
- Talented IBM speakers you know, such as David
Marshak, Marc Pagnier and Ken Bisconti (in London)
to show you the future
- Conference sessions become progressively more
challenging during the event, enhancing the learning
experience
- Opening and closing sessions from IBM to shape
the future, with the middle all technical!
- Unique opportunities for networking -- an
opportunity for a limited number to have dinner with
the speakers, followup consultations, and more
We have some surprises in store as well...so please
join us in Kansas City or London. We look forward to
seeing you there!
Registration is available online, or by calling toll-free
+1-800-889-7350, or international +1-978-253-
0100.
Early registration deadlines are July 21 ($400
discount!) and August 18 ($200 discount). Seats
are limited, so register today.
I'm not quite dead yet...
Then again, maybe I am (sigh)
QuickPlace is dead! Long live QuickPlace! QuickPlace
2.0.8 reached
its "End of Life" on April 30, 2005. QuickPlace 3.0x
and Sametime 3.x reached the same point on April
30, 2006. For a
more detailed list of the dates that IBM software
products are withdrawn from support, visit
the IBM
support lifecycle site.
You can find all
the Lotus
products are found under "L". Remember,
QuickPlace was renamed "Lotus Team Workplace" for
the single release 6.5.1, and Sametime had an
impossibly long name that was more like a Haiku.
Which, if you're a nerd like me, makes you
giggle. Starting with
version 7, it was back to the good old names, and it
looks like it'll stay that way. Whew!
Effective Sametime Meetings Made Easy
Advice from Carl Tyler, Sametime Guru & Collaboration University Professor!
I am sick of attending on-line meetings, where the
presenter does a poor job of considering the
experience of the person watching a presentation
presented through
Lotus Sametime. So, I
decided to post a video on how I host Sametime
meetings and present PowerPoint files. I am pleased
to say that the upcoming Sametime 7.5 does a much
better job of converting PPT files, especially ones
that contain graphics or screenshots. So, IBM almost
catches up with the competition on the handling of
PPT files. If you look at a PPT file today in Sametime
that has Screenshots on the Sametime Whiteboard,
they look terrible, so everyone pretty much always
resorts to using the Screenshare -- which leads to
the problem where the person sharing their screen is
running a resolution that most IMAX theaters would
be proud of, so the poor person watching the
presentation on their 1024x768 laptop can only see
the top left.
Here are a few things to do in order to provide good
on-line meetings with Sametime.
- Schedule the meeting 15-20 minutes before it is
due to start, so that any issues can be sorted out
before the customer arrives. Also prepare the
presentation etc. in this time so that the customer
doesn't have to see you resizing screen-sharing areas
etc. (other meeting services often have waiting
rooms where viewers wait until the meeting
moderator starts the meeting. Sadly Sametime
doesn't and the upcoming Sametime 7.5 is still
missing this key feature, it did exist as a code sample
for Sametime 1.5 so it is possible.
- Create an introduction slide for the whiteboard ,
so that attendees see that before anything else, put
useful information on it like call in numbers etc.
- Turn your screen resolution down to 1024x768, at
least then if you have to share your entire screen,
the person at the other end has some hope of seeing
it.
- If you have another machine available, have it
access the meeting, so you can watch it when you're
presenting in order to see when slides are completely
loaded. Would be great if Sametime offered the ability
to visually indicate to the presenter that all the slides
have loaded, so they know they can proceed.
- Don't use PowerPoint in fullscreen slideshow
mode, present it in review mode and share just part
of the screen. This way the watcher can see the
entire presentation without having to resize or use
scroll bars in their app.
- Only present with the number of colours you have
to. If you don't have fancy pictures or screenshots in
your presentation, consider using the "optimize for
performance" option.
- Oh and above all else, start the meetings on
time!!!! If you hold regular meetings and don't
always start them on time, why would people turn up
on time? It's rude to keep those that do arrive on
time hanging around. If you need to delay a
meeting's start, keep everyone informed as to why.
Anyway, If these aren't obvious, download and watch
the movie, and you'll see what I mean. Enjoy!
The Shameless Plug
Consulting Services and the AnyPlace™ Line of QuickPlace Products
Strategic Net Applications, Inc., better
known as SNAPPS, is a consulting firm with several
key productivity products
for use with IBM Lotus QuickPlace and IBM Lotus
Sametime. Our product information can be found
below, but it might be useful to know what kind of
services we can provide. Over the past six years,
we have done 50 or so projects for QuickPlace,
Sametime, Domino, and Portal customers - each one
unique and each one with a high value to the
customer. It's hard to categorize what we do, but
here is a representative sample:
Strategy and Business ROI
Assistance - Executive consulting on
collaboration strategy
- Business case assistance for advanced
collaboration tools and development
Administration and Architecture
- QuickPlace deployment planning
- QuickPlace and Sametime integration
- LDAP and directory conversions
- Password management, expiration, and strength
enforcement
- QuickPlace usage reporting (New!)
- Expert advice for upgrades, consolidation, and
administration
Development and Customization
- Custom workflow design and document
management schemes
- Back-end and Domino integration
- Customized "my places" portal interfaces
- Custom themes, across all Lotus products (New -
includes Portal and Workplace)
- Sametime integration, customization, bots and
development
- Business process place development
- API development - custom notifications,
invitations, auditing, and more
For more information on our products for QuickPlace
or Sametime, visit the links below.
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phone:
+1-913-381-4165
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Be sure to forward this newsletter using the link
below and encourage
your colleagues to sign up! Also be sure
to check out the SNAPPS web site
for information on our AnyPlace line of
QuickPlace products, services, and example
downloads.
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Rob Novak, President, SNAPPS | 10560 Barkley St, Suite 320 | Overland Park | KS | 66212
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