Lotus Widget Factory - Setting the credentials for publishing widgets to Lotus Mashups

After a long time a-looking, I found the credentials here that LWF uses to publish widgets to the Lotus Mashups server. It was driving me crazy, because I couldn't find them in the project or model, or in the workspace directory ( I even resorted to searching the file system ).

In short, choose Window -> Preferences and, under, Lotus Widget Factory Designer, choose Widgets and complete the Mashups Server username and Mashups Server password fields.

Sweet

Ooops, missed this one - WebSphere Portlet Factory Fixpack 6.1.0.1 Now Available for Download!

Check here for details.

Another useless error message ... this time from iTunesh

If the error is unknown, how the heck am I supposed to fix it ?

Useful webcast by HSBC and IBM covering Portal Solutions for Retail Banks

Retail banks are in a state of transformation all over the world, from
integrating new wireless mobile device access, and remote payment
systems, to digitizing process integration, updating credit management,
risk/exposure analysis, and Internet banking delivery. WebSphere Portal
can deliver information to the appropriate users in the proper context
to support decision making, by empowering all the people in your banking
organization including customers. Tune in to the launch of the WebSphere
Portal Banking Initiative, and learn from IBM and from customer use
cases how WebSphere Portal addresses the needs of retail banks today.

Presented by: John Armistead, Head of Core Systems, HSBC; Larry Bowden,
VP Portals and Mashups, IBM

http://www-01.ibm.com/webcasts/WCPGateway.wss?jadeAction=WEBCAST_LAUNCHPAGE_HANDLER&WCP_WEBCAST_ID_KEY=0830010
<http://www-01.ibm.com/webcasts/WCPGateway.wss?jadeAction=WEBCAST_LAUNCHPAGE_HANDLER&WCP_WEBCAST_ID_KEY=0830010>

BBC Radio 4 on Ubuntu

Since I've been using various versions of Linux over the past 6-7 years ( going back to Mandrake, Sid and Sarge way back when ), I've always struggled to listen to the BBC radio stations working reliably. I've played with Real Player and it's imitators, and usually end up spending a lot of time on Google.

However, this morning, I did the whole thing in far less time, thanks in part to James Cridland's blog here.

Whilst I didn't have a lot of success with the Real Player and Helix, given that I'm using Firefox 3.0.1. However, there was one very useful posting here: -

<snip>

Mark said at July 1st, 2008 at 8:11am

I’m not in any way a hacker so I don’t know how good this method is, but rather than installing yet another media player I’ve made files

VLC can use;I’ve uploaded the files; You can download them from http://www.tupple.net/radio/ I’ve done BBC1,2,3 and 4 and open any of them with vlc. It sometimes takes a few seconds to connect.

</snip>

I skipped to the chase and opened up VLC ( goodness, I love that little player on Windows *AND* Linux ), and opened the MMS URL for Radio 4: -

mms://wmlive-acl.bbc.co.uk/wms/radio4/radio4_nb_e1s2?BBC-UID=74a7c929ba1d1db781e46027205005eb90d10a7f1040912444dfe8117ceae58f_n&SSO2-UID=  

Not sure who Tupple is but .... thanks !

I've now gone really librarian poo, and created a link to VLC with the above URL ( and have even added the BBC Radio 4 logo to boot ).

Hey, I'm happy ( and drinking coffee ) - what else can I say ?

Cracked ? Suspend/Resume on Thinkpad T60p using Ubuntu "Hardy Heron" 8.04

I *think* I've cracked it - having rebuilt my T60p ( 2007-AE7 ) a few weeks back, I wasn't able to get suspend / resume to work. To be more specific, suspend works OK, but the laptop wouldn't properly resume - blinkenlights etc. but nowt on the display.

After some Googling, I made a few changes to /etc/default/acpi-support - from: -

POST_VIDEO=true
# RADEON_LIGHT=true
# DOUBLE_CONSOLE_SWITCH=true
ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=false

to: -

POST_VIDEO=false
RADEON_LIGHT=true
DOUBLE_CONSOLE_SWITCH=true
ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=true

Of all the changes, the DOUBLE_CONSOLE_SWITCH one appeared to do the trick, but it may well be a combination of all four.

When I suspend, I use the [FN][F4] combination, rather than that the Gnome Log Out button.

I'll keep playing and see how consistent the "fix" is......

Nokia 6021, PC Sync and Notes 8.5

Not sure if I mentioned this before, but this helped me in my search to get Nokia PC Sync working with Notes 8.5 beta 2: -

Force PC Suite to use specific notes.ini

In essence, I created a new registry key called notesini under [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Nokia\PCSync\Settings] pointing PC Sync at NOTES.INI as follows: -

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Nokia\PCSync\Settings]
"LastApp"=dword:00000010
"notesini"="c:\\Lotus\\Notes\\notes.ini"

How's about this for a name - IBM WebSphere Portal Widget Portlet

"...IBM WebSphere Portal Widget Portlet provides customizable,
personalized, and managed access to widgets that are compliant with the
iWidget Specification, thus extending the existing capabilities of
WebSphere Portal to provide flexible integration with web components,
independent of their technology. With the IBM WebSphere Portal Widget
Portlet, users can leverage widgets on their portal pages side by side
with portlets, Gadgets or other web components, enabling the creation of
portal-based mashups tailored to the situational requirements of an
enterprise.

Using IBM Websphere Portal Widget Portlet, an end user can view a
predefined widget, modify its preferences in the widget's edit mode, or
even select a widget from the Lotus Mashups toolbox, the IBM Mashup
Center catalog, or any other widget providing server for display on a
portal page. The user's level of flexibility can be controlled by an
Administrator who can configure the portlet to suit the user's
requirements and also manage the access to the widgets by using
WebSphere Portal's fine grained access control.

IBM WebSphere Portal Widget Portlet Editor (part of the package) can be
used by Administrators to conveniently provide a set of predefined
widgets to the portal users. Administrators can control access and
permissions for widgets in portal. Based on their level of permissions,
users can drag and drop these widgets from the portlet palette to their
portal pages like any other portlet..."

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/brandcatalog/portal/portal/details?catalog.label=1WP1001PI

I have yet to download the portlet, but am advised that there should be
two WAR files within the downloadable ZIP file; one WAR is for WebSphere
Portal 6.0 ( and uses the Java Standard Portlet API 1.0 aka JSR 168 ),
the other WAR is for WebSphere Portal 6.1 ( and uses the Java Standard
Portlet API 2.0 aka JSR 286 )

More error message funnery

Following on from my last posting ( courtesy of Mr James S ), here's another one

I've seen this three or four times when I try and send an email.

This has started appearing since I got  PCSync working with Notes 8.5 - not sure if that's a coincidence or not. I've run NCOMPACT and NFIXUP on my mail file, and we'll see if it recurs.

Synchronising my Nokia 6021 with Lotus Notes 8.5 beta 2

Well, as I posted previously, I'm back to my trusty old Nokia 6021, having (sadly) given up on the BlackBerry 7130v - nice PDA, not-so-nice mobile telephone.

I really need to have my Notes contacts and calendar available to me on my phone, as I'm on the road a lot, and cannot always afford the time to power up the Thinkpad.

Therefore, I re-visited the Nokia PC Suite again - this time I downloaded v7.0.8.2: -



and installed it on my Windows XP partition ( note to self; find Linux alternative )

Having hooked it up to my phone and to my Notes mail file ( local replica ) and address book, I dived in for a sync.

Hmmmm, the first issue that I saw was that it wouldn't sync with my mailfile whilst Notes was open: -



showing the message: -

"This database is currently in use by another person or process, and cannot be accessed at this time"

Now I recognise that as a Lotus Notes error, but am 100% sure that I've done this before. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

The simplest solution was "merely" to shut down Notes, and carry on.

However, things didn't proceed nicely; I then started seeing "PC Sync has encountered a problem and has terminated the synchronisation" as it read through my Notes calendar. I proved this by successfully synchronising my contacts in isolation.

I faffed around for a while ( even returned to a previous solution I'd used before by deleting C:\Documents and Settings\hayd\Application Data\Nokia\PCSync\SynchData ) but to no avail.

In the end, I found the solution/circumvention - syncronise the calendar and contacts separately; it seems that PCSync "chokes" with too much data if you try and do both at the same time.

Hey, it's not elegant but c'est la vie ....

WebSphere User Group

In Edinburgh today ( after a long but pleasant drive up yesterday ) for the WebSphere User Group meeting.

Sitting in the hotel atm dosing up on coffee before I head out into the rain. Briefly met some colleagues/partners for a drink last night, but wimped out after a few beers, as my bed was calling me.

Should be a good day today - a lot of good speakers, IBMers and real people :-)

Although I'm a portal guy ( and, therefore, kinda bonded to Lotus ), there's a lot of overlap; WebSphere Portal is a WebSphere-based product within the Lotus Brand; it runs on WebSphere Application Server and, therefore, aspects such as performance, security, web services support etc. are relevant. In addition, Mashups are coming around the corner as tactical/prototyping tools, so there's an obvious WebSphere link there also ( along with other bits of IBM software ).

In addtion, it's a good learning opportunity, and a chance to meet/greet people ( and, as importantly, enjoy a stroll around one of my favourite cities ).

Right, one more slurp and I need to hit the street ....

Mashups and Portals

Just starting to get my head around this whole new world of mashups,
widgets, iWidgets etc. in the context of my first(ish) love, portals.

Will post more when I get it totally sorted, but it's looking good so far.

The one thing that I did prove this weekend is that Lotus Widget Factory
can produce widgets, which can be exported as .MODEL files directly into
WebSphere Portlet Factory. Think of LWF as a sub-set of the WPF
capabilities.Once imported, it's a simple matter of removing/disabling
the Widget Adapter and replacing it with a Portlet Adapter.

The other thing that I'd learnt ( at the Lotus TechJam ) is that I can
produce a mashup using Lotus Mashups - think of this as a simple(ish)
way to integrate data from various sources, perform a certain amount of
normalization, parse data into the right formats and then expose the
mashup as an ATOM feed .... which I can then consume using Lotus Widget
Factory or, in theory, using WebSphere Portlet Factory's REST Services
builder.

As I say, these are interesting but exciting times ..... watch this space.

Another fine example of an error message ....

with thanks to James S for providing this most excellent illustration of
Notes at its most literal ....

Gartner Portals, Content and Collaboration Summit 2008

Attending the PCC conference with the team - looking good thus far. More
to follow ....

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well, I haven't been blogging much recently as I've been zooming around
the country; Leeds on Thursday, Edinburgh on Friday, Aberdeen on
Saturday, home on Sunday, Devizes on Monday. Off to London tomorrow ......

Had some great client experiences in the past few days, and have learnt
shed-loads as always.

More stuff to follow ........

Upgrading Lotus Quickr Services for Lotus Domino 8.1 to Hotfix 19

Well, I went through this three times before I got it working. Mainly it's because I'm a Londoner a muppet, but I was getting very confused.

In the end, I went with: -

1. Install Lotus Domino 8.0.1
2. Start the server to perform the initial configuration, allocate an administrative user ( domadmin ), load the HTTP task etc.
3. Stop the server
4. Install Lotus Quickr Services for Lotus Domino 8.1 ( I opted to use the same user ID - domadmin - and password for the Quickr installation, even though my first act would be to configure it to use Domino Directory )
   
5. Start the server
6. Open a browser to the default Quickr home page: -
   
   http://hostname.domain.com/LotusQuickr/lotusquickr/main.nsf
   
   
7. Log in using the domadmin user ID and password
8. Configure Quickr to use Domino Directory
9. Log out
   
10. Stop the server
11. Copy 8.1-Quickr-Domino-HF19-ENGLISH.jar to C:\Lotus\Domino\jvm\lib\ext
12. Add C:\Lotus\Domino to the Windows system path
13. Execute the JAR file and point it at the notes.ini file in C:\Lotus\Domino
14. Once installed, start the server
15. Unlock and upgrade the Quickr databases: -
    
    load qptool unlock –a
    load qptool upgrade -f –server
    load qptool upgrade -f –a
    
    
16. Job done
    

When I start the HTTP task, I can see that Hotfix 19 is applied: -









as well as in the page source: -

Using the Lotus Quickr sidebar in Lotus Notes 8.5 beta 2

Well, this one passed me by, until I installed the Notes 8.5 beta 2 code on a Windows XP machine and thought "Hey, where's the Quickr sidebar gone?". I fiddled and faffed around deinstalling/installing the Quickr Connectors ( qkrconn.exe ) but to no avail. I was just about to give up and go back to 8.0.2, when I found this on Stu's blog : -

---

As many of you will be aware, the public beta for Notes/Domino 8.5 kicked off last month, and many of us will be running Notes 8.5 as our main clients from now on (yes I know, it's beta code...).

One of the downsides of doing just that is that the Quickr connectors were not supported in this new client release.  However, as part of Quickr/Domino Hot Fix 11, there is a new version of the connectors that slots into the 8.5 beta client.

Just head over to IBM Fix Central to grab the download.

---

Stu acknowledges Bram Withaar for the tip, and I'm acknowledging Stu for helping me find Bram which helped me find the hotfix .................... did I also mention that I found Stu via Matt Newton's internal blog post ??

WebSphere Application Server Admin Console

Note to self - if running the server1 instance of WAS 6.1, the admin.
console can be accessed via: -

https://hostname.domainname.com:10003/ibm/console

whereas the HTTP servlet container can be accessed via: -

http://hostname.domainname.com:10000/servlet/SnoopServlet

Nice !