IBM Lotus Quikr 8.2, GZIP and Custom code

Since Quickr 8.2 is now using GZIP for compression via HTTP, performance has improved nicely, ( read Rob Novak's cool entry - The nine reasons Quickr 8.2 performance rocks the house) but there are some considerations if you are planning to customize Quickr. Let me tell you what you need to do to get your custom changes into the new GZIP model.

Let's say you modified qp_wiki.js (Javascript library used in Quickr Wiki) and then you noticed performance is not the same as it used to be by default. In Quickr 8.2 a good number of Javascript libraries has been compressed using GZIP and every time you make changes to the JS file you need to compress it (as long as there is a JS.GZ file for the library - do not try to compress everything !).

The trick here is how to compress the JS file, you can't use WinRar for example. You should use GZIP from http://www.gzip.org. Also, when compressing the JS files make sure you use -9 -f parameters (-9 for highest compression -f to force compression).

See the difference between both versions of the same JavaScript library. Those kilobytes can make a huge difference.



But this show doesn't end here.... if for any reason the non-compressed version of the JavaScript library is newer than the compressed version, Domino will use the non-compressed version. If you are doing copy/paste from dev to production for example, copy the JS files first and then copy the JS.GZ files.

Enjoy !

Speaking @ Midwest Lotus User Group Conference 2009

I will be speaking at the Midwest Lotus User Group Conference 2009 (August 27-28). This is one of the great Lotus conferences scheduled in August and I my session will be about DAOS, ID Vault and and some Best Practices.


The other conference is IamLUG which is scheduled for August 4-5. I also wanted to be there but I will be busy doing something else that exact week.

If you haven't registered for any of these conferences.. hurry !!

Chicago Skyline

I will be working in Downtown Chicago this week doing a Domino Domain change. The most difficult part of the project will be trying to focus with this amazing view from the office the customer assigned me to.

Blackberry Enterprise Server V5 has been released

This new version has great new features, but I know one of the most expected is the built-in support for high availability.

Check the information here:

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/server/5/

Chicago Lotus User Group - My Presentation about Sametime Deployments and Best Practices

Enjoy !

Granite PSC Sametime Best Practices

I will be presenting at GRANITE Lotus User Group

If you are in the Greater Chicago Area, don't forget to attend the next GRANITE meeting on April 20th. I will be presenting the session:

"IBM Lotus Sametime - Deployment and Best Practices"



During my session, I will cover all products in the Sametime family (ST Entry, ST Advanced, ST Gateway, ST Standard and ST Enterprise Meeting Server) - my focus will be technical, however I will include a few tips that may help to sell Sametime in your organization.

The Agenda has not been posted yet, but this is the link to the site - http://granite-ug.org/

Differences between Lotus iNotes Full, Lite and UltraLite

While looking for some informartion I found this technote which I think is very helpful and will help some customers to decide which option they should use as the default one.

Features in iNotes 8.5 full mode, lite mode and ultralite mode


Enjoy !

IBM Technote # 1358548 - DAOS Backup and Restore

Great Technote about Backup and Restore when using DAOS

DAOS Backup and Restore

What happened to me after Lotusphere 2009

I was planning to write some nice articles about what I saw at Lotusphere 09 and how amazing I think Sametime 8.5 will be (I know Websphere is now required for Meetings but is still freaking cool !), but instead here I am, sitting outside of NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) waiting for my newborn to be discharged in the next week or so.

I don't know why I decided to come home from Orlando on Thursday night instead of Friday or during the weekend, but I am so glad I did. My wife had her bi-weekly doctor appointment for Wednesday afternoon to check the pregancy and the baby (suppose to be born on February 26th) but she missed it, so when she was calling to go on Thursday I told her to wait and change it to Friday since I was coming back from Lotusphere.

So, on Friday at 4 PM, we went to the doctor and she found that the baby's heartbeat was a little bit slow and she decided to send us to the hospital for some monitoring, but before that she wanted to check one more thing... well... that was a good idea because she found out that my wife was in labor !!!.... 5 weeks earlier !!!

We were sent to Edward Hospital in Naperville, IL and we were admitted at 5:30 PM and by 9:30 we welcomed our first child - Adrian Alejandro Guirigay . Labor and delivery took just a few hours and we were all very impressed that my wife had no pain at all, even the nurse asked to be carefull with the next baby because she could deliver our next baby at home without any warning.

But our history does not end right there... Adrian was taken to NICU for some tests and they found his lungs were not mature enough to breath on his own. It was a tough moment for me to see him with all those wires (IV, Oxygen, Airflow, Monitors, etc..) but we knew he was going to get better... and he did !! After 1 week... he can breath normally, he is not taking any medications except for some vitamins and the only tube left is a small one which goes directly to his tommy and is being used to feed him. He started eating by mouth 2 days ago and he has been so good at it that he is going to Intermediate Care tomorrow just to be observed until he goes home ahd that tube may be removed pretty soon. 

So... here is a picture of Adrian (taken just a couple of hours ago).. he is awake, happy and following the red light of my camera... I have been sending some updates to Facebook (mostly in Spanish) but thanks to all of you who has been checking on him and his progress.

Lotusphere 2009 - Day 1

Today was Day 1 here at Lotusphere 2009 and as always is good to see old friends and put faces on the Blogs and Twitters I follow.

So far I had the chance to meet Luis Benitez (His blog is Socialize Me) he writes a lot about Lotus Connections and since that's one of the many Lotus product I support and deploy, it was to talk to him. He was very excited about tomorrow's Opening Session and the coold stuff they will show for the next release of Lotus Connections (2.5 or 3.. let's see tomorrow) He will posting live from the Opening Session so go and check his website.

Regarding sessions and meetings, I attended this morning the Lotus Certification Focus Group where we worked with the IBM Lotus Certification Manager on different topics regarding all the exams we take. Working with the IBM Certification team requires a NDA so no much details can be given but I can assure IBM/Lotus is working hard on making the Certifications as best as possible. Also, we talked a little bit about a particular case of a exam for release 7 (I guess) that became public somewhere in Russia and people was passing it because all the questions where available for a while. Since I have been certified since release 5 at advanced level for both Admin and AppDev plus Portal 6 and 6.1, Sametime, Lotus Workflow, etc... and I had to study very hard in order to pass I would like you guys to know that situations like this one make us less valuable since anyone can pass. So, if you are aware of sites publishing the questions please let us know.. otherwise more people will pass with no knowledge and that will make companies to not trust if you are certified.



In the afternoon I attended 2 jumpstart sessions: Lotus Connections and xPages, both of them were great but I must say xPages had more people and was probably more dynamic. The speaker did some real-time demos and everything went pretty cool.

Reception Party was great but it was a little cold, not like those 2 days in Chicago with -20F but it was still not warm enough for Orlando.

If you didn't have the chance to attend Lotusphere, check Twitter (look for #ls09 tag) and PlanetLotus.org so you can follow all the great news that will be announced during the event.

Marketwire: Global Businesses Choosing Lotus Software; More Than Half of Fortune Global 100 Now Using Lotus Notes / Domino

Great news for us in the Lotus Industry !

ARMONK, NY--(Marketwire - January 15, 2009) - In advance of its annual Lotusphere conference in Orlando, Florida next week, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that the number of global Lotus Notes licenses has reached 145 million, up five million, including purchases by many industry leaders exchanging Microsoft licenses for Lotus collaboration software.

Click here to read the article.

PSC's ClearVision Leadership Award

Last Saturday was our company meeting, and as usual we had a good time, good food, good news and in general.. a great time. However, this year was a bit different for me... I won the PSC's ClearVision Leadership Award.


This price is not given every year and it only happens when there are exceptional events regarding an employee and his/her performance, when PSC feels the employee reflects and share the same goals regarding the company, when they feel the employee has contributed to the sucecss of the company, and much much more. Well, this year, PSC gave it to me !!!!!

During this year I has been involved in multiple projects and multiple customers and according to all my performance reviews, those customers are very happy with the work I did. I have also been working with the Lotus Certification team in IBM by helping them to produce some of the Certifications Exams you guys take worldwide. I have been involved with some major internal deployments and upgrades, so, it has been a busy - but great - year for me.

The only professional thing I wanted to accomplish this year and I couldn't was being selected as speaker for Lotusphere 2009, which with more luck and maybe a little more spicy to the abstract I will make it next year.

Also, John won the PSC 2008 Rainmaking Award and Sri won one of the Star Performance of the year. As John said, the Collaboration Team at PSC did a great job during this year. Congratulations John and Sri.

Thanks Alex K, John Q, Jim V, Andrew L, Bruce B for considering me a good employee.

I have been robbed !! 8-(

Yesterday afternoon, for the first time in my life.. I was robbed. Thanks God I wasn't near the car.

The thief smashed the passenger front door's window and took my GPS. I was in my office and when I was leaving I saw a police officer in front of my car and I just thought abut the officer writing me a ticket or something.. but in fact, the officer was waiting for the owner of the car (me) to complete the report. The officer was very gentle and told me they are receiving about 30 calls a day because of cars vandalism , basically GPS units.

This is not a good picture, but see all the glass on the floor... now imagine how it was inside !


His advise to me, and now my advise to all of you... Don't leave your GPS unit inside your car, don't even leave the suction mount since according to Police reports, as soon as they can see the suction mount, they know there is a GPS and most of the people (including me) we don't take the GPS with us. I used to take the GPS unit and just put it in the glove compartment.

I also had a nice leather jacket and a bluetooth inside the car, but these guys didn't care, they just wanted the GPS. By the way, it didn't happen in Downtown Chicago, it happened in a business area of a good suburb, so.. no matter where you are.. just don't leave anything with some value n your car.

Then I had to drive all the way home at 6:00 PM without that window and it was like 25 F or something... it was just cold.

IBM Lotus Symphony and PSC

Lotus Symphony 1.2 is out already and I know a high number of companies are looking into this solution. If you don't know how to start or you want to start right please check our IBM Lotus Symphony offerings...

PSC and IBM Lotus Symphony

Also, check the IBM Lotus Symphony Business Partners site. We are featured as the first Symphony partner.

Vote !

Nice commercial !

Sametime Gateway and LDAP - Not really a requirement

While doing a couple of Sametime Gateway implementation out there we found out that you can decide not to use LDAP for your Sametime Gateway deployment.

The goal of LDAP in your STGW is just to control who has access to use the External IM communities, so, if your company is planning to allow all the ST Users to access all IM communities (Yahoo, AOL , Clearinghouse, Google Talk!) you don't need to integrate LDAP and STGW.

After a few weeks running under this model, I have no seen any issues and it works just like it works with LDAP.