Lotus Technical Information and Education Team Blog

Wiki News: WebSphere Portal

Cara Viktorov — Mon, 7 Jul 2008 19:11:50 -0400

Overview

The new WebSphere Portal wiki is now available!

In the WebSphere Portal wiki you'll find:

WebSphere Portal development examples
Technical Education roadmaps
IBM Business Process Accelerator deployment scenario
Technical Content pages
Coming soon - WebSphere Portal, WebSphere Portal Express, and Lotus Web Content Management deployment scenarios!

And don't forget about our wiki incentive program that awards $25 Amazon gift cards to external contributors to our product wikis! Please see official rules for more information.

Wiki Link

WebSphere Portal wiki

Coming soon! The Lotus Web Content Management wiki will be merged into the WebSphere Portal wiki!

Wiki News: IBM Mashup Center & WebSphere Portlet Factory

Cara Viktorov — Tue, 1 Jul 2008 13:30:00 -0400

Overview

The new IBM Mashup Center wiki and the recently updated WebSphere Portlet Factory wiki are now available!

In the IBM Mashup Center wiki you'll find:

Two tutorials: "Introduction to creating mashups using IBM Mashup Center" and "Transforming data using the Data Editor widget"
Deployment scenario - configuration and topology information to help you deploy IBM Mashup Center
Widget help - everything from creating and deploying simple widgets, to using the Event Explorer Widget

In the WebSphere Portlet Factory wiki you'll find:

Best practices and overview information - Find scenarios, topologies, best practices, lessons learned, and more with the community of WebSphere Portlet Factory users. And share YOUR experiences too!
Samples and techniques - The Samples and techniques section contains resources you can adapt or adopt.
Deployment scenarios - IBM tested scenarios and step-by-step information in the Deployment scenarios section. Including detailed instructions on how to set up a Web Content Management system to integrate content with an existing WebSphere Portal intranet site.

And don't forget about our wiki incentive program that awards $25 Amazon gift cards to external contributors to our product wikis! Please see official rules for more information.

Wiki
Links

IBM Mashup Center wiki

WebSphere Portlet Factory wiki

WebSphere Portal and WCM wikis are coming soon!

New version 6.1 releases: WebSphere Portlet Factory, WebSphere Dashboard Framework, Lotus ActiveInsight

Jason English — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:37:19 -0400

Three new IBM software products released their 6.1 versions today, all with new information centers:

WebSphere Portlet Factory: http://www.ibm.com/software/genservers/portletfactory/

WebSphere Portlet Factory V6.1 Information Center: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wpfhelp/v6r1m0/index.jsp

WebSphere Dashboard Framework: http://www.ibm.com/software/genservers/portal/dashboardframework/

WebSphere Dashboard Framework V6.1 Information Center: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wdfhelp/v6r1m0/index.jsp

Lotus ActiveInsight product page: http://www.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/activeinsight/

Lotus ActiveInsight V6.1 Information Center: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/aihelp/v6r1m0/index.jsp

New Forms Wiki & Updated Notes Domino Wiki!

Cara Viktorov — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:15:00 -0400

Overview

The new Lotus Forms wiki and the recently updated Lotus Notes/Domino wiki are now available!

In the Lotus Forms wiki you'll find:

Best Practices for Form Design - tips and tricks for designing your forms in the best way
Deployment Scenarios - detailed deployment scenarios that include network diagrams, hardware specifications, and detailed instructions for setting it up

In the Lotus Notes Domino wiki you'll find:

Domino installation troubleshooting procedures - provided by Domino Technical Support team
Domino administration best practices - provided by the Domino Configuration Tuner Development team
Deployment scenarios - provided by members of Notes and Domino Information Development

And don't forget about our wiki incentive program that awards $25 Amazon gift cards to external contributors to our product wikis! Please see official rules for more information.

Additional
Information

New Wiki Platform
Below are some feature highlights:

Simple user interface
RSS feeds that enable you to be notified when something new has been added to the wiki
Tag clouds linked to the main categories to provide easier navigation
Technical content resource page that links to additional product content located outside the wiki, such as demos, data sheets, product documentation, community resources, and technical education information
All articles are open for editing including articles posted by IBMers
Article revision history to easily access earlier versions of an article
Easy editing using rich text or HTML to create or edit content. IBMers are asked to use their Notes Client (links below)
Identify IBM authors/editors by looking for the IBM logo next to an article

Gift Card Giveaway for Contributions
Do you have a Lotus Forms best practice to share? Have you recently deployed Notes Domino and want to let others know how you did it? If so, we're providing you the opportunity to share your expertise! Just take a minute to share some of your knowledge and you could be eligible for a $25.00 Amazon gift card!

One Prize will be awarded to the first fifty (50) external contributors who submit a new, original entry of 250 words or more to one of the wikis. Please see official rules for more information.

Wiki
Links

Lotus Forms wiki

Lotus Notes and Domino wiki

WebSphere Portal, Portlet Factory and IBM Mashup Center wikis are coming soon!

Gift Card
Giveaway
Eligibility

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. Open to legal residents in the fifty States of the United States and the District of Columbia. Do not enter if you are not located in the United States at the time of entry. Employees of IBM, Lotus and their subsidiaries, advertising and promotion agencies, and the immediate families of each are not eligible to participate. Please see official rules for more information. One Prize will be awarded to the first fifty (50) contributors who submit a new, original entry of 250 words or more to one of the IBM Lotus or WebSphere Portal wikis.

Exciting Changes to Lotus Product Wikis!

Cara Viktorov — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:15:00 -0400

Overview

On June 16th, Lotus is introducing our program to publish product wikis on a new Domino-based platform. Our product wikis are intended to help you find technical product information more easily, as well as allow you to contribute directly to that content. All wiki content is editable by anyone who registers for an account on our dW: Lotus web site. This is only the beginning. Stay tuned for announcements for other Lotus product wikis!

In conjunction with the roll-out, we are announcing a wiki incentive program that awards $25 Amazon gift cards to external contributors to our product wikis.

Additional
Information

New Wiki Platform
Below are some highlights of what you'll find on the wikis:

New look and feel
RSS feeds enable you to be notified when something new has been added to the wiki
Tag clouds linked to the main categories provide easier navigation
Technical content resource pages link to additional product content located outside the wiki, such as demos, data sheets, product documentation, community resources, and technical education information
All articles are open for editing - including articles posted by IBMers
Article revision history - easily access earlier versions of an article
Easy editing - use rich text or HTML to create or edit content. IBMers are asked to use their Notes Client rather than contributing via the web interface.
Identify IBM authors/editors by looking for the IBM logo next to an article

Gift Card Giveaway for Contributions
Do you have a Domino best practice to share? Have you recently deployed Lotus Connections, Sametime or Quickr and want to let others know how you did it? Do you have Portlet Factory samples or a Composite Application you've been wanting to show off? If so, we're providing you the opportunity to share your expertise! Just take a minute to share some of your knowledge and you could be eligible for a $25.00 Amazon gift card!

One Prize will be awarded to the first fifty (50) external contributors who submit a new, original entry of 250 words or more to one of the wikis.

Wiki
Links

The Lotus Notes and Domino wiki is live now and will get its new look next week.

WebSphere Portal, Lotus Forms and IBM Mashup Center wikis coming soon!

Gift Card
Giveaway
Eligibility

IBM Lotus Symphony is here!

Sharyn Richard — Thu, 5 Jun 2008 10:40:11 -0400

IBM recently made available the first release of IBM� Lotus� Symphony™. Lotus Symphony is a richly-featured set of productivity tools that are intuitive and easy to use and provided at no charge. There are three applications that make up Lotus Symphony: Lotus Symphony Documents, Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets, Lotus Symphony Presentations.

The Lotus Technical Information and Education Team has developed a comprehensive set of documentation and learning materials to help you get started using this suite of productivity tools. Visit the Help page on the Lotus Symphony Web site to use the following materials to learn all you need to know to be productive using Lotus Symphony:

Getting Started Tours: Tours are self-running demonstrations introduce the product and its features and show how to create and work in documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
Demonstrations: These are short, task-based product simulations that show the user how to complete a discrete task or series of tasks.
Reference Cards: Reference cards are a two-sided printable quick reference for menu options and keyboard shortcuts for most common tasks in the product and compare how to perform the same task in the comparable Microsoft Office product.
Tutorials: A tutorial provides step-by-step instructions on how to perform common tasks when first getting started using a product. Tutorials typically include sample files to download.
FAQs: Frequently asked questions about Lotus Symphony

When you buy a new development tool, what helps you understand the samples that come with it?

Kerry Thompson — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:45:02 -0400

We're looking for your ideas about improving the information we provide for the WebSphere Dashboard Framework sample applications. Here are some things we're wondering about...

When you start to learn a new development tool, do you look at the sample applications provided? Is there documentation that would help you make the most of sample code provided with the software? Do you like to read about how the application works from a user's perspective or its underlying architecture? Or do you learn only by running the sample application and experimenting with its code yourself? What information format helps you most - text, pictures, multi-media?

We'd like to hear from you!

Looking for feedback on the infocenter Search scope feature

Kendra Bowker — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:37:37 -0400

Infocenters provide a Search scope feature that allows you to limit searches to particular sections of infocenter content. For example, in the Domino/Notes infocenter shown below, you could search just the "IBM Lotus Notes 8.0" section.

Please take a moment to vote on the feature's ease of use using a scale of 1 to 10 (1 = easy as pie, 10 = next to impossible). If you have never used this feature and want to try it out, here's a link to the Domino/Notes infocenter (although any infocenter will do).

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/domhelp/v8r0/index.jsp

Thanks for voting!

Suggestions for "Securing your data" section of Notes Help?

Kendra Bowker — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:39:05 -0400

I'm planning the content for the security section of the Notes Help (end-user) for an upcoming release. So if you have suggestions for ways to improve it, please let me know. Thanks! ...

Are you hungry for more feeds or already stuffed?

Julianne Forgo — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:39:52 -0400

Feeds are becoming a fact of life for pulling information from one site to another. Are you using feeds in your day-to-day work? Have you tried the feed reader that is built into Notes 8? If you have experience with the Notes 8 feed reader, what do you think about it?

We would love to hear about your experience with feed readers.What do you use and do find the technology useful for keeping up with the information you need to do your job?

Announcing the publication of a new collaborative wiki for Lotus Domino Web Application Development

Jennifer Heins — Mon, 7 Apr 2008 11:13:24 -0400

Lotus and IBM� Redbooks� have partnered together to create a new collaborative wiki for Lotus Domino Web Application Development.

Jen Heins, with ITSO, led a team of residents, made up of IBMers and partners, to collaborate over the last four weeks to populate the wiki with Best Practices for Building Domino 8 Web Applications so that the wiki provides value from day one! Here are some of the topics you will find in the wiki.

Over time, users will be able to easily publish new and updated information, resulting in more accurate and current content. We expect to see this wiki quickly expand to include information for Domino 8.5 as it becomes available.

How do we want to hear from you? Let us count the ways

Michelle Miller — Thu, 3 Apr 2008 10:00:00 -0400

We want to hear from you. And we're putting the depth and breadth and height of the internet's reach to work for us to meet that end. You can now give us feedback in the following ways:

1. Feedback links at the bottom of Help topics.
2. E-mail.
3. Product wikis.
4. Blog comments.
5. And introducing commentable information centers.

Don't know about all of these feedback methods? Read on!

1. Long-time Lotus documentation readers already know that they can send feedback to us by clicking the feedback links at the bottom of each Help topic. And you can still send us feedback that way, but we are implementing a few changes in this area that may be of interest to you. You used to click one of the following links:
Help Feedback -- Captures feedback on the product documentation.
Product Feedback -- Captures feedback about the ease-of-use of the product.
You were directed to a different form to complete depending on the link you chose. We are working to replace these two links with a single link called Feedback that you can click to open a form from which you can choose which type of feedback you want to submit.
Why the change? We are hoping that the additional descriptions that are provided about the two different types of feedback will help you to determine which type you really want to submit. We get such great information from you through these feedback forms; please keep them coming!

2. We created an e-mail account to which you can send us your contact information. We do not ask for customer contact information on our feedback forms; we think their anonymity helps foster honesty. But, if you want to be contacted for potential customer visits or roundtables with the documentation group, you can send us an e-mail with your contact information. The documentation team's e-mail address is:
lotusdoc@us.ibm.com

3. We have created product wikis in which you, our software community members, can find and share useful information about our products. We encourage you to share what you know and find out what you don't by visiting them. The following Web page describes our current product wikis and provides links to them:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/community/wikis.html
Don't see your product on the list? Check back in future; it is going to grow.

4. Go on, comment on a blog post. Even this one... if only to lament that Elizabeth Barrett Browning is not alluded to often enough on Weblogs!

5. With the release of Lotus Connections 2, we will use a new type of information center, which is commentable. Each topic will contain a make a comment link that you can click to provide a comment on the topic's content. The best feature of the commenting capability is that your comment is added to the page and is visible to everyone else who reads it. This means that if you add a comment to inform us of a missing step, point out misleading information, or to share information or tips about how to tweak a task for a specific configuration or environment, you will be sharing that information not only with the topic's writer, but with your peers as well. Another great feature is that the information center writers are notified by e-mail when a comment is added to a page. As a result, the writer can determine if a Help topic needs to be corrected or clarified and can make any necessary changes for the next information center update.
Lotus Connections 2 Beta customers are getting a first look at the commentable information center. If you're a Beta customer, we'd love to hear your first impressions!

Overhauling the Domino Web Access Help

Dana St. Clair — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:50:59 -0400

Many years ago I worked as a temp in a psychiatrist's office. His patients included some of New York's elite, some who merely thought they were elite, and some from whom we had to hide sharp instruments. (Of course, I didn't find that out until the birthday cake knife was already missing, but that's another story.) Anyway, one day a lady called for an appointment. Unbeknownst to me, this particularly lady had booked appointments on multiple occasions, only to call again a few days later and cancel them. So I booked the appointment for her, and when the psychiatrist saw her name on his schedule he called me into his office and read me the riot act. The conversation went something like this:

"I don't want you to book any more appointments with her."
"Why?"
"Because she's crazy!"
"You're a psychiatrist! All your patients are crazy!"

Before you point out the obvious, let me assure you that I know that many people who see psychiatrists are not really "crazy," and it is not a word I would choose to describe patients today. But I was very young at the time, and totally incredulous. Which brings me to my next point.

On occasion I have had the opportunity of asking end users if they find our Help useful. On more than one occasion, the conversation has gone like this:

"Do you use the online Help?"
"No, not often"
"Why?"
"Because, there are too many words!"

Now I don't know how you write help without using words, but I can appreciate the sheer volume and sensory overload when you open some (not all) of our Help topics. So I decided to take an objective look at some of my Help topics, and see if I could do away with lots of words, without impacting the information that was really needed. Looking around for a likely candidate, I decided it was time for an overhaul of my Domino Web Access Help.

I really like Domino Web Access. It is a quick way to get to your Notes mail and calendar using a browser. And now that there is a new Lite mode (introduced in Notes 8.0.1), it is a really quick way to stay in touch on the road, without being bogged down by the full feature set you might need in your permanent office. Unfortunately, as the Full mode of Domino Web Access has grown and added features over the years, so has the Help. And now it does indeed appear that there are "too many words."

So I am reorganizing and reconstructing the Domino Web Access Help to provide users with a more streamlined set of topics that include some (but not a lot) overview information, a set of task topics that address the most frequently used tasks, and a set of frequently asked questions. Then, just for good measure I plan to throw in some reference topics (sort of like reference cards only in a Help topic). The end result, I hope, will be a new streamlined Help that provides a easy-to-find source of information--without using too many words.

IBM Custom Content Assembler - proof of concept

William McCook — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:47:52 -0400

Ever wish you had a focused, customized set of documentation rather than having to use a huge set of technical information? Ever wish you had the power to create documentation with only the information you need? Checkout the IBM Custom Content Assembler!

IDC recently kicked off a proof of concept of a new application that lets you search and assemble content into custom PDF and HTML files. IBM Custom Content Assembler helps you to easily find and organize information and store it in a topic cart. Then, you can compile the topics into your own custom guide. Combining and ordering the topics allows you to create a customized content set which you can print, view in a browser, or save locally. With an editor, you could incorporate the HTML file into other content, customize the file, or edit it.

This proof of concept is providing IBM� Lotus� Connections 1.02 technical and learning content.

To get started, click here: http://info2.lotus.com/cca
Follow the instructions on the home page to create your own guide for Lotus Connections.

Also, checkout Michael Priestley's recent posting that featured this proof of concept and the application's workings. Michael is DITA Architect for IBM Software Group.
http://dita.xml.org/blog/dynamic-content-publishing-with-dita-plus-lots-of-dita-source-examples

The application provides a mechanism to provide feedback on the features you worked with and the types of custom content you might use. Just click on the feedback link and tell us what you think and what functionality you would like. The feedback is greatly appreciated.

IBM Lotus Sametime in the News

David Sayer — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:58:09 -0400

If you haven't heard the good news about IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5.1 being named tops in the corporate IM platform world then please take a look at the article below. You'll notice that the Sametime Installation documentation received a 4 using a Scoring Key of: 5: Exceptional; 4: Very good; 3: Average; 2: Below average; 1: Subpar or not available.

We also listened to you our customers and with IBM Lotus Sametime 8.0 we revamped and hopefully improved on our "very good" content. Here is a link to the Lotus Sametime 8.0 Information Center. We would like to hear your thoughts on your Sametime installation experience using either the Sametime 7.5.1 or 8.0 versions of the product documentation. We are always looking to improve on a good thing... hope you agree.
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/sametime/v8r0/index.jsp

IBM Lotus Sametime tops corporate IM platform review
By Barry Nance, Network Lab Alliance , Network World , 09/03/2007
Messaging has come a long way from the early days of rudimentary chat programs, the DOS and Windows "NET SEND" command and the Novell NetWare "SEND" command.
The ideal corporate instant-messaging environment lets users communicate anything they choose, from simple typed messages to documents to video. It tells employees which colleagues are available for an impromptu meeting and which don't wish to be disturbed. The ideal IM environment offers impenetrable security that thwarts intrusion attempts, as well as IM-borne malware. It's nimble and responsive; intuitive to use and administer; and integrates seamlessly with other IM products and protocols, such as AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).

Full story... http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2007/090307-test-im.html

Where in the world is the My Widgets documentation?

Amy Smith — Tue, 4 Mar 2008 11:15:00 -0400

For 8.0.1, IDC updated the pilot Notes and Domino Information Center to include an 8.0.1 version of the Domino Administration Help. The help includes the documentation for My Widgets, introduced in 8.0.1.

Here is a snapshot of the My Widgets TOC:

Closet cleaning and documentation

Jennifer Dunne — Tue, 4 Mar 2008 10:30:00 -0400

We use the metaphor of a filing cabinet or bookshelf for our documentation, but sometimes, it feels more like a closet. With every release, we add more new things, pushing the older things to the back. Especially for mature products with a long documentation history, it can feel like an overstuffed closet, filled with things we never use, but are nevertheless reluctant to throw away.

There are the special occasion outfits -- elegant clothes meant to impress a single audience with the perfect look. There are the outfits that were part of a style trend, and now appear dated and out of fashion. There are the separates that looked so good you had to buy them, only to discover they couldn't be worn with anything else you owned.

How much of our documentation appeals to only a single limited audience? Would it be easier for people to find more commonly used information if this special occasion information didn't clutter up their search results? Thank goodness we didn't fall prey to the trend of using Flash for every introduction page, which would have been like having a closet full of top-stitched polyester leisure suits, but there are some other trends that influenced particular documentation. And we incorporated information from other sources into our documentation, whose style and content don't quite match the rest of it.

The Domino Designer documentation closet is overdue for a good cleaning, and we're taking the opportunity of switching to the Eclipse platform to give everything in it a good, hard look. Do we love it? Do we use it? Do we need it?

We don't plan on throwing anything away. But like a closet cleaning, where you give things you're not using to friends and charities that will, we'll consider repositioning information, taking it out of one set of documentation and putting it somewhere else so that it's easier to exclude from searches, or including links to information maintained by others rather than duplicating that information.

Best of all, like a freshly cleaned closet, once all of our documentation has been migrated into Eclipse, everything will be visible and easy to find. There will be plenty of room for new things. And you may discover treasures you never knew were in there!

Try out the IBM Custom Content Assembler!

Kathleen Murphy — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:01:03 -0400

Try out the IBM Custom Content Assembler!

We are kicking off a proof of concept of a new application that lets you search and assemble content into custom PDF and HTML files. IBM Custom Content Assembler helps you to easily find and organize information and store it in a topic cart. Then, you can compile the topics into your own custom guide.

We are providing IBM� Lotus� Connections 1.02 technical and learning content for this proof of concept.

To get started, click here: http://info2.lotus.com/cca

Follow the instructions on the home page to create your own guide for Lotus Connections.
As always, your feedback is welcome!

Thank you for your feedback about wikis at Lotusphere 2008!

Anna G O’Neal — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:04:27 -0400

Hi everyone, just a quick note from the Information Development Center (IDC) team to thank all of you who provided feedback about our wikis at Lotusphere this year. We came away with some great ideas for improving your wiki experience.

We thought you might be interested in seeing some of the highlights of your feedback. If you have other ideas, please respond with a comment. We'd love to talk to you!

Thanks again, and here are those highlights!

You expect content type to be focused on best practices, how-to information, scenarios, performance tips, and troubleshooting information.
You will trust the content more if you know that IBM has approved, tested, or validated it in some way. You want us either to respond to content with comments or clearly label content as IBM reviewed and approved.
Some of you expect all wiki content to be editable, and some expect it to be locked down. You agree that a good compromise is to keep the wiki open for editing but provide a way for you to access the original or approved version, for example by specifying the version number of the original posting or providing a downloadable PDF.
You expect IBM to monitor the wiki content, for example by fixing mistakes, adding comments, expanding on your contributions, giving you recognition ("great article!"), and flagging good content as IBM reviewed.
You like the idea of content and contributor rating, but you prefer content rating over contributor rating.
You want the wikis to have an advanced search feature that allows you to find content that is specific to certain product releases, operating systems, etc. You would also like to be able to search contributor profiles to find job roles, areas of expertise, etc.
When asked how we can encourage participation in the wikis, you suggested adding content stubs, creating a "most wanted" section on the home page, advertising the wiki in the forums and blogs, and regularly monitoring the content to flag areas that need more content.
For wikis that contain information about more than one product release, you want to be able to navigate directly to content that applies to the version you are using. You also want us to mark articles with relevant releases ("This article applies to the following versions: 2.0, 2.1").
You want to be able to access our wikis offline, for example on the way to a customer site.
You want to be able to get notified of wiki updates via RSS feeds and e-mails.
Overall, you think that we can produce Redbook-like content via a wiki virtual residency. At the end of the residency, you want us to post a downloadable PDF of the content before the wiki opens for public editing.

Looking for your ideas for short WebSphere Dashboard Framework movies

Kerry Thompson — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:53:46 -0400

We're looking for ideas for one- to two-minute movies to teach users about different aspects of using WebSphere Dashboard Framework. Do you like any of these ideas? Which would be your top 2 or 3 picks?

Show a running sample application and describe its underlying components.
Show how to create a project.
Show how to create an alert definition.
Show how to create a deployment configuration for WebSphere Portal.
Show how to create a chart with the Web Charts - Enhanced builder.
Show how to create a Summary and Drilldown chart and table.
Show how to create a bullet graph.
Show how to run a model to test it.

Or do you have ideas of your own?