Rob's Blog

19/6: Going to Lotusphere 2010?

If you're flying to Orlando in January next year, you may want to check out the Virgin deals at the moment.  You need to book by 23rd June though.

20/4: I now have an excuse to try out Traveler

I was out shopping yesterday at Makro and the particular store was closing down so there were a few bargains.

I ended up buying a Motorola MPx220 mobile phone since it was going cheap.  I know nothing about the phone whatsoever but it seemed like a good excuse to try out Traveler since the phone uses a Windows Mobile OS.

So I will try and install Traveler from Paul and Warren's The World is going Mobile presentation at Lotusphere and see whether the presentation is "developer friendly".

Now if only Traveler worked natively on Foundations, that would be cool.  Until then it will have to be installed in a Windows VMware image since Lotus Foundations now provides this functionality with the Lotus Foundations Run add-on.

31/3: Using Lotus Foundations’ Built in VMware Server

In my last post, I mentioned the ability to run VMware images was probably the most important addition to Lotus Foundations with the new 1.1 release.

Lotus Foundations Run is the name given to the new add-on software that brings the power of VMware Server 2.0 into the mix allowing Lotus Foundations to host applications on virtual servers.

So now Lotus Foundations can host Windows applications.  You can install practically all operating systems and then install applications on top of those operating systems.

Installing Lotus Foundations Run is almost identical to the installation of Lotus Foundations Start.  Full details can be found here.

Now what I know about virtualisation takes about 30 seconds of revision.  I've recently installed VMware workstation for the first time.  I'm no expert.

I decided to try out this new software using a couple of downloads from Jump Box which basically hosts ready made images that you can use straight away.  The two I chose were free.  All I did was download them, unzip them and copy the image folders onto my Lotus Foundations server.  A couple of clicks later and they were deployed - that simple.

I deployed SugarCRM and Ruby on Rails knowing precisely nothing about either of them!  Obviously, using an application in Production is going to require a little bit of tuning to decide what resources are required but Lotus Foundations Run is extremely easy to use.

27/3: Foundations ready for growing your business on

Well you've probably already heard that IBM have now released Lotus Foundations Start 1.1 and Lotus Foundations Branch Office 1.1.  If not then here's a link to their press release.

But what does this mean?

Basically Lotus Foundations Start is the add-on software that you install onto the Lotus Foundations appliance that includes Domino.  The 1.1 release introduces version 8.5 of Domino (LFS1.0 was based on Domino 8.01).  The Branch Office version allows a Lotus Foundations server to become part of an existing Domino infrastructure which was a much requested feature.

How do you install the new version?

The Lotus Foundations status page automatically notifies you that an update is available for the Lotus Foundations core (i.e. the Linux operating system).  Installing these releases is simply a matter of clicking on the displayed link and then rebooting the server.  After rebooting the new software will be running.  Installing a new version of Lotus Foundations Start requires you to download the package from the IBM site and copying it onto the Foundations server.  This is a simple process documented in full here.

Once installed the Lotus Foundations status page should show Lotus Foundations 1.1 running on port 1352 as shown below.



What else is new with the 1.1 release?

Probably the biggest addition with the 1.1 release is the inclusion of VMWare Server 2.0 into the mix allowing you to install different operating systems and applications.  For example, you can now install Windows Server onto your Lotus Foundations appliance.  This allows you to run applications that only run on Windows.  An added benefit of this approach is that you can support your Windows software remotely even after a Windows crash.

Once I've had a chance to play with this new release, I'll tell you what I like and don't like about it.  At this point in time, I have no idea whether the inclusion of Domino 8.5 exposes any of the really cool features of that release like DAOS.  I'll have to run a few tests.

3/3: Lotus Foundations getting ready for the mainstream

This year I went to Lotusphere for the first time.  What made me go this year when I couldn't justify it to myself in previous years?

Well one key reason was Lotus Foundations.  Lotus Foundations is the IBM branding of their acquisition of Net Integration's NITIX brand over a year ago now.  A Lotus Foundations appliance is a clever combination of hardware - including an integrated back-up solution - with software.  The software is based on Linux but has been designed for simplicity of operation.  It basically suits small businesses and also branch offices or sites where there is no I.T. support.  It deals with the complex networking that a small office requires as well as security, e-mail, office software etc.

I bought a Lotus Foundations box and I love it!  My company, Inter Weavers, has now become a business partner here in the UK so that we can start to sell these appliances.

The latest version 1.1 of the Lotus Foundations Start software out shortly includes free VMWare server support so that you can install any Windows software (in addition to Linux distributions) in a VMWare partition. So if you needed you could install a Windows Server OS in your VMWare partition.  When your Windows server blue screens, you can still access your Lotus Foundations server and you can restart your Windows server remotely!

It also includes better support for branch offices allowing the server to integrate better with other offices in the company.  The server is designed to use Lotus Domino for e-mail and the new version uses the latest 8.5 release and allows a Lotus Foundations Server to integrate with an existing Lotus Domino domain.

My clients work in Engineering and they tend to set-up site offices with between 3 and 20 people working in portacabins for two year durations.  Lotus Foundations is perfect for them.

I am able to provide Lotus Notes applications for my clients on top of Lotus Foundations.  It combines the power of Lotus Notes/Domino with the simplicity needed to support without travel.

Please click on the graphic below to see a video all about Lotus Foundations.  It can take a while to load but it is well worth watching.  If you're interested in more information, please let me know here or on the Inter Weavers site and I'll get the information you need.

28/2: London Developer Co-op

Last year my company Inter Weavers went into partnership with three other companies and the London Developer Co-op (or LDC for short) was created.  LDC has since grown to six partners.  My initial reasons for teaming up with other companies was one of resourcing.  I was in a position where I was in danger of having too much on my plate but didn't want to turn work away.  However, it also gives us the opportunity to bid for larger projects with wider technical scope and we are already having some success in that direction.

And here's one of my favourite tracks from the 80s ...

25/2: Shrovetide football @ Ashbourne

Yesterday and today was Ashbourne's annual football event.  It is basically football before they invented the whistle.  Ronaldo or Drogba wouldn't last two minutes in that scrum.  Take a look!

24/2: Calling Oracle Stored Procedures from Lotus Notes or Domino

I am currently writing an application for one of my clients that creates new projects in the Oracle eBusiness Suite ERP from the Lotus Notes client.  Oracle have public APIs written in PL/SQL that you must use for the task.  I created a PL/SQL "wrapper program" to call the APIs and called this as a stored procedure.

When this application is complete, I plan to write an in depth article on the techniques I used.

However, in the meantime, I thought it was worth posting the syntax that I used to call the stored procedure with both input and output parameters.  The documentation for calling a stored procedure is a little sparse.

So here is an example stored procedure.  You could call that using an anonymous block like so.  The LotusScript code to call that stored procedure using the LC LSX is here.

Finally, I used an on-line book to learn the fundamentals of PL/SQL which you can find here.  I plan to buy that book because I'll be using Pl/SQL again.

20/2: Upgrading to Windows2000!

No not the Operating System; we're having new windows at home and the company is called Windows 2000 Limited!  It probably seemed like a good idea at the time but now instead of the futuristic appeal that it once had, the name is kind of dated and makes you think of second rate operating systems.  Still, they could have called it Windows Millennium I suppose which would have been worse.

Seriously the quality of the windows and doors, the price and the attention to detail of the fitter are first rate so if you live anywhere near Ripley in Derbyshire where they are based, I highly recommend them.

They are also providing a large conservatory but we have to wait for planning permission with that one.

11/2: I’m back!

Thirteen months ago, I had some minor issues with my blog template when I upgraded to Notes 8.  What I should have done was upgrade my template to the version that Steve Castledine had brought with him to IBM which was now an official Notes template but instead I procrastinated - and stopped posting.

This is not an apology.  I'm not sure anyone noticed really.

But I've now upgraded my blog and intend to post more frequently.  It took all of 10 minutes to upgrade and I wish I'd done it earlier.  Thank you Steve for providing an agent that converted my HTML theme so that it worked in the new template.

What's happened in the last thirteen months?

Well quite a lot really and I'll be posting about some of that.  On the personal front, Julie and I decided to get married after a whirlwind 17 year romance!  My company is one of the founding partners within the London Developer Coop, or LDC for short.  That will help all of us to resource our bigger projects better and to take on bigger projects jointly which is quite exciting.  I also went to my first ever Lotusphere last month which was a real eye opener.  Inter Weavers has joined the Lotus Notes/Domino Design Partner Programme and has become a Lotus Foundations Business Partner.  I've also been working hard implementing Oracle ERP for a client and integrating it with Lotus Notes and Domino using PL/SQL and the Oracle APIs.  The world has also gone into financial meltdown whilst I've been away.

So plenty to blog about; Planet Lotus here I come ...