Just completed presenting a demo of the Portal V6 product and thought I would run through some of the newer features that are available.

Navigation improvements:

Heavy emphasis has been made to ensure that the environment requires less clicks to navigate, and it shows.  User interaction is cleaner and neater, with breadcrumbs available and a new navigation pop-out bar on the left.  People finder and the portlet pallette have been improved.  Skins have a more modern feel and the product just seems more inviting.

Messaging improvements:

V6 has improved on the CPP (Common PIM Portlet) which enables the portal user to check his mail regardless of the mail source, with a  standard interface, which is quite functional and good.  It does not matter if this is Outlook or Notes, the interface works.  The iNotes portlet is still there, of course.

Customisation improvements:

Heavy emphasis is placed on customisation of portals and roles.  At this stage, pages/portlets can be displayed to users based on almost any attribute, including any LDAP entry (e.g. department number) or browser, location, version etc.  Not only that, but it is easy to implement, and works immediately.

Dashboard:

Composite applications can be created using many tools, not least of which is Websphere Portlet Factory, and implemented in portal.  Not only this, but applications written can be saved and reused in the template library but users with permission.  These can be easily customised and portlets can be added via the customisation interface or even drag and drop from the portlet palette.

Domino Integration:

Much improved.  Direct integration with sametime and AV meetings.  In addition, the Domino application portlet is better, with a document viewer available that allows you to open the Notes document from within the portal view.

Document Library:

This was available in earlier versions but looks smoother/better in V6.  Users can access the library and interact with documents, including locking, versioning, editing, restricting and uploading.  There are also hooks directly to the OS and office productivity suite.  Users can drag and drop into the document library from windows explorer, or just save directly to the library from MS Word.  Native viewers also exist allowing users to view documents through the browser even if they don’t have the application locally.

Workplace Forms Designer:

This is just sooo sweet.  Consider a paper form.  Import it into the forms designer and turn into a web based form in minutes… and I mean minutes.  Digital signature support aswell to ensure that forms submitted cannot be altered afterwards.

Just a few snippets.  There is more and I will blog it when I have time

A good friend told me I did not do the dogs justice… So here is another photo.  Again, taken a while back with my HTC wizard.  I trust this is good enough?

And now I can blog through flickr
Originally uploaded by pmooneynet.

I apologise in advance for all the terrible photos you are going to see here in future.

Figured I would start with one of my bitches…

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

I have created a zip file of the CD that was issued.  This includes a trial copy of the FiRM software by HADSL.  Download here

Has anybody read the latest post on the MS Collab site…. If you have not, please be warned in advance.  Deep breaths guys… feel the love… I really don’t want to keep having a go at this product, but this type of post just rises me!  Lets look at what they say:

"IBM will not support you beyond basic troubleshooting".  How the hell can IBM support an MS product?  Please tell me.  IBM have offered to support to ensure that the emails get to exchange.box.  Does that not seem perfectly reasonable.  MS are offering 100% support on the installation and configuration of their tool.  Is that not the same thing.  They are offering to support the MS side of things.  Now, if they are not, are they offering to resolve any mail routing issues in Domino land that any customer could have, not matter how big the installation, to ensure their connector works???   Do they have the technical capacity for that.  Simple answer for that.

No.

"IBM have pulled support"

Did they ever support the connectors???

"did anyone else notice how the original IBM press release changed?  On Tuesday morning is said one thing,
on Tuesday afternoon it said something much different…  Seems reminiscent of when we had a bad link to the old Analyser & IBM publicly called us on it… huh, interesting?
"

Interesting that a technote changes?  why?  

And it is not like the crap you pulled last year guys.  You ran a press release, you did not have a bad link.  You pulled it after it was publicly established it did not work.  You then tried all sorts of excuses including:

"bad link"

"it linked to the wrong version" (you still pulled the new one)

"we withdrew the beta as we were finished with it"

What does this post achieve.  Well.  Its FUD to begin with.  Well written FUD, but still FUD nonetheless (a pig in an Armani suit is still a pig).

Its Monday afternoon.  Warren
and Kitty
are still here in my house.  We dropped off Duffbert
at the airport to begin his long trip home.  Drinking mugs of tea and watching Airplane
on the tv.  I don’t think any of us are capable of anything more.  There are many things to say about the event, and I suppose now is as good a time as any.  Please note that most of the sessions were recorded, and we will put them up on Google video or utube or something so you can get them (again, we are doing this for free).  These sites link to opinions regarding the event so far.  I am sure more will be posted.:

Warren

Bill

Volker

Ed

Eileen

Keynote

Ed gave a great keynote which was focused on Domino/Notes, and nothing else.  It was a simple message.

Hannover=Notes

and

Hannover>Notes

7.02 is out in a few months, which will include

• the blog template (which I will switch to)
• Notes Nomad (Notes on a USB stick).  Designer/Admin client access is not supported, but will work on the stick

There was also some discussion about Hannover, and the proposed future designer client running in the eclipse framework… I can’t see this happening with the admin client, as the webadmin.nsf database has pretty much all the functionality you need (especially with the CA process and the controller).

Technical details

Although I did not attend many sessions (in fact, I don’t think I attended a full session),  feedback on all sessions was excellent.   Rob and Duffberts session received rave reviews.   I have not gone through all the evaluations, but Warrens also excelled.

Sponsor details

Four of the sponsors have already provisionally booked themselves in to sponsor next year.  Because of the mix in the crowd, and the layout, they were very happy with business leads and communication.

As a separate note, I have to credit IBM Ireland.  They agreed to sponsor lunch… when lunch came, it was totally inadequate for the crowd, so immediately a credit card was handed over by IBM to demand more from the hotel.  This was a great gesture, and total credit is to be given to them.

The crowd

There was a fantastic mix of people at the event, and 30% of the delegates were not from Ireland.  This was a GREAT thing and hearing the European accents at a small Irish event was very encouraging.  Aside from that, I have to thank the people that attended and asked questions, and made the speakers feel welcome and appreciated.  There was a strange buzz about the day, very similar to that feeling you get at Lotusphere, albeit smaller.  

The social scene

I have been out every night since last Wednesday.  My liver is not speaking to me.   Everyone fitted in as much as possible in the few days we had, and boy is it taking its toll now! Enough said.

The future

Eileen and I have already spoken about this, and plans will start in the new year for a possible 2-day event.  Again, we are keeping it simple, and keeping it informal.  I believe they were the main strengths of the day, and want that to continue.  Already, some of the speakers said they would come back…. and a few others have offered to come along next year aswell (Mr Miller)….

What did you think?

We already know what we think worked, and what did not work.  But, we want your opinions on this (speakers, sponsors and delegates alike).  Please let us know by either commenting on this post, or in a separate email to me on the following questions.  This is all we ask from the delegates after a free day of information.  Please take a few minutes.

1. What were the best things about the day?
2. What could have been done better?
3. Do you feel there was anything missing from the day?
4. What would you like to happen next?

For me its back to normality and concentration on the day job and a few other smaller projects, including more articles, getting my "Admin Blast" presentation ready for AdminCamp, and an updated Lotus ADSync one completed.    Yes… Buchan did the Dev Blast presentation, and the plan was for me to do admin blast….. coincidence… you decide

More to follow but now is the best time to look at them… So far, they are mostly Volker’s, so my crap pictures are not up there to tarnish them yet!  Tag is ilug06.

"You promised me a man…  I want my man" – Duffbert

"If it wasn’t for Volker, I wouldn’t have gone low" - Duffbert

"I hurt in strange places" – Warren

"They have got much quieter now there is something in their mouths" – Duffbert

"Read it to yourself Duff!" – Paul Mooney

"Ken doesn’t have any equipment… I checked" – Duffbert

"No thank you, I’ll just lick the inside of this one" – Paul Mooney

"Ken Doll stars in "The barbie code"" – Buchan

"I should know… I’ve slept with Bill before" – Paul Mooney

"Paul, can you make it as fast as last time?" – Eileen Fitzgerald

"I have the biggest clustered pair in Europe" – Elaine Donnell

"I haven’t ran out on paying in a restaurant in a while" – Warren

"No.no no… Its Rob F**king Novak!" – Rob Novak/Kathleen McGivney

Updated (as we scared of Volker ) "What does Volker’s photography and beer have in common… they both make ugly people look good" – Duffbert

I will write about the event in the
next day or so, but as there are plenty of people still in Dublin, I am
out and about doing the "tours" and drinking etc etc.  Wanted
to get this in though.

To (in no order of importance)

Ed
Brill

Volker
Weber

Libby
Ingrasia (and clan)

Rob
Novak

Duffbert

Daniel
Nashed

Kathleen
McGivney

Mark Wallace

Bill
Buchan

Warren
Elsmore

Irish
Prison Service

Probation
and Welfare Service

Waterford
Technologies

6wSystems

HADSL

Teamstudio

DNA
Portal

IBM Ireland

The
Department of Dusters and law reform
(ask Leah!) for lending equipment

Kitty

Eileen
Fitzgerald

The
hotel for accomodating the 35
people that went to the geekdinner (about 20 more then expected)

The Business Partners that sent out
mailshots informing the customers of the event (the ones that didn’t said
that they will next year….)

Roy, Pants, Coatsie

The 103 people that attended the event,
especially the ones that travelled from France, Germany, Holland, Spain,
UK and the US

Anyone else I have forgotten…

Thank you all for turning up and helping
out on the day, some of them arriving early to assist and making it an
event that was unprecedented.  There was great speakers, content,
information and attitude for the day.  It just could not have gone
better.