Recent 

Updating to Domino 11 FP3 in 30 seconds  

By Daniel Nashed | 4/8/21 9:26 AM | Infrastructure - Notes / Domino | Added by Andi Kress

Domino 11.0.1 FP3 has been released and I added FP3 to our Docker Community GitHub project in the develop tree today. To update my servers I have created custom image. I first ran the standard ./build.sh domino. Afterwards I used the new domino_container script to build an add-on image containing my NashCom Tools and pushed it to my JForg registry. From there I can pull it on any of my servers.

Checking if database is encrypted with LotusScript (C API)  

By Dmytro Pastovenskyi | 4/8/21 9:24 AM | Development - Notes / Domino | Added by Andi Kress

Since it's not possible to identify encryption status and level using native LotusScript/Java classes here is a way to do that. The solution is based on Notes CAPI (within LotusScript) but it works for both Linux/Windows environment.

HCL Domino 12 – Active Directory Password Sync  

By Ulrich Krause | 4/7/21 6:05 AM | Infrastructure - Notes / Domino | Added by Oliver Busse

Active Directory Password Sync applies the Windows passwords of users registered in an Active Directory domain to their Domino HTTP and/or Notes ID passwords. To setup and configure Active Directory Password Sync, you need at least 2 Domino v12 servers. One server acts as Request Creator and the other one has the role Request Processor.

HCL Connections Docs – 2.0.1 Update Issue  

By Milan Matejic | 4/7/21 1:30 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Andi Kress

Lately I had an issue upgrading from HCL Docs 2.0 CR3 iFix009 to 2.0.1. While upgrading “Docs Editor” application, using upgrade/install scripts, I was blessed with the following error code

When you need OS Acces, but DON'T Have it, OPENNTF to the Rescue  

By Keith Brooks | 4/6/21 9:52 AM | Infrastructure - Notes / Domino | Added by Roberto Boccadoro

Picked up a new client from my home state with a small but necessary business, which they run on their HCL Domino application. The problem started when I realized I needed to scrape their old website from a hosting provider and then put it under HCL Domino. Simple enough to get the site files and fodlers, but when I went to add the site to Domino realized I did not have RDP/VPN/FTP access to their server at the OS level. What do I do?

HCL Domino/Notes 12 (Beta 3) - integrated Backup and Restore solution   

By Ales Lichtenberg | 4/6/21 7:11 AM | Infrastructure - Notes / Domino | Added by Oliver Busse

One of the new features you will find in Beta 3 HCL Domino/Notes 12 is the integrated Backup and Restore. After installing this release, I tested this new functionality with a backup on my home NAS.

Domino V12 Backup & Restore leveraging native Borg Backup Integration  

By Daniel Nashed | 4/6/21 1:49 AM | Infrastructure - Notes / Domino | Added by Roberto Boccadoro

Domino V12 Beta 3 introduces a Backup & Restore which is designed for easy integration with 3rd party backup solutions. The server tasks "backup" and "restore" are accompanied by a new dominobackup.ntf/nsf which holds all the configuration, logs and a database inventory. There is an admin friendly Notes based UI which allows you to restore databases with many options including restoring deleted documents and folders into the original database. The solution is intended to complement existing backup solutions and to make it easier for customers and partners to integrate with existing backup solutions which are not Domino aware today.

HCL Domino v12 Beta 3 Has Arrived   

By HCL Digital | 4/5/21 4:12 PM | Infrastructure - Notes / Domino | Added by Oliver Busse

What a blast! In our webinar hosted this week, we announced Beta 3 is now available for download on Flexnet for all Domino customers. Watch the replay here. This will be the last beta drop before the v12 release so don’t miss your chance to participate and help us shape the future of Domino! In this third iteration, we are unleashing another set of great features.

HCL Connections 7 – PDF Export Issues  

By Milan Matejic | 4/2/21 4:40 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro

After upgrading to HCL Connections 7, the new PDF Export feature didn't work. By clicking on the new "PDF" button inside the Wiki Page and trying to export it as a PDF, I would get an error in the GUI. In my two environments where I have encountered this, I had to do the following steps...

HCL Sametime Meetings 11.5 and LTPA version 2  

By Milan Matejic | 4/1/21 3:39 AM | Infrastructure - Sametime | Added by Roberto Boccadoro

As the LTPA Token version 2 is more secure than the LTPA Token version 1, it has become a new default for me. Lately I found out that the Sametime Meetings Server does not accept the LTPA Token v2 out of the box, more on that in the following. :-)

Sametime Proxy 11.5IF1 issues with iNotes integration  

By Roberto Boccadoro | 4/1/21 3:37 AM | Infrastructure - Sametime | Added by Oliver Busse

I updated the Sametime Proxy server 11.5 to IF1 for a customer, and the integration with iNotes broke. When a user tried to start a chat with another user he received an error

Adventures in CacheLand 2  

By Paul Withers | 4/1/21 12:46 AM | Development - Notes / Domino | Added by Roberto Boccadoro

In my last blog post I talked about challenges we had to overcome as a team with regard to caching of constants. But a bigger challenge we hit was caching of design elements. Part of the solution we built required copying design elements from one database to another. Part of the beauty of Domino is that everything is a Note - including design elements. Design elements are just Notes with a special flag. So just as you can copy a document from one database to another by getting a handle on the note, you can also copy a design element from one database to another by getting a handle on the design note.

Domino 12 beta 3: subtile UI changes  

By Oliver Busse | 4/1/21 12:44 AM | Infrastructure - Notes / Domino | Added by Roberto Boccadoro

Now I want to focus on some improvements of the UI of the standard client. I am not talking about the new 64bit basic client which looks like... R6.5 Let's forget about that for a minute There were several posts in the forum about the new workspace, the tabs, the sidebar and the new templates. I also posted my 2 cents to that and look what we got with beta 3: some improvements (I will name those that didn't make to beta 3 in the end).

Creating Backups with Domino V12 Beta3  

By Rainer Brandl | 4/1/21 12:42 AM | Infrastructure - Notes / Domino | Added by Roberto Boccadoro

With the newly released Beta3 of HCL Domino V12 ( the GA has been announced for June 7th 2021 ) it´squite easy to create backups without additional software.First of all you have to upgrade your Domino Server to Beta3.- I upgraded my Beta2 without any troubles to Beta3. So there´s no need to uninstall and reinstall !

End of HTTP (non-SSL) support for HCL Traveler mobile clients  

By Ales Lichtenberg | 3/31/21 2:24 AM | Infrastructure - Notes / Domino | Added by Roberto Boccadoro

End of HTTP (non-SSL) support for HCL Traveler mobile clients - Ales Lichtenberg If you are still using only HTTP for Traveler, prepare for the end of support on October 21, 2021. From then on, only HTTPs will be supported.

Testing the Domino 12 backup feature  

By Oliver Busse | 3/31/21 2:22 AM | Infrastructure - Notes / Domino | Added by Roberto Boccadoro

HCL released the 3rd iteration of the public beta today. One of the new features of the server is the integrated backup. HCL implemented a solution called Veeam to run as a new server program. It used a simple configuration and logging database which is a new template to V12 beta 3.

Domino 12 beta 3: CertStore and Trusted Root Certificates  

By Oliver Busse | 3/31/21 2:20 AM | Infrastructure - Notes / Domino | Added by Roberto Boccadoro

Man, this is very intense. I am testing the 3rd beta of V12 and it's very dynamic. I posted to the forum, immediately got feedback, commented on other's posts and also got feedback. The people are very busy to check everything out - which is great! This post is about the Certstore and the process to obtain an SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt. With beta 3 you need a valid trusted root certificate set up in this database. There are several options to get it, and this posts is about how.

Using Server-Sent Events on Domino  

By Jesse Gallagher | 3/30/21 9:00 AM | Development - Notes / Domino | Added by Martin Pradny

Though Domino's HTTP stack infamously doesn't support WebSocket, WebSocket isn't the only game in town when it comes to getting push-type information to HTTP clients. HTML5 also brought with it the less-famous Server-Sent Events standard, which is basically half of WebSocket: it allows the server to push events to the client, but it's still a one-way communication channel.

TestiNG XPages  

By Patrick Kwinten | 3/30/21 5:14 AM | Development - Notes / Domino | Added by Oliver Busse

A while ago I started my journey into testing applications. Like most people I started with Selenium IDE since it’s free, easy to install and setup. The idea was to record the workflow in an application and play it back after the development of every new feauture.

What To Do With All This XSP Markup?  

By Jesse Gallagher | 3/30/21 2:33 AM | Development - Notes / Domino | Added by Roberto Boccadoro

In some previous posts, I've started talking about some steps one can take to make a complicated XPages app more platform-independent. There's a lot to be done there, refactoring code to bridge differences between runtime environments and to lessen dependencies on XPages-specifics things, but there's a huge elephant in the room: all that XSP markup.

Free DNS wild-card service from Japan  

By Daniel Nashed | 3/30/21 2:31 AM | Infrastructure - Notes / Domino | Added by Roberto Boccadoro

If you are using a home lab and want to test with many different hosts, having a wild-card DNS entry can be helpful. This will not work with Let's Encrypt DNS-01 challenges, because it would need DNS TXT records, which are not yet available in a way they can be consumed at MyDNS today. Still https://www.mydns.jp/#about is a very interesting option today, because of the sub-domain you can point to your server. And they have a very simple to use HTTP request option to update your IP.

18 Essential Steps for Your HCL Notes / Domino Upgrade  

By Panagenda | 3/27/21 4:48 PM | Infrastructure - Notes / Domino | Added by Andi Kress

For many organizations, HCL Notes and Domino form the backbone of their critical business processes. To keep up with innovations, organizational requirements, and growing user expectations, IT groups are performing regular upgrades to their Notes and Domino production environments. But despite the obvious benefits of upgrades, mistakes in the process can quickly erode the value of upgrading. Performing a major, enterprise-wide upgrade is usually a challenging task for any IT department since many of the activities are performed manually. There are many obstacles that can prevent the successful upgrade of your HCL Notes/Domino environment.

AppDevPack Roundtable coming up  

By Heiko Voigt | 3/27/21 4:13 PM | Business - Events / People | Added by Andi Kress

What a great start into the easter time with high hopes that HCL has some easter presents for us - I'm looking forward to the C3UG AppDevPack Roundtable next week. It is all about Customers and Partners getting vocal about the state and the future of this great addition to the HCL Domino Development Tool arsenal. The C3UG Team will be joined by 35+ Customers from around the world and the HCL Team responsible - Thomas Hampel, Dan Dumont and Barry Rosen. And there will be some community announcements as well, so stay tuned !

Running BorgBackup & Restore on Docker  

By Daniel Nashed | 3/26/21 11:14 AM | Infrastructure - Notes / Domino | Added by Oliver Busse

Borg Backup https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/quickstart.html is a great solution for optimized backup repositories either local or a remote location. It supports encrypted repositories local or remote, compression and deduplication! Now that I moved some of my servers into containers running on Podman, I looked into backup options inside the container. For now I am preparing our Docker repository to include the Borg Backup option.

Adventures in CacheLand 1  

By Paul Withers | 3/24/21 9:03 AM | Development - Notes / Domino | Added by Roberto Boccadoro

Recently I’ve been involved in a project with a lot of LotusScript. As a team our approach has been to structure the code according to best practices and leveraging what we’ve learned from other languages. Standards are always good, but there are always peculiarities that impact what you do. The crucial skill is to be able to work out what is happening when the standard ways don’t produce expected results. And most importantly, work out how to work around them.

Microsoft Exchange's security is "Swiss-cheese"  

By Cormac McCarthy | 3/22/21 6:11 AM | Business - News | Added by Roberto Boccadoro

Wow! Microsoft have had a really bad start to 2021. What does that mean for its customers? What we do know is that if you’re using on-premise Microsoft Exchange servers and use Outlook Web Access (or OWA) , since at least early January 2021 until early March 2021 (or beyond if you hadn’t yet patched AND done a post-patch security audit of your network) there is a very good chance that your data has been exposed or worse that your Microsoft Exchange servers and/or your entire internal Microsoft Windows Server network is compromised.

Domino 12 – SSL Performance  

By Martijn de Jong | 3/22/21 2:54 AM | Infrastructure - Notes / Domino | Added by Roberto Boccadoro

A few weeks ago I wrote about the new Certificate Manager in Domino 12, which enabled Domino 12 to request and automatically update LetsEncrypt certificates and implemented a better way of Server Name Indication (previously introduced in Domino 11.0.1), so you can use different SSL certificates for different websites without needing multiple IP addresses. The Certificate Manager also allows you to use the most recent (ECDSA) ciphers. The lack of this functionality in previous versions of Domino was an important reason why, in many Domino installations, an Nginx, Apache or IHS server is placed in front of the Domino HTTP task as a reverse proxy. There was however another reason: Domino used a lot of cpu power for and was rather slow to decrypt and encrypt SSL traffic. Letting Nginx/Apache/IHS offload the SSL de-/encryption task, reduced total load on the server and sped up performance. I therefore wondered if HCL also managed to solve this problem.

Java agents with imported .jar files  

By Ulrich Krause | 3/22/21 2:10 AM | Development - Notes / Domino | Added by Andi Kress

Many of us Notes developers know the problem. You have developed a Java agent that contains methods from imported .jar files in addition to the actual code. When the agent is executed on a HCL Domino server, it works for a while ( sometimes longer, sometimes shorter ), but then causes problems due to memory leaks. The problem lies in the architecture of Domino. The imported .jar files are reloaded every time the agent is started and over time they use more and more RAM.

Updated Zoom Plugin for HCL Notes V11  

By David Hablewitz | 3/22/21 2:09 AM | Infrastructure - Notes / Domino | Added by Andi Kress

HCL Notes users: If you are using Zoom instead of HCL Sametime for your video meetings, you may have discovered that the Notes integration plugin provided by Zoom that made it easy to schedule Zoom meetings in your Notes calendar broke with Notes V11. Well I have good news. Zoom is finally releasing an update…

Domino HttpService and the NSF Router Project  

By Jesse Gallagher | 3/19/21 3:32 AM | Development - Notes / Domino | Added by Roberto Boccadoro

In my last post and its predecessor, I talked about my tinkering at the XspCmdManager level of Domino's HTTP stack and then more specifically about the com.ibm.designer.runtime.domino.adapter.HttpService class. Now, HttpService is about as generic a name as you can get for this sort of thing, and it doesn't really tell you what it represents. You can think of Domino's HTTP stack since at least the 8.5 era as having two cooperating parts: the core native portion that handles HTTP requests in basically the same way as Domino always did, plus the Java layer as organized by XspCmdManager. The Java layer gets "right of first refusal" for any incoming request that wasn't handled by a DSAPI plugin: before routing the request to the legacy HTTP code, Domino asks XspCmdManager if it'd like to handle it, and only takes care of it at the native layer if Java says no.