The DomainPatrol Blog

06-09-2009

Moving the blog to http://domainpatrol.wordpress.com

Category

I'm moving the blog to http://domainpatrol.wordpress.com

Please update your reference to the feeed

Peter Närlund, http://domainpatrol.org

Posted by Peter Närlund At 11:50 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) |

11-06-2008

Install Shield Tuner for Lotus Notes 8.0.x

Category Administration

I have been trying to locate an InstallShield Tuner for Lotus Notes 8 for almost an hour now.

I found the post Finding Installshield Tuner on Passport - impossible?, but it doesn't say anything about an Install Shield Tuner for Lotus Notes 8. I thought that it might work to use the one for Lotus Notes 7, so I went on to the passport site to download it for a test.

When I find the file it says "Install Shield Tuner for Lotus Notes 7.0.x and 8.0.x for Windows 2000, 2003 English (C84T5NA)." - I'm happy now and just wanted to help you find it if you got into the same troubles as me.

As Mikkel says, you should look for the p/n CR31VNA and you will find it.

/Peter

Posted by Peter Närlund At 3:55 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (2) |

10-25-2008

Set ACL For Mailfile Owner - Solution

Category User Defined Actions

Ulrich Krause presented an idea at ideajam about Set ACL For Mailfile Owner, this is in response to this idea.

We all know that we can set multiple entries in the ACL of a set of databases at once using the Domino Administrator client.
But one option is missing. An example: You want to set the access level for a mailfile owner to Editor and enable a few options and assign a role or two.

From a developers point of view it is easy. You can write an agent. But as an administrator you normally do not write agents in LotusScript. You use your admin client.

Unfortunately there is no chance to do this today.
Pls. IBM, enhance the admin client and give us the ability to change the ACL of multiple databases. The ACLEntry to be changed has to be dynamic. ( i.e. the value of the owner field in the calendar profile of the mailfile)

I've already asked the people at Ytria , if this is possible by using aclEZ; it seems, that there is a chance to accomplish the aim.

Paul Mooney suggested The mail file ACL changing tool. I'm presenting another solution here. I hope you like it Paul.

As stated the code is not the problem, but to be able to run it from a userinterface where you can select the mail databases that you want to act on and that an Administrator without programming skills can use it when its needed.

You all know the userinterface for the Domino Administrator Client and I have been working for quite some time on the DomainPatrol project to be able to present a similar interface to the user with functionality that can not be seen in the Domino Administrator Client.

It looks like this:

A picture named M2

This interface show all databases on all servers and you can use FullText Search to find the ones you want to act on.
There are a lot of actions built in that you can use - but not the one requested by Ulrich Krause.

Well I thought this would be a pretty neat action to run on selected mail databases so I thought I should implement it.
The problem that I'm presented with is that I get a lot of request for more functionality within DomainPatrol all the time. If I were to implement them all the product would be hard to support in the long term.
So I came up with another idea to remedy the support problem and this is what it ended up in.

I have created a framework with DomainPatrol to let users save code in documents instead of in the design - I call these documents User Defined Actions.

The User Defined Actions can be imported/exported to dxl files. The implication of this is that an Administrator could get a User Defined Action from someone that coded it and run it in the DomainPatrol environment without any programming skills.

I have worked with the framework for executing the User Defined Actions for some time now and I think it is ready for exposure.
The framework itself handles all sorts of things that you don't have to code on your own, like error logging, context handling, display of progress bars, security checks on who can run User Defined Actions and so on.

Lets say that you already have DomainPatrol installed - Oh, for you that are not familiar with DomainPatrol it migt be good to let you know that it is Open Source and free to use.

Having that said - lets go back to the scenario that you already have DomainPatrol installed. All you have to do is download this User Defined Action and import it into DomainPatrol. This is done in the "Setup >> User Defined Actions" view.
Be sure that you let someone you trust check out the code before you run it - of course. Make any obvious changes to the code that you would like. Select the databases that you want to run the User Defined Action against and click "Run User Defined Action..." and select the action that you want to run.

I'd like this to be as simple, stable and flawless as possible so if you decide to take it for a testrun - please write a report on it.
I would also, very much, like to be challenged on what you can be accomplish using the User Defined Actions framework in DomainPatrol.

I will now go ahead and publish the second, stable but not very documented release of the DomainPatrol Template 4.5 b2.

You can find the template here

And I will also publish the User Defined Action to solve the Set ACL For Mailfile Owner.
Be adviced that you need to change the acl settings within the User Defined Action code - it is very well documented and I think it will be very easy for any Administrator to do the changes without any help from a Designer.

You can find the action here

So again, please let me know what you think and if there are any User Defined Actions that you think would be useful - maybe I will provide them for you. I'm always up for a good challenge.

My very best,

Peter Närlund, DomainPatrol

Posted by Peter Närlund At 11:49 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (5) |

01-21-2008

DomainPatrol 4.0 released during Lotusphere Opening General Session

Category None

We have put in a tremendous amount of work to be able to release version 4 of DomainPatrol.

The goal since 6 months has been to be able to have the final version 4 released at Lotusphere this year - and now we have finally arrived.

The release is now gold version and available for public download at http://domainpatrol.org/download

Here is a preview of the new UI.
A picture named M2

Now I'm just going to sit back and listen to the rest of the presentations and announcements at the Lotusphere Opening General Session

Peter Närlund
Product Manager, DomainPatrol

Posted by Peter Närlund At 1:06 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) |

12-11-2007

DomainPatrol v4.0 beta 1

Category None

Today I have released DomainPatrol v4.0 beta 1.

Our goal with this release is to provide basic functionality in DomainPatrol to use it as a Configuration Management Database (CMDB) for Lotus Notes & Domino.

A picture named M2

You can download the database template at http://domainpatrol.org/download

Please report any problems or issues in the forums, as soon as possible, as we are working day and night to be able to release the gold version in time for Lotusphere 2008.

Best regards,

Peter Närlund
Product Manager, DomainPatrol

Posted by Peter Närlund At 10:49 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) |

10-01-2007

OpenNTF.org vs. Commercial Licenses ...

Category None

There has been questions raised on OpenNTF.org whether open source should be able to combine with commercial ventures.

I find this discussion about the principles of open source to be of high importance to us in the IBM Lotus Notes & Domino community.

Please follow the thread and leave your opinion on this topic.

http://www.openntf.org/projects/pmt.nsf/ProjectView!ReadForm&Start=1&Count=300&ExpandView&Query=DomainPatrol~Discussion

Posted by Peter Närlund At 11:33 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) |

09-02-2007

Charting in DomainPatrol

Category Charts

I can't hold my breath any longer - I have to tell someone.

This is a sneak preview of the charting capabilities that is to come in the next release of DomainPatrol.

A picture named M2

Well someone would probably say - Hey that's cool you learnt how to use frames and there is a picture too!

The chart is actually not a picture at all, but a live applet that polls statistics from the server every minute.

This particular chart monitors Mem.Allocated and Mem.Free

... and it is independent of what OS your client is running on.

... and it all runs in the 6.5 client or later versions.

... and it is open source.

Do you have a wish for a specific chart in DomainPatrol?

Posted by Peter Närlund At 9:45 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (1) |

08-30-2007

How to set update frequency on full text index for more than one database?

Category Full Text Index

I found a question on the Notes/Domino 6 and 7 Forum about How to set update frequency on full text index for more than one database?

When reading the answers to this question - there are no simple solutions to this problem.

In DomainPatrol there is a view that show all databases that are FullText indexed on your servers.

A picture named M2

Using this view you can sort all FullText indexed databases on the "Updates" column that contain the update frequency information.
Select the databases that you want to change the update frequency on and use the action "Tools ...\Create or modify FT-Index ..."

A picture named M3

In the dialog you can choose to change the update frequency for the Full Text Index.

A picture named M4

When you click on OK - an agent will go through all selected databases and recreate the Full Text Index for them according to the selected settings.

As the DomainPatrol database is open-source, you can take a peek at the agent that does the job and re-use the code if you want to.

If you only want the Database template it can be downloaded at OpenNTF.org - The full installer including the freeware scanner can be downloaded at http://domainpatrol.org/download

Posted by Peter Närlund At 11:28 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (1) |

08-17-2007

How to get a grip on advanced database properties and make changes on multiple databases at once.

Category Advanced Database Properties

I found a question in the "Notes/Domino 6 and 7 Forum" on IBM developerWorks about advanced database properties and inheritance of those from templates.

Advanced database properties can be difficult to manage for large Lotus Notes & Domino installations as there is no tool within the Domino Administrator Client that will give you an overview of the advanced database properties for databases. There is also no tool within the Domino Administrator Client that will help you change the advanced database properties on multiple databases.

When you configure the DomainPatrol scanner to read database details (Figure 1) the advanced database properties will be stored in the database document (Figure 2) in the DomainPatrol database.

A picture named M2

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

You can use the information in the fields from the "Advanced Options" tab in the database document and create a customized folder where this information is displayed. (Figure 3). Base the new folder on the "Databases" view (Figure 4, Figure 5). This will copy the action tools including "Modify Database Option ..." to the new folder from the "Databases" view. Then add columns to the new folder to display the advanced database options that you need. (Figure 6).

A picture named M4

Figure 3.

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Select the database document that you want to work with from the "Databases" view and drop them on the new folder (Figure 7).

A picture named M8

Figure 7

Now you can select databases in the new folder and change an advanced database property for all the selected databases at once (Figure 7, Figure 8).

A picture named M9

Figure 8

Figure 9

Posted by Peter Närlund At 9:37 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) |