One of our clients called the other day. They had an issue, and in answering the question  "what have you done recently" they mentioned they had run Defrag.Nsf.  Upon further inquiry I learned that this is a third party solution from a company in Australia.  In function it does for a Domino database what Defrag does for a file system.   Our customer reported that it significantly improved (as much as 50%) the loading of libraries and folder views in our Domino based doc mgt solution, Docova.  

The issue was resolved, and had nothing to do with Defrag.Nsf, but I was intrigued so I did some some research and downloaded a trial version of the product.  Will do some benchmark testing and report back.   Worth a look.  Google it to get the link to Preemptive Consulting's site.

PS.  In testing I copied and pasted several documents in a Docova library  (NSF)  that contained large MOV video clips.  When I was done, Domino Administrator reported the Logical size of the database as 64 Gig, but the physical size was only 400 mb.  I had DAOS configured on this test server.  Of course in real life you would not have the same 40 MB attachment copied and pasted hundreds of times, but it sure demonstrated the power of the Domino Attachment Object Store.  Wow!.

This is worth a read.  Comes from a DLI resource, so there is an obvious bias regarding Docova, but the soapbox is pretty close to the ground.  

What the article is trying to say is that if you want document management, not just file sharing and team collaboration, then there are alternatives on the Domino platform.  You do not have to change your infrastructure to get functionality that you were used with with products like DDM. You do NOT have to look for a non-Domino based solution.

This is especially true for SMB customers.  Although smaller in size, many of these organizations require features similar to what you find in an ECM product offering, but at a price point traditionally offered in a Lotus product.

You may notice that Quickr is not mentioned in the article. The reason is that we do not feel Quickr falls into this class of products. IBM is very careful in there literature to position Quickr in terms of Collaboration and Sharing.  If you do not believe me, Google IBM Document Management and try to find references to Quickr.  They describe it as a product that delivers "basic content services".  We felt that if we talked about Quickr in terms of a document management solution, we could not do it without shedding a negative light on the product.  Quickr is a good product, if you use it for what it was intended.

http://www.dominopower.com/issues/issue200906/00002385001.html
http://www.dominopower.com/issues/issue200906/00002386001.html

Been a bit tardy on the blog of late.  June 9 I began a road trip that included a flight to London, quick flight up to Belfast where I visited some potential customers with Geoff Higgins of Team Solutionz.  Then a train ride down to Belfast to visit with Blue Wave.  Next day a flight to Edinburgh for meetings with Ashok Khindra from CES and a meeting with a prospect in Edinburgh.  Tomorrow I catch a plane to London for more meetings with partners, prospects and customers.

The general feeling is that we have turned the corner on the recession.  Everyone has a good queue of deals they are chasing.  Nice to feel the positive vibes.

I did one demo where I could get out to the web but could not access Notes via 1352.  Looks like that port was not open on their firewall.  Geoff told me about a product that would tunnel a SSH port that was commonly left open. Handy thing to have in your back pocket. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunneling_protocol#SSH_tunneling http://lekkimworld.com/2006/05/18/show_n_tell_thursday_ssh_tunneling_a_must_have_tool_for_any_travelling_consultant_18_may_2006.html

Ran an installment of our Domino User Group in early June.   We demonstrated the Domino Attachment Object Store feature in 8.5.  Lots of interest from the group.  The consensus  with Domino 8.5 is that the server looks good, but the client is too heavy and slow for most.  Many are installing the basic version of R8 vs going with the eclipse version.

Chris Fales from Ardexus shared a performance load test they did with their Web Mode CRM product.  They used the IBM Innovation Center to test how the software behaved doing common CRM actions on both a R7 and R8.5 server on the same hardware.  The R7 server gave up at 100 concurrent users.  In most cases that is acceptable for SMB customers.  What was interesting was that the R8.5 was still giving acceptable performance at 2000 concurrent users.  IBM has done a bang up job on improving the HTTP task.  That is good news for Docova.  Nice when the manufacturer improves the base product and everyone benefits.

A bit off topic, but it is nice to know there are people out there who are trying to make the world a better place.

More info at www.peaceday.org.

Maybe I am just getting old, but it has been awhile since a feature in Domino has gotten me excited.  There was a time when I used to load the beta code and suffer through all the NSD's just to play with the new features.  I have spent the last month with the Gold code of ND 8.5.   Frankly, while there are some very useful features on the client side, the shuffling of the pulldown menus and the speed penalty due to the Eclipse framework in the 8.5 client give me cause for concern.   I am concerned that end users familiar with the Domino interface will find these changes get in the way of getting their work done.  

But.....two things have really caught my eye on the server side of 8.5 and they both deal with attachments.  Last Friday I was heads down reading and testing, making all kinds of happy sounds, something I have not done in awhile.

The first feature is something very simple, something that should have been addressed long ago.  When using the Notes client, have you ever clicked on a document that has a large attachment only to wait for what seems like forever until the document finally opens?  Now the Notes client behaves like a browser client.  The document opens quickly regardless of the size of the attachment.  Even though you see the icon in the document, it is really on just a link to the actual file.  What they have done now is only load the attachment when you actually click on it.   We have enjoyed that for years on the browser side with our Uploader and Docova products. Finally it is here on the Notes side as well with the R8 clients.

The second feature is DAOS.  The Domino Attachment Object Store feature lets your store the attachments outside of the NSF on the file system.  At DLI.tools, when companies look at our Docova Document Manager, they often ask where the file attachments get stored?  When we say they  are in the NSF, we usually see a cloud of concern come across a customer's face.   They do not understand that on the web, the document does not know about the attachment until you click on it. For years they have suffered with the Notes client and databases that have grown to  30+ GB that take forever to open, search, index...etc.

I was skeptical when I first configured a Docova library for DAOS, and exported the files.  There are all kinds of issues we could run into.  Would file locking still work if two users tried to edit in place the same attachement at the same time?  Would check in/out work, searching within attachments.  As I tested each feature, and found that it actually worked, I was delighted.

So why would anyone care?  Well, Domino not only exports the files to the file system, it consolidates them.  So if you have the same attachment in multiple locations, it will save only one to the file system.  That is a huge potential savings if DAOS is enabled on mail databases.   Not a perfect world though, as local replication will not longer work. Then again, if you have huge mail databases, chances are you cannot replicate them successfully now.

So, how easy is this to setup?  Not bad at all in fact.  I had a test server running in about an hour, which included reading the docs.  The Domino Admin Help will give you everything you need.  Set it up on a test server and get used to the new ADOSMGR command options.  Basically you edit the server doc DAOS Tab and add the name of the directory and the threshold for attachments to be exported.  Add a line into the Notes.ini then update the ODS of the databases you want to enable using Compact -c -ados.   Check that the database property is set, and that is about it.


   

The win today qualifies them for a place in the next World Cup.  Congrats to DLI's Sandeep Jyoti on  an 11 run performance, and all the members of the team.

At DLItools, we began building feature rich browser based applications a long time ago, before Java was available.  Because our user interface uses Active X,  occasionally I will get the comment in the subject line of this post when talking to a potential customer.  Usually this comes from the IT group.  I find that many technical people do not really understand what Active X is, and how prolific it has become.

When the internet first arrived, the pages you could access were static.  Microsoft released Active X in 1996.  It was a tool that allowed developers to package up code developed in other languages, such as VB and C++, and run it from a web page.  Active X  are small controls that contain rules on how applications can share information.  VB, C++ and similar tools are very powerful, and Active X means that if you can do it in a Windows application, you can do it on the web.  This is why the Docova interface looks so much like the Windows applications we are all familiar with.

Since ActiveX works closely with the local machine's Windows operating system, there are security implications, and this is where the bad rep comes from.  To control security, Active X controls are signed with a certificate, and it is up to the end user to determine if the program should be allowed to run.

Regardless on the pros and cons of Active X, what many people do not understand is that when they say "We do not run Active X in our organization", they are probably wrong.  If you run the Windows desktop, you are running Active X.  If you install Flash, you are running Active X.  Maybe what they mean to say is "We do not allow unsigned Active X controls to run in our organization".  Now that I could understand.  I would not allow that either.  I want to know who the provider of the program is before it runs on my computer.

The big bad internet is not the issue. Even if it came on a disk if there is no information on who created it, in this day and age you would be a fool to load it up to see what it does. We package our Active X controls using install sheild, so they are installed by an administrator or by a program with the appropriate rights.  

Our Docova product uses folder views called perspectives. If that is what you were expecting to read about, sorry.  Just wanted to put some context to the denominations that are being used in the media of late.  This email I received gives a good perspective.