Syncing Lotus Notes Personal Address Book/Journal Wirelessly

[ganesha71]

For those of you doing this, how did you do it? We're running Domino 6.5 BES 4 and about 70 OS 4 Blackberries.

I've never fooled around with Notes Roaming Profiles but I think this may be the easiest solution; to convert the 70 users to Roaming. Anybody have experience with? Know any possible problems?

Thanks

[dev]

For wireless address book syncronization you will have to use the iNotesR6 template for the enabled users. Then go to the (or have the user do it) Inbox and from the menu bar choose Actions->Synchronize Address Book from the drop-down list. This places a hidden folder within the user's mail file on the server. This allows the wireless sychronization of the personal address book. The other alternative is to create replicas of the user's names.nsf on the server. You can see the possible implications that this would have? This was the old way.
Roaming simply facilitates user mobility more than enhance wireless activity.

[ganesha71]

For wireless address book syncronization you will have to use the iNotesR6 template for the enabled users. Then go to the (or have the user do it) Inbox and from the menu bar choose Actions->Synchronize Address Book from the drop-down list. This places a hidden folder within the user's mail file on the server. This allows the wireless sychronization of the personal address book. The other alternative is to create replicas of the user's names.nsf on the server. You can see the possible implications that this would have? This was the old way.
Roaming simply facilitates user mobility more than enhance wireless activity.

I experimented with sychronizing with iNotes. Problem was if a user had multiple PC's with a names.nsf on each of them, sychronizing from different machines would cause duplicates, triplicates etc. The average computer to user ratio is 3 to 1 at my company so I figured sychronizing with iNotes was too risky. Plus they would manually have to click Sychronize Address Book, sounds easy, but you know how some users are.

Creating replica's was an option but that seemed to be labor intensive(i.e. I'm lazy :) ) I figured enabling roaming for the users would do most of the work for me:) I'm just experimenting with it now, I just worry about the CEO's 4000+ names address book if that ever got duplicate entries.

[dev]

Well.... between wireless and wired synchronization there isn't much options. You may have to settle for a combination by "restricting" some users to one or the other. The problem with that approach is that some users would recognize the feature(s) enjoyed by others which they lack, and as you know...users will complain. If you have a standardized desktop policy, then the solution for the Notes client as far as BBs are concerned should be standardized. Easier to support
Roaming is excellent for the multiple users on a PC environment. However for the "CEO" types, those that sign the pay checks..:-), maybe doing it the replica way could enhance the "CYA" fundamentals. i.e. Cover Your Ass for those not sure what it means.

[Phigment]

We leave it up to the end users to determine which option they will use. Creating replicas on the server is not really that labor intensive. You can have them mail you a replica of their mail file or, if you want to make it really hands off, create a form for them to attach the names.nsf to and have that automatically placed on the server of your choice. Just make sure they replicate at least once with the server replica or scheduled replication will not occur.

I agree with dev that for a user with multiple machines, the server based replica is the easiest way to synch the address books on all the machines without getting duplicates.

[rsun]

Is there a way to auto populate the address book/journal when we add a user? It's interesting that if a user already has these documents in their mail file, the BES seems to know that it should populate these fields in the user account, but if they've never created those document types in their mail file, it just leaves it blank.

[dev]

You can prepopulate email globally by number of days and count by using BM, but not by address/journal entries. The only other way is if you setup the users on iNotes template, synchronize the address book/journal....this should load the contact entries when wireless or wired activation is done.

[rsun]

I'm not talking about prepopulating E-Mail, I'm specifically asking when you add a new user we often have to then go into the properties of that user and hard code their mail file as their address book database and journal. I understand that this configurability allows us to be more flexible, but I was hoping the default could be to populate these fields with the mail file, instead of having to always type it in.

[dev]

Hmm...then it may be possible to have SQL statement added to the config db on the SQL server to populate the fields. Because it's just another entry in the sql tables. I'll have to check with some our hardcore dbas here.

[rsun]

Thanks for looking into it. It just seems mysterious to me sometimes on how the BES populates those field automatically after we activate the user. I was hoping that if it saw we were using the Domino Web Access template, that it would assume to populate it, but it's just not consistent at all, and the only thing we can do to control the situation, is just to populate those fields.

[Tommy Talula]

I wrote a button code.

The user clicks.
- Updates their Location document with all the correct details (Might as well do it while we are here)
- Uses their shortname to build a location to place the Local address Book
(bbnabs\shortname\names.nsf)
- Builds the ACL of the Local Address Book so it can live on a server and not everybody has access!!
- Creates the replica on our Address Book Server. If they cannot see this server(global company) then it creates it on their home server. We are then sent an emails advising where it is, so we manually create a replica and ensure the servers are able to replicate.
- The only manual operation is a notice to advise them to File>Replication>Replicate - Select Background replication
(This appears to be the only way to add to the replicator page when creating a new replica from a Local database onto a server. API or LS can be used only from server to local which adds to replicator page)

This has worked a treat.
This also allows us to replace their Address Book on the laptop and setup replication, so they always have access to the same contacts.

We can also now push changes down to their Personal Address Book, by editing their server copy.


8-)

[amukhey]

A better idea for Domino BES users out there-

1. For users with multiple computers, why not create a roaming profile and it will always use the server copy of the address book. That server copy will sync with the replica copy of the add book on the I-Notes server. once it does so, it will be received on the BlackBerry.

2. For the I-Notes for local Notes laptop users, or the ceo types, we are thinking of creating an agent that performs the sync upon start up of notes. Only 2 problems there, what if the user doesnt turn off lotus notes, does it sync on a interval? User with 5,000 contacts-this will kill the server during process....

It is easier on a nightly schedule or real early morning when its not updating views and designs.

If you have a better idea, please let me know your thoughts so we can help each other out figuring this ...

[BBgod]

Set everyone that has a BB to a Roaming user. Domino creates the files and folders needed. The user just needs to answer YES the the question that pops up on the PC when they go into Notes. It asks if they would like to be created as a roaming user. You will also need to set there location documents replication tab to replicated at the open and close of Notes.

Once this is complete, Notes creates a copy of there addressbook on the server which is what is view on the BB if they are using BB version 4.0 on the BES and the device.

[kdgaughan]

Good day,

Re: iNotes and Wireless PIM sync BES4.0.

We're seeing the issue w/ Duplicate contacts (actually, they continue to multiply following each iNotes sync). You mention that it occurs with one user multiple computers, names.nsf on each. Are the address books all the same replica? I've confirmed that mine is and it still happens from time to time ... Were you able to recreate the dupe problem? And if so, could you share the details? Thanks.

KGaughan

[mkb]

We wrote a script that synchronizes the local address book with iNotes each time Notes is opened. Most people didn't synch their BBs more than once or twice a day any way, so the once a day address book synch has been working fine for us. Our executive-types already have replicas of their address books on our mail servers so that their secretaries can access their contacts, so that takes care of the one user to multiple PC problem.

We have pretty much given up trying to resolve the multiple contacts issue. We have found that if you just fix it the first time (we just go into iNotes and delete one of the duplicates) it seems fine from that point forward. The duplicates don't happen for everyone.

Roaming profiles work great, but you have to be careful how the PCs are configured. If you use an image to set-up your PCs and Notes is pre-installed on the image, you may run into an issue where multiple people have the same replica ID for the address book. It's not a huge deal since the ACLs are still different, but we did have one issue where one of our admins gave quite a few people their entire contact list.

[kdgaughan]

Thank you mkb. We have iNotes auto-synching each time the users open/exit the Notes mailbox (code is in the mail template). Unfortunately, we cannot easily resolve the multiple PC problem as they can access Lotus Notes via Citrix, VPN, or roaming to another PC (in their regular office or visiting in the field). All users local address books are the same replica (I'll spare details on how this is accomplished). Anyway, we're havinging difficulty recreating the problem because of varying circumstances that cause it. We are unable to invoke roaming profiles at this time due to the size of our environment and projects currently underway. Will experiment soon with putting a replica of user names.nsf on the server. Thanks again for your feedback.

[Ronald_Z]

What you can try is to first change the design of the local names.nsf via an replace design script in the DB script of the users mailfile. This way you can add a profile doc just like the Calendar profile doc existing in the mail file of the user. We also use this to add an extra 20 fields in the Contacts form to extend Domino as a ( sort of ) CRM system. Second is to call the sync process on the mailfile open. You check if the profiles exist and match and contain correct usernames, then continue to sync and set a flag in the notes.ini as this available when the local names.nsf is available that you did a good sync as one sync a day is enough. This works for us with Domino 6.5 BES 4.0 250 BB's and beginning Admins. :smile: But, Mr dev, is there also an SQL way to add fields in the PIM selection screen on the BES server ? Or do you maybe know if this is planned in any future release ?