The Quickr Blog

The IBM Lotus Quickr team hosted a Webcast on Wednesday, June 17th to present what's new in Lotus Quickr 8.2 services for Lotus Domino. The recording of this Webcast is available for download.

As outlined in the announcement letter, IBM Lotus Quickr 8.2 contains a host of new features in this Domino-based release. In addition to overall performance improvements, we talk about the new simplified editing, improved integration with IBM Lotus Connections as well as support for Lotus Domino 8.5 DAOS (Domino attachment and object service) to enable storage of attachments in the file system.

A link to the slide presentation, recorded audio session, and time index to the slides are provided below. Click the links below to play the recording. Right-click and select Save As to save to your local system for later playback.

Title: What's new and improved in Lotus Quickr V8.2

Date: June 17, 2009

Audio MP3 file, size 9,219,770 bytes

Presentation PDF file, size 1,789,966 bytes

Chat transcript TXT file, size 34,668 bytes

Link: Tech Exchange replay: What's new and improved in Lotus Quickr V8.2 - June 17, 2009

By: Stuart McIntyre - Quickr Blog | 1 Comments | On: 30 June 2009 05:37:06 AM | Tags:  quickr  lotus  8.2 

An interesting series of new articles on developerWorks this week, covering how to create and work with components in the Portal version of Lotus Quickr 8.1:

Working with components in IBM Lotus Quickr, part 1: Creating a news component

This article provides end-to-end steps that explain how to create a new component (news list) in IBM Lotus Quickr Services for WebSphere Portal 8.1. This news component supports basic features for a news item: title, summary, body, and type (normal and important news).

Working with components in IBM Lotus Quickr, part 2: Creating a personalized view of the announcement component

This article explains how to create a personalized view of announcement items across all the teamplaces to which a user belongs. This article uses the IBM Lotus Web Content Management menu component for searching all the announcement content (items) that are created in different teamplaces to which the user belongs. The resulting set from the menu component is then filtered using JavaScript based on criteria. A similar approach can be used to create a personalized view of any other Lotus Web Content Management components, such as the Contact or Task components in IBM Lotus Quickr.

Working with components in IBM Lotus Quickr 8.1, part 3: Exposing components as a custom Atom feed

This article, the third in a three-part series, demonstrates how to expose the IBM Lotus Quickr content (items) as a custom Atom feed. The new Atom feed can be used to fetch Lotus Quickr content from components such as task or announcement across all teamplaces to which the user belongs. The content can also be filtered based on any option field of the component, such as the priority field of the task component or the type field of the announcement component.

By: Stuart McIntyre - Quickr Blog | 0 Comments | On: 30 June 2009 04:02:34 AM | Tags:  quickr  portal  developerworks 

IBM's Michael Urspringer has been quietly building up a wonderful catalog of Quickr resources on his wiki:



Well worth adding to your bookmarks!  Thanks for your hard work, Michael.

By: Stuart McIntyre - Quickr Blog | 0 Comments | On: 12 June 2009 09:51:39 PM | Tags:  quickr  wiki 

PandaBear (Beta) for Lotus Quickr is a free desktop application that lets you easily upload or download files from a Lotus Quickr place using an intuitive, friendly interface.



Because we've built PandaBear on the Adobe Air framework, the same installation runs on Windows, Mac, or Linux.

More astonishing work by Rob Novak, Viktor Krantz and the team at SNAPPS.  I've been using this since the first private beta and it really does bring Quickr alive on the Mac platform.  Now in public beta, PandaBear is a brilliant addition to any Quickr solution.

Download it now!

By: Stuart McIntyre - Quickr Blog | 0 Comments | On: 12 June 2009 09:33:22 PM | Tags:  pandabear  quickr 

Scott Puis has posted some useful links for Lotus Quickr 8.2 resources:

The following Quickr 8.2 resources are now available from the Lotus Quickr Support site:

Planning your upgrade to Lotus Quickr 8.2  
Lotus Quickr 8.2 Detailed System Requirements  
Lotus Quickr 8.2 Release Notes  
Lotus Quickr 8.2 Installation Guides  
Lotus Quickr 8.2 Information Center

Also, be sure to review these important technotes:  
Blank page or JavaScript error "Object expected" after install or upgrade of Lotus Quickr 8.2 if you do not enable Domino Servlet Manager (#1389017)  
What are the supported upgrade paths for Lotus QuickPlace and Lotus Quickr? (#1316190)

Thanks Scott!

By: Stuart McIntyre - Quickr Blog | 0 Comments | On: 5 June 2009 06:55:37 AM | Tags:  quickr  lotus  8.2 

News of a brand new blog... The "Lighter Shade of Yellow" authored by Sasa Brkic - someone I've followed on Twitter for a long time and has now joined the blogger ranks.

His first post is an excellent introduction to using Lotus Quickr as a document management solution for smaller businesses or lighter requirements:

IBM Lotus Quickr is very capable of performing as a document management solution for SMBs. Stable, quick, customizable and with lots of integration options, its default setup has only one (potential) pitfall. Which one? Keep on reading...

What is the purpose of the document management systems (DMS)? Simply put:

 * to allow access control,
 * to simplify document search,
 * to allow groups to work on the same document, while preventing conflicts arising from two or more people trying to alter a document at the same time,
 * to provide means of versioning, meaning that system keeps older versions of the document, and
 * to allow formal review and approval of documents.

Quickr is actually very good in each of these points. It is not perfect (e.g. one cannot save drafts, only versions of a document; review and approval functionality is rudimentary) but more than adequate for the needs of an SMB looking for a simple solution to start managing documents. And, in case you wonder: No, shared folders are not considered to be a document management system!

More >

By: Stuart McIntyre - Quickr Blog | 0 Comments | On: 4 June 2009 03:53:59 PM | Tags:  quickr  lotus 

A couple of updates:

The eGA delay was shorter than predicted, and the Lotus Quickr 8.2 gold code was published over the weekend.  Go get it from your friendly PassportAdvantage or Partnerworld site.  The customer feedback has been tremendous so far, with many reporting significant performance improvements.  John Head seems to sum this up rather well:



and...

Rob Novak and the SNAPPS team have just published the latest release of their fabulous opensource Quickr templates to support the new release, and have included some significant enhancements at the same time, most notably to the QMeeting template and the advanced workflow engine.  Grab the latest versions from QuickrTemplates.com.

By: Stuart McIntyre - Quickr Blog | 3 Comments | On: 4 June 2009 06:41:34 AM | Tags:  quickr  8.2  templates 

The formal announcement for Lotus Quickr 8.2 stated that its eGA (the date it would be available for download via PassportAdvantage and PartnerWorld) was to be today, 28th May 2009.

Unfortunately I've just had a note from the Quickr team to day that that had been a delay:

The target date for eGA is now June 4th - the ship date for the physical media is not expected to change.

So you can all stop hitting F5 on the downloads site for today - I'll pass on the news as soon as it gets posted for download.

By: Stuart McIntyre - Quickr Blog | 0 Comments | On: 28 May 2009 09:42:38 AM | Tags:  quickr  lotus  8.2 

Having been part of the beta program for Lotus Quickr 8.2, I am really pleased to see it announced today:

IBM Lotus Quickr 8.2 enhances end-user experience and streamlines infrastructure requirements

Lotus Quickr 8.2 is focused primarily on Lotus Quickr services for Domino. It includes many feature enhancements requested by customers, in addition to a strong focus on the overall performance and maturity of the product.

End-user-oriented enhancements to the Lotus Quickr services for Domino include:

    * Faster browser response time
    * Sticky user preferences in views
    * Button to add a Quickr place to connectors
    * Simplified document editing and versioning interfaces
    * Integration with Lotus Connections Communities to provide an associated team place or wiki with synchronized membership
    * Integration with Lotus Connections Activities to provide publication of Activity content to a Quickr place

Enhancements for Lotus Quickr services for Domino that simplify administration and help to streamline the infrastructure include:

    * Support for Lotus Domino 8.5 DAOS (Domino attachment and object service) to enable storage of attachments in the file system
    * Increased flexibility in configuring integration between Lotus Sametime and Lotus Quickr (allowing shared Domino directory)
    * Simplified process for upgrades and installation of hot fixes
    * Security enhancements to address potential exposures identified by ethical hacking project
    * Support for Firefox 3.0 and additional directories (Sun SAM and Novell eDirectory)
    * Support for additional standards (FIPS/FDCC and IPv6)

Enhancements to the Lotus Quickr connectors are available for both Quickr services for Domino and Quickr services for WebSphere Portal:

    * Domino Web Access connector (available with Domino 8.5)
    * Improved e-mail drag and drop from Lotus Notes connector
    * Improved error handling when sending Quickr links via e-mail
    * Ability for administrator to automatically populate Quickr connectors with a list of places
    * Forward proxy support
    * Enablers to customize single sign-on
    * Support for local groups (Quickr services for Domino only)

Note: For customers upgrading from Quickplace releases (6x and 7x) to Lotus Quickr 8.2 services for Domino, we will provide documentation describing the steps to upgrade and migrate data. Planned availability for this documentation is August 2009 for English and 30 to 90 days later for other national languages. If you have questions about your upgrade or migration options or system requirements, contact your local services team for further instructions and guidance.

For those who haven't been following the new release, 8.2 is designed to bring Quickr/Domino up to date with some of the new features delivered in Quickr/J2EE 8.1.1 - primarily the integration with Lotus Connections, plus to improve the Quickr UI, and to support Lotus Domino 8.5 (including DAOS).

It will be available for download (in English) on Thursday:

Planned availability date

May 28, 2009 (electronic software delivery).

June 19, 2009 (media and documentation).

Refer to the complete letter for national language availability.

 

By: Stuart McIntyre - Quickr Blog | 0 Comments | On: 26 May 2009 12:30:29 PM | Tags:  quickr  8.2  domino  announcement 

Once in a while I come across a resource that I cannot believe that I haven't found in the past... Such a situation occured today on an IBM partner call, when this Greenhouse-hosted Quickr place was mentioned.  Managed by IBMer Karl LaWall, it contains some excellent resources:



The Quickr place is available to all members of the Greenhouse, so go take a look...

By: Stuart McIntyre - Quickr Blog | 0 Comments | On: 21 May 2009 04:28:59 PM | Tags:  quickr  lotus  greenhouse