NotesTracker Guide Version 5.2 now available from Scribd

Read all about NotesTracker Version 5.2 in the guide now also available from social publishing and reading site Scribd.

Get the guide (a PDF document) from http://www.scribd.com/doc/38450330/NotesTracker-Version-5-2-Guide

NotesTracker Guide Version 5.2 now online at Docstoc

You can now read the Version 5.2.00 edition of the NotesTracker Guide at Docstoc.

Read or download it here:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/49044581/NotesTracker-Guide-Version-52

 

Technorati Tags: NotesTracker,IBM Lotus Notes,IBM Lotus Domino,Usage Tracking,Auditing,Compliance,Asia/Pacific Computer Services

SDMS Version 4.5.10 for Lotus Notes released (03 August 2010)

The very popular free Lotus Notes application SDMS (a Simple Document Management System) was released today (3rd August 2010).

SDMS has been upgraded to incorporate NotesTracker Version 5.2 which itself was released only yesterday.

There’s also a fix for the Category and Sub-Category fields (the drop-down list was being blanked in edit mode).

It was one of those simple bugs that was “staring me in the face” and for some unknown reason I only just twigged to it a few days ago. … Duh!

Go get your free copy of SDMS Version 4.5.10 either here (Dallas server) or here (Sydney server), and ENJOY.

Technorati Tags: SDMS,Simple Document Management System,IBM Lotus Notes,IBM Lotus Domino,Freeware,NotesTracker

NotesTracker Version 5.2 released (02 August 2010)

I’m extremely happy to announce that version 5.2 of NotesTracker is now available for download, as is the updated NotesTracker Guide which fully describes NotesTracker: its features, why and how you would use NotesTracker, together with planning and technical guidance for managers, administrators and developers.

You can download the evaluation or licensed (purchased) editions of NotesTracker v5.2 from either of two sites:

• http://notestracker.com/UsageTracker_Download.htm or
• http://www.asiapac.com.au/UsageTracker_Download.htm

The NotesTracker Guide is downloadable from the same web page:

• http://notestracker.com/UsageTracker_Download.htm#Documentation or
• http://www.asiapac.com.au/UsageTracker_Download.htm#Documentation

The overview section of the guide has been  rewritten to better present the rationale behind the development of NotesTracker, and to describe some ways you might use NotesTracker for such things as database content tracking, compliance and privacy auditing, live feeds within the Lotus Notes desktop client (analogous to Web browser RSS feeds), and more.

A section was added describing the new function of tracking changes to attachments, which enables you to get a handle of the names and sizes of attachments in a document in NotesTracker’s usual “before” and “after” fashion. For example:

This example shows that one attachment was removed (circled in red) from the Notes document, and one was attached (circled in green).

Amongst many additions to the NotesTracker Guide is a description of a really great way to visualize the NotesTracker Repository usage log views, courtesy of OpenNTF.org (which is is devoted to enabling groups of individuals all over the world to collaborate on IBM Lotus Notes and Domino applications and release them as open source).

In this case I’m talking about Notes Reconn which enables you to create reports and Charts from any Lotus Notes database (via an interface to Microsoft Excel). For example, a NotesTracker usage log view like this:

can be quickly charted like this:

or like this:

The chart legend for the chart displays the single-letter NotesTracker “Action Type” values, which are:

Why not find out a lot more about NotesTracker by reading the NotesTracker Guide and requesting an evaluation.

Technorati Tags: NotesTracker,IBM Lotus Notes,IBM Lotus Domino,SDK,Application Development,Usage Tracking,Usage Metrics,KM. Knowledge Management,Compliance,Auditing,Privacy,Charting

I’m an old Old Spice man! ... And Oh Yes: NotesTracker version 5.2 is imminent

One of the few things I have in common with Old Spice man is that I happen to use Old Spice deodorant. But I don’t have a horse or a yacht.

As an old codger I can attest that my Old Spice stick does keep that “old man’s smell” at bay! It keeps me fresh -- and even perhaps pleasant to be near -- as I struggle and sweat to keep abreast with what’s happening in the IT world, while trying to maintain a mastery over a tiny little portion of it, in this my 41st year in the game.

This includes further refining and tweaking NotesTracker (see links at right) including combing through the NotesTracker Guide and making changes here and there with a view to improving NotesTracker’s ease of use even further.

Also, I’ve finished functional and regression testing of the next release, and am happy to tell you that NotesTracker Version 5.2 is now ready for final packaging and imminent release (in just a matter of days, I expect).

The major new function in NotesTracker v5.2 is the option to log the names (and sizes) of document attachments as they are changed. The attachments themselves are not logged, since this would add vastly to the log repository disk space usage.

I’ve also tested and highly recommend the excellent Notes Reconn freeware (from OpenNTF.org) -- and have expanded the final section of the NotesTracker Guide, describing how simple it is to use Notes Reconn to produce very nice-looking and informative charts.

These give you even more ways to comprehend and visualize the usage of your Notes applications. Here’s an example:

The single-character legends on the right correspond with the NotesTracker action types, which are: C = Create a document, D = Delete a document, F = Failed document deletion attempt, G = Generic NotesTracker action (these can be any activities that you designate, such as pressing the Send button), P = Paste a document, R = Read a document, U = Update a document, X = Create a document via a Web browser, W = Web Read, Y = Web Update. (There are other loggable application actions that don’t appear in this example: V = a View is opened, O = Opening of a database, E = a document deletion attempt was indeterminate, and M = Mail-in of a document.)

Watch this space for the NotesTracker v5.2 software release announcement.

Meanwhile, you can download the NotesTracker Version 5.2 Guide from here or here.

Technorati Tags: NotesTracker,Asia/Pacific Computer Services,IBM Lotus Notes,IBM Lotus Domino,OpenNTF,OpenNTF.org,Notes Reconn,Applications Usage,Database Usage,Metrics,Old Spice,Old Spice Man

NotesTracker Version 5.1 Guide – minor update available

The NotesTracker Guide has been updated with a change related to the “Open In New Window” capability being re-implemented in Notes 8.5.1 at last!

This capability is recommended for opening windows on the side (outside the main Notes window),  for keeping a watch on NotesTracker-generated “breaking news” auto-refresh style views. Such Notes views are quite similar to RSS in functionality,  but with regular Notes data (from one or more Notes databases) and viewed via the Notes Client rather than a web browser.

The opportunity was taken also to make a few minor layout changes that should improve its readability. And a correction to the heading level of the Administrator Topics section ensures that this section now appears correctly in the overall table of contents and the PDF bookmarks column.

You can download the NotesTracker Guide PDF file from either notestracker.com or asiapac.com.au and also from docstoc.com

Technorati Tags: NotesTracker,Guide,PDF,download,Lotus Notes 8.5.1

NotesTracker Guide v5.1 now available from docstoc

NotesTracker, from Asia/Pacific Computer Services, is a software development kit (SDK) for enabling the usage profiling of IBM Lotus Notes/Domino applications.

Database activities such as CRUD (creating, reading , updating and deletion of documents) is logged in a common way across both Lotus Notes Client and Web Browser environments via a common reporting mechanism, in real time and via replication across the entire Notes/Domino domain.

NotesTracker was crafted to make it easy to understand how your Notes applications are being used, both at the broad level and in fine detail -- for compliance, security/privacy management, content control, knowledge management and all sorts of other purposes.

The NotesTracker Guide for version 5.1 has just been made available on docstoc (the online community and marketplace to find and share professional documents.), where it can be viewed online or downloaded as a PDF document: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/20577539/NotesTracker-Guide---Version-51

Technorati Tags: NotesTracker,User Guide,Overview,Administration Guide,Programming Guide

Simple Signer Version 1.1 for IBM Lotus Notes released

When a Lotus Notes application is developed, it is a quite common requirement that it must be "signed" by an appropriate Lotus Notes user ID or Lotus Domino server ID before it will operate correctly in a production environment.

The developer (or developers) who over time created the various design elements in the database (forms, views, agents, etc) will have placed their own "signature" against each design element every time that they save it.

The situation commonly arises that the developer(s) who coded the database have  signatures that do not provide sufficient or appropriate authority for agents that are to run on a Domino server, for formulae to be executed in a form, etc).

This is especially the case for “alien” Notes applications that come to you from outside organizations such IBM Business Partners and Independent Software Vendors, but can be true even internally in your organization when there are multiple developers over time or for a specific release of the application..

Therefore a given version of a database application is put into production, its design elements need to be signed by a Notes ID with the appropriate authority. (Refer to the IBM Lotus Notes documentation for full details about the concept of signing Notes databases.)

Although signing is not all that difficult to do, it can be a somewhat circumspect process for the uninitiated!

Hence a few years ago I released the “Simple Signer” for IBM Lotus notes. This is a single-purpose database that was developed to make life a little easier for everybody (including myself) who at some time or other, frequently or only occasionally, has to sign Lotus Notes databases.

Its one an only design goal is to make it extremely quick and easy to sign each and every design element in a given database.

Just switch the Notes ID (if necessary), select the database to be signed, and click on the big pink button.

Note that it works only in Notes 6.0 and later versions (because it relies on the LotusScript  "Sign" method introduced in Release 6.0), but this is not much of nowadays.

Also note that the database’s design is not hidden, so by modifying a few lines of  LotusScript you can alter the way that signing is carried out, to sign only agents for example.

Version 1.1 has no functional changes, it’s still as easy to use as always, but the “Help Using This Database” built-in documentation has been enhanced to show you how add a toolbar button to make it faster to launch Simple Signer.

Download version 1.1 of the Simple Signer from either of our mirrors at notestracker.com or asiapac.com.au.

Golly, gosh, it’s nearly quarter past 1 AM here Down Under so I’m heading off to the cot right away after submitting this post.

Technorati Tags: IBM,Lotus Notes,Lotus Domino,Sign,Database,Application,Security,Authorization,Ease of Use,Freeware,Asia/Pacific Computer Services