Thursday, December 18, 2008

Q-SnTT - Quickr J2EE vs. Quickr Domino, who Wins?

An old bmp I found and in this case, appropriate

This post was put together from various sources because there is nothing we found which put it together so a customer can make a decision. We being Stuart Mcintyre and myself as we tend to discuss many Quickr issues together and this one was just "missing" from our knowledge. So if we did not Google your document, please point us to it in the comments.

For simplicity, J2EE = the Websphere Services version

Quickr, we love you, but you cause some clients confusion with your 2 diverse paths.
Who wants to stay on Domino, raise your mouses high so we can count.
Ok, put them down.
Who wants to go with J2EE/Websphere Services raise your laptop in the air.
OK, drop it.

This is a serious issue, which is not so difficult once you have some guidelines.

I am not going to waste time with what is the same in both versions but focus on why you might choose to install one over the other and briefly hit some points afterward.

Skillsets:
Are you a Domino or J2EE shop? What if you have both? Other platforms than Windows?
This may have a lot of bearing on your choice.
For example, AIX or iSeries are only supported on Lotus Domino services, while Redhat Linux is only supported on the J2EE services.

Benefits:
J2EE has better Document Management functionality and connections.
Domino has more collaborative capabilities, offline access which is NOT available at all for J2EE, mail-in and automatic mail notifications.

Architecture:
1)The J2EE services are better positioned for a centralized architecture vs. Domino which thrives in distributed environments.
2)A stand-alone environment on Domino services is usually easier to deploy and maintain than one built on J2EE services, especially in a location without strong admins.
3)The J2EE services component-based architecture, Portlets, provides for a more powerful customization and integration.
4)Webserver(HTTP Stacks) for Domino Services is ONLY a Domino Server. J2EE can use many choices from IBM, Microsoft, Sun, etc.

How about Browsers:
Domino version includes Safari support for Mac users. Got Macs, here is your answer!

Templates:
Like the SNAPPS templates? They are only available for Domino services.
Also, for my foreign language readers, if you need one of these: Arabic, Hebrew, Catalan, Slovak, Slovenian, Thai, Ukrainian you can ONLY use the J2EE version.

Need Lotus Connections to integrate with Quickr? You are better off with the J2EE version for now.

My #1 reason why someone should use Quickr for Domino?
Extranet(Outside people)usage. Need to work with clients outside your network? No problem, in the Domino version. A gaping hole in the J2EE version.

14 comments:

  1. Can you elaborate on the "gaping hole"?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chris,
    Currently there is no way to add external users in teh J2EE side which for most of my clients means they can't use it because their Quickr projects are for external/outside clients and vendors.

    See you in Orlando.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Perhaps things will be clarified at Lotusphere. With the latest release being J2EE only, what does that mean for domino?

    IBM need to publish a clear roadmap of featues and support for both versions, or declare J2EE as Quickr Advanced for integration with Connections etc, and position Domino as Quickr for workgroups / ad hoc collaboration.

    Customers need to know that if they go down the Domino road today, in 12 months time they won't need to move platform because the integration options /functionality gap has widened.

    We get asked the question all the time as to which version to use, some help from IBM would be appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Peter - have I missed some announcement about the next version being J2EE only?

    Unless IBM provides a clear migration tool, that would seem kind of silly.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Peter, the release was just a point release for the J2EE side to integrate better with Connections, among other patches I imagine.
    The next point release is still slated to be a Domino one I guess and for now there are 2 code streams.
    I doubt we will see Lotus get up there at LS09 and say, we are merging the 2 streams in 2009.
    More likely is better integration between Quickr/Connections/Sametime and DOmino. And hopefully Domino.Doc.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Quickr for Domino was painful to implement in 2008. There were too many bugs in the product. Look at the latest HF release notes to see all the fixes year to date. If you implement now you are much better off then when the product hit the market.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anon,
    I have been working with the newer Quickr releases for over a year now and while there have been some issues, nothing major that stopped production roll outs.
    If one waits for a perfect platform, and I don't think we have ever seen one in 50 years of IT, you will never move forward.
    Sure if it crashes your client or server, that's an issue but not all of them are like that, many are nuances of change or work in 99% of the cases.
    I'm an update my servers regularly type of person but I respect some people have issues and can't be that way all the time.

    ReplyDelete
  8. In Quickr J2EE you can handle external users by multiple realm feature of WMM (WebSphere Member Manager). Using this component you can configure Quickr with a main directory for employee (like AD) plus a directory used for external users (like ADAM or DB).

    ReplyDelete
  9. @diegovis That requires a lot more work than should be necessary, but that is WebSphere.

    ReplyDelete
  10. @diegovis, thank you for the input on this. In my upcoming article I am writing will include your input on it.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I was looking for information on Q-SnTT - Quickr J2EE vs. Quickr Domino, who Wins? and before ending in your blog I watched like 10 sites about generic viagra, web is full with that topic. But anyways the info on your site help me very much, thanks for the post and have a nice day.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Paul, You are welcome and if you ever need more details just ask me.

    ReplyDelete
  13. incase i have no option but to use it with the j2ee.
    would you be able to share some good tutorials as I am totally new to this and i need to build the project from scratch

    ReplyDelete
  14. @vijay, if you are asking how to install it, the Quickr wiki, http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/lqwiki.nsf/dx/side-by-side-upgrading-a-lotus-quickplace-server-on-windows-and-aix<
    ,and info center http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/lqkrhelp/v8r0/index.jsp,
    are the best place to start. If you need one of us to help, contact me via the email on the website or IM me from the blog.

    ReplyDelete