Engage 2026, the Year of AI and my session

 There were 11 AI sessions out of about 70, not including roadmap or sponsor/commercial sessions.

I figure in a year or 2 we won't be saying AI and just, look what I built.

Thank you to everyone who messaged me asking where I was hiding. It wasn't my intention to miss the event, but I did not make it.

Instead, I was live from my apartment, doing my session. What may have been a first for Engage, a solo session done remotely!

Due to my flight travel plans being interrupted and changed a few times, it became clear I may not even get to Engage until after my session would have started, and have to stay a day later, but leave much earlier, and this caused quite a few issues, which I discussed with Kris and reluctantly had to give up trying to attend.

Kris said he would hold my space in case things changed for the better, but alas, that was not the case.

However, he said we could try to do it remotely. Webinar mode basically. 

Thanks, Kris and Tom, for the chance and possibility!

I agreed we could try it, not expecting much or even how we would do it, so I labored on with my slides.

I asked the OpennNTF Board, which I am part of, if we could use our webinar meeting app and if someone could connect everything in Ghent.

The Board agreed, and it was game on.

Roberto was very helpful in getting it all set up, Thank you Roberto! I had presumed I would lose 5-10 minutes with setup and adjusted my session accordingly. It was only 7 minutes.

My next thought was, why would anyone come to my session, knowing I wasn't there to give it?

Turns out, about 15-20 people ventured into the room, and I think they were surprised by what they saw and heard.

Full deck is here: https://speakerdeck.com/kbmsg/ai-making-admin-and-users-lives-better

My session was supposed to be on AI tools/apps that anyone had created to help users and admins. To get people thinking more practically about what could be done.

Along the way, I discussed why citizen developers who leverage AI, or anything, don't exist as they did 25 or even 10 years ago.

With locked down browsers and IT blocking changes to applications, let alone updates, and the lack of a Domino Designer client installed (even though it is no longer an extra charge), it is just not easy for users, or even shadow it, to create anything, let alone use it. You can read more about this on page 8 of my slides.

But we admins and developers are not as constrained, aside from browser lockdowns.

I had hoped, had I been at Engage, to go to the Monday HCL workshop on vibe coding. There was also Bernd's session on Tuesday around the advances his company has made, which I looked forward to for his insights. Then there was Dominic's session on Wednesday, also aimed at Admins and AI, which, if I had read all the sessions in advance, I would have tried to compare notes earlier. To be fair, I often don't get around to reviewing the agenda until the week before the event.

I work with some entities that I am not allowed to post about, which explains my dearth of blog posts. But that doesn't stop me from creating things I need to work with in their environments.

My main point of the session was to show a script(LotusScript, server commands, Java, and formulas) building tool for Domino admins. I am not a developer, although I can edit existing code and make things do what I want. When it comes to doing it from scratch, I am useless.

Enter AI, and I said, " I bet I could create something to make my life and other admins ' lives better".

I give you my Domino Script AI Tool.

You can go use it here: https://kbmsg.github.io/domino-scripts/

Or pull it from my GitHub: https://github.com/kbmsg/domino-scripts

The slide deck discusses some of the templates and what it does; the GitHub site provides more details and how to start using it.

I built it to work with Claude.ai, and feedback already asked that I let Ollama be used too.

I started the ollama config, but it is not quite working. If you see it say v66 or newer and followed by Ollama works, like it says just now, you are good to go!

Domino Script AI v64

This will be posted to https://OpenNTF.org as well.

AI vibe coding is literally like building your parachute after you jump out of a plane. Sure, you get most of it right, but that last 10% is the problem, and it takes time.

But, and this is a huge but, if I tried to do this from scratch, it would take me days and days. While I am on iteration 65 or so, all together it took only a few hours to get here, but stretched out over a few days, giving time, resources, and work.

If you have ideas for me to include, feel free to comment here or via GitHub or the OpenNTF Discord channels. 

PS - If you are in a licensing situation and need to sort the CCB vs CCX people, you may want to try the Dump ACL to CSV template. As discussed on page 16 in my slides.

HCL Domino 14.5, Fix your iNotes Redirector for Verse

By now, if you have updated your Domino server and relied on iNotes, you have found that it no longer works.

HCL was clear about this, and there is no workaround, so if you want iNotes and not Verse, better keep a server on 14.0 and point everyone there.

For the rest of us that move forward with the times, we will have seen that logging into the iNotes URL gets you to a pop-up which looks like this:

It states that iNotes is no longer available, and you need to open HCL Verse. If you click on the link, it directs you straight to Verse.

The URL for verse is something like https://companyname.com/verse, and you change your bookmark, but that doesn't work exactly. When you hit that URL, you will get the framework of Verse but this message:

So, you try the manual way, https;//companyname.com/mail/brooks.nsf, and that lets you in, via the 1st pop-up as above..

The next morning, you open your browser, and the /verse URL is not working with the same error about recent contacts.

What is going on here?

iNotes required the iNotes redirector. Well, there is no new redirector, but it did get renamed to Verse redirector(same template name), but it does include some options you probably hadn't considered, and this is how you resolve the problem.

If you haven't changed any settings in a while, now is a great time to update them. The redirector has been updated periodically along the way.

These are the ones to change or review:

Server Settings Button:

Do you wish to force SSL for the entire session? Yes

UI Setup Button:

Your company logo should be there, so your users know it is a legitimate site.

Enable Personal Options: Set to No, they were really about iNotes anyway.

Enable HCL Verse: Yes, you need this now.

Enable SAML options: If you use SAML, enable this option, which displays a secondary option for the Default Mail Application. Select Verse.

When you have finished all your changes, click Save & Exit and then test to ensure everything works properly.

And no more weird error messages about recent contacts.

This tech doc can help those who want more details: https://help.hcl-software.com/verse_onprem/2.0.0/admin/vop_configuring_server.html

Update June 30: I found that I now see this error the next morning.

Googler search shows up this Technote: https://support.hcl-software.com/csm?id=kb_article&sysparm_article=KB0089441

Which leads to this: https://help.hcl-software.com/verse_onprem/3.1/admin/vop_configuring_server.html

Step 19 is what you want.

Which leads to this: https://help.hcl-software.com/domino/12.0.0/admin/secu_creating_the_credential_store_application_on_a_single_domino_server_t.html

In my case, I already had a credstore created, and this new key would not get added to that credstore.

I went back to the original technote, vop_configuring_server, and added a new entry in my domcfg for DWA, but that now redirects me to a different domain on my server, which has TOTP.

Also verified that the 'inotes/verse' tab in the configuration document met the proper configuration as per the document.

As it turns out, my secondary domain was set for SAML instead of single server in my Internet Site document, Domino Web Engine tab. Probably because I was testing something. Changing that back to single server now allows me to log in correctly with https://companyname.com/verse. With my erse redirectpr in place and everything now correct.