Thursday, June 20, 2019

SnTT - Rooms and Resources Accidentally Delete a Resource and the Reservations

Last week I gave a session where I outlined a bunch of things I would like to see in the new Rooms and Resources database template should it get updated.

Yes some things were just more defined views, but other things that would make it more useful to admins, and users, were also included.

Well yesterday I learned the hard way about some things I knew, but I guess had not quite gotten to fix yet. Let me explain.

One of my clients has some very full RnR databases, 1 per region. Sometimes, against my preference, names or very similar names, are used in different places.

Tasked with clearing some old rooms, I set out to do just that and get on with my day.

And, of course, as you may have guessed, I deleted an active room.

Very active room.

400 reservations active.

As I saw when the pop up asked me if I wanted to notify people. I said no to that, knowing I can fix this. Well a few hours later, here is what really happened.

Oh.Yes.I.Did.

Domino problems are caused by admins, truth (except for developer agents that run amok).

I say, no problem, go to trash and undelete it. No Trash View in this R9 template. Note to HCL, please add one. Go into developer mode figuring it would be in the hidden view.

No

Call client developer and ask what they think, SOL. Soft deletion was not turned on.

Damn. Thought we had enabled it after last issue, but maybe the template got written over in an update or a restore and maybe we had only set soft deletions in the database itself and not the template.

In any event, I was blocked this route.

Call restore team, can you provide me with a backup from the prior 24-48 hours ASAP?
Yes, no problem they said.

Great, restore completes and I go to try to get back the data and...it shows me what I see now, not what I should have seen for a day ago.

AGH!

Call restore team, ask how it is possible. Well replication was on, ok, try again, turn it off this time.

And get notification, go open it up, same problem!

Well now I am confused. Got the team together to figure it out, and it seems they do incremental backup sand logs.

I said I don't want logs just data.

And 3rd time lucky, I open it up and it is the old data. Perfect, I start to copy a doc to test that pasting it back in will work.

BAH! No dice, this database doe snot allow pasting of documents.

WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!

Call back the developer, ask how I, as the admin, can not do this. Well, she knew why and where to look to fix it. And now I will let you know because someone out there will read this after pulling their hair out.

Open the database in the Designer client and go to the views section.

Find the view you need to paste into, you will need 2 of them.
The first is the resources view itself because you need to copy back the deleted resource.
The second is the view of Reservations, by Resource so you can paste back all of the reservations you killed accidentally.

Once you have the view open, locate the Querypaste section as shown in the graphic below and REM out all of the code there and save it.



















Once you do this and reopen the database you should be able to paste everything back in.

Then run a Fixup and Updall to get everything cleaned up and reindexed and then test making a reservation that honors used and open times.

You learn something new every day, even after all these years.

EDIT: Adrian asked me on twitter about Adminp and Busytime. I forgot to discuss it, so here is what we did and what you should check.

Adminp at the customer is set to run on a set schedule, so it did not worry me, but you should go into the database and clear the delete request otherwise you will lose the setting in the names.nsf for the resource.

Busytime, I did not rebuild it because my tests showed it was working. Presumably because the dates/times had been in the database already and did not update but if you run into problems, you should follow the technote and clear the old busytime and let a new one start.

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

NCUG Wrap Up and NOMAD for Android Beta information

NCUG is over,  and it was a very good event run by Hogne and the NCUG team here in Stockholm.

They changed the name from ISBG, which was LSBG, in an effort to jump start the regional user group again. They also let us know next year it will be in Copenhagen in September 2020.

The customers that came out for the event were almost all on R10, or will be, and most of them run Connections as well.

A truly great feeling to be surrounded by them all and talk with them about what they have done and are looking to accomplish in the future.

My sessions were both filled and everyone, including myself, left them with new knowledge and that is what these events are all about, meeting people and sharing information.

Sharing with each other, not being in fear of people hearing what you have done but trying to encourage and help each other, is what separates us from the Microsoft minds of the world.

Just like what made me fall in love with Notes way back when in R2.

For me it was never about the applications or even the mail, it was about the freedom if information.

The freedom to share information with people.

At a time when green screens still ran your world and anything you wanted was 6 levels of authority just to get a file, Notes was what I thought corporate worlds would be like when I finally got to work in a real business.

Thank God for Ray, Mitch,and Jim for bringing it out.

Richard Jefts spoke at length about the future, the vision of more applications, why Sametime is so important and how R11 will be the first HCL Notes/Domino/Sametime version. Once the divorce is final with IBM we will learn more details about the future which will be Simple, Secure and Intuitive.





We received word of the imminent arrival of Sametime 10,Limited Use Edition and what is part of it all.

Uffe Sorensen made it clear R11 will not be out on 11/11 in case you wondered.

Opening up Domino further to other vendors like Cisco, Salesforce and ServiceNow will help us extend workflow applications to a new world and a new time.

The recent NOMAD(not  to be confused with the R7/8 Nomad of Notes on a USB) for running your applications on an iPad or iPhone was shown off and discussed by Theo Heselmans (IBM Lifetime Champion) of the great Engage.ug conference using his wine application. We also had the opportunity to get in on the beta for Android of ti which would make me happy as I am an Android user.

If you want to be a part of it as well, go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XXBFP6N.
EDIT: Fixed URL, sorry about the typo

Adam Gartenberg from IBM, but soon to be HCL discussed Connections, the future is bright, the future is different and it all goes back to redesigning the UX and UI along with numerous other ideas from the jams and aha requests.

HCL is listening, and they are doing or will be doing. Not everything can be done all at once.

There were some partner sessions, there was a session on setting up Docker, Connections sessions, a user adoption strategy session, case studies and live code examples. In short, a little bit of everything for everyone. And all sessions were well attended.

Congrats again to the NCUG team and hope to see you again soon.

NCUG Session on Admin Hacks for Users and Your Sanity



Admin Hacks for Users and Admins Sanity from Keith Brooks

Aimed at New and Old admins. Focus on the Rooms and Resources database changes we have made over the years and ideas for the future of the template.

The Download of the RnR Template is here.

UPDATE: Paul Withers (Lifetime IBM Champion) let me know there is an Xpages RnR template on Openntf.org,
https://www.openntf.org/main.nsf/project.xsp?r=project/ResX%20-%20Resource%20Reservations%20Extended
It mostly added functionality for multiple events and other items including a longer than 24 hour meeting, for those asking about it.



My Flame Broiled Admins .png or the file itself is here.

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

ISBG now NCUG My Session "Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me Notes Could Do That"


ISBG / NCUG Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me Notes Could Do That from Keith Brooks

This session was about how to make your case to get changes pushed through to end users.

How to talk to management and other teams to give users a better experience and in turn provide happier customers and fewer support tickets.