SnTT - Traveler, DA, Dircat and 13,000+ Names

Been working with a client moving them from R5 to 853FP1. A big jump and not so simple as one would think. The usual Domino items do work properly and as we move people over all is well and good, but along the way we found some gotchas that, well, if you were not around in R5 time, you may not realize the nuances.

Traveler of course is a key part of why they are upgrading. NOT for iPads or iPhones but for Android devices. An added bonus to them is the Sametime entry which is a FREE entitlement with their Domino licenses.

They were using a pair of Dircat's. Dircat for those who did not grow up with the term stands for Directory Catalog. The idea behind these was to provide, don't forget this was R5 time around 1999-2000, a condensed address book so laptop users over modem lines could easily address emails. Naturally this was a huge benefit to people like IBM with 250,000+ people at the time and a massive set of NAB's which could be shrunk down to about 150MB which in those days....

You created a database from the dircat template and then told it which directories (Notes or LDAP) to pull people or whatever fields you specified into it. Simple right? And it worked well. I demo'ed this in beta in Athens at the IBM EBU in 1999.

Flash forward to Traveler time and you see Traveler likes to work with DA (Directory Assistance). No problem, took their file and set up the DA database and configuration. And nothing happened. Show XDIR included the file but no lookups on Traveler.

After a little bit of poking around the file, it turns out the file the client told us to use was really a DirCat, not a regular Address Book. Traveler was not happy, now I knew why. Looking at the config doc I found the original file it was based on. Edited the DA and restarted the server and like magic it worked properly.

Lotus Notes Traveler just wants to see proper address books when doing lookups from your device.

What is really nice is the search finds people FAST and given this is over 13,000 names, not including their own NAB that's a huge win for everyone. Remember you need to type 3 letters before you see any hits but you can adjust that if you wish. See this wiki page for more details on lookups and configurations.

Training and the Lotus Evangelist

No, not for me, although going to Lotusphere is my main training of the year.
I am doing an advanced administration(R7) class next week and it amazes me how much I know, and more importantly how much I never use or forgot about.
It's about 50-50 because let's face it, mail rules really are not that practical all the time, but a Directory Catalog(Dircat, condensed directory, laptop/travel nab) is priceless in large organizations.

And so it goes for training. Sometimes you get to stuff it all into a day or 2 or 3 or in Lotusphere cases 5!

It's great training for me and the admins attending (anyone reading that needs it, just email me).
Why for me? Because at Lotusphere there is supposed to be some certificate examss on sale or free to Business Partners and the more I can remember the better off I will be, especially as I am not one for studying much.

Those attending get to work on their NAB directly, monitor their network and implement some changes and functionality which they may or may not be using to its fullest.

I hate teachers that read the manual or tell you to read it. It's much more enjoyable to interact with real data and real user issues and look at how you can work on various problems. Some exercises are included, others are how to set it up and run.

Do I have an outline to cover? Yes and no. The outline exists but I never cover it 100% because preferences change and issues arise and the point of the documentation provided (although rarely used for it) is to provide enhanced documentation and information for very specific circumstances.

I may not be the gratest teacher/trainer, but every time you do this you get better.
So evangelism gets a stretch for the training, it's a Lotus happy shop and I am there to get them excited about Lotus yet disappointed, they are not going to Orlando.

Lotusphere comes to you is going tobe big this year I thihnk.