It gives me great pleasure to announce that the Quickr Connectors now support Microsoft Windows 64bit and Office 2010. As promised at this year's Lotusphere, our development teams were hard at work on this one and I thank them for their great work and earlier than expected release.

The updated installers are available on Fix Central as Quickr Connectors 8.5.0.1_HF7.

With the IBM Connections Connector for Lotus Quickr, you can create associated Lotus Quickr team places for IBM Connections communities. A Lotus Quickr team place provides a central location from which a team can organize, share files, and collaborate on documents. Every IBM Connections community owner can optionally choose to create an associated Lotus Quickr team place. Updates made in the Lotus Quickr team place are aggregated in the community overview page, making it easier to stay current with projects and work collaboratively. Access control and membership of the Lotus Quickr place is determined by the often fluctuating IBM Connections community membership; it does not need to be managed separately. This version of the connector supports integration of Communities in IBM Connections 3.0.1 with Lotus Quickr 8.5 for WebSphere Portal, or Lotus Quickr 8.5 for Lotus Domino 8.5.

• Undoubtedly the 64-bit connector is overdue, however I completely understand that the model for building this kind of Explorer-level plugin had changed in 64-bit WIndows and so it would take some time to build a new version.  
• I thank Mac Guidera and his team for getting this out of the door - there are a lot of customers waiting (not so) patiently for this code.
• The fact that so many have clamoured for the 64-bit connector just shows how important they are to the Quickr product.  At the time Quickr shipped back in 2007, they were unique in the marketplace and really added to the power of what had been a web-based tool until that point.  There are more tools that do this now (Dropbox etc.), but users still rely on the connectors to get their work done.
• Now that the 64-bit connectors have shipped, the attention will undoubtedly shift to the long-awaited Mac connectors.
• It's great that we have the new Quickr connector for Connections, I look forward to giving it a try.  However, it still feels to me as though this code should be part of the standard Connections product.  Given it just calls Quickr APIs, there is nothing to add there, so just put the code into Connections and make it work with just a few configuration switches.
• The Connections connector works well for a particular use case, having a Quickr place embedded within a specific Connections community with a 1:1 mapping between the two.  However a lot of customers would like to be able to do more to integrate the two products into one solution - adding two or more existing places into a community for instance, or pulling a feed of updates from all a user's places into the Homepage activity stream.  As IBM decides what to do with the Quickr J2EE product, I hope for more of the Quickr functionality to be brought into Connections to allow this to happen.
• Credit where credit's due, it's great to see these connectors ship. Thank you.

IBM FileNet Content Manager Collaboration Edition and IBM Content Manager Collaboration Edition offer you the integration between IBM's Lotus Quickr team collaboration and Enterprise Content Management (ECM) family of offerings.

IBM FileNet Content Manager Collaboration Edition V8.5 and IBM Content Manager Collaboration Edition V8.5 deliver updated versions of IBM Lotus Quickr 8.5, IBM FileNet Content Manager V5.0, and IBM Content Manager 8.4.2 to provide integrated end-to-end collaboration and ECM solution that allow users to:

• Easily move content to and from Lotus Quickr and IBM ECM repositories
• Benefit from enhanced integration between Lotus Quickr, IBM FileNet Content Manager, and IBM Content Manager, including new "direct connect" web-based component so users can natively display and interact with ECM content from within a Lotus Quickr place
• Search FileNet Content Manager and IBM Content Manager content from Lotus Quickr Web 2.0 user interface
• Use the Lotus Quickr connectors to interact with content in both Lotus Quickr, FileNet Content Manager, and IBM Content Manager software, providing access to these repositories as a natural extension of popular applications such as Microsoft Office, Windows Explorer, Outlook, Lotus Notes, Lotus Sametime, and Lotus Symphony

IBM FileNet Content Manager Collaboration Edition and IBM Content Manager Collaboration Edition both extend ECM services and function to a broader audience, while introducing collaborative tools to the content management environment helping organizations connect the right people with the right information at the right time.

IBM FileNet Content Manager Collaboration Edition and IBM Content Manager Collaboration Edition leverage new Web service components to provide integration between best-of-breed collaboration tools of IBM Lotus Quickr and IBM's ECM repositories.

1. These bundles have been well-received by customers looking for integrated collaboration and document-management solutions.  
2. Typically, larger enterprises already have document-management infrastructure, whereas these bundles are intended for those that do not have the back-end in place.  They typically score well in the mid-range organisations.
3. Both FileNet and Content Manager are considered best-of-breed by analysts, and tend to do well in competitive situations.  They have their own strengths and weaknesses, which sometimes leads to confusion in terms of which is the right solution for a given situation.
4. FileNet Content Manager P8 5.0 is a big step forward, with CMIS support, Content Federation Services (enables federated content to be moved from source repositories into P8 native storage) and more.
5. Lotus Quickr 8.5 is probably the most significant upgrade in the history of the Quickr/Quickplace product line.  It has received great feedback in every upgrade we've completed for customers.

IBM Lotus Quickr supports several features in Lotus Connections and is correspondingly supported by them.

The following features are available:

• Lotus Connections Profile business card display for Lotus Quickr users
• From a Lotus Connections activity a user can publish content to a Lotus Quickr library
• From a Lotus Connections community a user can create a Lotus Quickr place, wiki, or blog

The following steps provide an overview of the process of integrating Lotus Connections and IBM Lotus Quickr...

Opus Neo ready to reveal the new Neo.Dashboard for Quickr and Domino

It’s a great feeling to come to this point where you finally can share all the exciting new stuff we at Opus Neo have been working on whilst having one of the busiest year in regards to project work.



But that is not all :-)

Imagine opening your Dashboard on the mobile and read information from Quickr, RSS feeds, web apps, ECM or even information from Connections – “Wow” we say – what do you say?

So what does this mean for Current and new Quickr Users?
With Neo.Dashboard you are combining all your Places into one consolidated homepage for your Quickr Places so that you can remain updated regarding your Quickr places and stay connected to your professional and social networks.



For a full feaure list, a web demo or getting access to a trial Dashboard, please visit http://www.opusneo.com/neodashboard

Background for Neo.Dashboard
The open architecture (through widgets) makes it possible to leverage social media technologies e.g. Blogs RSS Feeds, Google Gadgets, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook as well as IBM Lotus Quickr, Sametime, Notes Mail, Calendar & ToDo, Applications and Lotus Connections all integrated into one page in Neo.Dashboard while maintaining security.

IBM Lotus Quickr 8.5.1 for Domino adds significant enhancements for users with important business content who need to collaborate with colleagues, clients, and partners

IBM Lotus Quickr is team collaboration software that helps you access and interact with the people and information in your organization to complete projects effectively. IBM Lotus Quickr 8.5.1 for Domino provides additional features to the newly released Lotus Quickr 8.5 for Domino including:

• Support for Domino Off-Line Services, which enables users to create a copy of a Quickr Place on their local machine, make changes to the local copy without a network connection, and then synchronize changes on the server when reconnected to the network (Microsoft Windows users only).
• Availability of Hebrew and Arabic national language versions so now all national languages are supported.
• Import and export support for Microsoft Excel 2007 formatted files into the new "List" feature for structured content. Lists were first introduced in Lotus Quickr 8.5 for Domino.
• Easy, direct upgrade process from Lotus Quickr for Domino 8.1, 8.2, and 8.5.
• Support for Lotus Connections 3.
• Support for Lotus Sametime 8.5.1.

Planned Availability Date

December 16, 2010: Electronic availability
January 14, 2011: Media availability

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Connections	Quickr

IBM Lotus Quickr V8.5 for Domino streamlines user experience and is designed to reduce total cost of ownership

At a glance

IBM Lotus Quickr 8.5 for Domino makes it easier to share, save, and search important business content while collaborating with colleagues, clients, and partners. Performance improvements and administrative improvements are designed to reduce the total cost of ownership of Lotus Quickr for Domino.

New capabilities include:

• Streamlined user experience
• Native integration with Enterprise Content Management systems
• Feature enhancements you requested including recycle bin and lists
• More extensibility for easy customization
• More administrative control, reporting, and deployment options

Lotus Quickr 8.5 for Domino integrates with Enterprise Content Management (ECM) repositories. New ECM integration capabilities are:

• Custom defined mandatory metadata entry, through the Web interface and via Lotus Quickr Connectors
• Direct connection with ECM repositories that allows native display and editing of ECM content directly from the Lotus Quickr Web interface
• Parametric search of ECM content

Adding features you requested makes Lotus Quickr 8.5 for Domino a competitive and compelling solution for managing business content. Some of the new features included in Quickr 8.5 for Domino are:

• Easy document check-in, check-out, and versioning from the Web interface and Lotus Quickr Connectors
• A recycle bin for soft delete capability, which maintains document security
• Round trip editing in all browsers, not just Internet Explorer
• Team calendar overlays to your personal calendar in Lotus Notes or Microsoft Outlook
• Folder level access control making it easy to secure or share content appropriately
• Intuitive lists function to organize data sets and to provide an easy way to visualize, edit, and analyze tabular data
• Representational State Transfer (REST) services for page and document uploads and expansion of Web service APIs that provide additional extensibility and customization

Additional enhancements make managing Quickr 8.5 for Domino easier:

• Easier to manage with new and easier to use administrative control, reporting, and deployment options.
• Easy to upgrade with support for direct upgrade from Quickr 8.2 to Quickr 8.5 for Domino.
• Expanded and stored system usage statistics that allow trend analysis and easier optimization.
• Multilingual Lotus Quickr servers that are supported for organizations who use different languages. You no longer need to deploy multiple Lotus Quickr servers to support more than one language.
• Supports Windows single sign-on so end users can leverage their Windows logon for the Lotus Quickr browser UI and Lotus Quickr Connectors.
• Linux server support provides more choice of operating systems.

As I announced here on Aug 16th, SNAPPS was working on some user-focused plug-in modules for the "My Places" area of Lotus Quickr for Domino. Well today I can happily say it is a fait accompli, and ready for production! We've developed three to start with, and more are in the works. The Modules work with versions 8.1, 8.2, and 8.5 (beta or GA, when that comes). I've detailed them below, and you should see screenshots very soon - but the code is ready and evals are downloadable now. Our final stress test simulated what would likely be the largest single-server Quickr installation in the world, so I think we're ready!

Favorites Module
The Favorites Module gives end users the ability to - with a simple click of the mouse - create a link to their most often-used places at the top of the My Places list. Once there, the user can reorder the list, change the name of the link to what they want, or remove them from the list. In the My Places list, places that are already Favorites have a visual cue of a gold star next to the name. The Module is simple, intuitive, and one of the most requested features in the Quickr product. The Favorites module is licensed per user.

Custom Tab Module
The Custom Tab Module lets you add your own tab to the My Places area, with your own HTML and Javascript. It can be as simple as "Company News," "Privacy Policies," or "Usage Guidelines." Or, you can make it as complex as a charting application, dashboard, aggregation of data from other sources - there really is no limit to what you can do with this extra page! SNAPPS is of course available to develop your custom content for these more complex use cases. The Custom Tab Module is licensed per server.

InfoBox Module
The InfoBox Module lets you add your own text or HTML on the left side of the screen in one of five ways. You can create a separate box above or below IBM's "Tips" box, you can prepend your text in the same Tips box, append to the end of it, or replace it entirely! The InfoBox Module is licensed per server. However, if you purchase either the Favorites or Custom Tab Modules, we'll give you a license of the InfoBox Module as a bonus!

After angsting for a few weeks about building a new website, registration process, and all the beta testing involved with just the evaluation process, we decided to use what we already had - QuickrTemplates.com. Thousands of Quickr users, administrators and developers are already registered there, so we have built a second tab (once you're logged in) for Product Evals. It was very important to us to keep it clear that everything on the primary list of templates is still free! If it's been a while since you've logged into QuickrTemplates.com (and it shouldn't be - we updated the freebies just a couple weeks ago), simply enter your email address and click "Reset Password" and you'll get a new password immediately. Then log in, click on Product Evals, and all you need is right there on one page - downloads, instructions, and the key request file.

Lotus Quickr Domino 8.5 Beta upgrade complete

We have completed the upgrade of our Lotus Quickr Domino server to the 8.5 Beta version for everyone to try out!!  This upgrade took slightly longer than expected due to the number of places that we have (we'll need to do some archiving soon), but was very straight forward.  Please try it out and let us know what you think by posting comments and any issues that you may encounter to the Lotus Quickr Forum or send us an e-mail.

HTTP JVM: java.net.ConnectException: Connection timed out: connect
HTTP JVM: at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
HTTP JVM: at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:59)
HTTP JVM: at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:41)
HTTP JVM: at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:528)
HTTP JVM: at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection$6.run(HttpURLConnection.java:1305)
HTTP JVM: at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(AccessController.java:251)
HTTP JVM: at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getChainedException(HttpURLConnection.java:1299)
HTTP JVM: at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(HttpURLConnection.java:953)
HTTP JVM: at java.net.HttpURLConnection.getResponseCode(HttpURLConnection.java:386)
HTTP JVM: at com.lotus.quickplace.util.QuickrSupportUtil.doPost(QuickrSupportUtil.java:270)
HTTP JVM: at com.lotus.quickplace.util.QuickrSupportUtil.doGet(QuickrSupportUtil.java:133)
HTTP JVM: at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:499)
HTTP JVM: at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:588)
HTTP JVM: at lotus.domino.servlet.DominoServletInvoker.executeServlet(DominoServletInvoker.java:296)
HTTP JVM: at lotus.domino.servlet.DominoServletInvoker.service(DominoServletInvoker.java:237)
HTTP JVM: at lotus.domino.servlet.ServletManager.service(ServletManager.java:258)
HTTP JVM: Caused by:
HTTP JVM: java.net.ConnectException: Connection timed out: connect

New IBM Social Software to Help Enterprises Securely Manage Files, Blogs and Wikis

Today at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston, IBM announced new social software called IBM Lotus Quickr 8.5 for WebSphere Portal to help workers connect and adapt to information and insight, including files, blogs, and wikis in a rapidly changing business environment.

ebizQ received the following:

The software, which offers a higher level of integration with a variety of IBM and Microsoft offerings than the previous version, is available now.



Rheinmetall AG tested the new software. “Lotus Quickr 8.5 software will help our employees cope with daily business challenges and collaborate more efficiently with coworkers, customers and suppliers,” said Markus Bentele, Corporate CIO, Rheinmetall AG.

A recent study by IBM found that 98 percent of CEOs need to restructure the way their organizations work; 5.3 hours is wasted per employee per week due to inefficient processes. Two hours is spent per employee per day looking for the right information and expertise within an organization. IBM’s social software can help alleviate this problem because it helps keep global work teams better connected and more able to deliver results.

IBM Lotus Quickr helps teams create content, collaborate and work fast online together. It’s a companion product to Lotus Connections, software that empowers business professionals to develop, nurture and remain in contact with the network of their colleagues; respond quickly to business opportunities by calling upon expertise in their network; and discuss and refine new creative ideas with communities of coworkers, partners and customers.

• Enables the discovery of enterprise content and provides seamless access to business documents across the organization, while leveraging collaboration tools and every day business applications (e-mail, Office, and other tasks)
• Provides organizations with the ability to handle content as a secure corporate asset in an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system, allowing content to participate in Business Process Management, and to be managed in accordance with content discovery, auto classification, as well as compliance and retention policies

• Transfer collaborative content from Lotus Quickr to an ECM repository
• Incorporate existing ECM content inside collaborative team places
• Search Lotus Quickr and ECM content from a Lotus Quickr user interface
• Search IBM Content Manager and IBM FileNet Content Manager content from common desktop and e-mail applications
• Use the e-mail and desktop Place connectors to directly interact with content in IBM Content Manager and IBM FileNet Content Manager
• Use direct connect iWidgets to natively interact with content against IBM Content Manager and IBM FileNet Content Manager
• Extend advanced ECM services and function to broader collaborative team services and document management environments

IBM Lotus Quickr 8.5 for WebSphere Portal delivers:

• New user experience
• Native bridging with Enterprise Content Management (ECM) repositories
• More administrative control
• New library portlet to integrate Lotus Quickr content into WebSphere Portal applications
• Infrastructure update and expansion, including support for IBM WebSphere Portal V6.1.5

IBM Lotus Quickr Connectors 8.5 provides:

• Users with the ability to easily access and contribute shared content in Lotus Quickr team places and ECM systems directly from popular desktop applications
• Integration with Lotus Quickr and ECM systems from Lotus Notes, Lotus Sametime, Lotus Symphony, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Windows Explorer

IBM Lotus Quickr 8.5 for WebSphere Portal provides user interface enhancements, increased integration, streamlined administration, and infrastructure updates. It includes:

• Updated browser theme to give users a consistent experience across IBM products, including Lotus Connections and WebSphere Portal.
• Simplification of frequent user actions such as navigation within a place and common library, and document management actions.
• New rich text editor for browser-based creation of content. The same text editor is used across IBM products, such as Lotus Connections, giving end users a common experience.
• Increased integration between Lotus Quickr and Lotus Connections, including top-line navigation, use of the person card, and integrated search menu.
• Simplification of member management inside Quickr places to facilitate end-user self-service.
• New place catalog with tag-based navigation that simplifies locating places, particularly in large Lotus Quickr deployments.
• Enhanced integration with Enterprise Content Management (ECM) repositories, including new "direct connect" Web-based component that allows users to natively display and interact with ECM content from within a Lotus Quickr place.
• Parametric search of ECM content.
• Enhancements to Lotus Quickr Connectors to better support ECM content (refer to Software Announcement ZP08-0602, dated December 09, 2008.
• Easier, more flexible management tools with new administrator console that provides more complete user and place statistics, enhanced backup and recovery tools, and simplified place customization.
• New library portlet to integrate Lotus Quickr content into WebSphere Portal applications.
• Support for WebSphere Portal V6.1.5.
• Other infrastructure platform updates including AIX V6.1 64 bit, Windows 2008 64 bit, SLES 10, SLES 64 bit on System z, Oracle 10.2, Internet Explorer 8 on Windows, Firefox 3.5 on Windows, Linux, and Mac.

Using Lotus Quickr Connectors 8.5 so users can easily and naturally work together on content and access content contributed by colleagues directly from their favorite desktop applications. The connectors support check-in and check-out to help manage the process of multiple authors, and version control to ensure that everyone always has the latest copy of a document. Lotus Quickr Connectors 8.5 is included with other Lotus Quickr offerings and is also available separately for access to other content repositories such as ECM systems.

• Mandatory metadata enforcement - new, simple and intuitive interface to enter and enforce entry of metadata for documents.
• Notes integration - simple drag-and-drop of Lotus Notes e-mails into Lotus Quickr places.
• Sametime integration - drag-and-drop documents into a Lotus Sametime chat windows and Web conferences.
• Microsoft Office integration - native integration into the Office 2007 "ribbon."
• User-initiated publication to a content server that helps manage performance -- particularly useful in low bandwidth situations.
• Launch a search dialog from the context of a desktop connector.
• Support for third-party authentication tools, such as SiteMinder and Tivoli Access Manager.
• Support for single sign-on tools, such as SPNEGO.
• Support for multiuser installation of the connectors on a shared workstation.

Troubleshooting IBM Lotus Sametime and IBM Lotus Quickr integration issues
               
Level: Introductory
02 Apr 2010

By Casey Brown, Purvi Trivedi, and Stephen Shepherd

This white paper provides a step-by-step guide to isolating root causes of IBM Lotus Sametime and IBM Lotus Quickr integration issues, including the configuration areas to check, for example, Domino Names.nsf, QPconfig.xml, STconfig.nsf, and firewall settings. In addition, we provide relevant debug parameters specific to hosting IBM Lotus Domino Servers, Quickr Servers, and Sametime Servers, to help pinpoint where Sametime and Quickr integration configuration fails.

In this article:
Introduction
Setting up SSO
Authentication / LDAP configuration
Authetnication / native Domino Directory
Configuration and copying files
STLinks troubleshooting
Home Sametime server
Understanding and troubleshooting dual-directory environments
Other troubleshooting areas
Best practices for Quickr Server
Best practices for Sametime Server
Working with Lotus Technical Support
Conclusion
Resources
About the authors