05
Tue, Nov
5 New Articles

IBM Ramps Up Lotus Notes Widgets

Analysis of News Events
Typography
  • Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
  • Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times

Preconfigured widgets for TripIt online travel service and LinkedIn professional networking are the first offerings in an IBM initiative to give Notes users a plethora of useful desktop widgets.

 

IBM announced this week a new initiative to develop preconfigured business software widgets for Lotus Notes that interface with a variety of business services. The new widgets allow for single sign-on to Web services such as TripIt, LinkedIn, and eventually many other services and social networking sites.

 

IBM has been enhancing Notes' ability to integrate widgets since V8.0.1 when it introduced My Widgets as a special user interface that provides access to customized business mashups. The earlier My Widgets leveraged existing resources such as Web sites, Lotus notes databases, Google Gadgets, and various feeds. Power users could also create mashups with the composite application editor (CAE). Another feature users had access to is Live Text, which allows information such as current airline flight data or weather statistics to be displayed when clicking on a single word or phrase.

 

Notes widgets are small, specialized applications that let users leverage existing services or resources based on recognized Live Text in their Lotus Notes documents. Unlike regular Lotus Notes applications, creating a widget requires no code or script writing of any kind. Notes configuration wizards make it even easier to create widgets to display Notes searches or documents, Google Gadgets, or Web pages.

 

IBM has now decided that users are more likely to start utilizing widgets sooner, and get more out of their Notes implementation as a whole, if they don't have to learn how to create widgets and composite applications but can just drag and drop the links into their My Widgets desktop interface. The emphasis is toward business users, who IBM believes can save time by clicking on a widget to manage their travel and business networking activities rather than using their browser's favorites button and then having to sign in to the various services with passwords.

 

"Notes is the first open collaboration software to be able to provide users with desktop direct access by both LinkedIn and TripIt," said Kevin Cavanaugh, vice president, Messaging and Collaboration, IBM Software.  "Whatever Lotus customers need, there's a widget for that," he said.

 

TripIt apparently is becoming a popular online service for travelers of many persuasions. It organizes trip details into a master itinerary, even if your arrangements are booked on different travel sites. It brings up maps, directions, and weather into a master itinerary where you have the option to include trip activities such as dining out in restaurants or attending shows. TripIt makes it easy for travelers to share and collaborate on travel plans so groups can determine how their plans may overlap in order to meet up with their friends and professional contacts.

 

"I travel all the time and have found TripIt to be a fantastic tool for staying organized with hotel and airline booking," says Adam Brown, director at ISW, an IBM Business Partner based in Australia. Brown notes that with Lotus Notes 8.5's new iCalendar feature, it's easy to add TripIt calendar entries. Lotus Notes 8.5 offers an integrated work space with Web 2.0 customization and an assembly of email, a calendar, instant messaging, office productivity tools, and custom applications combined into one view on a single screen.

LinkedIn Network

LinkedIn is a highly popular online network of 43 million business professionals residing in over 200 countries. By including the new LinkedIn widget on their Notes desktops, users can access one of the world's most popular professional networks from their desktop user interface. Ellen Levy, LinkedIn's Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy, says, "Now that LinkedIn is an integral part of the professional's daily workflow in Lotus Notes, we anticipate that our users will get even more value from frequent, useful interactions with their professional networks."

 

To obtain the LinkedIn plug-in for Lotus Notes, visit www.linkedin.com/lotus, and for the TripIt widget for Notes visit www.tripit.com/lotus.

 

Other Notes widgets may be accessed at www.noteswidgets.com, where users will find preconfigured widgets to access such things as currency converters, stock portfolios, a thesaurus, Wikipedia searches, and world clocks. Users who wish to develop their own widgets can access information in IBM's developerWorks technical library and may wish to read "Building Composite Applications and Notes Widgets in IBM's Lotus Notes 8.0.1."

 

The new travel and social networking widgets from IBM "demonstrate the versatility of Lotus Notes in Web collaboration," says Cavanaugh. Other IBM officials have told us that the Lotus Notes and Domino Wiki is seeing a lot of visitors and contains numerous articles on Lotus Notes widgets.

 

The bottom line is that if you have Lotus Notes 8.0.1 or later, you should be exploring the benefits of mashups and widgets on your desktop.

Chris Smith

Chris Smith was the Senior News Editor at MC Press Online from 2007 to 2012 and was responsible for the news content on the company's Web site. Chris has been writing about the IBM midrange industry since 1992 when he signed on with Duke Communications as West Coast Editor of News 3X/400. With a bachelor's from the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in English and minored in Journalism, and a master's in Journalism from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Chris later studied computer programming and AS/400 operations at Long Beach City College. An award-winning writer with two Maggie Awards, four business books, and a collection of poetry to his credit, Chris began his newspaper career as a reporter in northern California, later worked as night city editor for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, and went on to edit a national cable television trade magazine. He was Communications Manager for McDonnell Douglas Corp. in Long Beach, Calif., before it merged with Boeing, and oversaw implementation of the company's first IBM desktop publishing system there. An editor for MC Press Online since 2007, Chris has authored some 300 articles on a broad range of topics surrounding the IBM midrange platform that have appeared in the company's eight industry-leading newsletters. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS

LATEST COMMENTS

Support MC Press Online

$

Book Reviews

Resource Center

  • SB Profound WC 5536 Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application. You can find Part 1 here. In Part 2 of our free Node.js Webinar Series, Brian May teaches you the different tooling options available for writing code, debugging, and using Git for version control. Brian will briefly discuss the different tools available, and demonstrate his preferred setup for Node development on IBM i or any platform. Attend this webinar to learn:

  • SB Profound WP 5539More than ever, there is a demand for IT to deliver innovation. Your IBM i has been an essential part of your business operations for years. However, your organization may struggle to maintain the current system and implement new projects. The thousands of customers we've worked with and surveyed state that expectations regarding the digital footprint and vision of the company are not aligned with the current IT environment.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT Generic IBM announced the E1080 servers using the latest Power10 processor in September 2021. The most powerful processor from IBM to date, Power10 is designed to handle the demands of doing business in today’s high-tech atmosphere, including running cloud applications, supporting big data, and managing AI workloads. But what does Power10 mean for your data center? In this recorded webinar, IBMers Dan Sundt and Dylan Boday join IBM Power Champion Tom Huntington for a discussion on why Power10 technology is the right strategic investment if you run IBM i, AIX, or Linux. In this action-packed hour, Tom will share trends from the IBM i and AIX user communities while Dan and Dylan dive into the tech specs for key hardware, including:

  • Magic MarkTRY the one package that solves all your document design and printing challenges on all your platforms. Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits. Request your trial now!  Request Now.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericForms of ransomware has been around for over 30 years, and with more and more organizations suffering attacks each year, it continues to endure. What has made ransomware such a durable threat and what is the best way to combat it? In order to prevent ransomware, organizations must first understand how it works.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericIT security is a top priority for businesses around the world, but most IBM i pros don’t know where to begin—and most cybersecurity experts don’t know IBM i. In this session, Robin Tatam explores the business impact of lax IBM i security, the top vulnerabilities putting IBM i at risk, and the steps you can take to protect your organization. If you’re looking to avoid unexpected downtime or corrupted data, you don’t want to miss this session.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericCan you trust all of your users all of the time? A typical end user receives 16 malicious emails each month, but only 17 percent of these phishing campaigns are reported to IT. Once an attack is underway, most organizations won’t discover the breach until six months later. A staggering amount of damage can occur in that time. Despite these risks, 93 percent of organizations are leaving their IBM i systems vulnerable to cybercrime. In this on-demand webinar, IBM i security experts Robin Tatam and Sandi Moore will reveal:

  • FORTRA Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAManaging messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. Messages need a response and resources must be monitored—often over multiple systems and across platforms. How can you be sure you won’t miss important system events? Automate your message center with the Robot Message Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAThe thought of printing, distributing, and storing iSeries reports manually may reduce you to tears. Paper and labor costs associated with report generation can spiral out of control. Mountains of paper threaten to swamp your files. Robot automates report bursting, distribution, bundling, and archiving, and offers secure, selective online report viewing. Manage your reports with the Robot Report Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAFor over 30 years, Robot has been a leader in systems management for IBM i. With batch job creation and scheduling at its core, the Robot Job Scheduling Solution reduces the opportunity for human error and helps you maintain service levels, automating even the biggest, most complex runbooks. Manage your job schedule with the Robot Job Scheduling Solution. Key features include:

  • LANSA Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.

  • LANSAWhen it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed. Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:

  • LANSASupply Chain is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable. From raw materials for manufacturing to food supply chains, the journey from source to production to delivery to consumers is marred with inefficiencies, manual processes, shortages, recalls, counterfeits, and scandals. In this webinar, we discuss how:

  • The MC Resource Centers bring you the widest selection of white papers, trial software, and on-demand webcasts for you to choose from. >> Review the list of White Papers, Trial Software or On-Demand Webcast at the MC Press Resource Center. >> Add the items to yru Cart and complet he checkout process and submit

  • Profound Logic Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application.

  • SB Profound WC 5536Join us for this hour-long webcast that will explore:

  • Fortra IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn: