Release 5.1 of IBM WebSphere Portal and Lotus Notes and Domino 6.5.x have been enhanced with features designed to help you integrate WebSphere Portal applications (such as IBM Workplace) into an existing Notes and Domino environment. This allows you to offer your users a choice of tools most suited to their specific needs, while protecting and leveraging your ongoing investment in Lotus Notes and Domino.

In this article, we discuss how you can use the new WebSphere Portal Common PIM (Personal Information Management) Portlets and Lotus Domino. We begin by showing you how to configure WebSphere Portal to use your existing corporate Domino Directory as its LDAP directory. Then we introduce you to the Common Mail and Common Calendar portlets (part of the Common PIM Portlets, or CPP). The CPP allow your WebSphere Portal users to use Lotus Domino as their back-end mail server. Next, we give details on how administrators can configure the CPP and their desired server type. The CPP currently support the following back-ends: Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange 2000, IMAP, and POP3.

This article assumes that you are an experienced system administrator with some familiarity with Lotus Domino and WebSphere Portal. All features mentioned in this article are available in Lotus Notes and Domino 6.5.3 with the CPP fixpack and release 5.1 of the WebSphere Portal family of products.

Using Lotus Domino as the LDAP directory in WebSphere Portal

No one wants to redo work they have already done if they don't have to. This obviously applies to Notes/Domino administrators who have spent a great deal of time and effort over the years creating and maintaining Person documents for their users and storing these document in Domino Directories. Lotus Domino offers a number of powerful tools to help manage directory information. So even if you introduce WebSphere Portal and/or IBM Workplace into your environment, there's a good chance you still want to continue using Lotus Domino to maintain your corporate user information.

To do this, you must configure WebSphere Portal to use Domino LDAP. First, create two users called wpsadmin and wpsbind in the Domino Directory. Wpsadmin is the WebSphere system administrator, and wpsbind is configured in WebSphere as the ID for binding to LDAP. Next, create a group called wpsadmins in the Domino Directory and add wpsadmin and wpsbind to the wpsadmins group. Now add the wpsadmins group to the Domino Directory's ACL and give that group Editor access.

NOTE: We recommend that you create a full-text index in the Domino Directory to get better performance results when WebSphere Portal performs LDAP look-ups in the Domino Directory. If you do not create a full-text index, linear searches are performed on the Domino Directory, and LDAP searches are costly.

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Installing and configuring WebSphere Portal 5.1

To install and configure WebSphere Portal 5.1 to use Domino LDAP, run the installation program. (See the WebSphere Portal InfoCenter for a step-by-step description of the WebSphere Portal installation process.) Then edit the configuration file and configure WebSphere Portal using the configuration properties listed in the following table. The configuration file is located in the config directory under the directory where WebSphere Portal is installed. For example, if WebSphere Portal is installed in the directory C:\WebSphere\PortalServer, the configuration file is named C:\Websphere\PortalServer\Config\wpconfig.properties. Open this file and change or validate the following properties:

This table reflects configuration settings we used in our test environment. In this test environment, the administrator user was wpsadmin, and the Domino Directory is configured with the organization name lotus. Substitute several of these values as appropriate for your own organizational environment setup (for example, passwords, administrator user name, and so on).

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Configuring Lotus Collaborative Components for WebSphere Portal 5.1

This section provides instructions for enabling and configuring Lotus Collaborative Components to use the Domino Directory as the LDAP directory. This feature is used to auto-discover user information such as current mail server and mail file.

To enable the Lotus Collaborative Components, edit the following entries in your WebSphere Portal configuration properties file located in the config directory under the directory where WebSphere Portal is installed. For example, if WebSphere Portal is installed in the directory C:\WebSphere\PortalServer, the configuration file would be named C:\Websphere\PortalServer\Config\wpconfig.properties.

After you have entered the necessary configuration information, apply these settings to WebSphere Portal by running the lcc-configure-dominodirectory configuration task. To start the configuration task, do the following:

1. At a command line, change the directory to WebSphere\PortalServer\config and enter the following command:
   WPSconfig.bat lcc-configure-dominodirectory
   
   
2. Check the console output for any error messages. If you encounter an error, check the appropriate log files for more information.
3. Start or restart WebSphere Portal.

NOTE: The lcc-configure-dominodirectory task is used specifically for configuring the Lotus Collaborative Components to use the Domino Directory only. It is possible to change and save other Lotus Collaborative Components values in wpconfig.properties, and then to run the configuration task WPSconfig.sh lcc-configure-all (Unix) or WPSconfig.bat lcc-configure-all (Windows) to configure multiple components. For more information on the Lotus Collaborative Components, see the WebSphere Portal InfoCenter.

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Enabling people awareness for WebSphere Portal 5.1

The Common PIM Portlets use the IBM Lotus Instant Messaging (formerly Sametime) server to provide people awareness. To enable this functionality, configure the Lotus Instant Messaging server to integrate with WebSphere Portal and vice-versa.

To configure Lotus Instant Messaging to support WebSphere Portal, you must set a security level by editing the Sametime.ini file:

1. Use a text editor to open the Sametime.ini file located on the Lotus Instant Messaging server. If you need help locating this file, see your Lotus Instant Messaging documentation.
2. Do one of the following to set a security level:
   
   In a test or development environment, you can configure Lotus Instant Messaging to accept all IP addresses as trusted. To do this, add the following line to the Debug section:
   [Debug]
VPS_BYPASS_TRUSTED_IPS=1
   
   In a production environment, you can add the IP address of WebSphere Portal to the list of IP addresses of trusted servers. Add the WebSphere Portal IP address to the following line in the Configuration section:
   [Config]
VPS_TRUSTED_IPS=trusted IP address, trusted IP address
   
   Use a comma to separate your new entry from the previous entry. Also, do not enter the host name.
3. Enter the IP address.
4. Save and close the Sametime.ini file.
5. Restart the Lotus Instant Messaging server.

To configure WebSphere Portal to support Lotus Instant Messaging, edit the following entries in your WebSphere Portal configuration properties file located in Websphere\PortalServer\Config\wpconfig.properties:

Now you must apply these settings to WebSphere Portal by running the lcc-configure-sametime configuration task. To do this:

1. At a command line, go to the directory WebSphere\PortalServer\config and run the following command:
   WPSconfig.bat lcc-configure-sametime
   
   
2. Check the output for any error messages. If you encounter an error, check the appropriate log files for more information.
3. Start or restart WebSphere Portal.

Note: The lcc-configure-sametime task is specific for configuring Lotus Collaborative Components to use the IBM Lotus Instant Messaging server only.

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The Common Mail portlet and Common Calendar portlet

WebSphere Portal comes with a number of portlets that facilitate various forms of collaboration, such as Web conferencing and instant messaging. Two new portlets introduced in release 5.1 are the Common Mail and Common Calendar portlets, which combined are called the Common PIM (Personal Information Management) Portlets (or CPP for short). The CPP are called common because they are designed to be the common user interface for multiple back-end servers. Currently, the CPP support Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange 2000, IMAP, and POP3.

If you have seen the IBM Workplace Messaging mail and calendar portlets, you notice how similar they are to the CPP. In the future, the CPP will merge with the IBM Workplace Messaging mail and calendar portlets, providing you with a rich and robust user interface and with the added ability to select IBM Workplace Messaging as your back-end server.

The CPP user interfaces use the J2EE page generation technology provided by WebSphere Portal, and when configured for Lotus Domino, the data is retrieved from the Notes mail files. This lets you treat each of these two portlets as just another client for the Domino mail server. Users can continue to use the Notes client, Domino Web Access, or Web mail if they choose.

For some users (especially those who have grown accustomed to using Web-based email), the functionality offered by the CPP may meet all their needs. Others will find these portlets ideal for occasionally checking their mail and calendar quickly from their corporate portal, while still using Lotus Notes or Domino Web Access for most of their email activities. The CPP can also be configured to launch your rich mail client, such as Lotus Notes or Domino Web Access, so you can easily access other mail and calendar features.

In the following sections, we describe how to get the Common PIM Portlets up and running.

Enabling support for the Common PIM Portlets in the Domino mail server

After you install and configure WebSphere Portal 5.1, enable the necessary service on your Domino server. This service is required for the CPP to work properly. The following table lists the required Domino server release that supports the CPP.

The CPP Domino fixpack is available on the WebSphere Portal 5.1 installation CDs. Without the fixpack, the stability of the Domino server is compromised.

After validating that you have the correct version of Lotus Domino installed, update the Notes.ini file on your Domino mail server to include the setting HTTPDomWSAppSpace=1. This enables Domino XML services on the Domino server. In future Domino releases, this Notes.ini setting will be available as part of the Configuration Settings on the Domino server.

NOTE: The CPP use HTTP to retrieve mail and calendar information from the Domino server. For the CPP to work properly, you must have HTTP enabled on the Domino mail server, and users must have an HTTP (Internet) password set. Also, if you plan to run WebSphere Portal and Lotus Domino on the same system, set the Domino HTTP setting to a non-conflicting port (for instance, port 8080).

The Common Mail and Common Calendar portlets in WebSphere Portal 5.1

The Common Mail and Common Calendar portlets were added to the My Work page, by default, for WebSphere Portal 5.1. They are designed to use Collaboration Services, which can query the Domino Directory to retrieve the user's mail file and mail server and use single sign-on to automatically log in the user to the Domino mail server.

The Common Mail portlet user interface
The Common Mail portlet available in release 5.1 of WebSphere Portal supports some favorite Notes client features, such as nested folders, the ability to create personalized signatures, enabling and disabling out-of-office, and the ability to block senders. Figure 1 shows the Common Mail portlet.

The Common Calendar portlet user interface
The Common Calendar portlet is also available in release 5.1 of WebSphere Portal. This portlet supports various calendar view types, such as two-day, one-week, two-weeks, and one-month. It also allows users to easily create appointments, anniversaries, reminders, all-day events, repeating meetings, and other useful calendar operations. The Common Calendar portlet is shown in Figure 2.

Common Mail configuration (configuration mode)

By default, the CPP are installed to use single sign-on (SSO) between WebSphere Portal and Lotus Domino to automatically discover and log in the current user to the mail database. To view or change the current configuration, log into WebSphere Portal as an administrator (for example, wpsadmin) and go into configuration mode by clicking the wrench icon.

After you enter configuration mode, you see the Mail Configuration screen (Figure 4). This screen allows you to enable or disable specific mail protocols and also lets you define a default one for your CPP users.

By default, Lotus Domino is specified as the current server type in the table. To disable a server type, select the lightning bolt icon for that Server Type/Protocol row. When this is disabled, you cannot access the configuration information (wrench icon) for the selected server type. To view or configure the Domino server type, click the wrench icon in the corresponding table row. The Domino Mail Configuration screen is shown with options to change your source, authentication, and various other features.

In the Mail Configuration screen, you can specify additional configuration information for the Domino mail back-end. You can specify the following settings:

• Source: To give administrators better control over which servers are being used by their users, this section allows you to specify the default mail server for all users and also contains an option to allow or prevent users from changing the mail source in edit mode. There are also fields for proxy server name and for enabling the CPP to use a secure connection. If you are using single sign-on authentication, most of these source settings are not required because CPP has the capability to auto-discover the mail server and mail source file for the current user. If you add a default mail server on this screen, however, this setting overrides what is auto-discovered as the user's home mail server.
• Authentication: This section allows administrators to enable or disable SSO for the portlet. If basic authentication is selected, configure a Credential Vault slot to store user credentials for authentication.
• Features: This section allows the administrator to select features to make available or unavailable to users, such as the rich text editor, the ability to launch Lotus Notes or Domino Web Access, and the ability to create and send attachments. Each mail protocol will have a different set of features available for its users.

Common Mail User Preferences (edit mode)

The user preferences page, arrived at from clicking the pencil icon, is where users can define and manage personal configuration choices. Examples include their mail source (if allowed by the administrator), user signature, out-of-office settings, and the ability to manage the blocked sender list. These settings are for your CPP non-administrative users. Administrators (for example, wpsadmin) should not save any user preferences. Instead, they should log in with their non-administrative user ID. The Mail Preferences screen is shown in Figure 6.

If you select the option to allow portlet users to change the mail server in edit mode while in configuration mode, then non-administrative users will see the Edit Mail Source button (shown in Figure 6) in edit mode. This allows users to view or edit their mail source settings while in edit mode. Figure 7 shows the Mail Configuration page displayed when users click the Edit Mail Source button.

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Conclusion

Integrating Lotus Domino and WebSphere Portal allows you to take advantage of the best of each platform. Lotus Domino provides a powerful and easy-to-maintain LDAP directory for WebSphere Portal 5.1. The Common Mail and Common Calendar portlets deliver a common user experience for all mail users, whether they are using Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange, or any IMAP or POP3 compatible mail server. This gives you a great transition solution as you move your users from one platform to another.

Resources

• For a step-by-step description of the WebSphere Portal installation process, see the WebSphere Portal InfoCenter.
  
  
• To install and configure WebSphere Portal 5.1 to use Domino LDAP, use the configuration properties listed in the developerWorks: Lotus article, "Integrating IBM Lotus Workplace and Lotus Domino."
  
  
• Get involved in the developerWorks community by participating in developerWorks blogs.
  
  
• Browse for books on these and other technical topics.
  
  

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Table of contents

• Using Lotus Domino as the LDAP directory in WebSphere Portal
• Installing and configuring WebSphere Portal 5.1
• Configuring Lotus Collaborative Components for WebSphere Portal 5.1
• Enabling people awareness for WebSphere Portal 5.1
• The Common Mail portlet and Common Calendar portlet
• Conclusion
• Resources
• About the authors
• Comments

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