Notes 7 vs. 8: Inbox Folder Warning Message Smackdown

In today's installment of my ongoing series on Lotus Notes' unique personality, I present a nuissance warning message that apparently means nothing and affects nothing. But it appears three times, just to make sure I'm sufficiently warned. Granted, it only appears if you do something really odd (like installing Notes 8 on top of Notes 7, which I'm sure is NOT a supported install method), then go back to using Notes 7. Still, it's pretty funny, for me at least.

Here's how you can play along at home:

1. Install Notes 7 (WMC) on Linux
2. Install Notes 8 on Linux (on top)
3. Create a folder in your Inbox database (er, "application") with Notes 8
4. Try to open that folder w/ Notes 7, and you get this warning message three times:

Not a member: GETPROPERTYBROKER
-- Clicking OK three times disposes the warnings,
and everything apparently works fine.
Thank goodness I was warned!

Notes 8: Dead by Dawn

After just under two months of loving and hating Notes 8's usability issues, it has died completely, the result of several hard drive crashes & unsolicited KDE logouts.

But in true Lotus fashion, Notes 8 leaves me with these hauntingly unhelpful messages:

This software has encountered a problem and needs to close
-- ok, but what problem?

Failed to login
-- makes sense given the previous error message
and the fact I wasn't asked to login,
but how is this helpful?

The only saving grace here is that because I installed Notes 8 on top of Notes 7, I can still run Notes 7 even though 8 is no longer functional. Of course the dictionary is now utterly corrupt so every email I try to send throws an error message until I disable spellcheck...

Error accessing User Dictionary File
-- why can't we just fail gracefully here
and skip the spellcheck with a warning?

Delivery Options... > Basic > [ ] Auto spellcheck
-- there's apparently no way to turn this off by default

... And I already miss the 'more addictive than crack' 'cached locally for better performance' 'not just the IBMers' typeahead name lookup functionality of Notes 8 (which I got addicted to thanks to GMail, and Lotus had the good sense to adopt too).

Still, at least Notes 7 is quasi-functional enough to make do until I have time to reinstall the whole thing from scratch, or Notes 8.0.1 is released next year, whichever comes first.

And really, I can't fault Notes (entirely) for its early demise. Then again, everything else on the machine works great despite the crashes... well, everything except:

• Konqueror won't let me save bookmarks anymore.
• I get unexpectedly logged out from KDE when I leave the machine alone for a while.
• When left alone for long periods, sometimes the screen dies and the only way to ressurect it is with the klaatu verada nikto-like incantation of Alt-PrtSc-S, Alt-PrtSc-U, Alt-PrtSc-B.
• My cursor will disappear after about 6hrs and only be visible on the secondary screen as a purplish narrow rectangle. Ever try using a mouse when you can't see the pointer? It's about as much fun as boxing with your computer.

Yes, it's so time to upgrade to a new OS.

Notes 8: Better Than Notes 7, Still Room To Improve

Notes 8 has been released, and because I know people who know how to get things, I've managed to score a copy to try it out. Compared to Notes 7 and its less-than-Linux-friendly forebears, Notes 8 is an absolute delight to install as an upgrade to Notes 7.

1. Download zip & unpack
2. $ sudo su
3. # chmod +x setup.sh; ./setup.sh
4. # exit
5. $ /opt/ibm/lotus/notes
6. Configure Notes (same as in Notes 7)

However, putting on my Usability Police hat...

1. The installer still doesn't create a K-menu shortcut -- though that's a KDE-needs-to-reboot thing. It also doesn't create a desktop shortcut, presumably because RHEL and SLED (the officially-supported platforms) put their users' desktops in different places than the MEPIS/Kubuntu convention of ~/Desktop or because no one's ever thought to ask root where to create the .desktop file. Also, there's no notes.png for me to make my own shortcut, just a notes.ico (which can easily be converted with GIMP, but still).
2. Databases are now called "Applications". Why? Search me -- after 8 years of using Notes mail & application databases, not enough people were confused by the concept, so it was time to rebrand. This begs the question -- if my mailbox is now my Mail Application, wtf is Notes itself? My Mail Application Application?
3. I created a custom 'Home' page involving two frames -- Inbox & Calendar. It accepted it & saved it, but then didn't display it -- just the 'welcome to Notes' page. Then, I hit 'just give me the default' and my page appeared. *Weird*.

   

4. Notes 8 still features the Workspace, but it didn't find any of my existing Notes 7 databases (even though they're referenced in the same folder), so I'm going to have to recreate all those all over again (as I did when moving from Notes 6 to 7). The good news is that the Workspace is now pretty much irrelevant because the "Open" menu / Bookmark Bar provides about the same functionality, without the ugly (albeit colourful) Workspace tabs.

   

5. File > Import still only works with structured text and Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets. Why can't I migrate from an old Workspace or Desktop file to a new one?

Usability issues aside, here's some of the new features I discovered:

1. Notes 7 was built on Eclipse 3.0.2. Notes 8 leaps ahead two years and is built on Eclipse 3.2.2, including EMF 2.2.2, GEF 3.2.2 and XSD 2.2.2. Strangely, it includes PDE and JDT too, not just the RCP and platform stuff. Why? No idea.
2. Notes finally remembers non-Notes (Internet) addresses when composing an email!

   

3. Browser settings are now global, rather than per-Location.
4. The "Office" location is now called "Online", which contrasts better with the "Offline" location (previously called "Island"). Kudos on finally using the same terms as all other mail clients with this capability -- though I still prefer the way Netscape Mail (and now Thunderbird) handles the "Work online/offine" toggle, with its "plugged in / unplugged" icons.
5. Preferences are no longer split into multiple submenus (File > Preferences > Location Preferences, File > Preferences > User Preferences) -- instead, they're in one centralized multi-page Eclipse-like Preferences dialog. However, File > Security > User Security is a still separate preferences page. Mail/Calendar settings are still done within that database (which makes sense because those are per-database, not global).
6. I can run Notes 7 and Notes 8 at the same time -- which is handy because I have to manually recreate all my "Applications" in my new Workspace. However, running Notes 7 on the same desktop/workspace file messes up Notes 8 (see below).
7. UPDATE: The SameTime (7.5.1) / Day-At-A-Glance / (RSS) Feeds sidebar rocks. Turns out that yes, you can break it apart (Open In New Window) or reorder the views, despite my previous comments. Oops. It also remembers where I left it (including detached SameTime window).
8. The new "Open" menu can be modified by simply dragging shortcuts around to reorder them. How do you add a new shortcut/bookmark? Open some application/database and select Create > Bookmark, then put it in your "Bookmark Bar" (aka "Open" menu).
9. There's a new "Show Thumbnails" button next to the new "Open" menu, which is a neat feature, but about as useful as the password entry box's distracting/changing "keychain" icon and "XXX = one typed char" protection system (image above).

Unfortunately, things got a little hairy after trying to run Notes 7 and 8 at the same time:

1. I shut down Notes 7, but now my Notes 8 Workspace was blank. Notes 8 itself wouldn't shut down, so it was time for some killall eclipse java. That didn't work either, so I had to kill -9 the notes2w process.
2. Now, Notes 8 wouldn't start -- instead I got this li'l beaut':

   This software has encountered a problem and needs to close.

   Then this, slightly more educational (though equally useless) message:

   Failed to login
CLFRJ001OE: Notes initialization failed

   And finally, this console log:

   2007/08/18 01:19:55.328 CONFIG eclipse.buildId=build20070731-1521
java.fullversion=J2RE 1.5.0 IBM J9 2.3 Linux x86-32 j9vmxi3223ifx-20070714 (JIT enabled)
J9VM - 20070713_13151_lHdSMR
JIT - 20070109_1805ifx5_r8
GC - 200701_09
BootLoader constants: OS=linux, ARCH=x86, WS=gtk, NL=en_US

Framework arguments: -dir ltr -personality com.ibm.rcp.platform.personality -product com.ibm.notes.branding.notes -plugincustomization
/opt/ibm/lotus/notes/framework/rcp/plugin_customization.ini
Command-line arguments: -os linux -ws gtk -arch x86 -dir ltr -personality com.ibm.rcp.platform.personality -product com.ibm.notes.branding.notes -data /home/nickb/lotus/notes/data/workspace -plugincustomization /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/framework/rcp/plugin_customization.ini ::class.method=com.ibm.rcp.core.internal.logger.frameworkhook.writeSession() ::thread=main ::loggername=com.ibm.rcp.core.internal.logger.frameworkhook
2007/08/18 01:20:00.706 SEVERE CLFMW0008E: Error returned from bootstrap dll during init call. Closing down the client ::class.method=com.ibm.workplace.noteswc.NoteswcPlugin.writeToLog() ::thread=main ::loggername=com.ibm.workplace.noteswc
2007/08/18 01:20:06.009 SEVERE CLFMW0030E: Error Initializing Notes, Check the logs for details of the error ::class.method=com.ibm.workplace.noteswc.NoteswcPlugin$1.done() ::thread=main ::loggername=com.ibm.workplace.noteswc
2007/08/18 01:20:06.513 SEVERE CLFRJ0013E: Notes initialization failed ! ::class.method=class com.ibm.workplace.internal.notes.security.auth.NotesLoginModule.initialize() ::thread=ModalContext ::loggername=com.ibm.workplace.internal.notes.security
2007/08/18 01:20:08.199 WARNING CWPST0306W: Exception calling proxy method ::class.method=com.ibm.rcp.internal.security.AbstractProxy.invoke() ::thread=main ::loggername=package com.ibm.rcp.internal.security

java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
...

On restart, I had a shortcut in K-menu > Office, and Notes 8 once again worked and let me log in, even without being VPN'd (though the built-in SameTime 7.5 client complained about not being able to connect, as I'd expect). Too bad there's no Zap Notes 8 available yet. UPDATE: To Zap Notes 8, just run nsd -kill.

CONCLUSION: After 3 and a half hours of poking at it, I'd say at this point Notes 8 is visually and functionally better than Notes 7. It's easier to install, adds some nice new features, doesn't introduce any significant annoyances, fixes a few old issues, and stays true to its roots. Kudos!

Notes 7: Crash Different

Like a fool I spent 30 mins composing a detailed email this afternoon in Notes, including colour, font styles, and tables. Why a fool? Because any time I'm busy doing something in a java-heavy application and haven't saved it lately, it dies. I just have this gift, apparently. Anyway, tout à coup and as if on cue, Notes died on me. I couldn't edit, save, or exit. I could however see my wallpaper. Go, go, gadget UI thread!

Glacial Potholes in Shelburne Falls, MA, as seen through Notes 7

It was time to zap Notes and restart. Amazingly, I only lost a few minutes worth of editing. Why?

File > Lotus Notes Preferences > User Preferences ... >       Basics > [x] AutoSave every [n] minutes

I didn't know Notes had this feature, but I was very glad to discover it there today. Notes 7 may still crash fairly often on me, but at least it's made the experience less painful than before.

Lotus Notes: A Retrospective

Did a quick, narcissistic self-google tonight and discovered that a number of people have been talking about my Notes 7 installer script.

This got me thinking about Notes through the ages, from the bad old days of 4.x when I first started w/ IBM in '99 and longed for Groupwise or PINE to my days of writing LotusScript and designing database apps (while trying not to curse at Designer for its frequent, and at the very least, predictable crashes) in and around the 5.5-6.0 days, to the days when I first tried to install some flavour of Notes on a linux box.

Notes 6.0 and 6.5 thru WINE were horrible, and painful to set up -- I can't recall if I ever managed to get them working, but I do remember wondering how IBM could invest so much time and money in Linux without making Notes run there.

Notes 7.0b3 with WINE (still with the 6.5 splash screen) was buggy to the point where right-clicking your inbox caused the RSOD (Red Screen Of Death), but was at least a little easier to install, in that I could actually do it on a Debian-based system. Unfortunately, it was pretty temperamental and if you accidentlally upgraded your WINE from a very special patched version available only on internal IBM servers, you broke it. It also came with the unfortunate acronym "NUL", for Notes Under Linux. I'll let you make your own jokes.

Notes 7.0 was certainly an improvement over the past versions, but being a full Eclipse-based Java client, there's a certain amount of memory usage that's unavoidable. That said, there's no more Windows emulation through WINE, so it's more stable. I can now run Notes 7 without random crashes and hangups on Linux (though I do still get some pretty odd error messages thrown at me once in a while -- it just wouldn't be Notes without 'em!). Yes, I'm often annoyed by the fact that modal dialog boxes appear UNDER my main Notes window and sometimes don't appear until I minimize everything. True, my laptop is a T60p w/ 2G or RAM and a dual-core 2.0G processor, so it's got horsepower to burn, but the point is, from a usability standpoint, Notes 7 actually works on Linux. Combine it with a couple Eclipse workspaces and Sametime 7.5.1 and you *do* chew up a lot of RAM, but then, that's why you're running Linux, right? Try doing that on Windows and still getting reasonable performance when your virus scan software starts up. ;-) Of course I still prefer Gmail, but I digress.

It's my fond hope that the folks that package Notes will heed the rants about how much of a pain it is to install on anything but Windows, RHEL and SuSE, and make the experience easier for everyone else, like us SimplyMEPIS / (k)ubuntu folks. Clearly, things have improved substantially. That said, there's still a long way to go before Notes can be installed via apt-get without having to worry about missing fonts, libraries, PATH entries, or which of the several included startup scripts to use to launch Notes.

Notes 8 is now available in beta, and according to fellow IBMer-blogger Chris Aniszczyk, Notes 8 will be even better still. When I go through the process of installing that one, I'll provide a new script or at least blog the experience. Stay tuned.

Notes 7 + SimplyMEPIS 6 = one sweet lappy

Well, I've finally got my Thinkpad set up just the way I like it: running the latest SimplyMEPIS 6, KDE 3.5.3, and kernel 2.6.15-27-686. Goodbye, Windows! After a couple days of pain, I managed to not only get Notes 7 working through the IBM Lotus Workplace client (aka a bloated Eclipse RCP app), and annoyed at having to search in several places for instructions and packages, I've written an interactive installer script. Instead of being a recipe for what to do, it does it all for you! The script should work for any ubuntu-based distro, but you might have things missing from your etc/apt/sources.list, like the multiverse stuff. Anyway, it's bound to be hella easier to use than the old manual trial and error method. Drop me a line if you use it and it works for you!