Ed Brill

First beta of Notes/Domino Social Edition now out to design partners

April 12 2012

Earlier today, we distributed the first external beta code drop of Notes/Domino Social Edition to our Design Partners. This is also the third code drop of the Notes/Domino 8.5.4 beta release, but the first to start adding the key new Social Edition features.

Design Partners are still covered by a non-disclosure agreement, so you won't hear from them quite yet on what's new. To give you an idea of what they're now playing with though, it's what we described in various sessions at Lotusphere 2012.

This is the first build where the Notes browser plug-in, which allows the use of Notes client applications in a web browser without the Notes client needing to be installed, is officially ready for testing. The release has only been in Design Partner hands for a few hours and I am already receiving "OMG" emails :-). Note, starting with this build, we have simplified the name of that plug-in -- we had been calling it something like a "Notes Application Player Plug-In for Windows" and now we are just saying "Notes browser plug-in". Also we are building that for Internet Explorer and Firefox; I know my Lotusphere slides showed we hadn't decided which two browsers to focus on first.

There are several other enhancements in the code drop 3 build, including completely updated iNotes calendar forms, abbreviated dates in the inbox, SAML support, and a number of XPages enhancements.

We expect the next code drop - likely about six to eight weeks from now - to be more broadly available to beta program participants, and also to include updates to Notes Traveler.

As indicated at Lotusphere, we plan to ship Notes/Domino Social Edition and the Notes/Domino 8.5.4 release by the end of 2012.

Here is a screen shot of the new iNotes calendar workflow UI:

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category: Notes+Domino Social Edition Add/View Comments [16]

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1 Fredrik Stöckel http://www.twitter.com/fstockel | 4/12/2012 5:33:34 PM
Nice! Looks very promising - can't wait to play with it! (why am I not a dp)

More pictures please :)

Fredrik

2 Carl Tyler http://www.epilio.com | 4/12/2012 5:53:03 PM
Is your computer set to high contrast mode or something? Or is there really that little colour in the dialog?

3 Eric Mack http://www.NotesOnProductivity.com | 4/12/2012 6:28:59 PM
Excellent news, Ed. My clients will be interested to know this.

Are there plans to support Safari so that native Mac users can use it, or will they need to run FireFox also. Not a show stopper either way, I would imagine. Just curious.

Eric

4 Jesse Gallagher http://frostillic.us | 4/12/2012 6:53:41 PM
Ah, that's got me all the more interested in 8.5.4, so: mission accomplished! The browser plugin should be worth considering until I finish XPage-ifying our internal apps, and I'm always excited about little server-update tidbits.

5 Ralf M Petter http://petterralf.blogspot.com/ | 4/13/2012 1:35:06 AM
@Eric I do not think that this plugin will run on the mac. A browser plugin is binary code and depends on a platform. And the name was "Notes Application Player Plug-In for WINDOWS"

Ralf

6 Alan | 4/13/2012 5:15:38 AM
Exciting news. What's the process for getting on the public beta?

7 Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 4/13/2012 6:47:30 AM

@2 Carl - yes, very little color. It's a browser UI not the Notes client. But I will share the feedback :-)

@3 / @5 - yes. The plug-in initially will be a Windows-only experience for IE and Firefox. Making it available on the Mac is much harder so is something we will consider in the future.

@6 no plans for a public beta; some of the features (e.g. embedded experiences) will be available to test on IBM's Greenhouse (greenhouse.lotus.com). A managed beta program exists and will get access to Social Edition in the next few months, likely at the next code drop. If you are interested in the managed beta, email me at ed_brill at us.ibm.com.

8 Elijah Lapson | 4/13/2012 9:03:53 AM
I see you mentioned SAML support. Is the goal to have the Notes/Domino Social Edition be able to integrate with LotusLive when released? I ask because we are evaluating LotusLive/IBM Smart Cloud (Engage)currently and attempting to form a rough architecture map of internal v.s. external IBM software services we will be using and their potential to integrate.

Thanks,

Elijah Lapson

9 GarryL | 4/13/2012 10:57:30 AM
I have asked this before but am after an update if possible - is the Notes Browser plug-in supported in a Terminal Services enviroment?

Currently IBM will only support the Notes client with Citrix, not TS. This could really reduce our desktop costs if we could be supported running apps through the browser in TS.

10 Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 4/13/2012 11:22:32 AM

@8 Elijah, we already use SAML for authentication between Notes and SmartCloud Engage. The new SAML implementation in the premises Social Edition update would allow both Domino premises and SmartCloud Engage/Notes users to authenticate against the same SAML provider (e.g. Tivoli Federated Identity Manager).

11 Elijah Lapson | 4/13/2012 11:48:01 AM
I guess what I am asking is would the SAML translation be built into the next version of the Domino Server or would it still need to reside separately?

12 Shabeermohamed | 4/16/2012 12:47:15 PM
Notes 8.5.4 & Notes Social Edition....are they the same?

13 Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 4/17/2012 9:46:04 AM

@12/13 Social Edition is a feature pack installed on top of Notes 8.5.4/Domino 8.5.4.

14 Jose Luis | 4/20/2012 10:17:35 AM
Hi,

where can we found documentation for install and test the new Domio Social on a test enviroment?

15 Mary Beth RAven http://www.marybethraven.org | 5/14/2012 1:14:47 PM
It's nice to know that "Paul Clemmons", the persona for iNotes, is alive and well and still being used :)