Lotus Notes & iOS devices ... An update

Been a while since I've posted. It's also been a while since I've had any updates in this area.

Previously, I had been using Companion Sync to push Notes calendar updates to a Google calendar for syncing to my iOS devices. That worked but had issues dealing with modifications to recurring meetings. I lived with it, but it was far from an ideal relationship.

I had been sticking with the iNotes interface for email. This worked fairly well on the iPhone, but on the iPad the published web URL just couldn't decide what to do with the Safari browser on the iPad. Am I an iPhone, no wait I'm a desktop, no wait .... Problematic!

As luck would have it more and more coworkers began to adopt iOS devices. Two or more heads are usually better than one, especially mine. I started getting tips from some other interested parties.

First, on the calendar front, I got a tip from Dave, Awesync. Thanks Dave! Works like a dream for me. What do they say? "Set it and forget it!" I then set up my Gmail account to sync mail and the calendar on my iPhone & iPad.

Email was another matter. While IBM does provide an Exchange interface for Notes, my company does not support or expose it. So, back to iNotes. thanks to Len, I learned that while the standard interface for email, webmail.mycompany.com, did not work on the iPAD the was an alternative. Your mileage may vary as I'm sure your server names will.

Going directly to the web mail server address seems to resolve the issue with browser confusion. See the following URL as an example.

https://webmail0001.mycompany.com/mail/yourusername.nsf/iNotes/Mail/?OpenDocument&Form=m_HomeView

iNotes now works great on my iPad, too.

For now, I am a happy camper.
Next post, more on my adventures with the iPad @ work.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Hey Mac! Cease and desist!

First, if you couldn't already tell, I'm a staunch MAC convert. I'm not a zealot quite yet. I might be gaining on being an Apple evangelist. However, I am a business professional and fully support and understand the need for Microsoft Windows in the workplace. Its just an "is". In addition, my latest position also inflicts (yes, that feels right) the use of Lotus Notes on it's employees. (Don't get me started ;)

Since my conversion, I've gone about my business while quietly integrating the use of my MacBook Pro and iPhone into my daily work. Mind you, this took some imagination, experimentation, and personal investment on my part, all done outside of the normal work day. Now, I've always taken stringent security precautions when using my personal systems in the workplace. These as much for my protection as for the workplace.

So, I had finally hobbled together a workable solution integrating the Apple MBP, with the iPhone, with Windows, and Lotus Notes. I felt my productivity & efficiency increased. I didn't have to worry about the pesky virus announcements, I didn't have to reboot on a regular basis. Software didn't freeze up on me. Ah, life was good.

We were also anticipating supporting the Safari browser for some of our applications. I thought, "Hey maybe I can help with some prototype testing. Maybe, just maybe, they're starting to get the idea that choice can be a productivity enhancement."

Not to be, not to be. Shortly there after, I received a request from our IT staff to scan my MacBook Pro. Happily complying, I provided them access to see that even though I'm on a MAC, I stay current with virus scans and firewall protections. I thought, good I'm inally out of the MAC closet.

No, not to be. Next came the "cease and desist" email from IT. This was very polite and good natured. It stated clearly that all required software and systems are made available. IT could not support the OS/X environment. the PB represented a potential security risk.

All true, all true. I can't really argue with any of the points, well except the last one. Access to Facebook, external email sites, and people using work laptops at home on the open Internet provide a greater risk, I think. Maybe I'm a bit bitter?

I had a headache for 3 days as my brain fought to readjust to the look and feel of Windows. At least it is Windows XP. I resisted the urge to throw keyboards and mice. I sucked it down and trudged forward. Trudged being the operative word.

Still keep my MBP by my side with an AT&T 3g card, for those times I really, really need to get something done quickly.

Rant. Finished.

Anyone have similar experiences? How did you deal with them?

Lotus Notes and iPhone still a challenge

Well, I'm sorry to say the Visto Mobile has pulled it's email service. They did extend the support for 3 months free of charge which was a nice move. This service had been working pretty consistently for me. At this point, I'm disappointed it is being pulled. The one nice feature was that you could delete messags on the iphone that would be deleted from your Lotus Notes inbox. In other words, no dual maintenance. It seems it may be offered by some of the service providers.
So far no news on AT&T picking it up.

iNotes Ultralite

Our corporate Lotus Notes servers were upgrade to the 8.0 version which now provides the Ultralite INotes interface. This has come in very handy for checking details of meetings and for email. This also provides access to all email view, but does not utilize the folder views. The calendar does not allow you to add appointments or meetings. Sending email is problematic since there is no link for the corporate directory lookup to the email capabilities. My biggest problem with this, which may be a factor of the iPhone, is the need to login each time the site is accessed. Good security, but a bit painful to review emails.

EMAIL

So, I'm back to forwarding email to a Google email account from Lotus Notes. However, I've taken a slightly different approach this time. Before getting into that I had received some questions about setting up GMail and Notes to all the response to look like they are being sent from Notes.

I took the following steps.
1. In Notes, I simply set up a Rule to forward all documents to mymail@gmail.com.
I specified to send the full copy when mail arrives for all documents,
2. In Gmail, under Settings/Accounts I added my work account me@work.com as an account I can send mail as.
This will send an email to that account to confirm you control it.
3. In Gmail, I then made the me@work.com.
4. On the iPhone, add an account (Settings -> Mail -> Add Account -> Other)
5. Enter your lotus email me@work.com
6. When prompted for the mail servers, use your gmail account and password, mymail@gmail.com.
The incoming email server would be imap.gmail.com and the outgoing would be smtp.gmail.com.

That seemed to do it for me as a basic setup. The problem was that each email I received at work dutifully got pumped to my iphone. Did I mention the need to delete or file the emails in both places? So I did some more searching.

I happened upon Wireless Mail from MartinScott.com. This is a number of agents that get imported into your Lotus Notes system that control the forwarding of emails to your gmail account. There are several really nice features to these utilities. You can easily configure the schedule of when emails are forwarded. You can remotely override the schedule from your iPhone.

For example, if you typically forward the emails from 8 to 5 during the week, but you are delayed getting into the office, you can send a short email from another specified account (me@mac.com) which will then begin forwarding all emails. There is also a lot of flexibility based on keyword and author that allows very granular control of what gets forwarded.

it still doesn't solve the dual maintenance issue, but it keeps me informed and engaged when I'm not in the office or logged into Lotus Notes. You do need Design access to your mail file, but this seems to be very common. There are some very detailed instructions at the MartinScott site.

Calendar

I'm trying something different for the calendar, also. I am still using Companion Link for Google to sync the calendar entries from Lotus Notes to Google Calendar. This is running from an always on (almost) PC at work. I had been using BusySync to sync GCal to iCal and using MobileMe to get them to the iPhone.

The approach I am trying now uses NuevaSync which push the GCal entries to the iphone using the Exchange interface. This helps to facilitate keeping my iPhone updated even when my MAC is not online.
The site gives good instructions on setting up the phone. However, you do need to create an account to access these instructions. The account is free.

Calendar entries are pushed to the native calendar on the iPhone. I have not experimented with two way syncing back to Lotus Notes. I still run into issues with duplicates being created on GCal. However, Nuevasyn also has a toll to remove duplicate entries from GCal that works pretty well, too.

I simply subscribe to the GCal calendar within iCal to keep that up to date. The one place these entries don't currently show up is in MobileMe on the web. I hardly ever reference that site for the calendar anyway,

Well, I'm still waiting for a native iPhone app like mNotes. In the meantime, I'll keep cobbling pieces together to make it work.

Syncing Lotus Notes, iCal, and MobileMe

The saga continues .... I think I've made this my own personal mission at this point.

Thanks Ryan for asking for an update. I've been fairly busy and haven't returned here recently.

This is my current scenario, a large amount of bailing wire and duct tape.

At work I have a Windows XP PC with Lotus Notes. This is always on.
(I basically use my Powerbook running 10.5.4 to actually work. This is running the Lotus Notes 8.5 for OS/X.)

I use VistoMobile to get my work email to the iPhone. Service with VistoMobile seems to be pretty consistent at this point.
(Oh no! Did I just say that out-loud?) Since VistoMobile is not a push solution, I have SMS messages sent to the iPhone if I receive a priority message (or one from my VP). This is done as a forwarding option within Lotus Notes.

I use Companion Link for Google to sync my Lotus Notes Calendar entries to a Google Calendar, one way sync only.
On my MAC, I use Busy Sync to sync my Google Calendar to ICal. I then use MobileMe to sync between my MACs and the iPhone.

Most of the time this works fairly well. These are the issues that I've run into.

With email, the biggest issue is having to reset the iPhone occasionally. This only seems to be necessary if I forget to turn off WiFi before I get to work. In these circumstance, the wifi networks at work do not allow access to email ports through the firewall.

I was unable to get Companion Link to auto synchronize on its own. So I turned it off. To that end I set up two scheduled tasks in Windows. The first does Companion Link Synchronization every 30 minutes. The second runs a program, aKill, that kills the synchronizations "Ok Dialogue" 10 minutes after the sync is scheduled.

With the calendar entries, on occasion ( once every couple weeks) entries get duplicated on Google Calendar. I haven't determined the circumstances that cause this yet. When this occurs, I log into Google Calendar and delete all the entries. Then in Companion Link I will do a "purge and reload" of the calendar entries on Google.

This was working fairly consistently. There were some old Lotus Notes repeating calendar entries that were messing up once in a while. However, we had gone through a Notes identity migration a few months back and I feel these are remnants of that process.

Overall, my time to manage this setup has reduced considerably to the point I didn't have to think about it too often. It just worked, surprisingly.

Until this week ... I had to do the purge and reload. Everything still syncs correctly to iCal and out to the iPhone and other MACs. However, when I view the calendar on MobileMe some of the custom repeat entries (Every 2 weeks) are showing up on the wrong week. I've spent a few hours chatting with Apple Support on this. It seems as though something is a wrong with the MobileMe account, which was converted from a .Mac account.

If I get a resolution to this, I'll post an update. As I said, bailing wire and duct tape!!

Cheers.

Update 9/5/2008 PM

BTW, I had also tried Lotus Notes GoBetween from PocketMAC which was touted as syncing directly from Lotus Notes to iCal. back in Feb. 2008. Unfortunately, I could never get that to work. From some of the other postings on the web it seems like there may be an update coming out later this year.

Lotus Notes to iPhone sync update

Well it's a new year. I feel I've gotten syncing to the iPhone from Lotus Notes running fairly smoothly, comparatively speaking.

For email, I've switched to VistoMobile for the iPhone. Actually, I had tried this when it was first released. It had worked pretty well for a while, but then I began to notice connectivity issues and some inconsistencies with the emails being synced to the iPhone. I've recently given it another try and once again it seems to be working fairly well. This utilizes a Windows Desktop client component which syncs email between your inbox and the iPhone.

VistoMobile also provides access to the corporate directory for looking up contacts. Comes in handy for sending an email to 1 contact, but is not integrated enough to send an email to a group of contacts at this point.

For syncing calendars, I use a combination of iCal, Live Mail, and the Httpmail plugin for Mail now that it is available for Leopard. Within Lotus Notes, I forward meeting requests to my Live Mail account. Using the httpmail plug-in I am able to update my iCal calendar with these events. For meetings that I am scheduling I include my live mail account as an attendee.

I went with Live Mail and the httpmail plugin because I can access this mail from behind the corporate fire wall. This allows me to keep my iCal calendar and iPhone sync'd during the day.

If there are events I book on my iPhone directly, I email the event to my corporate email account. Then I import the event from within Lotus Notes.

Certainly, this is not an ideal situation. I have, however, gotten the amount of rework and reentry down considerably from previous configurations.

Ah ... The islands

To be back in Hawaii, if only!

Syncing Lotus Notes Calendar with the iPhone

So, Yahoo's mail upgrade with pop3 access turned out to be a decent solution to my email struggles on my iPhone. I'm still waiting for a production solution to push email from Notes to my iPhone.
We'll have to see what Visto comes up with.

So, I tried a lot of possible solutions for syncing my Notes calendar to the calendar on the iPhone.

I tried syncing with Google Calendar, pulling that down to iCal on my MAC and then syncing with the iPhone. This turned out to be problematic on a number of fronts. Syncing Google Calendar with iCal eliminated all of the alarms. That was a show stopper for me with my typical schedule.

I had also tried using Outlook and the Lotus Notes Plug-in for Outlook. Then syncing the iPhone with Outlook. Then I thought I'd be able to sync the calendar from the iPhone with iCal on my MAC. This may have worked, if it hadn't really screwed up my Lotus Notes calendar. Essentially, I had to delete and recreate every repeating appointment in my calendar. Drove my staff crazy I think.

There were a couple other attempts with Companion Link, GSync, etc. None worked well. Each had their own minor issues.

What I ended up doing was using a little bit of brute force. The solution I used for email actually turned out to be the solution that worked best for me for iCal, too.

It turned out that meetings, appointments, and rescheduled events are forwarded properly to Yahoo mail as ics attachments. On my MAC I can either download these from the Yahoo mail web interface when I'm behind the firewall at work. (It doesn't allow POP3 access to external mail servers.) When I'm not locked down behind a firewall, I can open these attachments from mail on the MAC.

Either way, they show up in iCAL as invitations / notifications and are easily added to iCal. The only catch is if I am BCC on the notice. These have to be manually entered.

Another glitch is that meetings that I schedule, I have to re-enter on the MAC.

But all in all, this seems to be working well for me. The alarms stay on when syncing to the iPhone. My Lotus Notes calendar doesn't get screwed up every other day. And I can have all of my iCal calendars on my iPhone.

Still banking on Visto for a full featured solution, but latest news that I saw was for an email only solution.

8/17/2007 - Update - Well, I have had to edit several of the .ics files that get forward to Yahoo in order to get them applied to iCal. Textedit works just fine. Some of the frequent issues follow.
- If I am bcc'd on an invite, I end up replacing the organizers or chairs email address with one of mine, such as the Yahoo address. It's fairly obvious in the .ics where this exists.
- For meetings where I am the chair, I've started putting my Yahoo address as an optional attendee. In some cases, I stil need to edit the .ics file to remove the Lotus format email, CN="First Last\context\domain" with CN="". I believe, iCal looks at that first against you card in Contacts. Next step will be to see if I can add that into contacts.
- The other issue I've found is room reservation show up as attendees but don't get sync'd to the iphone. In those cases, while I have the .ics file open. I add a location line.

Far from perfect, but so far it's not terribly painful.