Lotus Domino 8.5.2.1 adds mobile support for Android

IBM are now shipping version 8.5.2.1 of Lotus Domino, which adds Lotus Notes Traveler push synchronisation support for Android. Lotus Notes Toolbox (www.lntoolbox.com) has the following write up...

New in Lotus Notes Traveler 8.5.2.1

Lotus Notes Traveler 8.5.2.1 is a full, cross-platform release that includes enhancements for all supported mobile devices.

• Support for mobile devices running the Android 2.x operating system.
• Support for Apple iPhone 4 and iPad with monitoring and control of security settings (including device passwords) for all Apple iOS devices
• Microsoft Windows Mobile and Nokia Symbian Scheduled synchronization and data filtering to optimize device usage
• Search your corporate directory from all supported mobile devices, including Microsoft Windows Mobile and Nokia Symbian devices
• Device Management - From a single point of control administrators can monitor user's mobile devices by device type and version and allow/deny access based on company security policies. Supported features include remote wipe for lost or stolen devices, password length/strength specification, option to deny access to unencrypted devices and prohibit camera usage.
• Deploy Lotus Notes Traveler on your Linux servers
• Lotus Mobile Installer provides seamless installation and upgrades for the client

Some things to note about the final release:

• Your Notes Traveler server must be running 8.5.2 to support the Android devices. This has the nice bonus of supporting the Traveler mobile installer, so that the software on the device side is always up-to-date.
• Having said that, the Traveler client for Android still cannot be installed on AT&T devices. This is due to their approach to device security; apps can only be installed from the Android Marketplace. AT&T has indicated they will have a solution available in early 2011.
• If you have been running the beta, you'll need to uninstall and reinstall in order to run the final version.

The Lotus Notes Traveler can be download from the IBM Partnerwold

Lotus Traveler 8.1

Since the release of Lotus Domino Server 8.0.1, Domino has natively supported wireless synchronisation of mail and calendar PIM data with devices running Windows Mobile 5 or later via Lotus Traveler, or Lotus iNotes as it has now been renamed, without the need for any third party software or middleware.

Lotus Traveler is a separate component not included in the standard installation of Domino Server, and must be installed separately.

The installation procedure is simply a matter of running an executable and specifying the target folder for the program files to be extracted to. Once installed the Domino server will need to be rebooted.

Configuration

The Traveler installation wizard should have set all of the required settings automatically. Should you wish to verify the settings governing Traveler, look at the following:

Launch the Domino Administrator client.

Browse to Configuration --> Server --> Current Server Document --> Basics

Set the option to Load Internet Configurations From Server/Internet Sites to Enabled:

Browse to Internet Protocols

Select the HTTP tab

Set the Maximum Requests Per Persistent Connection to at least 100

Set the Input Timeout to at least 75 seconds

Save the changes

Browse to Web --> Internet Sites

The Traveler installation should have created a new web site automatically.

Verify that the host name field is correctly set to the external name (FDQN) of the Domino server. If the server is to be accessed locally via the LAN and has a different internal name from the external one, add this name also.

Click on the Domino Web Engine tab

Set Session Authentication to Single Server

Click on the Security tab

If you want to allow only TCP connections, set the following:

• TCP Authentication > Anonymous set to No.
• TCP Authentication > Name and Password set to Yes.
• TCP Authentication > Redirect TCP to SSL set to No.
• SSL Authentication > Anonymous set to No.
• SSL Authentication > Name and Password set to No.

If you want to allow only SSL connections, set the following (this assumes that the correct SSL certificate configuration has already been applied to the Domino server):

• TCP Authentication > Anonymous set to No.
• TCP Authentication > Name and Password set to No.
• TCP Authentication > Redirect TCP to SSL set to No.
• SSL Authentication > Anonymous set to No.
• SSL Authentication > Name and Password set to Yes.
• SSL Options > Set appropriately depending on your SSL configuration.

If you want to allow both SSL and TCP connections, set the following:

• TCP Authentication > Anonymous set to No. This setting is optional and provides a more secure environment.
• TCP Authentication > Name and Password set to Yes.
• TCP Authentication > Redirect TCP to SSL set to No.
• SSL Authentication > Anonymous set to No.
• SSL Authentication > Name and Password set to Yes.
• SSL Options > Set appropriately depending on your SSL configuration

Save the changes

Restart the HTTP Server by browsing to Server --> Status --> Server Tasks --> HTTP Server and selecting Restart:

IMPORTANT

(this foxed me initially)

If you did not have any web sites configured on the server prior to the Lotus Taveler installation, the web site created for Traveler will be configured with a default web site rule of ‘override session authentication’.

If the Domino server that Traveller has been installed on is also the messaging server, this will effectively turn off authentication on the SMTP server service and will cause the SMTP server to stop accepting mail.

One solution is to create a separate Inbound SMTP queue:

And then restart both the HTTP and SMTP server tasks. This resolved the issue for me, but I don't know if there is a better way of doing it. If there are any Domino experts reading this, let me know if there is!

Usage

The Traveler client can now be downloaded to the Windows Mobile 5/6 device by opening a web browser on the client device and browsing to the address of the Domino server:

Select the version of Windows Mobile you are using. If the multilingual version of Traveler was installed, you will be prompted to select the desired language:

Once downloaded, run the CAB file. The following window will be displayed:

Tap Next, the following window will be displayed:

Enter your username and password and the external FQDN or IP address of the Domino Traveler server. These are the only settings that must be entered. Tapping on the Advanced button allows you to edit the connection settings:

If you are unsure about what settings to use, leave them at the default values.

By default the Traveler client communicates with the Traveler server via TCP port 8642 to send polling commands. This port can be changed by the administrator by browsing to Configuration --> Web --> Web Server Configuration --> Lotus Traveler --> AutoSync Settings

Tap Next, the following window will be displayed:

Select which mailbox folders you wish to synchronise with the client. Tap Next and then Finish:

The Lotus Traveler application will now be listed in the Programs folder, and a new folder will also have been created within the Messaging application:

To edit the default synchronisation settings, tap on the icon for the Traveler application and select Menu --> Settings:

The Account settings allow you to adjust the username, password and server address entered during the initial configuration:

The Mail and Calendar settings allow you to configure how far back into the past you synchronise, and the amount of data to retrieve:

The Other Applications settings allow you to specify how you want to synchronise the other mailbox folders: Contacts, Notes and Tasks:

The Auto Sync settings allow you to specify whether you wish to synchronise via a TCP connection, or have the server send you a ‘wake-up’ SMS message to trigger a synchronisation:

The Server Settings option displays the same information as that in the Advanced section of the initial setup and allows you to adjust the ports used to connect to the Traveler server:

The Logging settings allow you to set the level of detail the log file should go into, and also set a maximum log file size:

Your device is now configured for Lotus Notes Traveler.

Lotus Traveler 8.5

Lotus Traveler is IBM’s own mobility solution for the Lotus Domino mail platform, enabling bi-directional ‘push’-based synchronisation of mail and PIM folders (calendar, address book, to do’s and journal entries) with Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 devices.

Traveler 8.1 was released alongside Domino 8.0.1 and provided support for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 client devices. The release of version 8.5 extends this support to the Symbian Series 60 platform (including the Nokia E and N series range of handsets) and adds additional functionality in the area of device management.
I wrote an article on the Traveler 8.1 product here: http://blog.brightpointuk.co.uk/lotus-traveler-81

In this article I shall look at the principle features available in this new release. In-depth information can be found on the IBM web site here:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/domhelp/v8r0/index.jsp

System Requirements

Traveler 8.5 can only be installed on a server running version 8.5 of the Domino software.
User mailboxes themselves can be stored on a Domino server running version 7.0.2 or later.
Domino 8.5 is only supported on Windows Server 2003 32 or 64-bit.
From a licensing perspective, All Louts Notes users are automatically enabled for Traveler service, they simply need to download and install the client from the Domino server, I will look at this procedure in more detail later.

New Features

• Support for Symbian S60
  
• Device Policy enforcement for Windows Mobile
  • Require a power-on password
  • Require password to be a specific strength
  • Allow users x number of attempts to enter password correctly
  • Require that devices undergo a hard reset should allowed password attempts be exceeded
  • Require that data on external storage cards be encrypted
• Remote device wipe
• Rich text support for emails
• Support for mail encryption and mail signing

Client Installation

As with Traveler 8.1, users can download the Traveler 8.5 client directly from the web browser on their device by browsing to the address of the Domino server. This does require that the server be accessible from the Internet and have HTTP port 80 allowed through to it, but then the server needs to be Internet-facing in any case for client connectivity. A port other than HTTP can be specified if desired.
The web site can be customised to include any other additional software that may be required by users, including VPN client software.
The client installer package reads its configuration from an XML-based ‘bootstrap’ file which allows the administrator to pre-populate the client with required settings including the server address and port number among other variables.

Known limitations

A full list of limitations can be found on the IBM web site. The greatest hits to be aware of are as follows:

Windows Mobile

• Mails deleted on the client do not appear in the deleted items folder on the client.
• Cancelling a draft message will cause all previously saved draft messages to be removed from both the client and the server.
• Messages moved to subfolders of mail folders on the client are not synchronised to the Domino server.
• SIM contacts are not synchronised.
• ROOM and RESOURCE fields in calendar entries are not synchronised.

Symbian Series 60

• S60 3.0 devices do not support subfolders of mail folders. Only 3.1 and 3.2 devices provide support for subfolders.
• SIM contacts are not synchronised.
• ROOM and RESOURCE fields in calendar entries are not synchronised.