IBM Connections – Beyond of a standard installation

– Fasten your seatbelt -

Maik WeberIBM

Stefan HesslerIBM

IBM Connections – Beyond of a standard installationFasten your seatbelt

• Who we are?• Enhancements for IBM Connections• Migration to IBM Connections

Who we are?

• Maik Weber• Collaboration Architect• IBM Connections and IBM

Sametime, Linux and photography

• Stefan Hessler• Collaboration Specialist• IBM Connections and ESS Assets

Enhancements for IBM Connections

Enhancements for IBM Connections

• Touchpoint• Custom Streams• Profile Visibility• FremdTagging• App Passcode for IBM Connections App• Custom colors and themes in IBM Connections App

Touchpoint

• Onboarding wizard for IBM Connections• Set up your profile, expand your network and find

relevant content

Touchpoint

• Terms of Conditions version support• Mobile support

Custom Streams

• Personal Activity Stream• Filter by people or communities• Planned for IBM Connections 5.5

Custom Streams

Profile Visibility

• Manage visibility of your profile information to others• Make them available for everyone, colleagues,

network contacts or nobody• Restricted in UI and API

Profile Visibility - API: under the hood

• Usage of NodeJS and Redis (In-memory DB) for filtering

FremdTagging

• Enhancement of profile tagging• Supervise tags people associate you with

App Passcode for IBM Connections App

• Introduce additional protection for using IBM Connections App on mobile device

• Administrator can define type of application passcode and further settings (complexity, failure, history, expiration)

• Added to IBM Connections 5.0 CR3

App Passcode for IBM Connections AppExtract from mobile-config.xml

[...]

<AppPassword enabled="true">

<!-- Numeric - password only contains numeric characters

Alphabetic - password needs to contain atleast one alphabetic character

Alphanumeric - password contains atleast one alphabetic and one numeric characters

Complex - password contains alphabetic, numeric characters, and special characters

-->

<Type>Numeric</Type>

<!-- The minimum length requirement for the password.

The default for Numeric is 4, otherwise 8 -->

<MinLength>6</MinLength>

<!-- The min letters required for a complex password. Only applies to complex password types. -->

<MinLetters>0</MinLetters>

<!-- The min numeric letters required for a complex password. Only applies to complex password types. -->

<MinNumeric>0</MinNumeric>

<!-- The min non letters required for a complex password. Only applies to complex password types. -->

<MinNonLetters>0</MinNonLetters>

<!-- The min upper case letters required for a complex password. Only applies to complex password types. -->

<MinUpperCase>0</MinUpperCase>

<!-- The min lower case letters required for a complex password. Only applies to complex password types. -->

<MinLowerCase>0</MinLowerCase>

<!-- The min symbols required for a complex password. Only applies to complex password types. -->

<MinSymbols>0</MinSymbols>

[...]

App Passcode for IBM Connections App[...]

<!-- The amount of idle time in mins the app will require the user to re-enter the password. Default is no 0 (no autolock).-->

<Autolock>20</Autolock>

<!-- The number of days the password can be used before the user is required to change it. Default is 0 (password will not expire). -->

<Expiration>0</Expiration>

<!-- The number of past passwords that can't be reused. The default is 0 (no history maintained). NOTE: The password history will be stored encrypted in the app's iOS keychain. -->

<History>3</History>

<!-- The number of times the user can enter an incorrect password before all data for the app is removed from the device. The default is 0 (no wipe). -->

<WipeFailures>6</WipeFailures>

<!-- Allow ascending, descending, repeating sequences. Indicates if the password can contain ascending, descending, or repeating characters. If set to false, the password cannot contain any repeating characters or 3 or more ascending/descending characters. The default is true.-->

<AllowSequences>false</AllowSequences>

<!--Allow the user to use touch id instead of entering the password. The default is false. -->

<AllowTouchID>true</AllowTouchID>

</AppPassword>[...]

Custom color and theme in IBM Connections App

• Customize color and theme inside the IBM Connections App

• Added in IBM Connections 5 CR3 + iFix LO85858

Extract from mobile-config.xml

[...] <Customizations>[...] <AppColors> <!-- ThemeColor: Specified as a 6 character string representing the hex color code. For example 00ff00 represents a green color setting. When not specified the theme color shipped with the app will be used. --> <ThemeColor>00ff00</ThemeColor> <!-- ForegroundColor: Specified as a 6 character string representing the hex color code. For example ffd700 represents a gold color setting. The foreground color is used for icons and text that are displayed in areas that use the ThemeColor as a background color. When not specified the foreground color shipped with the app will be used. --> <ForegroundColor>ffd700</ForegroundColor> </AppColors> </Customizations>[...]

Migration to IBM Connections

Migration to IBM Connections

• Source system at customer was Jive SBS 4.5• Migration using Vamosa Content Migrator

– Collaboration with Vamosa / T-Systems• In the following, some experience and challenges

around– Content Mapping– Impersonation– Data migration– Migration approach / timeline

Migration from Jive to IBM Connections

Subscribe to select content in Jive

Map the Schemas and Content Types

Convert to Connections

All steps performed in an automatedcontrolled and consistentmanner using “Content Migrator”

4steps

Synchronise to Connections

Step 1: Subscribe to selected content in Jive

• Goal: Set a scope which data / parts are covered by migration

• Experiences / Challenges:– It is hard to agree on a specific date and scope– Find a balance between migration of out-dated vs

archived vs current data

Step 2: Map the schemas and content types

• Goal: Map Jive content to IBM Connections• Experiences / Challenges:

– Different types of content between platforms– Some content types are easy to map, others not

Jive Connections

Space Community

Social Group Community

Project Community

Documents – Binary Files

Documents – Rich Text Wiki

Discussions Forums

Blogs Blogs

Project Task / Check Points Activities

Step 3: Convert to IBM Connections

• Goal: Conversion rules to convert content to IBM Connections

• Experiences / Challenges:– Impersonate requests to create content– Handle content created by users who are no longer

working at company – users don't have a profile in IBM Connections (missing users)

– Create content in IBM Connections using API and database updates

Step 3: Convert to IBM ConnectionsImpersonation

IBM WebSphereApplication Server

IBM Connections

CustomTAI

VamosaContentMigrator

FederatedRepositoriesProfiles

Jive SBS

Content Migrator retrievescontent to be migrated from Jiveincluding user identity of author

Step 3: Convert to IBM ConnectionsImpersonation

IBM WebSphereApplication Server

IBM Connections

CustomTAI

VamosaContentMigrator

FederatedRepositoriesProfiles

Jive SBS

Content Migratorinjects user identity in requests

Custom TAI validates user identityagainst configured federated repository

At successful validation, user loggedin and execute requests using identityof user

Content Migrator retrievescontent to be migrated from Jiveincluding user identity of author

Step 3: Convert to IBM ConnectionsMissing users

IBM WebSphereApplication Server

IBM Connections

CustomTAI

VamosaContentMigrator

FederatedRepositoriesProfiles

Jive SBS

Content can be created byusers who are still employeedor have left the company

Step 3: Convert to IBM ConnectionsMissing users

IBM WebSphereApplication Server

IBM Connections

CustomTAI

VamosaContentMigrator

FederatedRepositoriesProfiles

Jive SBS

Content can be created byusers who are still employeedor have left the company

By comparison, Content Migration identifiesusers from Jive which do not have a profile (missing users)

Step 3: Convert to IBM ConnectionsMissing users

IBM WebSphereApplication Server

IBM Connections

CustomTAI

VamosaContentMigrator

FederatedRepositoriesProfiles

Jive SBS

Content can be created byusers who are still employeedor have left the company

All users who create content inIBM Connections have to havea profile

By default, all users with an activeaccount in LDAP repository get a profilevia SDI sync

By comparison, Content Migration identifiesusers from Jive which do not have a profile (missing users)

Step 3: Convert to IBM ConnectionsMissing users

IBM WebSphereApplication Server

IBM Connections

CustomTAI

FederatedRepositoriesProfiles

Step 3: Convert to IBM ConnectionsMissing users

IBM WebSphereApplication Server

IBM Connections

CustomTAI

FederatedRepositoriesProfiles

LDAPfileRegistry.xml

= „Missing users“ are added

to fileRegistry.xml

Step 3: Convert to IBM ConnectionsMissing users

IBM WebSphereApplication Server

IBM Connections

CustomTAI

FederatedRepositoriesProfiles

LDAPfileRegistry.xml

=

TDISOL„Active users“

IBM SecurityDirectory Integrator

TDISOL„Missing users“

„Missing users“ are addedto fileRegistry.xml

TDISOL for „Active users“ syncs usersfrom corperate LDAP repository

TDISOL for „Missing users“ syncs usersfrom WebSphere's fileRegistry.xml

Step 3: Convert to IBM ConnectionsCreate content using API vs database updates

• IBM Connections provides many APIs to create content

– In combination with impersonation via Custom TAI author information can be migrated

– Order of creation important to ensure order of display in many places (e.g. wiki pages)

• Migration of meta data is not covered by API

– Creation or modification dates

• Solution: Database update

– Activity stream

• Workaround: No migration, disable events during migration and clear news after migration

– „Likes“ of content

• Not migrated

Step 4: Synchronize to IBM Connections

• Goal: Import and synchronize content to IBM Connections

• Experiences / Challenges:

Full Synchronization Delta SynchronizationDelta Synchronization /

Go Live

Step 4: Synchronize to IBM Connections

• Goal: Import and synchronize content to IBM Connections

• Experiences / Challenges:

Full Synchronization Delta SynchronizationDelta Synchronization /

Go Live

• Changes to migrated content in IBM Connections

• Changes to user population between different synchronizations

– Re-assignment of users resulting in changes in user repository which cannot be mapped

– Employees leaving the company resulting in new „missing users“

Migration from Jive to IBM Connections

Subscribe to select content in Jive

Map the Schemas and Content Types

Convert to Connections

Synchronise to Connections

All steps performed in an automatedcontrolled and consistentmanner using “Content Migrator”

4steps

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