Improving notes addressing experience with recent contacts

© 2014 IBM CorporationPowered by IBM SmartCloud Meetings

IBM NotesImproving Notes Addressing Experience

with Recent Contacts

Open MicApurva Patel

Contacts Development Lead, Notes Client Development

Amita PadegaonkarContacts Quality Engineer, Notes Client Development

IBM Collaboration Solutions

2 © 2014 IBM Corporation

About Us

Vinayak Tavargeri- Support Manager – Facilitator for AP Open [email protected]

Contacts Development Lead, Notes Client [email protected]

Contacts Quality Engineer, Notes Client [email protected]


Abstract

Have you ever sent an email to the wrong person because his/her name was the same as, or similar to, the person that you actually intended to communicate with ? Ever wondered how you could improve your Notes Addressing Experience ?

IBM® Notes® Recent Contacts is the right feature to use. Notes keeps track of the people with whom you communicate with the most and shows these names at the top of your type-ahead list. We believe that the people with whom you are most likely to collaborate in the future are the ones with whom you keep collaborating with. In this Open Mic on "Improving Notes Addressing Experience with Recent Contacts" you will learn about about the improvements done in Recent Contacts over the different Notes releases and how you can benefit from them.

Lets discover the power of Recent Contacts!


Agenda

Everything about Recent Contacts – What, When, How ?

Recent Contacts and Typeahead

Benefits

Roaming users

Syntax Validation Improvements

Handling unwanted contacts or bad addresses


What are Recent Contacts ?

Your Recent Contacts are the people you communicate with the most by either mail communications or participating in chats

This feature was introduced in Notes 8.0 Standard client

'Recent Contacts' feature is enabled by default, but can be controlled by settings in Preferences->Contacts section


When do Recent Contacts get created ? After you send a mail or close a received mail, Notes stores the contact's

information and uses it to build your Recent Contacts view in your local address book.

If you choose in Notes preferences to save your chat to the Notes mail file, the participants of the chat are used to determine your Recent Contacts as well.

You cannot manually add names to Recent Contacts but a given recent contact can be added to the My Contacts view.

Recent contacts do not replicate as part of the “Synchronize Contacts” functionality.


How are Recent Contacts created ?

Notes balances the need for immediate update against impacting server or UI performance. So the new names are queued up till the next 'promote time'.

If it is time for promotion, then the server information for the names queued is retrieved and the new Recent Contact Records are created.

Recent Contacts view is updated every 30 minutes by default. This interval is controlled by the DPAB_PROMOTE_INC notes.ini parameter.

When a name is being processed, Notes also checks to see if it is time to Sync the Recent Contact information with the Server Contact record. By default this occurs once per week. This can by changed by setting notes.ini NABEntriesSyncInterval.

Note: Changing these notes.ini values can impact server and UI performance.


Maximum entries in Recent Contacts

By default, the maximum number entries allowed in Recent Contacts view is approximately 3000. You can change this limit via a notes.ini parameter - DPAB_MAX_DIP_TABLE_SIZE

If you have more than the maximum number of contacts, the names of those who you communicate with the least will be deleted from Recent Contacts per an Aging process

The Aging process happens when a new user is processed after the aging time, which is checked once per week by default

You can change the aging time via the DPAB_VALIDATE_INTERVAL notes.ini parameter


Recent Contacts in Typeahead list The Typeahead feature provides a list of possible matches as you type the

letters for a possible match

Searches local only─ Contacts─ Recent Contacts─ Mobile Directory Catalog─ Any additional local address book as set in Preferences → Sending and Receiving

Search server contacts by using “Search Directory For” in the Typeahead list

Recent Contact are used to determine the order for your Typeahead drop-down

Names displayed in the type-ahead drop-down list are sorted by “weight”, not alphabetically. This “weight” is stored for each contact in the dip directory.


Weights of Recent Contacts DIP - “Dynamic Interest Profiler” controls the weighting that determines the order of

the Typeahead drop-down list.

Weight is defined based on number of times the user sends and receives mail from that person. This weighting represents the user's relationship to a person. The DIP weighting is not visible to the user.

Names in the Recent Contacts view are stored using DIP technology in the following directory:

─ <Notes Data Directory>\workspace\.metadata\.plugins\com.ibm.notes.dip─ Note: It is not recommended that you rename or delete the contents of this directory unless you wish to

completely reset the contents of the Recent Contacts view.


Benefits of using Recent Contacts

Avoids server transactions

Lookups are faster

Lookups work in disconnected\ offline mode as well

Contacts with whom we collaborate most often, appear at the top of the Typeahead list

Minimizes the risk of sending mails to wrong people


Recent Contacts for the Roaming Users

As the word ‘Roaming’ itself explains, a roaming user is a Notes user who roams with personalized data.

Recent Contacts work from an integration of a local dip table (file) and a specific view within the local Personal Address Book (called "Recent Contacts")

─ For roaming purposes, the local address book is replicated up to the server.

The Recent Contacts (local dip table) are zipped and stored as a document within an additional database, called roamingdata.nsf, which also replicates up to the server.

Hence, the user gets a consistent mail addressing experience from any machine he/she accesses.

Refer Technote # 1508778

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21508778


Syntax Validation in Recent Contacts Syntax validation was added to Recent Contacts in Notes 8.5.2 FP2 and 8.5.3.

Following are some examples of addresses which are now considered invalid:

Refer Technote # 1441191 / SPR # VASR876SSW

Once such a contact is added to Recent Contacts, it can be removed by either deleting or hiding it.

Any address ending in period, backslash, forward slash, @, left angle bracket or single quote.

[email protected]. [email protected]/[email protected]'

Any SMTP address where address is surrounded by single quotes. '[email protected]'

No spaces are allowed in 821 SMTP address (the real address part) john [email protected]

No SMTP address can have a period after a top level ICANN domain. Top level ICANN domains are .com, .org, .edu, .gov, .int, .mil, .net.

[email protected]@[email protected].

On Notes addressing, we are not allowing a period in the organizational part.

john/test.abc/ibm




Handling unwanted contacts or bad addresses

If you have a bad email address in Recent Contacts, you can remove it:─ NOTE: You can delete a Recent Contact only in Notes 8.0.1 and later.

Pre - 8.52 FP2─ Right-click on the contact you would like to delete, and select Delete from the context menu.

Click Empty Trash in the action bar above the message list. Restart Notes.

8.52 FP2 and Higher─ Now when you delete a Contact from Recent Contacts. It immediately hard deletes the Recent Contact

and removes it from the weighting (DIP) table. No additional processing is needed.

In 8.53, a new feature, "Hide In Typeahead" was created as an alternative to deleting unwanted recent contacts.


Prevent bad addresses from being re-added to recent contacts To prevent a bad address from getting re-added to your recent contacts, mark

the Recent Contact as "Hide in Typeahead" instead of deleting. ─ When a Recent Contact record is marked as "Hide In Typeahead" it is ignored by typeahead, sending

and processing new mails.

Opening a Non Delivery Report with status failure, will also mark a Recent Contact as "Hide In Typeahead".

You can restore a contact marked back, by using the button "Show In Typeahead"


Enhanced “Hide in Typeahead” in Notes 9.0.1

In addition to the functionality added in Notes 8.5.3, Notes 9.0.1 has enhanced it further, and provides it right there in the Typeahead list.

In IBM Notes 9.0.1, when you see an unwanted contact or bad address in Typeahead, click on the cross (X) next to it.

─ This will mark the address as “Hide in Type Ahead” and will prevent it from showing in your Typeahead list.

You can also right click the address and select “Hide in Type Ahead”.


Controlling Recent Contacts Contents

Is it possible to prevent certain names from being added to Recent Contacts? You can prevent certain names from being added to Recent Contacts by using the

DPABRemoveRule notes.ini parameter. For details, see technote # 1415228.For example, to exclude addresses @test.com or @test.org, you would set : DPABRemoveRule=test

Is there a way to reset the contents of the Recent Contacts view, if, for example, a corruption is suspected?

Earlier you could reset the contents of this view by the steps provided in technote # 1265985.

From 8.53 and Higher - You can clean the DIP table and remove all the Recent Contacts from the view by setting notes.ini PURGE_RECENT_CONTACTS=1

It will perform a one-time purge of all Recent Contacts and the DIP table. Once done, it sets the INI variable to zero so that the process runs only once.






How do you fine tune Recent Contacts ? The preference to add names can be controlled by following settings (available

in Preferences->Contacts section), in 853 and later :

Setting Notes.ini Only Sender's name from emails I receive

DisableDPABCCandToprocessing=1

Only the 'To' recipient names from emails I send & recieve

DisableDPABCCprocessing=1

Only names from e-mails I send DisableDPABReceivedprocessing=1


Additional Resources


Technote List

Technote# 1497132 Typeahead ranking not accurate for directory catalog and external addressesspr# RKRY8DVP24

Fixed in 852FP3Fixed in 853

Technote# 1441191 Syntax validation was added to Recent Contacts. The following are considered invalid: (1) Any address ending in period, backslash, forwardslash, @,...spr# VASR876SSWRKRY8JNSKM

Fixed in 8.5.2FP2Fixed in 8.5.3

Technote# 1438224 Type-ahead omits commas for contacts with multiple addressesspr# TONN862PWA

Fixed in 8.5.1 FP4Fixed in 8.5.2

Technote# 1415228 Unable to remove or update recent contact entries after rename or recertificationspr# YGAO7QQHPD


Technote# 1570490 How to purge all Recent Contacts from a Notes 8.5x client

Fixed in 8.5.3 with a new iniPURGE_RECENT_CONTACTS=1

Technote# 1292419 Type-ahead does not resolve to names in the Domino directory

Notes 8.0Works as designed

Technote# 1267115 How to disable the Recent Contacts feature in IBM Notes

Introduced in 8.5DisableDPABProcessing=1

Technote# 1265985 Is there a way to reset the contents of the Recent Contacts view in Notes 8 client?

For 8.0 client

Technote# 1307765 How to programmatically remove an entry from Recent Contacts list

For 8.0.1 client







http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=899&uid=swg21292419





SPR ListRKRY8JNSPG Recent contacts should treat notes addresses with

space after the @ as invalid.Fixed in 9.0

ASCR855PD6 Open a message from an RCF821 address then from an RFC822 address (same user) does not update name in Recent Contacts as expected

Fixed in 9.0

ASCR89KJ4K Fixed a problem where the recent contact preference "Only names from emails I send" failed to work properly


ATAI7WSABL When a Delivery Failure report is processed, the failed address will be automatically deleted from Recent Contacts and put into Contacts...


RKRY8A2NNX Fixed an issue where deleting a Recent Contact would sometimes result in the recent contact reappearing unexpectedly. Now, Recent Contacts, once...


RKRY8BNKYL Fix adds a one time validation on the email field of Recent Contacts. No server lookup is being done.


RRAL8D2KG8 Fixed a problem where name lookup failed with "formula error" against a Directory Catalog (DirCat).


RCFE85KUDT Fixed the issue where only one local contact is displayed in typeahead if there are many contacts with the same full name


TONN8ADMZP Fixed a problem where type-ahead would fail with a mobile directory sorted by Last Name in Basic client



References

Understanding Notes 8.x Recent Contacts (Q&A, Related Content, and Enhancement Requests)

IBM Lotus Notes 8 Recent Contacts and Type-ahead features: FAQs

Improving the Hide in Typeahead feature introduced in 8.5.3


http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/dominowiki.nsf/dx/ibm-lotus-notes-8-recent-contacts-and-type-ahead-features-faqs

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/dominowiki.nsf/dx/%E2%80%9CHide_in_Typeahead%E2%80%9D_Enhancement_in_IBM_Notes_9.0.1

23 | © 2014 IBM Corporation

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