IBM Lotus Notes Domino Blog Template

1. IBM Lotus Notes DominoBlog Template Steve Castledine

2. What is a Blog? • A blog (short for weblog) is a online journal that is frequently updated and intended for general consumption. • Blogs are defined by their format: a series of entries posted to a single page in reverse-chronological order. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author/s or reflect the purpose of the Web site that hosts the blog. • The author of a blog is often referred to as a blogger. Many blogs syndicate their content to subscribers using RSS (Really Simple Syndication), a popular content distribution tool.

3. What is a Blog (more)? • Visitors can post comments to entries on the site. • Each individual entry can be linked using a “Permanent Link” (or Static URL) from other sites • Contains archives of posts – By Month, by Category

4. A typical “Blog”

5. Where did blogs come from?

6. Blogs in the Enterprise So what do blogs do in the Enterprise? • They enable groups of people to Communicate, Discuss, and therefore collaborate. So not just for personal use. Who are these Groups? • CEO’s Office (organisation communication) • Projects (You can email in Content, Central store of project data) • Teams • Organisations (free marketing, instant response to negative market information, product research, solicit customer opinion) • Yourself – just sharing ideas with others

7. The IBM Lotus Notes Domino Blog Template • Introduced at version 7.0.2 as part of the “Innovation Pack” (includes the blog template, Notes in a USB Stick and RSS template) – will run on 6.x+ but not supported or licensed • Included within the server install • Allows end users to create blog websites on a Domino Server • Easy as creating a new database from the server side template • Template is powerful and allows end users/customers to customize the web site entirely and without changing the underlying notes design.

8. It is a standard Lotus Notes Application Blog Database

9. Key Features • Content can be added via a Notes Client or Web Client • Inbuilt RSS feeds – Content/Categorised Content/Comments • Comment System (with built in SPAM protection) • Podcasting – iTunes feeds • Social Bookmarking – Categories/Tags • Automatic content archiving, searching, future publishing and expiry • HTML Template and Tag based system for ease of Web Design editing

10. Why use Domino for blogging? • Key Features mentioned before • Security • Replication • Ease of Use • Existing Architecture • Notes on a Stick – take your Lotus Notes Client on a USB stick and blog anywhere

11. Creating a New Blog Creating a New Blog is as simple as creating a new Notes Database from a Template

12. Creating a New Blog - Wizard Database then asks some questions and you are away

13. Out of the Box Website – www.jeffeisen.comLotus Notes Chief Architect

14. Customising the Blog Application • Entire Website can be customised (via Lotus Notes Documents) • Database can be customised via: • HTML Template and Tag system • Stylesheet (CSS) • Configuration Document

15. Customised Template – www.edbrill.comBusiness Unit Executive, Worldwide Lotus Messaging Sales

16. Customised Template – www.stevecastledine.comMyself

17. Customised Template - developerWorks Blog

18. Domino Server Team Blog – www.dominoblog.com

19. Theme - CoffeeSpot

20. Theme - Regulus

21. Used for a Corporate Websitewww.ABMauri.com

22. Add On – Statistics Template Allows you to capture usage information for your blog. For example: • Daily Page Impressions • Monthly Page Impressions • Referrers – Any “linkage” to your site from others • Site Searches (including Googles if a public site) • RSS Feed Hits Available from Lotus Support Website: http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=463&context=SSKTMJ&context=SSKTWP&q1=blog&uid=swg21246924&loc=en_US&cs=utf-8&lang=en

23. Add On – Statistics Template

24. Add On – Theme Template Allows you to capture, manage and distribute themes easily between databases • Build a list of preferred company themes • “Push” updates to existing blog databases • Download Themes from a central source Available shortly (version 1 Early May) …. Probably direct from my website, maybe it will get upgraded to Lotus support download

25. Add On – Theme Manager

26. Manual “Theme” editing/customisation HTML Templates (stored as Lotus Notes Documents) hold the html and system tags. Three Template Types for Customisation • Page – For formatting each web page eg homepage • Item – For formatting each entry • Block – So we can reuse blocks of html within our pages

27. HTML Templates

28. Tags Tags tell the blog application where to place key data • <$DXSubject$> - Subject of Post • <$DXAuthor$> - Author of Post • <$DXItemContent$> - Actual Content of Post • <$DXTitle$> - Title of Blog Example: <html><head> <title> <$DXTitle$> </title> </head> <body>

29. Stylesheet (CSS) • Edited within Notes Document so do not need to edit Lotus Notes design. • Database “parses” Content Rich Text when saved so stylesheet takes precedence on formatting (removes font tags – can be switched off)

30. Configuration Document Configuration document stores all the key settings for the database – including: • Any text/html generated by the system • Site Settings/Options • Switching on/off various features: Emailing Content, Logging Statistics, Email Subscriptions, Technorati Pings, Podcasting

31. Configuration Document Location

32. Resources • Lotus Support site under “Domino Server” – search “Blog” • Lotus Notes 8 Help Documentation • Personal Website http://www.stevecastledine.com

33. Resources • Two Articles on creating Themes from Scratch: • http://www.stevecastledine.com/sc.nsf/dx/Creating-a-new-Theme1.htm • http://www.stevecastledine.com/sc.nsf/dx/Creating-a-new-Theme2.htm

34. Questions