Updated Strategy

March 18, 2008

After a few months of working with both Notes & SharePoint, I have updated my strategy to the following:

Don’t try to get rid of Domino – just get rid of the Notes Client.

My proposal to do this is actually fairly simple:

  1. Web-enable all Notes Apps.
  2. Put them into iframe web parts in your SharePoint environment
  3. Share CSS on both platforms
  4. Use IIS as the HTTP stack on Domino, and AD as your authentication.

Do those things, and the end users won’t know or care what technology is driving any given app. IT still gets a cost benefit from not having to support the client, and management gets their wishes because “Everything is in SharePoint.”

Posted in General | 9 Comments »
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9 Responses to “Updated Strategy”

  1. Stephan H. Wissel Says:

    March 18, 2008 at 7:09 pm

    And while you are on that… upgrade your servers to Domino 8.5 and enjoy excellent new web features.
    Some Dojo also doesn’t harm.
    :-) stw

  2. Effective Collaboration Says:

    March 20, 2008 at 10:45 am

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  3. Scott Gentzen Says:

    March 20, 2008 at 6:43 pm

    I’ve worked in environments that have done this quite successfully, minus the Sharepoint part.

  4. Yuval Says:

    March 27, 2008 at 2:49 pm

    Very Interesting Blog.

    Since I was in your situation with one of my customers a year ago I can tell you what will happen next:
    You will web enable some of the notes applications but when your CIO will understand how much it will cost him to web enabled them all (or migrate them to .NET) you will find yourself with 3 environments to support and synchronize: Domino, Notes Client and SharePoint, and he will prefer to keep paying to both IBM and Microsoft than to admit this was a wrong decision and kill the SharePoint project.
    BTW, I also used Domino on the Top of IIS with AD, iframe web parts (with some changes to allow cross scripting and auto resizing) and Webservice/XML web parts. Users can’t tell if they are in SharePoint or Domino, they also doesn’t care.

  5. migratenotes Says:

    March 27, 2008 at 3:36 pm

    @4) You are correct – as we started looking at costs and efforts, web-enabling didn’t give any ROI vs. just maintaining the client-based apps.
    So we are maintaining two environments, not 3, while developing our plans for both.

    So how did IIS work out for you? One of our admins is nervous because he has heard of issues where new windows lose the login, and other such things.

  6. Vlad Says:

    March 28, 2008 at 1:15 pm

    @5 I already have a clustered environment with SSO (IIS and Domino 8.0). I have only one application so far but the default access is “No access”. I do not use new window in excess but have not had any problem with loosing the login or other problems in two months since the application was launched.

  7. Yuval Says:

    March 28, 2008 at 2:37 pm

    SSO is not a problem at all, i had a separate server for the domino applications with windows 2003, IIS 6 and Notes 7 (now 8) ,I configured the websphere plugin, I added a DOMAIN\firstname.lastname to the username list in NAB (and made it part of every new user registration) and added the domain to the users Intranet sites in I.E (http://*.yourdomain.com – can be done with AD policy).
    bottom line – people never see a login screen as long as they are logged in to the AD, it work inside the sharepoint with iframes or as a standalone, so new windows are not an issue.

    BTW, only a company like Microsoft have the guts to sell sharepoint 2007 and his implementations for search, forum, wiki or image gallery as “Out of the box portal” , while it’s actually just a shared documents management tool, with a very basic workflow and access management capabilities.
    They should call it “in to the box” because you need to stay days and nights in your box in order to make it work.

  8. Yuval Says:

    March 28, 2008 at 2:38 pm

    this smile is actually just a “(now 8.01 )”

  9. Gary Walsh Says:

    April 3, 2008 at 6:23 am

    Web enabling a Notes database sounds like a good strategy .. until you actually try it. The reality is that the tool set from Lotus gets you maybe 75% of the way there, and the remaining 25% requires a combinations of workarounds and hacks that make you wonder why you bothered in the first place. Since 2002 we have been addressing this, creating tool kits that make the process easier for the developer, and the user experience much better for the people that matter.


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