Portal Express, Version 6.0
Operating systems: i5/OS, Linux, Windows
Common PIM portlets reference
The Common PIM (Personal Information Management) portlets consist of the Common Mail and Common Calendar portlets and are found on the Welcome > Messaging page.
The Common Mail portlet allows administrators to configure the portlet for different back-end mail systems and protocols and allows users to retrieve their mail from the back-end systems. The supported back-end mail systems and protocols are IBM® Lotus® Domino®, Microsoft® Exchange, IMAP4, and POP3. In addition to basic mail support, the portlet also supports features such as an inline rich text editor for message creation and editing, a spell checker, and the ability to save attachments to the WebSphere Portal Express Document Manager.
The Common Calendar portlet allows administrators to configure the portlet for use with IBM Lotus Notes® calendars on Lotus Domino servers and Microsoft Outlook calendars on Exchange servers, and allows users to access and work with their respective calendars.
The Common Calendar portlet does not support Notes To Do documents.
What's new
The Common PIM portlets have the following new features:
- Support for Microsoft Outlook calendars on Microsoft Exchange servers
- Support for rich text and attachments in Common Calendar
- Group Calendar (Lotus Domino only) – A feature that allows users to quickly see when other users are free or busy
Use the Common PIM portlets
Depending on the back-end system, these portlets may require that you select Configure (first, click the down arrow in the portlet title bar) to specify the server type (and, for Common Mail, the protocol used to connect to the server). The default server type is Domino. You can also select whether to allow users to change the server type/protocol when they select Personalize in their portlet.
If you are an administrator, you see the command Edit Shared Settings instead of Personalize. This command works the same as Personalize except that your changes apply to all users of the instance of the portlet whose settings you are editing, up until the time a user decides to personalize the portlet. Use caution when editing shared settings. For more information, see Configuration levels for portlets.
In each portlet, selecting Configure, specifying the server type/protocol, and then clicking the wrench icon displays a second configuration screen that is Domino or Exchange-specific and contains these sections:
- Source: This section allows you to specify the default server for users and contains an option to allow or prevent users from changing the mail or calendar source when they select Personalize.
- Authentication: For Lotus Domino, this section allows you to enable or disable single sign-on for the portlet (enabled is the default). If you select basic authentication, or if you want users to see busy time details in Common Calendar, configure a credential vault slot to store user credentials for authentication. For information on vault slots, see Portlet authentication. For Exchange, configuring a credential vault slot is the only option.
If you create vault slots, make sure that you type identifying text in the Description field on the Select Vault page for each vault slot. In configure mode for the Common Mail portlet, the Credential vault slot field does not display vault slots that do not have descriptions.
- Features (Domino only): This section allows you to select features to make available or unavailable to users, such as the rich text editor and the ability to attach files, or (for Calendar only) additional calendar support from other Lotus clients and the use of the Group Calendar feature.
- Busytime Source (Domino only): In Common Calendar, if you enabled the Group Calendar feature, this section allows you to enter information about the Domino server that contains CPPFBWS.NSF–a database that contains a Web services proxy agent that retrieves users' busy times for the Portal. For more information, see Step 4 of Enabling Group Calendar in Common Calendar.
The Common PIM portlets support Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP). See Setting up the Common PIM portlets as remote portlets.
Portlet security
When Lotus Domino is the back-end mail system, the Common PIM portlets use Lotus Collaborative Services, which can query the Domino LDAP directory to get the user's mail file and server and use single sign-on (SSO) to log the user into the mail server automatically. For more information, see Checklist of tasks: LDAP server for Lotus Collaborative Services.
When either Lotus Domino or Exchange is the back-end system, the Common PIM portlets can connect to the back-end over SSL. For more information, see Enabling SSL connections to a Domino server and Enabling SSL connections to an Exchange server for the Common PIM portlets.
When Exchange is the back-end system, in order for the Common PIM portlets to work when Java 2 security is enabled in the portal, edit the portal's policy files. For more information, see Using the Common PIM portlets with Exchange and Java 2 security.
Test assumptions
The Common PIM portlets assume that supported back-end systems have been configured according to their system specifications.
If the back-end system is Lotus Domino, these portlets assume that WebSphere Portal Express and Domino have been configured to work together; for information, see Configuring the WebSphere Portal Express server to recognize Lotus Domino and the Collaborative Services.
Set up the Common PIM portlets
Client requirements
This portlet supports browsers and devices capable of rendering HTML markup. The following table provides detailed information.
| Minimum requirements for HTML | |
|---|---|
| Markup level | HTML 4.0 Transitional |
| Java™ applet | None |
| JavaScript™ | 1.30 |
| <iframe> | No |
| Style sheets | Portal styles |
| Software | The Common PIM portlets are compatible with the specific Web browser software releases listed in Supported hardware and software in the Information center. Refer to the requirements for the relevant version of WebSphere Portal Express, and then see the section on supported Web browsers. |
| Accessibility | Yes |
The Common PIM portlets work with Notes® mail databases that have the Domino Web Access (iNotes™) design (iNotes5.ntf, iNotes6.ntf, or DWA7.ntf) or the standard mail design (Mail6.ntf) or (Mail7.ntf). If users have mail databases based on iNotes5.ntf, see this technote: Common PIM portlet with mail file based off iNotes5.ntf displays: "An error occurred and the last action wasn't completed."
Server requirements
The Common PIM portlets are compatible with Lotus Domino 6.5.4, 6.5.5, 7.0, 7.0.1, and 7.0.2. However, for support of all Common Calendar features, such as the group calendar and rich text attachments, Lotus Domino 7.02 is required. For more information on specific releases of Lotus Domino, see Supported hardware and software. Refer to the requirements for the relevant release of WebSphere Portal Express, and then see the Software for collaboration section. For more information, see Known limitations for Common PIM portlets in the release notes.
For use with Exchange, the portlets require Exchange 2000 or 2003.
A Lotus Domino Interim Fix Pack may be required on any Lotus Domino messaging server that functions as a back end for the Common PIM portlets. Contact IBM Support to determine whether such a Fix Pack is required and how to obtain it.
Deployment/installation
The Common PIM portlets are installed automatically as part of WebSphere Portal Express installation.
Configuration parameters
Most configuration options for these portlets are set using configure mode. In configure mode for these portlets, keep the following in mind:
- If you enable features for users (for example, if Lotus Domino is the back-end mail system and you enable users to launch Domino Web Access), log out and log back in to see the changes in the portlet.
- You must specify the fully qualified host name of the server. Additionally, users that have access to change the server by using Edit Shared Settings or Personalize must specify the server's fully qualified host name.
The following configuration parameters are available in this portlet.
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| wsrp_remote_portlet | Whether the portlet is supported as a remote WSRP service.
This parameter does not exist by default; the administrator must add it to the portlet instance. Example: true
|
| CPP_PassHttpCookies | Allows the portlet to work with third-party authentication software such as Computer Associates eTrust SiteMinder by specifying custom cookies. Separate multiple cookie names with a semicolon.
This parameter does not exist by default; the administrator must add it to the portlet instance. Example: cookie1;cookie2
|
| CPP_PassHttpHeaders | Allows the administrator to specify additional request headers. Separate multiple headers with a semicolon.
This parameter does not exist by default; the administrator must add it to the portlet instance. Example: header1;header2
|
Parent topic:
Messaging: the Common PIM portlets
Previous topic
Setting up the Common PIM portlets as remote portletsRelated concepts
Using the Common PIM portlets with Domino Using the Common PIM portlets with Exchange