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Workplace Managed Client explored

Posted by Anil Vartak | February 20, 2006

After the initial excitement of being able to get Workplace Collaboration Services up and running wore off, it was time to explore some more. First let me say that my experience with WCS 2.5 was not great and I'm spoilt by Notes client and Domino server installs. WCS installations are still very complicated, and if you miss one step you're likely to have to start from scratch again or spend hours trying to figure out where you messed up. In fact although I got the Workplace Managed Client running on my laptop quite easily, I still can't get it working on my desktop - it goes through the entire installation and then fails trying to find a plugin on the server which is definitely there. For anyone who's criticized Notes error messages, I think Java error messages make the Notes error messages come out glowing in terms of being user friendly. Then again, after 10 years with Notes I'm biased!

If anyone's wondering why I'm focusing on the Workplace Managed Client (WMC) it's because I believe in the not so distant future the lines between the WMC and Notes client will blur to the point where the WMC is the Notes client. Don't take that as official word - its just my personal opinion. After seeing some of the features in the WMC, I can't wait for that to happen. Some of the productivity tools included in WMC (and I believe to be included in Hannover) are pretty good. To get to these you can click on the "Documents" icon in the Switcher/sidebar. For example, you can create project plans, presentations, documents and spreadsheets within the WMC.

I created a few folders and added some files and then clicked on Tools->Synchronize thinking it would replicate with the server and.....nothing. Discovered you have to click on the little twistie next to the Document pane to synchronize Document libraries. Tried that and.....nothing! Went back to the browser, accessed the portal, clicked on "New library" and created one there, then back to the WMC and tried the synchronize and it showed the folder I created using the browser in my WMC. I guess in an unintuitive way that made sense - a user would want their own folder which shouldn't sync, and a shared folder that should. You can drag and drop files between the folders and it all seemed to work well once I had figured that out. The screenshot below shows the "Documents" view in WMC with a project plan open for editing and the Synchronize option .highlighted to sync this with the server.



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Comments

 Jack Dausman commented on Feb 21, 2006 5:28:51 AM

Thanks, Anil, you've summarized many of the same experiences I've had just with WCS. Kit Davis has also written up his trials on WCS 2.6 http://www.ynys.com/contrtech.nsf/d6plinks/KDAS-6M7LLH but yours is the first comment I've seen on the WMC.

 David Bell commented on Feb 24, 2006 7:08:00 PM

A few things:

1) The productivity editors can be used independently of the full client - you should be able to see them in the "open with..." dialog for launching files and you should have a separate icon to launch them from the Start menu

2) You can switch locations in the Notes plugin via File | Mobile | Choose current location (context sensitive menu available when Notes plugin is in focus) - there's just no location switcher in the bottom right corner as in Notes.

3) The toolbars are not there yet so don't spend a lot of time trying to find somewhere to turn them on

 Anil Vartak commented on Feb 25, 2006 12:29:37 PM

Thanks for the clarifications. I have to admit I never thought to look under File->Mobile - I'm so used to using the switcher at the bottom!

I had also in the meantime discovered that I can use the productivity tools outside of the WMC

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