I've been posting quite a few questions in the discussion forum for this project over the last few days.



This is a great template. A big thanks to everyone that put forth effort and energy to get it developed. The impact on the average user will be huge. I'm working in a mid sized company that migrated from Exchange 1.5 years ago. It's been nothing but complaints and whining since then. One problem with the environment is that the previous admins, who are no longer with the company, rolled out different versions of the mail template to different end users, and did very little training. The result being that each end users desktop looks different, so they can't really train each other. Some people are using R5 template with limited features, and some people have different flavors of R6.x template. What a mess.



Here's my review of the OpenNTF.org Mail Experience v.1.6 template. Hopefully, this information will help other researching admins, and encourage a much wider use of the template.



Template Facts:

1. The OpenNTF.org Mail Experience v1.6 is built on Domno 6.5.4 DWA Mail template (inotes6.ntf)
   
   
   
   In R6.5.x Lotus has 3 templates.
   
   a. Standard R6 Mail template (mail6.ntf)
   
   b. Extended Mail Template (mail6ex.ntf)
   
   c. Domino Web Access aka DWA (iNotes6.ntf)
   
   
   
   The DWA template supports access through the following methods:
   
   i. Lotus Notes Client
   
   ii. Webmail Interface access
   
   iii. POP3 access
   
   iv. Domino Web Access (R6 based, but previously called iNotes)
   
   
   
   This is important because if you have clients that access the server in different ways, you can utilize a unified template for all types of access. In other words, manage just one template. At our environment, we have Notes Client access, Webmail access (because DWA requires too much network traffic over slow lines), and DWA access for remote users who have broadband (but no Notes Client at their remote site).
   
   
   
2. Works with DAMO (Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook - which replaces Outlook Connector)
   
   
   
   This may sound like an oxy-moron. Why would you need to worry about a Domino Mail template when providing access to the Domino mail box through Outlook? The issue again points to an environment in which users access their mailboxes in multiple ways, but you want to utilize a unified template and manage just that one template.
   
   
   
   My Local Setup:
   
   6.5.4 Client
   
   6.0.3 Server
   
   OpenNTF.org Mail Experience Template v1.6
   
   
   
   We replaced the design of an existing mailbox that was based on the default 6.5.2 mail template.
   
   
   
   Everything seems to be working as advertised. I see the forward and reply icons, which appear in a column between the who and date column. I see the sent type white/blue circles on the far left. I have not experienced any kind of problem with the template or lack of advertised functionality.
   
   
   
   I am a little concerned that we are running on a 6.0.3 server instead of 6.5.4 server. We cannot upgrade for 2 or 3 months, so we will have to live with any functionality that is not there until then, but I can't seem to find anything that doesn't work.
   
   
   
   Problems:
   
3. If the end user has editor access in the ACL to their own mailbox, the Quick Stuff links do not work. They can add members to the list, but they cannot remove them easily. Also clicking on the addressee name in the Quick Stuff section supplies an error instead of a new memo addressed to the address that was clicked on.
   
   
   
   I was able to fix this issue by setting the end user to manager in the ACL.
   
   
   
   This is a minor issue, but may affect organizations that do not give user' manager access to their own mailboxes to prevent them from deleting them.
   
   
   
4. When we replaced the design with an Administrator Client, the machine on which the design was replaced seemed to work fine. No problems accessing the mailbox, no problems within the mailbox.
   
   
   
   However, when replacing User A's mail template design on Admin B laptop. Access to User A's mailbox worked fine as long as it was accessed by Admin B's laptop. However, when User A used his own machine to connect to User A's mailbox, every item in the mailbox was a replication/save conflict.
   
   
   
   To fix this, we deleted Cache.NDK on User A's desktop machine, and the problem went away.
   
   
   
   This could be an issue rolling out the template, because there has to be some interaction with the client machine.
   
   
   
   We have NOT tried the following:
   
5. Changing a mailbox to inherit it's design from OpenNTF Mail Experience template
   
6. Allow the designer task on the server to refresh the design.
   
   
   
   Though, I'm not sure how this would work out because designer is going to refresh, instead of replace the design - correct??
   
   
   
   Overall this template is awesome!
   
   
   
   Hope this review helps someone!
   
   
   
   information wants to be free.
   
   David @ Symetrik Design com