IBM and Box collaboration

Posted on 30/09/2015 by ianw

IBM have recently established a Collaboration agreement with Box.

ICN v2.0.3 FP5 got released today, and now supports Box repositories, for search/retrieval/viewing.

Some detail in here.

Posted in FileNet, IBM Content Navigator, P8 v5 | Leave a comment

FileNet ECM Video tutorials

Posted on 29/08/2015 by ianw

Some YouTube clips now available:

  • Create an IBM Content Navigator desktop and configure it for workflow
  • Configure an IBM Content Navigator desktop to open Process Designer and Process Tracker
  • Create a connection point and isolated region with the Administration Console for Content Platform Engine
  • Create isolated region objects with the Administration Console for Content Platform Engine

YouTube channel

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FileNet HA Solution

Posted on 07/06/2015 by ianw

Anyone who’s deployed a HA Solution that uses WebSphere ND will have wept when presented with the bill.  FileNet on a WebSphere platform is no different.

IBM have published an article on how to deploy a FileNet HA environment without using WebSphere ND.  It’s not as slick as using WAS ND, and will take more effort. But for anyone looking for economies, it’s worth investigating.

IBM Article

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CPIT 5.2.1…. rant

Posted on 07/04/2015 by ianw

CPIT has acquired something of a reputation for being overly fussy and fragile.

Last week I found myself needing to get hold of a FileNet 5.2.1 single server system, and CPIT seemed to fit the bill. Luckily I had all the packages to hand, so within about 3 hours, I had what was at first sight a complete environment.

How wrong I was.

I’d tested the installation out in WorkplaceXT and ACCE, and all was looking great. However, on configuring a repository inside Content Navigator, it all descended into a bit of a mess. Navigator insisted that the object store was not available, and the WebSphere logs gave no hint of any problem – showing successful object store authentication, so, after a few hours I was beginning to wish I’d installed everything manually.

However, after a tip-off (thanks Colin) it became obvious that a critical step had been skipped by CPIT – this is a setting that is present in WebSphere 8.5 that was off by default in earlier versions. Despite overcoming this obstacle, I also found that I couldn’t open any of the Workflow-based Java applets in WorkplaceXT. A bit of googling revealed an article that suggested further changes to WebSphere configuration, and thankfully this fixed the problem.

So now I have a fully operational 5.2.1 system, but I’m left wondering why it had to be so frustrating. Did I miss something in the CPIT documentation? Or, are we just expected to figure out for ourselves that important steps have been missed by CPIT? CPIT is completely scripted, so maybe there is no command-line statement available for making these changes I mentioned above, but even so, the CPIT Installation guide should include these gotchas.

Posted in FileNet, IBM Content Navigator, P8 v5 | 11 Comments

FileNet in the Cloud

Posted on 21/08/2014 by ianw

Here’s an article I wrote for Integritie, that has been published on the Integritie blog this week:
Top 10 Reasons for moving to the cloud

2014 is the year when Cloud Computing really took off, and anyone who knows me will be aware that FileNet in the Cloud has been a pet subject of mine for the past 7 years. Despite the fact that SaaS has been a major emerging trend over the past decade, it’s been surprisingly difficult to convince a lot of people of the virtue of this technology in the ECM industry.

AIIM has also published a presentation discussing the merits of ECM Cloud technology. Well worth perusing.

To me it’s a no-brainer – there are so many barriers to adopting ECM that it just naturally seems a better way to run a business. Hopefully this piece will contain at least one or two persuasive arguments. I’d appreciate people’s feedback on ECM Cloud technology – please comment below, especially if you have any counter arguments.

Posted in Cloud, FileNet, P8 v5 | 3 Comments

New ICN Certification

Posted on 23/04/2014 by ianw

Just a heads-up about a new ECM Certification from IBM: IBM Certified Solution Designer – Content Navigator.

Although targeted to ECM professionals with good knowledge of Content Navigator, knowledge is also assumed in: IBM ECM Products, JEE Application servers, Databases, CMIS, Mobile platforms.

2 courses – F1200 & F2059 – are available that contain appropriate course materials. Test C2070-983 must be passed with a mark of at least 66% to gain the certification.

Check out the main page for details of all ECM Certifications.

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IBM Content Navigator: Redbook

Posted on 08/01/2014 by ianw

And, yet another Redbook released a few days ago – Customizing and Extending IBM Content Navigator.

This is a Draft publication though, so will be updated next month.

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IBM Case Manager: Redbook

Posted on 26/12/2013 by ianw

A new IBM Redbook has been released, see: ICM Redbook.

This has been updated to take account of changes introduced in ICM 5.2, which was released recently.

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IBM Content Foundation: P8 Lite

Posted on 15/06/2013 by ianw

This week, IBM have announced the release of a new offering that’s based on FileNet P8: IBM Content Foundation.  Having read through the announcement and feature list, I was initially puzzled as to exactly how it is different to P8.  All that IBM say in the announcement is:

Based on the world-class, industrial strength, and proven technology of IBM FileNet® P8, but in a more affordable, more accessible, more consumable package, IBM Content Foundation offers the power of FileNet P8 made nimble, affordable, and more consumable.

However, Content Foundation does have its own InfoCenter, and reading through this (essential bedtime reading) I eventually stumbled across a statement describing the P8 products and tools that are excluded.

To summarise, Workplace/WPXT, eForms, RE, CA, IER & FEM are all missing, which I guess is to be expected for a “P8 Lite”.  One omission that does puzzle me though is that of Process Designer.  Without this, there’s no means of creating an intricate Process Map.  Even ICM Designers occasionally need to drill down into PD.

The Content Platform Engine (aka Content Engine + Process Engine) does form part of the Content Foundation.  So, without having installed or seen this new offering, I’m left wondering how we build workflow applications in this product?

Would somebody care to enlighten me?

See here

Posted in FileNet, P8 v5 | 3 Comments

IBM FileNet P8 5.2 released this week

Posted on 14/03/2013 by ianw

It’s been around 18 months since P8 v5.1 was released, back in 2011, but the latest version is now imminent.

As you’d expect for software that has been so long in the pipeline, there are some pretty fundamental changes. The Content Engine and Process Engine are now combined into the same JVM, and badged as the “Content Platform”.  Apparently the two engines will still operate separately and independently, but will co-exist in a single EAR file.

Here is a quick summary of what we can expect:

  • FileNet BPM to be renamed IBM Case Foundation – more details here
  • A unified installation procedure – PE will be deployed using the Config manager.
  • Content Navigator will be included
  • The browser-based Admin tool ACCE will be expanded to replace FEM and PTM
  • Component Manager will now run in J2EE server
  • Case Analytics is also moved to the J2EE server
  • New Social Content Management functionality (API?) will be introduced
  • BPF and ECM Widgets to be withdrawn
  • Removal of legacy CSE Search
  • Bulk move of content from CFS to P8
  • Object stores and Process Engine regions can share the same DB (as with ICM)

For more detail, take a look at these announcement articles:

The P8 Infocenter is also now available.

Posted in FileNet, P8 v5, Uncategorized | 7 Comments