Customer Reviews

IBM Lotus Quickr 8.5 for Domino Administration

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"IBM Lotus Quickr 8.5 for Domino Administration" is the latest Domino related title adding to Packt Publishing's growing library of amazing Domino related titles. Though the book is a great resource for any Quickr admin, admins running Quickr on WebSphere should be aware that this book is solely centered on running Quickr on IBM's Lotus Domino platform.

The book begins with a very brief introduction on collaboration using Quickr. It then moves into a discussion on the different deployment architectures -- Domino and WebSpehere -- and helps the reader narrow down for which architecture their environment would be best suited.

Chapter Three is where the book splits off and begins to focus on Quickr for Domino leaving WebSphere as a potential topic for another book. The author's begin to dive into the underlying architecture providing the reader with a good understanding of how Quickr is situated atop Domino. Different deployment methods -- single server vs. clustered servers vs. expanded deployment -- are covered.

Chapter Four, available as a free download from the publisher, is a walkthrough of the installation and configuration process. For readers new to Domino they will be thankful that the first half of the chapter covers installing a Domino server, leaving the last half to installing and configuring Quickr.

Chapter Five is a wonderful deep dive into clustering, while Chapter Six provides a wealth of information on general administration. I believe that once you have Quickr up and running, you will want to keep this book handy just for Chapter Six, if for no other reason.

Chapter Seven discusses upgrade and migrations, as well as other features of running Quickr on Domino such as integration with the Domino Attachment and Object Services (DAOS) and offline services.

Chapter Eight is all about the management of places. From creating, renaming, and archiving, to using PlaceTypes. This is a perfect segue into Chapter Nine which discusses customization from colors, to themes, to PlaceBots.

Chapter Ten outlines the different connectors available (Microsoft Windows Explorer, Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Symphony, Lotus Notes and Lotus Sametime) as well as an outline on implementing desktop single-sign on.

Chapter Eleven is all about the devs. It discusses the Quickr APIs and provides some code listing for basic tasks. Then the book wraps up in Chapter Twelve outlining integration of other IBM products such as Sametime and Enterprise Content Management (FileNet P8).

As someone an experience Domino administrator and developer with almost zero knowledge of Quickr, I found the book to be exceptionally approachable. The text is written in a clear and concise manner, which is something we don't always get from books written for admins. I believe an admin of any level, even those new to Domino, who find themselves with the task of deploying and/or administrating a Quickr environment would be well served by this book.

Disclaimer: Packt Publishing provided a free review copy of the book for the purpose of this review.

A couple of days ago, a new book arrived on my desk. "IBM Lotus Quickr 8.5 for Domino Administration" was published by Packt Publishing in January 2011.
"IBM Lotus Quickr 8.5 for Domino Administration" is a step-by-step manual, with explanation from installation and upgrading, to the development and management of Quickr, to what-to-do-next when you finally have everything set up.
The book has been written by Lotus Community members Keith Brooks, Mark Harper, David Byrd and Olusola Omosaiye and also the reviewers are well known members of the Yellowverse ( Alex Kabasov, Dennis van Remortel ). All authors have a deep insight knowledge of IBM Lotus Quickr.

I was a bit surprised when reading thru the "Who is this book written for". Business Analysts, Managers ... Yes, it CAN be read by this group of non technical people, but I doubt that this is the audience the book is really targeting. I have never heard of any Business Analyst or a Manager installing fixpacks and modifying the notes.ini of a Domino server. And, putting my administrator's hat on, I would never allow them to do this tasks.

The target audience for this book is clearly a Domino Administrator who wants to install IBM Lotus Quickr. If you as an administrator have never setup an IBM Lotus Qickr server, then this book is for you.

All steps from installing the Domino server to applying fixpacks and installing the IBM Quickr server are explained on the first 58 pages of the book. Many screenshots help also those administrators that are not native english speakers. After doing some post installation configuration you will have a running IBM Lotus Quickr installation.

Chapter 6 (Managing IBM Lotus Quickr Servers) helps you with the daily administration of your Quickr server.
If you already have a runing IBM Lotus Quickr installation and you want to upgrade to release 8.5, you could start reading Chapter 7 first. Chapter 7 discusses the process required to upgrade Lotus QuickPlace and Quickr services to the new release 8.5.

Be aware that you need to have at least more than only some vague administration skills to get the most out of "IBM Lotus Quickr 8.5 for Domino Administration".

I can recommend this book to all Domino Administrators who want to successfully install, run and mantain IBM Lotus Quickr 8.5.