Lotus Traveler on Android - Lotus Calendar

In this last post of the series (covering my experiments on lotus traveler software on Android client), I explored the Lotus Calendar application closely.

IBM follows the consistent minimalist design approach (consistent to Lotus Mail on Android) where by default you see the meetings scheduled for today. You would see today's day and the date (default color 'red') just below the Action Bar.

Upon invoking the Options Menu (Menu button on your Android handset) you get the following options
- Option to see events for 1 day, 1 week or 1 month
- Option to Sync the Calendar with the server
- Option to see events planned for today

Upon invoking the more option menu, you get the following choices

- Goto Date - A nice feature to look up your planned events for any specific future date
- New Events - Probably to create new calendar entry, was not available in the current beta release.
That means you can't create meeting invites from Lotus Calendar, but can view all existing calendar events after syncing up with server.

All in all, I was not overly impressed by the user experience. But it works!
All I wish is IBM opens up a few APIs to allow enterprises to do basic customizations as per their needs.

NOTE - Lotus Traveler for Android will NOT be shipped with Lotus Domino 8.5.2. Disappointed with the delay, I am waiting for next beta release.

Lotus Traveler on Android - Lotus Mail

Follow-up to my previous blog post, I explored Lotus Traveler on Android client in detail. Here are my findings on Lotus Mail

Folder Options:

• Provides the following four folder options by default
  
  
  
  
  • 'Inbox'
  • 'Draft'
  • 'Outbox'
  • 'Sent'
• Personal folders are not support yet (at least in the current beta)
• Existing emails in the sent folders are not synchronized by default

Inbox:

• Displays up to 5 emails (Only!) without having to scroll. Personally I would prefer to see a better use of available real estate 
• Nice little message icon (highlighted) appears on the Action bar, whenever you have an unread mail. Nice feature to inform you about new mail, even if you are using some other application at the time email arrives
• What is key here is IBM approaches a minimalistic design and you don't see any menu options upfront. You need to use the 'Menu' of your handset to invoke what we call in android world as the 'Options Menu' 

Available Actions:

By invoking the Options Menu, you get the following actions on the Inbox

• Compose - (Needless to say) composes a new memo
• Settings - Opens all application setting (including mail, calendar etc)
• Show folders
• Sync Now
• Search Mail - Queer observation - Search mail, doesn't work unless your mail database is full text indexed (!) - but you don't get any such warnings. Not a high degree of user experience on the search

Other Observations:

• Attachments of any kind are NOT Supported yet
• Easy browsing through emails as you get some contextual actions to move to next email or delete the current email
• Ability to search for names before adding to the sender list
• IBM has not exposed any APIs to customize the current Lotus Traveler for android. Hence it's a closed package now, take it or leave it

Up Next - My observations on the calender feature of Lotus Traveler for Android

First Look: Lotus Traveler on Android - Installation

With ample support from of IBM, I got an opportunity to participate in the limited beta release of Lotus Traveler (what is it?) for Android client. Here are the steps to install Lotus Traveler client on an android device.

Step #1: Identify the environment:

• Lotus Traveler for Android requires "Lotus Domino Release  8.5.2 Code Drop 5" or above
• Download the Lotus Traveler server task from IBM (Run the Lotus Traveler executable and point to the existing Domino server). Once installed, Lotus traveler task runs as any other server tasks (like Http, POP etc) on the domino sever. (Please refer to the screenshot)
• Unzip the content of the "Lotus Traveler client for Android beta" file into the Domino/data directory of the server
• Append the content of "VersionInfoExt.txt" into the existing file "VersionInfo.txt"
• Identify a Android device running Android OS v 2.0.1 or above

Step #2: Access the url "http://<ServerName>/servlet/traveler" using the standard browser from your android device, Provide the login credentials as required. On the landing page, Click on the link 'Select an IBM Lotus Mobile Installer'

You should see Android as one of the available platform Options (Refer to the image on right). Click on the "Android" platform Option.

IBM provides the following two *.apk (android package) files (which you would have placed in Domino\data directory of the server as per step#1)

• LotusInstall.apk
• Lotus Traveler.apk

Upon selecting Android platform Option, the LotusInstall.apk file gets downloaded to the android device.

IBM separates out Actual Traveler software from the Installation Package. My guess, you will install "Lotus Installer" app only once and it should in future periodically check for the latest release of "Lotus Traveler" app from the server and download if there is a newer version.

Step #3: Starting the Installation
Running the Lotus Installer program would initiate the download and installation of the Lotus Traveler client.

Before running the Lotus Installer program, verify the Domino Server configuration document. Check the value in Server Document -> Lotus Traveler -> External Server Url. This field should be Non-blank and should point to your domino server. Apparently the Lotus Installer Program picks up the server name from this field and checks for availability of Lotus traveler client in there. As per the latest from IBM, in future releases, this issue will be fixed.

Once the file is downloaded, you would be prompted to initiate the installation. Once installation is complete, you would see the following four icons on your android device (see the picture)

• Lotus Calendar
• Lotus Installer
• Lotus Mail
• Lotus Traveler

The top three icons are self explanatory. Lotus Traveler icon will be used for checking status and monitoring operations that cross applications.

As I understand there would be another Lotus Traveler icon in the future release named 'Name Lookup'. This application will help users in directory/contact look up.

There you go, you have Lotus Traveler client on your android device.
In future posts, I will share my findings on usability/ functionality aspects of the Traveler email client.


Further Reference:
FAQ: Clarifications on Android beta release - Ed Brill's blog
Link to participate in the beta release of Lotus Traveler for Android