1 Installing Tzunami Notes Exporter
This chapter contains information about installing Tzunami Lotus Notes Exporter. It contains the following topics:
- System Requirements
- Installing Tzunami Notes Exporter
System Requirements
The following requirements must be met in order to use Tzunami Lotus Notes Exporter:
Table 1: Hardware Requirements
Components | Minimum Requirements |
Computer and processor | 2GHz Pentium processor or equivalent |
Memory | 2 GB (Minimum); 4GB (Recommended) |
Hard disk | 50Mb (additional space will be required for the Tzunami Deployer projects, which may vary from 10 Mb to 4 GB). |
Supported Operating System | Windows 2000/2003/2008, Windows XP, Windows Vista & Windows 7 |
Supported Architectures | x86 and x64 |
Network | Intranet/Internet access depending on connectivity requirements |
Display | 800 x 600, 256 colors (minimum); 1024 x 768 high color, 32-bit (recommended) |
Microsoft .NET Framework | Microsoft .Net Framework 3.0 |
Additional Requirements | Lotus Notes server configured and running |
Installing Tzunami Notes Exporter
You must install Tzunami Notes Exporter on a machine having Lotus Notes client or Domino Server v5 or higher (these can be setup before or after the exporter is installed).
If you are trying to extract local NSF contents using Lotus Notes Client, you must run Lotus Notes Client at least once on the machine after its installation. If you are trying to extract contents of NSF from the Domino Server using a machine on which Lotus Notes Client is installed, the Lotus Notes Client’s Domino settings must be configured to allow accessing the NSF from client machine. |
To install Tzunami Lotus Notes Exporter:
1. Unzip the zip file, and run Tzunami Notes Exporter Tool Setup.msi. The Tzunami Notes Exporter setup wizard (Welcome window) will launch. To advance through the install wizard, click Next on the bottom of the window.
Figure 1: Welcome Window
2. In the End-User Licensing Agreement panel, click “I accept the terms in the License Agreement” and click Next to continue installation.
Figure 2: End-User Licensing Agreement
You are advised to read the terms of the license carefully before proceeding with the installation. If you decline the license terms, the installation cannot proceed. |
3. In the Custom Setup panel and do one of the following:
- To accept the default Destination Folder, click Next.
- Click Browse, locate and select a destination folder, click OK, and then click Next.
Figure 3: Custom Setup Window
4. In the Ready to install Tzunami Notes Exporter panel, click Install.
Figure 4: Installing Tzunami Notes Exporter Window
5. In the Completed Tzunami Notes Exporter Setup Wizard, to exit the wizard, click Finish.
Figure 5: Installation Complete Window
When Tzunami Notes Exporter is installed, it comes with a default license that can be used for evaluation purpose only. This license is limited in time and number of operations. |
2 Tzunami Lotus Notes Exporter
This chapter contains information about Tzunami Lotus Notes Exporter. It contains the following topics:
- Overview
- Exporting from Lotus Notes
- Command-line Export
- Best Practice
Overview
Tzunami Lotus Notes Exporter enables you to migrate Lotus Notes content into Microsoft Office 365, SharePoint Server 2010/SharePoint Foundation 2010 (SPS2010/SPF2010), Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007/Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (MOSS/WSS3.0), or Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003/Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 (SPS2003/WSS2.0) using Tzunami Deployer.
To load Lotus Notes content into Tzunami Deployer, you must first extract the content, using Lotus Notes Exporter, into TDX (Tzunami Deployer Export) and STDX (Separate Tzunami Deployer Export) files. You can then load this TDX file into a Deployer project.
When working with Deployer on several machines, you can run an export on one machine and load the exported data on another. Tzunami Lotus Exporter is an extension module of Tzunami Deployer. You can work with this module independently of Tzunami Deployer. |
Supported Types
With Lotus Notes Exporter users can export Lotus Notes documents as Microsoft InfoPath forms and form templates, SharePoint data items or as documents along with their properties, attachments and embedded objects. For databases constructed from some of the standard templates, the exporter provides suggestions on whether to export as Data Items or as Documents or InfoPath based on the database template. Some of these templates are:
- Doc Library
- Discussion
- Address Book
- Journal
Security
In addition to the structure and items, Lotus Notes Exporter extracts security information. The following permissions are used in the exporter:
- Create Documents
- Delete Documents
- Create Private Agents
- Create Personal Folders Views
- Create Shared Folders Views
- Create Lotus Script Java Agents
- Read Public Documents
- Write Public Documents
- Replicate or Copy Documents
Each item is assigned an ACL defining the permissions of the various members according to the roles they were assigned.
The exporter automatically creates default roles that are used during the deployment process. These roles and their respective permissions are based on the default permissions provided by Lotus Notes. |
The roles include:
Roles | Definition |
No Access | No permissions |
Reader | Read Public Documents, Write Public Documents, Replicate or Copy Documents |
Editor | Create Documents, Read Public Documents, Write Public Documents, Replicate or Copy Documents |
Designer | Create Documents, Read Public Documents, Write Public Documents, Replicate or Copy Documents, Create Private Agents, Create Personal Folders Views, Create Shared Folders Views |
Manager | Create Documents, Read Public Documents, Write Public Documents, Replicate or Copy Documents, Create Private Agents, Create Personal Folders Views, Create Shared Folders Views, Create Lotus Script Java Agents |
Highest | Create Documents, Delete Documents, Read Public Documents, Write Public Documents, Replicate or Copy Documents, Create Private Agents, Create Personal Folders Views, Create Shared Folders Views, Create Lotus Script Java Agents |
Exporting from Lotus Notes
The Tzunami Lotus Notes Exporter enables you to export Lotus Notes contents to a TDX file.
When exporting, keep the following in mind: Export in small chunks: When exporting from your source system, perform the export in small chunks of about 40K-50K files each that have a common business logic or some other logic. Extraction of huge number of items: If the number of items to be extracted is greater than 5K, the exporter will extract the items into separate folders each containing 5K items. Ensure consistency: Make sure that the content of the different exports do not overlap and that, while exporting, no changes are made to the source data. |
To export to a TDX file:
1. In Tzunami Deployer, right-click in the Lotus Notes tab source store area and select Export Lotus Notes to TDX.
Or
Click Start > All Programs > Tzunami > Tzunami Notes Exporter.
The Welcome screen of the Export Wizard appears.
2. Click Next.
The Lotus Notes Configurations screen appears for entering export settings. The screen includes five tabs: General, Forms, Advanced, InfoPath andRedirection.
3. Click the General tab and enter general information.
Figure 6: Lotus Notes Configurations Screen – General Tab
Table 2: Lotus Notes Configurations Screen, General Tab – Description of Fields
Field | Description | ||
Notes Database | Click Browse to select a Lotus Notes NSF files or Domino database (Figure 7). To select Lotus Notes NSF files from location other than Lotus Notes data directory, click Browse at the bottom of Select Database window. The exporter will automatically detect the template of the database that you selected and might suggest appropriate export settings for the template. If you wish to configure the export options automatically, click Yes to the message ‘Do you want to automatically set the appropriate export options for this database?’ Click No to make your own selection. You can change the export options anytime before beginning the export. | ||
Extract system properties | Check this option if you wish to extract the system properties in the selected database (usually, system property names begin with a ’$’ sign). | ||
Extract as data item | If you select to extract as data items, each Notes document is extracted as a data item. The document properties and each field in the document will appear as metadata of the data item after deployment in SharePoint. Rich text fields will have two corresponding metadata <RTFfieldname>.Html and<RTFfieldname>.txt which will represent the HTML and text equivalent of the field. Attachments of the Notes document will be extracted as attachments of the corresponding data item. In addition, the inline images (if any) in the Notes document will also appear as data item attachments and will be rendered by SharePoint to display in their correct position.
| ||
Extract as document | If you select this option, each Notes document is extracted as a document. The Notes Document properties will appear as metadata in the exported document. The attachments and embedded objects in the Notes document will either be extracted as embedded objects in the final document or will be extracted as separate documents based on whether you checked “Save attachments as separate files” checkbox or not. See below for details. To configure advanced document export settings, click Advanced button (Table 3).
| ||
Save attachments as separate files | Check this option if you wish to extract Notes Document attachments into files separated from the containing document. If this option is checked, the attachments will be deployed as separate documents in SharePoint, having no relation with the parent document. It is suggested not to extract attachments into separate files unless there is an explicit need to do so (For e.g., you may want to use this option in cases where your Notes document is used as a container to a number of unrelated files and objects. If this option is not checked, the attachments will be extracted as embedded objects inside the containing document. | ||
Extract as InfoPath document | Check this option if you wish to extract Notes forms and documents into InfoPath form templates and forms respectively.
| ||
Extract documents with no form | Check this option to extract Notes Document without a form. If this option is selected, Notes Documents without a form will be extracted as data item irrespective of whether you selected to extract as document or data item through the two check boxes explained above. | ||
Extract views as folders | Check this option if you wish the Notes views to be extracted as folders.
| ||
Extract hidden | Check this option to extract hidden views/folders inside the Notes database. Hidden views/folders will be extracted as folders and will have ‘IsHidden’ metadata set for distinction later. | ||
Extract private | Check this option to extract private views/folders inside the Notes database. Private views/folders will be extracted as folders and will have ‘IsPrivate’ metadata set for distinction later. |
In Lotus Notes, there are some documents that don’t have an associated form. One such example is Notes mail messages. Therefore, it is always recommended to select ‘Extract documents with no form’ option to make sure that documents without forms are not missed out during extraction. When this option is selected, although you can continue with extraction without selecting any form in Forms tab, making individual form selection will ensure complete document extraction. You cannot continue with export if you have neither chosen ‘Extract documents with no form’ option nor made any selection in Forms tab. If you are running the exporter on the machine having Domino Server, while selecting the NSF to export, you may sometimes get an error message saying ‘This database cannot be opened because a consistency check of it is needed’. In this case, open the selected NSF using Domino Server once before trying to export it. |
Figure 7: Lotus Notes Configurations Screen – Select Database
Figure 8: Lotus Notes Configurations Screen – Advanced Document Export Configuration
Table 3: Advanced Document Export Configuration Window
Field | Description |
Extract Note as a document | Check this option to extract entire Note document as a document. This option is the default behavior when selecting the “Extract as document” option explained in the table above except that you can choose the destination file type. |
Extract each Rich Text field as a document | Check this option to extract each rich text field present in a Notes document as a separate document. The metadata of the exported documents will have all the Notes document properties excluding the Rich Text fields. If there are no rich text fields in the selected database, this option is disabled. |
Extract <selected rich text field> as a document. | Check this option to extract the selected rich text field as a separate document. You will need to select a rich text field from the drop down for this option. The metadata of the exported document will have all the Notes document properties excluding the Rich Text field selected. If the selected field is not found in a Notes document, it will not be exported. This options is disabled if:
|
Show/use system properties | When this option is checked, system rich text fields are listed in the drop down list above it. |
Extract as <file format> | Choose either to extract document as DOC or DOCX files. Select DOCX option for better performance. |
4. Click the Forms tab to specify the forms for which the Notes documents are to be extracted.
Figure 9: Lotus Notes Configurations Screen – Forms
Table 4: Lotus Notes Configurations Screen, Forms tab – Description of Fields
Field | Description |
Select All | Click this button to select all the listed forms. If a form is selected, all the Notes documents that have this form as default form will be extracted. You can make individual form selection to export documents of your choice. |
Select None | Click this button to deselect all the listed forms. |
Reverse selection | Click this button to deselect all the forms you selected, and select all the forms you did not select. |
Select Fields to use as file name/name for a form. | Each form has its respective fields listed in a dropdown. Select which field of the form should be used as the file name (in case of document extraction), or as the name (in case of data item extraction) of the extracted item. The exporter will make some default suggestions for the field name. |
5. Click the Advanced tab to enter advanced export information.
Figure 10: Lotus Notes Configurations Screen – Advanced
Table 5: Lotus Notes Configurations Screen, Advanced tab – Description of Fields
Field | Description |
Versions |
|
Export versions | Check this option if you wish to export Notes documents with versioning relationships maintained. If you do not check this option, the exporter will extract all the documents as independent documents without any versioning relationship between them. You can enter the number of versions you would like to export for each document. Setting this value to zero, or leaving it empty will export all versions. |
Rendering |
|
Extract pass-through HTML | Check this option if you wish to extract ‘Pass-Thru HTML’ text as a part of the output. If there is a normal text between ‘Pass-Thru HTML’ it is extracted normally. ‘Pass-Thru HTMLs’ are design HTML codes in Notes documents/forms which are rendered by the browser during display. They usually do not represent the actual document contents. |
Use Form hidden flag for field (Override the settings of field 'Previewed for reading' and 'Opened for reading' of Document by its Form) | Check this option if you wish to override the settings of field 'Previewed for reading' and 'Opened for reading' of Document by its Form |
6. Click the InfoPath tab for configuring the advanced options if you wish to extract Notes contents into InfoPath contents. In order to configure these options, you will need to first select the option ‘Extract as InfoPath document’ in the General tab.
Figure 11: Lotus Notes Configurations Screen – InfoPath
Table 6: Lotus Notes Configurations Screen, InfoPath – Description of Fields
Field | Description | ||
Computed Field
| Computed fields are used to automatically enter data, such as the author's name or the date, in a field. These fields require formulas to supply their values. | ||
| Select ‘Do not export’ option if you do not wish to extract the computed fields on Notes form to the InfoPath form template. | ||
| Select ‘Export as hidden’ option if you wish to extract the computed fields on Notes form to be hidden from the user view in form-fill mode, and visible only in the InfoPath designer mode on the exported form template. In this mode, the formula for the computed field is preserved in the screen-tip of the corresponding hidden control. | ||
| Select ‘Export with formula in screen-tip’ option if you wish to extract the computed fields on Notes form to display in the screen-tip of the corresponding control in the exported InfoPath form template. | ||
Fields hidden by formula
| Fields hidden by formula are those fields that have an associated formula which is calculated run-time to decide if the field is to be hidden under the given conditions. The options to handle these fields are similar to that of computed fields as explained above. | ||
Display |
| ||
Rich text fields | Enter width and height (in inches) in order to change default rich text field size on the exported InfoPath form template.
| ||
Other controls | Enter the width (in inches) in order to change the default size of the controls other than rich text fields such as text box.
|
7. Tzunami Lotus Notes Exporter supports redirection of Notes DocLinks to target documents in the SharePoint or Domino Web Server based on the best target location. Click the Redirection tab to configure URL redirection parameters for Notes DocLinks. For more details on DocLink redirection, please refer to Tzunami URL Redirector Administration Guide.
Figure 12: Lotus Notes Configurations Screen – Redirection
Table 7: Lotus Notes Configurations Screen, Redirection tab – Description of Fields
Field | Description | ||
Enable URL Redirection | Check this option to enable redirection of Notes DocLinks to target SharePoint document. If this option is checked Notes document links preceded with Notes:/// will be formatted to HTTP links. | ||
Redirector Server Name | This parameter must be supplied if you wish to enable URL redirection. This represents the host name of the machine hosting Tzunami URL Redirector tool.
|
Tzunami Notes URL Redirector tool is needed for providing conditional redirection of a Notes DocLinks to the best location of the target.
8. Click Next. The Folders screen appears
Figure 13: Folder Selection Screen
9. Navigate the Lotus Notes folders and select the folders to export. If you opted to export hidden views as folders, you can see them inside the folder named ‘Hidden folders’.
You can automatically select all subfolders of a selected folder by checking ‘Automatically select subfolders’. In Lotus Notes the same item may appear under different views. While exporting views as folders, rather than selecting the root folder and automatically selecting all subfolders, you should carefully choose specific folders to export, thus significantly reducing the export time and prevent item duplicity in different folders. It is a best practice to choose specific folders to export rather than selecting the root folder and exporting the entire hierarchy. |
10. Click Next. The Filter screen appears.
Figure 14: Filter Screen
11. Set up filtering as follows:
a) In the Properties field, select a property.
b) In the Condition field, select a condition from the dropdown list and enter or select values in the corresponding field.
c) Click Add Condition. The condition is added to the Filter area, displaying the full filter expression.
You can only add one condition per property. You can edit a condition for a property by selecting the property and modifying the condition type or values that are currently assigned to it. You can remove a condition from a property or all the conditions from all the properties by clicking Clear Condition or Clear All, respectively. This option works only for Data Items. If multiple conditions are applied, only items that match all conditions are exported. |
12. Click Next. The Destination Folder screen appears.
Figure 15: Destination Folder Screen
13. Specify where to export the files and generated TDX information. Make sure you are saving to a folder with a descriptive name and under a well-organized file system hierarchy. It is recommended to export to a folder that is as close to the root as possible.
Click Save for saving export specification and details as XML files which allows running the exporter from the command-line mode. See the section ‘Command-line Export’ below for more details.
While running exporter from command-line for a network machine (Lotus Domino) it asks for Server Password and after it is provided, command line execution begins.
14. Click Next.
If the export folder already exists, a warning appears, informing you that the destination folder already exists and if you continue all existing information will be deleted. Clicking OK confirms overwrite and clicking Cancel returns you to the Destination Folder screen to change the destination folder. |
An Exporting screen appears with a progress bar and execution report, and the export process begins.
Figure 16: Exporting Screen
You can save the export report by clicking Save as… after export is complete. You can display only export errors by checking Errors only. You can check Auto-scroll to display the latest progress messages, as they appear. |
15. Click Next. The Export Complete screen appears.
16. Click Done. The Lotus Notes Export wizard is closed.
After the extraction process completes successfully, you are prompted to load the exported data into the current Tzunami Deployer project. Clicking Yesbegins the process of loading the content from the previously exported TDX file into the project. For more information about loading sources, refer to theTzunami Deployer User Guide.
Command-line Export
Tzunami Exporter for Lotus Notes provides ability to run export sessions non-interactively using command line instructions. This allows administrators to plan and schedule long running migration jobs through scripts, batch files and schedulers according to needs and organizational timetables. To run the exporter in batch mode you will need exporter specification file explained in the ‘Choose Destination Folder’ step of the export wizard. The file contains all the export option details including:
- Source ECM connectivity information (Server Address, User Name, Password etc.)
- Items to export
- Destination and Log Folder
- Filter
- Exporter specific options
This file can be edited to suit your needs however the XML schema of the file should not be altered. It is recommended that you generate a sample specifications file in the Destination Folder Screen selection step of the export wizard and use it as a template to create your own specification file.
Once the specification file is ready, you can run the exporter from command line using command:
TzunamiExporter.exe [-r <ResultFile>] -s <ExportSpecificationsFile>
-r Outputs export results into an XML file [Optional]
-s XML file containing export specifications
Based on your needs you can create number of specification files and use them to run multiple export sessions as batch commands.
You will need to provide absolute path for TzunamiExporter.exe and ExportSpecificationsFile in the command if you are not running from the exporter installation directory. |
In Microsoft Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 environment, if USG (Universal Security Group) is enabled, Users with low privileges sometimes cannot export ECM contents. To export contents using command line, User must run with elevated or administrative privileges.
To export contents with elevated or administrative privileges, you can run the exporter from command line using command:
RUNAS /trustlevel:”Unrestricted” “<ExporterInstallationDirectory>\TzunamiExporter.exe –s \“<Spec file path>\Specfilename.xml \” ”
For example: RUNAS /trustlevel:”Unrestricted” “C:\Program Files (x86)\Tzunami\Deployer 2.7\Exporters\Lotus Notes\TzunamiExporter.exe -s \“D:\Spec Files\specs1.xml\” ”
3 InfoPath Migration
The most common usage of InfoPath is to integrate it with Microsoft SharePoint technology using InfoPath Form Services (included in the enterprise commercial version of MOSS 2007 and SPS 2010) or as the separate Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Server 2010 product. In SharePoint, a "Form Library" can be created and developed by using InfoPath. InfoPath fields are exported as "Columns" in the library and can be directly read in SharePoint or be used as part of web services results in workflow development. InfoPath Forms Services (or Office Forms Services) is a component of SharePoint Server (MOSS 2007and SPS 2010) which allows Microsoft Office InfoPath forms to be hosted in a SharePoint web site and served using a browser based interface.
Lotus Notes forms are similar to InfoPath form templates and are used for creating documents in Notes. It provides extended facilities to incorporate validations and business logic using Lotus scripts and inbuilt functions. It is because of this similarity that InfoPath forms are natural targets for migrating Notes forms and documents.
Prerequisites
- Microsoft InfoPath Form Services should be activated
- SharePoint Server (MOSS 2007 and SPS 2010) Enterprise Web application features must be installed and activated so as to use InfoPath services in browser.
- SharePoint Form Library setting
If the InfoPath client application has been installed on a PC, it will be used by default to open forms that have been stored in a SharePoint Form Library unless the setting ‘Display as a Web page’ has been set on that SharePoint Form Library. This setting will force forms to open in a browser even if the InfoPath client has been installed on the PC from where the form is being opened. To enable this setting:
a) Click Settings on the Form Library menu bar and choose Form Library Settings from the drop-down menu.
b) On the Customize <Form Library Name> page under the General Settings category, click ‘Advanced settings’.
c) On the Form Library Advanced Settings: <Form Library Name> page under the Browser-enabled Documents category, choose Display as a Web page
4. InfoPath Form Services setting:
Regardless of whether an InfoPath form template has been forced to open in a browser through the SharePoint Form Library setting (discussed above), if an administrator has disabled the setting to Render form templates that are browser-enabled by users from SharePoint Central Administration, users will not be able to open InfoPath forms in a browser. Setting in SharePoint Central Administration to enable this setting:
a) Open SharePoint Central Administration.
b) Click the Application Management tab.
c) On the Application Management page under the InfoPath Forms Services category, click Configure InfoPath Forms Services.
d) On the Configure InfoPath Forms Services page under the User Browser-enabled Form Templates category, check Render form templates that are browser-enabled by users.
5. InfoPath form template Browser-Compatibility:
If you are using InfoPath client application, the InfoPath template must be configured to be browser compatible along with the SharePoint server.
In InfoPath, make sure you set the following parameters to make the template browser compatible:
a) When creating a new template, in Design a Form Template wizard, check the “Enable browser-compatible features only”.
b) In Tools > Form Options > Compatibility, make sure the checkbox that states “Design a form template that can be opened in a browser or InfoPath” is checked.
Known issues and workarounds
Browser-Enable InfoPath Form template in SharePoint Server (MOSS 2007 and SPS 2010):
A Browser enabled InfoPath form template allows you to access and modifies the item directly from the web browser like Internet Explorer. In order to publish an InfoPath Form template that is browser enabled, the InfoPath template must be configured to be browser compatible along with the SharePoint server.
Message: ‘This form template is browser-compatible, but it cannot be browser-enabled on the selected site’ - If this message is ignored during form publishing, then you will not be able to open or fill out the form using a browser, not even if you configure InfoPath Forms Services after you have published the form template.
Workaround: Make sure that:
- InfoPath Forms Services has been installed on the server.
- Form Services feature on the site collection is activated.
- The policy in Central Admin allows you to browser enable the form templates.
Message: ‘Requested registry access is not allowed’ - If you encounter this message while opening browser-enabled InfoPath form templates or forms, probably you have insufficient permissions for the groups WSS_WPG and WSS_ADMIN_WPG in the Application pool identity.
Workaround: Go to:
- Internet Information Services (IIS > Application Pools > <Particular application pool>)
- Right-click Properties >Identity tab
- Select ‘Configurable’ and provide the administrative user credential.
- Restart the IIS.
It is generally recommended that when creating a new web application, during creation of an application pool, select a security account for this application pool as ‘Configurable’ and give the associated user credential instead of ‘Predefined’; to get rid of registry access message. |
Message: ‘The form cannot be displayed because session state is not available’ - Whether you are working with forms in custom workflows or simply trying to publish a form to a form library in MOSS 2007 and SPS 2010, you may encounter this error message.
Workaround: You need to uncomment the following line in the ‘web.config’ file for the intended web application:
<!-- <add name="Session"
type="System.Web.SessionState.SessionStateModule"/> -->
Lotus Notes Form Template Library
‘LotusNotesFormTemplateLibrary’ is a form library used internally by Tzunami Deployer to store and manipulate the InfoPath form template (XSN) files. Deployer will create this library automatically during the initial migration. It is recommended not to delete this form library for correct deployment of InfoPath forms (XML documents). However, if the library is deleted, the site content types (under the group “Lotus Notes Forms Content Types” of Site or Site Collection, depending on where the user opted to deploy in SharePoint) associated with each templates in the library has to be removed as well, before migrating it again.
Shared Image handling:
Currently, Lotus Notes Exporter doesn’t extract shared images in a Notes documents i.e. images inserted from other database.
Best Practice
Due to the technological differences between Lotus Notes and SharePoint, the following best practices should be taken into consideration while exporting:
- Extract Lotus Notes content based on source template. If your database is not generated from one of the standard templates, or if you are not sure about the database template that you are extracting, carefully analyze the contents and decide the export type based on the equivalent list/library available in SharePoint. The exporter will make some automatic suggestions to help you choose the export type if the database template is known. Here are some suggestions:
Table 8: Target Structure Guidelines
Templates | Type |
Document Libraries | Extract as Documents OR InfoPath Document |
Calendars | Extract as Data Items OR InfoPath Document |
Mails | Extract as Data Items |
To Do Lists | Extract as Data Items |
Address Book | Extract as Data Items |
Discussions | Extract as Data Items |
These are just some suggestion based on the nature of the template. You may still want to analyze the database and consult a SharePoint expert to decide which export options would be best for you. You may also try exporting contents under different options till you know what is best for your scenario. |
- It is recommended that you close the Lotus Notes application prior to starting the export. Lotus Notes imposes some limitation on the number of resource instances (in-memory segments, handles etc.) that can be allocated at a time. This may affect your export especially if you are doing bulk export which might require high resources. Closing Lotus Notes applications during export will make all resources available to the exporter, thus reducing the chances of export failures.
- As much as possible do not run other applications on the exporter machine while the export is in progress.
- Make sure that you are logged into the machine with admin rights where you are running the export for the first time. The exporter may need to register some environment variable(s) to configure the export environment. This will need admin access. Once these settings are done on a machine, a user with non-administrative rights can also use the exporter.
- If you are connecting the Lotus Domino Server via Lotus Client, during export of huge database from a Domino Server, it is recommended to run the exporter in a machine where the Lotus Domino Server is installed so that exporter can select the database locally. The reason to do so is generally it takes much longer time to extract large size database from the Server (Network).
- While exporting:
- Export in small chunks. When exporting from your source system, perform the export in small chunks of about 40K-50K files each that have a common business logic or some other logic.
- Ensure consistency. Make sure that the content of the different exports do not overlap and that, while exporting, no changes are made to the source data.
- When extracting as document it is recommended that you choose to extract as DOCX (in the advanced settings) if there is no strict need to extract in DOC format. This will speed up the export process and reduce resource consumption during export.
- It is recommended that you select “Extract documents with no form” checkbox. In Lotus Notes, there are some documents that don’t have an associated form. One such example is Notes mail messages. If you do not check this option, these documents will not be extracted. Note that documents without a form will be extracted as data items. This may create documents as well as data items in the same folder. You should deploy the two types of items into separate lists in SharePoint.
- Make sure that you have enough disk space in the System drive of the machine where you are running the exporter. The free disk space should be at least two to three times the size of the database that you are exporting.
- While exporting views as folders, it is highly recommended that you choose specific folders rather than selecting the root folder and exporting the entire hierarchy. Carefully choose the specific folders to export will significantly reduce export time and prevent item duplicity in different folders.
- When extracting as document it is recommended not to select “Save attachments as separate files” if there is a close relation between the parent document and its attachments. If however the parent document is just acting as a container for different objects and files you may want to use this option. Please be aware of the fact that extracting attachments as separate files will effectively break their relationship with the parent document.
- Do a small test migration first. Before you start large scale migration, perform a small migration to a test site and make sure that you understand how the Deployer and the Lotus Notes Exporter function; how data is mapped from the source to the destination items and which migration option suit you best. You can refer to details about Deployer features in the Tzunami Deployer User Guide.
- If a rendering form is not found for a document, it will be extracted as a data item, even if you opted to extract as document. This may create two types of item in the same exported folder. In such cases Tzunami recommends the migration of each type of item to a different list since documents and data items cannot be deployed to a single list in SharePoint.
- Some Lotus Notes content will map to standard SharePoint templates such as Document Library, Calendars, Discussions and Tasks. Others will require customized template selection to accommodate additional data columns or content types that are not standard in SharePoint.
- Considering the SharePoint limitation for custom roles, the Exporter will extract Lotus Notes custom roles as Groups. Any Access Control List in Notes content must be mapped to permissions in the corresponding SharePoint sites, lists, libraries, and even individual data documents during deployment.
- While deploying as InfoPath:
- Not selecting ‘Extract views as folders’ option: if you are exporting Notes documents as InfoPath without selecting the option ‘Extract views as folders’, it isnot recommended to deploy the top level folder with database (NSF) name as root site in the target SharePoint for full browser support.
- Selecting ‘Extract views as folders’ option: If you are exporting Notes documents as InfoPath with ‘Extract views as folders’ option selected, it is notrecommended to deploy folders with view name (under the folder with database name) as root site in the target SharePoint for best turnout.
Figure 17: InfoPath Deployment (with ‘extract views as folders’ option selected)
4 Licensing Information
Tzunami Lotus Notes Exporter uses a default license that can be used for evaluation purposes. This license is limited in the number of items that are exported. If the license does not match your evaluating needs, contact [email protected] for an extended license. For this purpose you will need to provide the Product Serial Code, and then enter the License Key you receive back from the Tzunami.
To retrieve the Tzunami Product Serial Code:
1. Select Start > Programs > Tzunami > Tzunami License Update. Tzunami License Update window opens.
Figure 18: License Update window
2. Click Copy. This copies the Product Serial Code to the clipboard.
3. Paste the contents of the clipboard into an email and send it to the Tzunami Support Team at [email protected].
To extend the Tzunami license:
- Select Start > Programs > Tzunami > Tzunami License Update. Tzunami License Update window opens (Figure 18).
- Click Browse and select the new License Key file received from the Tzunami Support Team.
Download a PDF version of Tzunami Lotus Notes Exporter guide at: https://www.tzunami.com/download/LotusNotesExporterGuide
If an error message appears, contact Tzunami Support Team at [email protected]. |