This past weekend I had the opportunity to setup and use the new Lotus iNotes Ultralite on my iPhone. The only thing that needed configuration on my Lotus Domino 8.0.2 server was to setup and configure the Domino Web Access Redirect database and to create a Login form mapping in the Domino Coniguration database (domcfg.nsf). I am a casual user of Notes mail and use it for Elguji work and nothing more. Overall "it works" and is nice to have as a casual mail client.



What you can do:

• Read, reply, forward, compose and delete mail messages
• Manually mark a message as read/unread when reading a message
• Easily view Sent, All Documents and Deleted messages
• See your calendar (Day At A Glance)
• Add a new contact as well as seeing a list of your contacts
• Edit an existing contact
• Mail can be sent from the Contacts view
• Phone calls can also be made from the contact view by clicking on the phone number in the contact document
• You can view attachments
• You can page through your inbox using Previous and Next arrow controls in the UI

Here is what you can't currently do:

• There is no access to folders
• In order to delete a message you have to read it and then delete it
• There is no way to delete more than one message at a time
• The inbox has to be manually updated
• The Day At A Glance has no weekly, monthly, work week views
• No integration with iPhone Photos or other iPhone applications

Thanks to Chris Whisonant for helping me out on Saturday with the iNotes Ultralite login form configuration.

Comment posted by Chris Whisonant10/13/2008 04:02:33 PM
Homepage: http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/lotusnut

You're welcome Bruce. It's what happens when a developer tries to administer things... Glad that you're up and running now!

Here's a new technote regarding the current limitations of Ultralite: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21321587 You touched on many of them, but consider the following. I also find it somewhat encouraging that IBM sees a web application as a "limitation" as well...

1. The Calendar is read only.
2. There is no support for accepting or declining invitations.
5. You cannot sync your contacts from your iphone/iTouch with your iNotes Ultralite.
6. Signatures are not supported and will not be appended.
7. There is no name validation for addressing email.
8. There is no Client Side Synchronization.
9. iNotes Ultralite is only available as a web application.
10. There is no folder support.
11. There is no offline support.

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Comment posted by Bruce10/13/2008 06:50:14 PM

@Chris,

Yes there were more things that didn't work. For casual use it's fine but for a corporation looking to replace Blackberries it's not there. Let's see what tricks Ed Brill and company have up their sleeve to get some native iPhone Mail support for Notes/Domino.

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Comment posted by Michael Rowe10/16/2008 11:58:01 AM
Homepage: http://http;//www.michaelrowe01.com

Thanks Bruce, i am testing this out too, and your experiences are matching mine, almost to the T. I am having to use a VPN to get to my Notes server, and am not running a 3G phone, so it is somewhat slow... My first impressions are here: http://www.michaelrowe01.com/Site/Random_Thoughts/Entries/2008/10/16_iNotes_first_perspective.html

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Comment posted by Sam Wren12/03/2008 04:01:40 AM

Can someone please inform me on how to set this up on the Lotus Domino 8.0.2 server? A clean install this works fine when connecting using the iPhone wirelessly. However, on a production server that has been upgraded from 8.0.1 to 2 we cannot get the iNotes Ultralite screen. On this server is the dcomcfg.nsf database. Please help.

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