What's new in IBM Connections 5.5

What's new in IBM Connections CR3

Cumulative release 3 contains a variety of fixes to address customer problems. For a list of fixes in CR3, see the Fix list for IBM Connections 5.0 CR3 support page.

What's new in IBM Connections CR2

Cumulative release 2 contains a variety of fixes to address customer problems. View the list on the IBM Connections Support page.

What's new in IBM Connections CR1

The following features are new in IBM Connections CR1:

Supported platforms

IBMi is not supported in IC5.5 including Cumulative release 1.

End user

• Easily find wiki pages that were renamed.

What's new In IBM Connections 5.5

The following features are new in IBM Connections 5.5.

What's new for users

For information about new features and functions in IBM Connections 5.5, see What's new in IBM Connections?

What's new for administrators

Installation and Configuration

• Simplified post-installation tasks for Configuring IBM HTTP Server
• Simplified post-installation tasks for Designating global moderators.
• Simplified post-installation tasks for Assigning people to Java EE roles.
• IBM Connections version 5.5 offers optional installation of the Ephox rich text editors.
• Updated system requirements (new support).
• FileNet Collaboration Services is a component of IBM Content Navigator 2.0.3, and IBM Content Navigator 2.0.3 fix pack 5 or later fix pack is supported to install with IBM Connections 5.5.
• FileNet Content Engine 5.2.1 fix pack 2 or later fix pack is now supported.
• IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Server & Transformer 10.2.2 is now supported.
• For the DB wizard, this release supports the export of SQL scripts for 'Create' and 'Delete' against all DB types.
• There is a new install engine called the script installer which is faster to install.
• You can upgrade to use Install Manager 1.8.3.

Administration

IBM Connections (common):

• The IBM Verse theme is the new default theme in IBM Connections version 5.5.

Activities:

• Files over 10MB can be uploaded and attached to an Activity. See Setting limits on uploaded files

Files:

• Configure File uploads through the IBM HTTP Server. Configure the IBM HTTP Server to manage file uploads from Activities and Files. This approach is more efficient than using the IBM WebSphere® Application Server to receive files larger than 500 MB
• Enable Sync for files in the Files application so that users can so work offline with files in the Sync folder and keep them synchronized when others are collaborating on them.
• External users from outside your company or organization can collaborate on files that are shared with them.
• Comments in Files supports the use @mentions, a method of notifying colleagues of a post.
• The Thumbnail view is a gallery of images that represent files. The thumbnail shows the file's status (private, community, or shared externally), sync status, and whether version conflicts might exist. Hovering over a thumbnail image opens its reverse side where file details appear and actions to download and preview are available.
• File Preview becomes available when you click anywhere on the back of the thumbnail to get an advance viewing of the file. The file preview should give you enough information about the file's content to decide whether you want to download it.
• Using Push Notification technology, file sync can scale to multiple clients and the clients can update their content faster when something changes on the server. The clients detect the availability of the push service automatically. If you decide to use push technology for file sync then the server configuration needs to be changed as described in Enable Sync

Communities:

The following features are new or updated for Communities in IBM® Connections version 5.5.

• Documentation for the Media Gallery app is finally deprecated in this release of IBM Connections.
  Note: The Gallery app replaces the Media Gallery app.
• Commands LCConfigService.showConfig() and LCConfigService.updateConfig() now support the organization.name property.

For a full list of new features in Communities, see: What's new in Communities?

Forums:

The following features are new for Forums in IBM Connections version 5.5:

• Forum-creator role support. Users with the forum-creator role can create forums. Your administrator can enable the forum-creator role.
• Attachment search. You can search for attachments to forum topics and replies using the IBM Connections Search app as attachments are now indexed.

News:

• The existing My Notifications, @mention, and Action required views are now consolidated into a single Notifications Center view.
• Events are now grouped as follows:
  • The Notifications view is now grouped by Like and Comment. Previously each individual like or comment was a separate entry.

Search:

• Type-ahead search remembers what you looked for. IBM Connections version 5.5 introduces smart type-ahead search. When you start typing in the search box, the system will try to guess what you are looking for. IBM Connections version 5.5 remembers who you've recently collaborated with and what you've recently collaborated on.
• In IBM Connections 5.5 you can now prioritize your own content when searching through content. When you perform a search, simply click Rank My Content Higher to prioritize your content in the returned search results.

Wikis:

• Integrating with other products. IBM Connections for Mac supports features for you to share and access the latest version of an IBM Connections file. Use sync to keep selected files synchronized with exact copies on the server. You can also view and resolve sync issues using the file sync monitor.

IBM Connections Mobile app

CR1: New topics added about MDM configuration and MaaS360.

The administrator can enable File Sync and Push Notifications.

For more information about updates to the IBM Connections Mobile app, follow the link to the operating system of your mobile device:

• Android Apps on Google Play
• Apps on BlackBerry World
• iTunes App Store

Downloading executables for components

• You can download executables such as Polls and Surveys in Communities, and the Ephox editor from Passport Advantage®.
• File Viewer is now part of IBM Connections Docs 2.0 - Deploying the latest version of the File Viewer, as well as future versions, is now accomplished by installing a subset of IBM Connections Docs 2.0 components. See Connections Docs infrastructure for Connections integration in the Deploying Connections Docs guide.

Troubleshooting and Support

There are new error messages for the Search application. for a full list of error messages, see theSearch error messages topic.

In IBM Connections 5.0, the Search Engine provides the search serverStatus web page that you can use to troubleshoot search issues. For more information, see the Analyzing results from the search serverStatus page topic.

Troubleshooting and Support in CR1

A new SaND validation tab was added to the search serverStatus page. The SaND validation tab checks that the files needed for the SaND index are in place. For more information, see the Reviewing the SaND Validation tab topic.