What's new in IBM Connections 5.0

Find out about features that are new or updated in this release of IBM® Connections.

What's new for administrators

There are no new features in CR3. CR3 is a set of cumulative fixes. For a list of fixes in CR3, see the Fix list for IBM Connections 5.0 CR3 webpage.

To find out what's new in Cumulative Release (CR) 2, see the New functions included in IBM Connections 5.0 CR2 webpage. For a list of fixes in CR2, see the Fix list for IBM Connections 5.0 CR2 webpage.

To find out what's new in CR 1, see the New functions included in IBM Connections 5.0 CR1 webpage. For a list of fixes in CR1, see the Fix list for IBM Connections 5.0 CR1 webpage.

Installation and Configuration
  • New Cognos® installation verification tool and simplified installation and configuration.
  • Simplified post-installation tasks for IBM Connections Content Manager for Libraries.
  • Updated system requirements (new support).
  • IBM Connections Content Manager is now supported on IBM i in IBM Connections 5.0. IBM Connections Content Manager for the Libraries on IBM i only supports an existing FileNet deployment.
  • For Cumulative Refresh (CR) 1 and 2, FileNet Collaboration Services is now a component of IBM Content Navigator 2.0.3, and the installer package names reflect this new delivery mechanism, for example, IBM_CONTENT_NAVIGATOR-2.0.3-AIX.bin.
  • After installing IBM Connections, you can update directly to CR2, which encompasses all updates from CR1.
  • If you already updated to CR1, update to CR2 to receive the latest fixes.
Administration
IBM Connections (common):
  • The New (or Next Generation) theme that was introduced as an optional customization in 4.5 CR 1 is now the default theme in 5.0.
  • External users are supported in version 5.0. For more information, see Managing external user access.
Activities:
  • There are no new or updated administration features for the Activities application in this release.
Communities:
  • In version 5.0 when a user deletes a community, it is not deleted permanently, rather it is moved to a trash area. Provided it is not purged from trash, the community can be restored. Managing Community trash and Configuring community trash settings show you how to manage community trash settings such as the delete trash schedule, and the community delete trash interval.
  • Use the reparenting commands to modify a community to become a subcommunity of another community. You can also modify a subcommunity to become a top-level community. For more information, see Reparenting communities

    Release CR2 adds IBM Docs support to Connections Content Manager. Users can edit a CCM (FileNet) document using the IBM Docs editors, wherever the CCM document is exposed in the IBM Connections. Release CR2 also includes a new view option ('grid view') to Libraries and Linked Libraries. Finally, CR2 enalbes external users to view and create content in Connections Content Manager libraries

Files:
  • 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 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.
Forums:
  • There are no new or updated administration features for the Forums application in this release.
News:
  • URL preview allows users to decide quickly whether to follow a link by displaying a thumbnail preview for URLs. You can now edit og-config.xml in the LotusConnections-Config directory to configure both the URL preview oEmbed and thumbnail end-points. For more information, see URL Preview.
Profiles:
  • You can now exclude nicknames when adding or updating user profiles by specifying a new name.expansion property in the tdi-profiles-config.xml file.
  • You can use the new mapToNameTable property in the profiles-types.xml file to specify an additional givenname or surname value for use with Profiles directory search.
  • You can integrate the Profiles business card with your web application by mapping an LDAP distinguished name, using the DN parameter; in addition to the previously available user ID and email mapping options.
  • The hashEmail extended attribute can be added to the map_dbrepos_from_source.properties file or profileExtension table in the tdi-profiles-config.xml file to support Profiles users in conjunction with the Microsoft Outlook Social Connector. For related information, see Using the IBM Connections Desktop Plug-ins for Microsoft Windows.
  • If you use the new External Collaboration feature, new MBean commands allow you to set and retrieve user roles: visitor, employee, and employee.extended.
Search:
Wikis:
  • There are no new or updated administration features for the Wikis application in this release.
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:
Application Development

The Connections API documentation is now available in the IBM Social Business Development wiki.

Downloading executables for components

You can download executables such as Polls and Surveys in Communities, the Ephox editor, and IBM File Viewer from Passport Advantage®.

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.