Domino Web Access on the Mac
by Ken Porter
There was plenty of good news about the Macintosh platform from this year's Lotusphere. The Notes Mac client will again have feature parity with the Windows client in the Notes 7.0.x timeframe, and Mac OS X is part of IBM’s Workplace strategy. This is a huge change from last year’s "we are still thinking about it" message. But with all this good news, there is still one important piece of the puzzle that is missing when it comes to the Mac platform.
Domino Web Access (DWA) is currently not supported on any browsers on the Mac, nor has there been any commitment from IBM that this situation will be addressed. Understandably, IBM needs to see the business case before committing resources to this project. So if you are a Lotus customer with Mac clients, and you want Domino Web Access to be supported on the Mac OS, this is how you can help make the business case to IBM.
As Lotus customers report software ‘bugs’ and feature requests to Lotus Technical Support, they are logged as SPR’s and assigned a unique number. These SPR’s are routinely reviewed to help identify problems that require fixing, and to identify features Lotus customers are asking for.
It probably won’t surprise anyone to hear that an SPR has already been logged asking for DWA to be supported on the Mac; it is SPR #: JGAN537RB4 and a corresponding knowledge base document on the subject has also been created (Doc #: 1085752).
If you are a Lotus customer who wants DWA on the Mac, grab your IBM customer number, call your local Lotus’ Technical Support office, and ask to have your IBM customer number "added as a new customer report on an existing SPR" and quote them SPR # JGAN537RB4.
Don’t know what your local technical support number is? Here is a link to help you locate the "Technical Support" number for Lotus Support in your country. In North America the number is 1-800-IBM-SERV.
If enough Lotus customers request this feature, it will help make the business case for Lotus to support DWA on the Mac platform. Now stop reading this website, and make that call!
Comments
I'm not sure that the SPR process is the best way to communicate the need. It's helpful, but the SPR process isn't going to drive a strategic decision like platform support. (SPRs are good for break/fix kinds of problems)
We've done surveys, petitions, etc. in the past. Aggregating the market data and bringing it to me and my product management colleagues is really the way to go.
I may have misunderstood - so excuse me Volker - but isn't this issue more to do with the browsers on the mac rather than Domino itself - and it is something that is likely to be cleared up by the browser in the not too distant future?
I've read at DominoDude (http://dominodude.com/personal/tmk/blog.nsf/d6plinks/TKEN-698JPE) that Safari will be fixed in the next two releases so DWA will work on the mac.
@Steve
The Apple rep's comments at LS2005 in the Mac BOF were specific to Safari not having all the functionality required for IBM to provide DWA in Apple's browser. Once Apple has finished their enhancements to Safari, I'd expect IBM will provide DWA on the Mac.
However, DWA on the Mac could be provided by IBM today in an alternate browser, like Firefox. We all know that DWA on Linux uses Firefox so it's not a browser issue. A quick Google search yielded a link to another SPR from last year on Bruce Elgort's blog with a rumoured 6.5.5 timeframe for DWA support on the Mac using Firefox.
Time to make some phone calls and cross those fingers.
Thanks for clearing that up Richard - my knowledge of Mac is low - you would think Firefox support is a must - and in the grand scheme of things would not be a major development effort.
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