Connect your iPhone to Lotus Domino
by Volker Weber
I love this quote:
It had to happen sooner or later. We have our first iPhone user (The type of user whose requests cannot safely be refused) who simply must have access to his Lotus Notes email via iPhone.
I asked the question a long time ago: Your CEO buys an iPhone. What is your next move?
Chris explains how to properly set up your server (IMAP with SSL) and SMTP (not on your MX) to make it happen. This covers simple inbound and outbound mail, but not address book and calendar. That is the part you should start thinking about now. Because that question will come up as well.
Comments
Commontime announced end of last year they're looking to support the iPhone as well. No idea how far they have gotten so far though.
Configured SSL Only IMAP and SMTP on the Domino and using it via my iPhone with the builtin mailclient. I did not care about calendaring and contacts.
It really comes down to if you want to push/pull from the server or sync with your local pc/mac. I've tried a couple of options for local sync.
1. Install SyncML Server on your PC, and install a syncMLclient on the iPhone to talk to the mail/calendar application and another to talk to the contacts application ( remember it's not databases anymore :-), but applications)
2. install the DAMO client, and use the native iTunes sync with outlook.
Yes, you CAN use outlook as a Lotus Notes PIM application.
Installing a SyncML client on the iPhone requires a jailbreak. Not something I would do to CEO iPhone. The DAMO client however is an interesting idea. Thanks!
How far are we now away from a real enterprise solution which could compete with RIM/ Blackberry?
Very far.
With iPhone 2.0 we will have Exchange ActiveSync. It provides device management (lock & wipe) , push mail, calendar and contacts sync over the air.
That won't help you (or your CIO) since you need to have Exchange.
Very far sounds better than impossible :-)
We have already two of those users at our customers. For both offering a Domino server for direct SMTP or IMAP access wasn't an option. Though I have not tested this yet, using DAMO was the best advice i could give them.
