Setting up business cards

You can configure the Sametime Community Server so that business card information about an individual displays when a user hovers over a name in a chat window or a contact list.

About this task

Business cards can access user information from any of four types of storage repositories:
  • The native Domino® Directory
  • An LDAP directory (including a Domino LDAP directory)
  • A custom Notes® application
  • The Connections Profiles application
Each repository stores user information differently, so to facilitate user searches, Sametime® provides a search engine, called a black box, for each storage type.

Using information in the directory, you can choose the fields from the following list to display in the business card.

  • Photo
  • Name
  • Company
  • E-mail address
  • Telephone
  • Address or location
  • Title

To troubleshoot problems with business cards, see Resolving problems with business cards.

Business Card Planning

You must use one primary repository that is the same as your directory type (Domino native directory or LDAP). This is used by the Community server to retrieve user information. Secondary repositories are optional. They are used to hold extra information about the user.

Examples:
  • If your LDAP directory does not have photos, you can use a secondary repository for retrieving photos.
  • If the LDAP directory you are authenticating with doesn’t include Titles and phone numbers, they could be retrieved from a native Domino directory or Notes database.

Each repository stores information differently, and Sametime provides a search engine to support each type, which are referred to as a Black Box.

The three supported black boxes for storage are:
  • Notes – used to search a Domino native directory
  • LDAP – used to search LDAP directory
  • Notes_custom_db – used to search a customized Notes database

Planning for Photos

Considerations:
  • Photos must be less than 45K in size (10K or less recommended) and photo file types .jpg and .gif are supported.
  • If photos are needed in the business card for mobile or web clients via the Sametime Proxy server, they must be in the format of a URL such as hosted from a web server or HCL Connections Profiles server.
  • The Sametime 11.5 Meeting server uses the photos from the Sametime Proxy server, which must be in the format of a URL.
There are several options to include photos in the business card:
  • In the Primary directory used by Sametime (native Domino or LDAP)
    • Note: Importing photos can greatly increase the size of your directory. The increase in size may affect performance in other applications that utilize the directory.
    • For native Domino directories, photos can be included in the person document.
    • For LDAP directories, photos can be imported into the user’s LDAP record inside an attribute.
  • Dual Repositories, photos are stored outside of the primary directory
  • A URL
    • The photos can be hosted on a web server and retrieved via a URL.
    • Retrieve them from a HCL Connections Profiles server.

Once you have identified where the user information will be stored, proceed to the applicable topic to configure business cards.