Use Visual Studio Code to edit LibreOffice Macros

During the development of macros in LibreOffice it is very useful to use an IDE like Microsoft Visual Studio Code to be able to use all the features of the environment.But unfortunately the use of external editors in LibreOffice needs some additional help

The first step to reach this target is to install the APSO-Extension. This Extension gives you the ability to configure an external editor for your python macros and a shell to the python installed with LO.

Just download the extension from the website (apso.oxt) to your pc or mac. Then open LibreOffice and install the extension (screenshot is MacOs):

Use the «Add» button and choose the extsion from the destination folder of your download.

Update Nextcloud 11 to Version 12

There are some circumstances that makes an update from Nextcloud 11 to Nextcloud 12 more complicated than it was before. In our case we are and were not able to execute the necessary shell commands because php-cli is not implemented by our provider. We also tried to update it using a fresh side-by-side installation, copy the config files to the new installation and choose the updater from the webbrowser. This procedure worked in all prior releases like a charm.

The new release brings a lot benfits. One very important one: Installed Apps in Nextcloud will not be lost, they will be updated during the upgrade process. This benefit brought some difficulties to us. We were not able update our sandbox and qa environment because the update of the apps needed a too large amount of time. The process ran into a timeout and broke the entire installation.

The solution for this issue is to deactivate all installed apps, run the side-by-side installation of Nextcloud 12 (including copy of the config files) and manually activate the apps after the upgrade was successful (which it was). This process was pretty easy: After the successful update all apps could be easily reactivated (and updated in place) in the Apps menu which needed just twenty minutes. There was only one app that could not be reactivated because it was not compatible with version 12.

Websphere Installation Manager

From time to time we recognize that it would be nice to switch an Installation Manager installation from admin access to runtime user access. This could be done without a problem. The only things that need to be done is copying some filestructures, adjust file-permissions and change some xml-files.

We pretend to use a Linux machine and the InstallationManager is located in

/in/InstallationManager

Widget to observer Firmware 

We just developed a small widget to be used in Scriptable on iOS devices. This widget gives users the ability to observe Midas M32 consoles firmware and software releases.

Feel free to download the widget or go to GitHub to download the script.

Ubuntu Kernel patched: solved bindsock issue on Domino servers

If you run a Domino, Sametime or Traveler server on Ubuntu than you might have recognized an issue during the last kernel releases that prevented to start http, ldap or any other task running a port smaller than 1024.

The Ubuntu kernel team solved that issue by implementing a workaround in the kernel because the main issue seems to be in bindsock library on domino side. Now we could run the up to date kernel release on Domino servers again.

Hopefully this workaround will not be removed in later kernel versions (again).

If you want to be informed follow:

Ubuntu Bug 1335478