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With eDOCS DM 5.3 gaining traction among our clients, I wanted to take this opportunity to share my overall experience with the latest version and the upgrade process.  I recently upgraded a client from DM 5.2.1 CU5 to DM 5.3 Patch 1.  The back-end upgrade went remarkably well, as have all my recent experiences with Open Text eDOCS for the past year or two.   In testing the updated client, I couldn’t be happier that Open Text embraced MSI technology for the installation and deployment of the DM client.  With a simple single command line, I was able to customize a complete client install, without having to run through the DM Extensions Server Setup on the DM  server itself as with previous versions.  The MSI properly upgraded the previous version without any apparent issues or error messages.   Adding the MSP patch to my installation script was also tested without any errors.

In testing our pilot deployment, one issue was apparent.  The ODMA integration between Adobe Acrobat and DM was broken!  I checked the Open Text Knowledge Center on the proper steps to integrate Adobe with DM, and verified that yes, the API file is in place, and yes the PassiveODMA registry value is in place.   Upon opening a support ticket, I was informed that ODMA integration is gone with DM 5.3.  In fact, starting with DM 5.2.1 CU4, Open Text was not including the ODMA integration with Adobe.   That seemed strange, since it was working with our 5.2.1 CU5 client just fine.  Turns out that if the API file and PassiveODMA registry key are in place from a previous installation, it will still work with CU5 and CU6.   However, with 5.3, ODMA integration is no longer in the code, so if you have the API file in place, that DM menu option in Adobe is there but that does absolutely nothing.

In double-checking the release notes for DM 5.3, I found that this integration change was mentioned, but as the 4th footnote on a page — definitely not prominent.  And no mention of this change with 5.2.1 CU4  in the Knowledge Base or in the Application Note titled  “eDOCS DM 5.2.x – How to Successfully Integrate Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader”.

This leads to two valuable lessons for any product integrator:

1. Be sure to read all Release Notes, including footnotes!
2. Before deploying a software upgrade, deploy to a small pilot and test all integrated applications.

Regarding the Adobe integration with DM 5.3, the DM Interceptor is needed.  This is actually documented as an option in the Application Note referenced above, but is a requirement starting with DM 5.3.

Autonomy iManage and OpenText eDocs both have protocol handlers for SharePoint, which enable the SharePoint Enterprise Search engine to index documents stored in the DMS, while keeping the documents in the DMS.  Many people haven’t been aware of this and thought you had to migrate all of the documents into SharePoint to search them, or to use an enterprise search engine provided by the DMS vendor.  However, these protocol handlers can provide the best of both worlds by allowing you to continue managing documents in the current DMS, while taking advantage of Microsoft’s FAST enterprise search indexer to index the DMS content, SharePoint content, file shares, web sites, Exchange public folders, and other enterprise systems.  Security trimming is preserved by the protocol handler, so users will never see documents in the DMS that they don’t have access to.  The protocol handlers both support Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

More information on the OpenText eDocs SharePoint integration and protocol handler can be found here:

http://www.opentext.com/download/livelinkdownload.html?path=product/microsoft/ot-clmsp-edocs-po.pdf

More information on the iManage SharePoint protocol handler can be found in their partner portal, by filtering the list of products to “SharePointProtocol Handler.”  Note that you need a partner login account to download the documentation and release notes.

http://worksitesupport.interwoven.com/WorkSite/scripts/portal.aspx

Both vendors also offer a comprehensive set of web parts to drop into a SharePoint environment to view and manage their documents from within a SharePoint site.

For those of you keeping up to date with your Open Text eDOCS DM environment, you may have experienced the following issue with version 5.2.1 CU3 (and possibly other versions).   When using DM Extensions, the new Save User Interface built into DM 5.2 may take up to 20 seconds or longer to render, causing annoying delays when saving documents.

Open Text recently posted a simple resolution for this issue.  From the Open Text Knowledge Base:

This issue can be resolved by moving two files on the client computer.

1. Navigate to the following folder:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\Framework\root\Hummingbird\Extensions

2. Move the following two files from the above folder to a safe storage location; do not delete the files as they may be needed for future logging or troubleshooting purposes:

Hummingbird.DM.Extensions.Logging.Logger_SN__Version_5.2.1.0.cs
Hummingbird.DM.Extensions.Logging.Logger_SN__Version_5.2.1.0.mof

3. Restart DM Extensions.

DM 5.2.1 CU4 was recently released, and this particular issue is not listed in the Fixed Issues documentation.  We’ll see if a future update resolves the issue entirely, but the steps above can be a simple way to immediatley improve performance if you are seeing this behavior. 

For customers and partners, the Open Text Knowledge Base and software downloads can be accessed here.