Today I had a call with a customer who complained that after an upgrade of the Verse App the user was forced either to enter a 8-pin password or a 6 character alphanumeric password.
The weird issue was that we forced the user only to have a 6 digit numeric password set on the device in the settings of the HCL Traveler server.
After opening a case at HCL we received the information that Google required changes to the Device administration for Android 10 and above devices.
There´s also an entry in the HCL Knowledge Base describing the complete issue.
Tag Archives: android
Verse app 10.0.13.0 on Android is not syncing calendar entries after upgrade to Traveler 11
A question was asked on the HCL support forum ( https://bit.ly/3a2hiWt ) because after upgrading Traveler to V11 just calendar entries have not been synced to Android devices.
The cause has been located and will be fixed like mentioned as answer:
We have determined the cause of this issue and have a fix for it in the HCL Verse Android Google Play Store beta slot. We are beginning the production deployment of the fix via the Google PlayStore at this time which should complete by Wed Jan 15th. This issue can affect Verse Android client apps with versions from 10.0.11->10.0.13 and is fixed in the 11.0.0 version (202001092238) of the app.
If a single user is experiencing this issue, the simplest solution is to have them open the Verse App on their device and click the overflow menu in the upper right hand corner of the UI and select Tools->Replace Data and select “Mail and Calendar”. Once the Replace Data is complete, the issue will be resolved. For larger sets of users the suggestion above using “traveler reset” can be used.
If you want to reset all Android devices you can download an agent here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cmwy4uk57b0fjm2/Traveler_ResetAllDevices.txt?dl=0
Some Verse Android users are getting locked out during initial setup on Android 8 and Android 9 devices
Due to some security updates in the Android 8 and Android 9 OS sometimes Verse users are locked out during the initial sync.
In the latest Android security update changes were made that affect the response flow for Android’s Device Administrator capability. These changes are causing the Verse Android application to believe that the Device Administrator is not fully enabled and communicating this to the IBM Traveler server which is then locking out the users from further synchronization.
The error message the user may encounter might look similar to the following:
” Device Android_6216408d7fda7bb3 for User ID CN=USERXXXX is locked out for security reasons. Device security violation(s): Device Password, Wipe.”
If a user experiences this situation they should:
Open the Android Settings application and search on “device admin apps”
Tap on the result to open the “device admin apps” settings screen
Tap the IBM Verse Security entry and select Deactivate, to disable the IBM Verse device administrator temporarily.
Tap the IBM Verse Security entry and select Activate.
At this point the initial configuration that had been started will be removed and the user can launch the Verse app to go through initial configuration again and this time will be able to successfully complete the setup without being locked out.
IBM is working on updates to the Verse Android application to respond to this change in Android and will provide an updated version to resolve this issue shortly.
Moving Android devices from unsecure to secure communication with IBM Notes Traveler
IBM released a very smart way to switch Android devices to HTTPS communication with IBM Notes Traveler servers:
Problem
Your IBM Verse for Android applications connect to your on-premises IBM Traveler server using an unencrypted HTTP connection instead of an encrypted HTTPS connection. Since the IBM Traveler server can use unencrypted HTTP connections immediately without any additional setup, some installations may have skipped the HTTPS setup procedures prior to deploying Verse for Android to users. To ensure that all your communications are encrypted, first enable HTTPS either on your IBM Traveler server or on an edge proxy. Then ensure the IBM Verse for Android app begins using the encrypted connection without requiring any manual intervention from your users.
Resolving the problem
This feature requires the following components at the specified minimum version levels:
· IBM Traveler server, version 9.0.1.15 (or later)
· IBM Verse for Android app, version 9.5.0.0 (or later)
If all the IBM Verse for Android apps have not yet upgraded to the required minimum level prior to the completion of these steps, then it is recommended you keep HTTP port 80 enabled until you can ensure all apps have been upgraded. It is not required that all users upgrade at the same time.
1. Enable your IBM Traveler server to use HTTPS. Typically, this will be the Domino server that hosts your Traveler server, but it could also be an edge proxy. If this is a Domino server, Domino 9.0.1 fp5 or later is recommended. See the following for more information on this task:
Also reference the article Securing connections for IBM Traveler mobile applications for the latest updates on security requirements for IBM Traveler servers and mobile apps.
2. Update the “External Server URL” field on the Traveler server to change the current server URL to start with “https://” instead of “http://”. This can be done either through the current configuration document, by updating notes.ini, or by using the domino console. For more information, see:
3. Before forcing all IBM Verse for Android apps to use the new URL, test the HTTPS connection to ensure that it works properly. The first test is to ensure that the HTTPS port is working properly and routing to the IBM Traveler server. You can use a web browser to easily validate this. Open a browser page, connect to your Traveler Server External URL, and login using an ID. For example, if your Traveler server External URL is https://traveler.example.com/traveler, use a web browser to connect to that page and validate that you do not see any errors.
4. Test the setup with a few devices that are connected to your IBM Traveler server using the HTTP connection. To do this, issue these commands at the domino console:
tell traveler policy setdevice tsExternalURLEnforced=1
tell traveler push flagsadd serviceability configGet
Where and are the device ID and user you are testing.You can obtain the of a user that has previously connected to the Traveler server using the command:
tell traveler show
5. Sync the test devices to ensure that the sync is working properly. From within the Verse for Android app, open Settings > Server and validate that the field called Use Secure Protocol is checked.
NOTE: Ensure that everything syncs normally and shows as secure. If you push an incorrect server URL to the mobile app, the only way to recover is to remove and reinstall the Verse app on the device.
6. After you have verified that the External Server URL is correct and your migrated device can sync, set the IBM Traveler server to enforce this property for all devices by entering the following command into the Domino server console:
set config NTS_EXTERNAL_URL_ENFORCED=true
This command migrates the rest of your IBM Verse for Android apps (that meet the minimum level) to use your secure server URL.
7. Restart the IBM Traveler server to have the settings take effect.
8. Once all your IBM Verse for Android apps have been updated, you can disable the HTTP port on your Domino server, assuming it is not required for other applications that are using the same server.
IBM Connections Editor available for Android
There´s a new application for Android devices regarding the mobility of IBM Connections, which has been released on October 8th:
IBM Connections Editor
IBM Connections Editor is a companion application for Office IBM Connections.
IBM Connections Editor is optimized for smartphones and tablets, allowing you to create, edit and read Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents
and display PDFs on IBM Connections Files. You have full editing capabilities and can save your files in IBM Connections and share files in a simple way to communicate with other people in your company.
Features:
– Create, edit and share Word documents
– Compatible with .doc, .docx and .txt
– Formatting text size, fonts, paragraphs, titles and more
– Insert images, tables, charts and more
– Attaching documents in IBM Connections Files
Create, edit and share PowerPoint slide shows:
.ppt And .pptx formats Compatible with –
– Slideshow playback from the selected slide
– Formatting films
– Add notes
– Appending presentations in IBM Connections Files
Create, edit and share Excel spreadsheets:
– Compatible with formats .xls and .xlsx the
– More than 300 formulas for arithmetic operations, financial operations, date / time operations, statistical operations, database operations, search operations and other operations
– Appending spreadsheets in IBM Connections Files
Downloadable on the Google Play Store
IBM Connections mobile app V5.0 for Android and iOS
On December 31st IBM released the new version 5.0 of the mobile app for IBM Connections for Android and iOS including the following fixes:
Android:
LO80818 – Change the label Work to Work phone.
LO82462 – No entries shown in library.
LO82500 – The app crashes after concurrent deletion requests.
LO82859 – Uploading an image fails.
LO82916 – Can update a Profile picture even though AllowEditProfile is set to false.
LO82947 – Wiki_links do not work.
iOS:
LO80818 – Change the label Work to Work phone.
LO82228 – Some labels are displayed in Iberian Portuguese instead of Brazilian Portuguese.
LO82462 – No entries shown in library.
LO82766 – Opening a file locks the iPad.
LO82848 – Save to Contacts does not work properly.
LO82857 – Uploading an image fails.
LO82923 – The InactivityTimeout does not work if you set it for 30 minutes or longer.
LO82947 – Navigation issue with Communities.
LO83001 – The app crashes when the configuration is saved.
LO83126 – Details of the selected Wiki are not loaded.
