Gregg Eldred

One of the questions I sometimes get asked after implementing Lotus Sametime is "Can Sametime automatically change my status after some time of inactivity?" This is a very useful feature, which would cut down on the number of times you ping someone, only to find out that they are out to lunch, in a meeting, or similarily indisposed. But can you do this in Sametime?

Thankfully, the answer is "Yes," and there is a TechNote that spells it all out for you.

This feature became available in Notes client release 7.0.1, which allows Notes instant messaging clients to change their awareness status based on keyboard/mouse activity or inactivity.

The Notes client displays an "Away" state based on keyboard/mouse inactivity, and automatically changes that status based on the status of the OS (the keyboard or mouse being inactive). Previously, the Active/Away status was changed based on the Notes client status.

This feature is turned off by default. To enable this feature, set the following notes.ini variables:

$STActiveToAwayEnabled=1 to enable "Active to Away" on idle

$STAwayToActiveEnabled=1 to enable "Away to Active" on return from idle

$STActiveToAwayTimeout=time to set idle time threshold (in minutes)

If you are using the Sametime Connect Client, and want the same functionality, you have to make a change to the Auto-Status preference in the autostatus.xml file:

Auto-status changes preferences

com.ibm.collaboration.realtime.alertmanager (release 7.5.x and higher)

As of 7.5.1 CF1, the Auto-Status preferences cannot be preset using the plugin_customization.ini. In order to customize and set these values, you can update the autostatus.xml file located in the users' profile directory at the following location:

([USERPROFILE]\IBM\RCP\Sametime\.metadata\.plugins\com.ibm.collaboration.realtime.alertmanager\autostatus.xml)

Link: 'Automatically change my status' in Notes instant messaging client

Link: Setting the Sametime Connect client's preferences

Technorati tag: SnTT Show-n-Tell Thursday

Comment posted by Andy Donaldson10/16/2008 06:23:39 PM
Homepage: http://blog.macian.net

LOL
You answered it on the 7 forum, and I left the settings on the 8 forum and you beat me to the SnTT post!

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