Optional: Installing the Component Pack for IBM Connections

The Component Pack for IBM Connections™ introduces new connectivity capabilities that enhance collaboration and boost productivity.

Component Pack offerings

Component Pack for IBM Connections includes the following services:
Note: The new CR4 Catalog views display once Type-ahead Search and Metrics have been configured, regardless if either a stand-alone Elasticsearch installation or a Component Pack deployment is performed.
Orient Me
The Orient Me home page provides your users with a cognitive view of their most essential Connections content. Orient Me shows users prioritized updates, with content from the people and communities they interact with the most at the top and grouped by source, or view a single stream based on time. The page is fully integrated with an updated Notification Center to truly make the home page a command center for managing time and attention.
Customizer
IBM Connections Customizer is a proxy service that lets you modify the IBM Connections user experience. Customizer intercepts and modifies requests from clients and responses from servers, so it can customize anything that flows through it, such as the behavior of APIs or the look-and-feel of the user interface.
Elasticsearch
Elasticsearch can be used for a variety of different features within Connections:
  • Elasticsearch and Metrics

    Search and metrics capabilities based on Elasticsearch give you greater insights into your data. If you are an administrator, you can get meaningful metrics that demonstrate the business value of IBM Connections in your organization. You can chart Connections events such as every time that users read a blog entry, create a To Do item in an Activity, update a wiki page, or follow a Community. Community owners can also get metrics for the communities that they own. Track who visits the community, information shared such as comments, and participation in such activities as downloading file. Whether your organization is deploying metrics for the first time or migrating your existing Cognos® metrics data to the new metrics, you can now visualize your data more easily with the improved interface.

  • Type-ahead Search (CR3 or higher)

    Type-ahead remembers where you have been recently so you can find content faster. For more information, see Setting up type-ahead search.

  • Elastic Stack

    The Elastic Stack implementation (optional deployment) integrates with the Component Pack Elasticsearch cluster to provide a centralized logging solution.

There are two methods for deploying Elasticsearch for Connections:
  • Elasticsearch offering in the Component Pack

    If you are deploying the Orient Me or Customizer offerings of the Component Pack, you can leverage the required Kubernetes and Docker deployments to additionally install the Elasticsearch offering.

  • Stand-alone Elasticsearch instance

    If you do not want to use the Orient Me or Customizer components, you can avoid the need to deploy Kubernetes and Docker by installing a stand-alone Elasticsearch server. For information, see Setting up stand-alone Elasticsearch. If you initially deployed using the Elasticsearch offering of Component Pack and want to move to a stand-alone Elasticsearch instance, you can migrate your existing Metrics data to the new instance as explained in Migrating Metrics data from Component Pack for Connections.