What's new in Content Collector 4.0

IBM® Content Collector 4.0 provides the following new features.

For the most current software requirements, including versions, see the system requirements at:

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/612697.

Connectors
New connectors
The Web Service Connector allows for calling external REST based web services during execution of a IBM Content Collector task route.
IBM Connections Connector
The IBM Connections Connector now fully supports IBM Connections 4.5. You can capture and archive content from all IBM Connections 4.5 applications: profiles, activities, wikis, blogs, files, bookmarks, forums, events, and libraries.
SMTP Connector
  • The SMTP Receiver now supports Transport Layer Security (TLS)/Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encrypted connections.
  • When archiving SMTP journal reports that are sent by a mail server different than Lotus® Domino® and Microsoft Exchange, the SMTP Connector can now extract journal information from specific user-defined fields of the email header.
Configuration store
Content Collector no longer requires that the Content Collector configuration store is deployed to an external database but stores the data within the application.

For high availability in a Content Collector cluster, the configuration data is kept on two nodes.

Configuration Manager
Nested decision points in task routes
You can now nest decision points in your task route to allow for complex scenarios in conditional processing.

In addition, the number and placement of Always true rules is checked.

Multi-user task route configuration
Multiple users can now make configuration changes simultaneously. The changes are synchronized and tracked.
Tracking of configuration changes
For auditing purposes, all configuration changes are now logged to the configuration store.
Import and export of file system collection sources
You can now import and export collection source definitions for the FSC Collector, the FSC Metadata File Collector, and the FSC Stub Collector.
Check number and placement of Always true rules
When you define rules in a task route, the number and placement of Always true rules is now checked to ensure that only one such rule exists and that it is defined as the last rule for a decision point.
Improved task route import and export
You can now import and export task routes by dragging them from or to a folder in your file system. In addition, you can export multiple task routes together. These task routes are then written to a single XML file.

Dependencies such as lists, custom metadata, or collection sources are now exported with the task route.

Advanced IBM FileNet® P8 Connector connection configuration
For rollover of object stores, you can now define sets of FileNet P8 connections. Which of these connections is used for processing is determined during run time, based on specific date criteria.
Variables for connectors instead of environment variables
For some connectors, you can now define special variables to enable workarounds or activate special functionality, instead of using environment variables. Some existing environment variables have been removed and replaced by options in the Configuration Manager.
Enhancements to the metadata file collector
You can now have your metadata files contain directory names, a combination of directory and file names, or just file paths. If your metadata file describes directories, the metadata file collector searches the specified directories for files to be collected, based on additional filter criteria. This is especially useful if you have a large number to file servers and file shares that Content Collector is to crawl.
Email management enhancements
Lotus Domino: Credentials for accessing the template and the database are now validated during template enablement
When you enable the Domino template with Content Collector functions, the credentials that you specify for accessing the Domino template and the Domino database are now validated to ensure that selected ID has sufficient privileges to change templates.
Lotus Domino: Support of IBM Notes and Domino 9
IBM Content Collector now supports IBM Notes and Domino 9 including the Notes Browser Plug-in and IBM iNotes 9.
Microsoft Exchange: Support of Exchange 2013 and Outlook 2013
IBM Content Collector now supports Microsoft Exchange 2013 and Microsoft Outlook 2013. Outlook Web App is not supported for Microsoft Exchange Server 2013.
Microsoft Exchange: Changed calculation of the deduplication hash key
The PR_CLIENT_SUBMIT_TIME message property no longer contributes to the calculation of the deduplication hash key for mail documents.
Logging and monitoring
Chunk log files for the task route service and several connectors
You can now create multiple log files of fixed size for the task route service, and the File System Repository, File System Source, IBM Content Manager, IBM FileNet Image Services, IBM FileNet P8, SharePoint, and Utility connectors.
Statistical information for the Email Connector
You can now collect statistical information about your Lotus Domino or Microsoft Exchange mailboxes or stores by configuring a collector in a task route to create statistics, either in addition to collecting documents or with the sole purpose of creating statistics. This statistical information can help you monitor the processing and archiving of documents, and it can help to ensure that all eligible documents are actually collected.
Dynamic retention
Dynamic retention
You can now apply retention schedules that are managed centrally and consistently by IBM Atlas Policy Suite, which is the client interface in IBM Global Retention Policy and Schedule Management for managing document retention schedules, to email and file system documents during archiving in IBM Content Collector.
Retention Manager
This command-line tool checks if there are changes to existing retention schedules, searches for the documents that are associated with a specific schedule ID in the repository, and recalculates the document expiration date of archived documents.
Enhancements to moving from archiving using IBM CommonStore to IBM Content Collector
IBM Content Collector now offers two methods to move documents that are archived in IBM CommonStore repositories to IBM Content Collector repositories.
User-triggered migration
The restore process of documents that were archived by IBM CommonStore can be configured to remove the archiving properties that were set by IBM CommonStore. These documents are treated as new documents that have not been archived, which means that they can be rearchived by IBM Content Collector in a compatible format and can be stored in a IBM Content Collector repository.

User-triggered migration was introduced in IBM Content Collector V3.0.0.2.

System-triggered migration
Using this method, all documents that were archived by IBM CommonStore can be restored automatically.

You cannot restore documents automatically yourself. To enable system-triggered restore, you must contact IBM Software Support.

Web application enhancements
Changed deployment types for the IBM Content Collector web applications
With previous versions of IBM Content Collector, you could choose to work either with the embedded web application server or with an external web application server. However, the web application server had to run as a 32-bit application on Windows. With version 4.0, those web application services that require direct access to a mail server are always deployed to the embedded web application server. The others can be deployed to an external web application server. This web application server can run on a Linux, AIX®, or a 32-bit or 64-bit Windows operating system.
Separate log files for all web applications
In previous versions of the product, all web applications used the same log file. Now, each web application writes its own log file. The log file location, the trace level settings, and the maximum log files size are defined in Configuration Manager and are common to all web applications.
Preview and search restore of documents that were archived by IBM CommonStore
You can now search all documents that were archived by IBM CommonStore, and preview or restore them from the search result list.
Configure preview for archived documents
You can now customize the HTML preview pages for any kind of archived document so that the document is displayed in a similar way as in the originating application.
Further enhancements
Improved cluster support
Every IBM Content Collector installation is now a cluster installation, so that you can easily extend a single-node installation to a cluster installation by adding further nodes.
IBM Content Collector Search in email clients
Both Lotus Notes® and Microsoft Outlook now include the IBM Content Collector Search function that searches both the active email documents and the archive.
Creation of local user accounts for specific Content Collector services
During the installation of IBM Content Collector Server, three different local user accounts are created that belong the local group IBM Content Collector Configuration Store User:
  • AFUConfigStoreSvc for running the IBM Content Collector Configuration Store service
  • AFUUICfgAccsSvc for running the IBM Content Collector Configuration Access service
  • AFUTaskRouteSvc for running the IBM Content Collector Task Routing Engine service