The idea would be to have the option of sharing a folder from within Filr into Vibe as a document repository. You'd have some sort of integration so that you could choose the folder or file to share from within Vibe and have it show up like another document repository.
by: Bob M. | over a year ago | Other
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I want this too. I've been thinking about this for a while and figured the best way I think to do this is to add Vibe on top of Filr... after all Vibe and Filr are are build on the same 'product' and Filr is just a 'module'. This would have several benefits IMO;
* I see an increase interest in Filr compared to Vibe. The primary reason I and my customers use Vibe today is cause of the file versioning, now versioning is planned for Filr too. Just the hardest part when 'selling' Vibe is moving users from working on files on a share to files in a Vibe datastore; this issue would be 'solved' when Filr would be fully up to that task. In essence that is why Filr exist, as we do not want to force users in moving existing data to another silo! For me Filr is just a view on the content from a file collaboration perspective, as is Vibe from teaming perspective. Now if we put Vibe on top of Filr these teaming functions work out of the box for all types of NetFolders we have in Filr today (OES, Windows, Sharepoint) as well as for content stores on the radar (Office 365, Google Doc's, FTP, ... and the Vibe internal store itself). Enabling Vibe and/or Filr would be as easy as adding a license file. As file collaboration (Filr) and teams (Vibe) are a separate way of working with the same content, I think a small button in the Filr web page named 'Teams' would bring up the 'Vibe' page as we know it today (to begin with). Then in the Vibe 'page' clicking a 'Files' button brings one back in the Filr page. Filr -already- has great Apps for working with files, for the teaming view of content we would need a great 'My Teams' Mobile App in Filr-style. So, no need for duplicate Filr and Vibe Desktop or Mobile Apps.
* Filr already has appliances, which makes it easy to setup. Vibe does not have those (today). Especially smaller environments would need a bunch of appliances/instances of both Vibe and Filr even while they leverage mainly a small part of Vibe (which would even decrease as they move the files from Vibe to Filr). Instead of creating connections between those systems, putting them on top of each other would just use less resources I believe, as many of my customers could just roughly do with halve the amount of appliances. Having Filr and Vibe on top of each other also benefits site-site collaboration; one can now share a file, a folder or a (part of a) team.
* As the file collaboration moves into Filr, I see there is less reason for my customers to use Vibe at all. The second and thirth thing in Vibe we leverage is workflows and Wiki's. My customers would more benefit from having these additional Vibe functions integrated in Filr (as in one product) as worksflows also could now integrate in NetFolders and Wiki's can easily point to files in those NetFolders. An example is that a worksflow would allow us to setup a team with a NetFolder instantly. Or, say if a team member wants to share a (part of a) NetFolder a workflow could kick in that notifies the team leader he has to accept that change. Another one is about showing content in the system in certain functional way's; like a meeting-view. For a customer I was looking at a meeting management solution which just basically is that it needs files, a calendar, team members (int- and external), comments, a discussion, wiki, etc. So, I think by exposing those Vibe functions in Filr this would add a lot of value to the product - more then vibe adds to Filr as a seperate product. Indeed 'teaming' would be more of an upsell vs what Vibe is today. But customers could still only license Vibe if they like. They then would loose the ability to sync files from shares; I think they then would bo for both. In this solution it would be possible to export workspaces from the current Vibe product and import those in the integrated appliance and the other way around.
* From a development perspective, would it not be easier to maintain one solution vs two products? While a lot of things added to the core benefit both Vibe and Filr, there is just additional work (specific development, beta cycles, testing, selling) in getting those products onto the market. It is inevitable that one product gets more attention vs the other. I feel this slows down the progress we make with both. Two nearly 'the same' products also have two product managers. So I think if we can develop and test them as one solution we could make more progress and also makes sure the quality gets better. In the end our customers get a better solution.
I am also very reluctant to move data into another silo (Vibe database.
If Filr can use my current data storage areas, then Vibe should really aim to do so also... not necessarily exclusively, but for team, group, shared storage (the stuff we do via NSS and eDir). I am keen to start using workflow, but not so keen to duplicate the groups and team shared storage, the user access rights and so on and then have to split the data - now dear users you have two home directories, one where its always been on your H: drive and one in this web thing, which is fab... and any shared stuff can go here...or here... I know you prefer to leave documents GroupWise but I can live in hope...
Interesting idea - Noted!
There hasn't happened -anything- in this area in the past year, despite the promises/idea's of the teams to create integration points with Filr. Personally I do no longer care if there would be a Vibe integration as this products seems to me dead in the water. There's no progress and no roadmap, there no responses to questions around those matters and in the mean time customers are (or thinking about) moving away from it to other solutions. Consequence of that move is that also Filr may be replaced.
The biggest problem those customers have with Vibe is the slow adoption of the workflow with files (that is if even possible to move those in Vibe, like AutoCAD project files) and the weak (dated) integration with document editors, syncing and mobile access.
To support my first response in this thread I created a new Idea for that, explicitly not referring to the name "Vibe" or "Teaming", but calling it workspaces:) Think we do not need to create a second Vibe, but we need to use the strong points like the ability to easily create workspaces with files, wiki's and workflows in those which can support a project. Files in a workspace are just a collection of files/folders which live in NetFolders. It should just work as a filter which only shows the relevant paths for that workspace.
Filr Workspace (but could as well be named OES Worksapce)
https://ideas.microfocus.com/MFI/novell-filr/Idea/Detail/12924
Again nothing happened in the past year in this area... does MF really care for these products, or what their customers need?We move users in heards to O365 and Google just cause they seem to have their stuff done right.
After some carefull thinking I came to the following;
The way file and collaboration within Micro Focus is organized makes it (near) impossible to achieve the goal of this Idea, which I believe is essential to achieve many sidegoals possible having such in place. After again a year of talking and watching the ecosystem evolve I can only think of a single solution to solve the issue that evolved after Filr was forked off Vibe as a point solution. From a maketing perspective this back then was a good idea. Today this stand in the way to futher grow Filr so I created a new Idea for this purpose;
We want one single MicroFocus team collaboration solution which integrates well with (at least) any other MicroFocus product. This would make integration with 3th party solutions easier also, where applicable. Mentioned products originate all from the same source (Vibe) and instead of competing development-, support- and sales (MF and partners) time we better work together communicating one platform to (potential) customers. Sure any of these products have a certain fit, but at the same time a huge overlap is keeping data silo’s for customers in place, where the idea once was to break these borders. At the same time any of these products has valuable features the other is missing. We feel the market is moving from single purpose products to more integrated, open, cross border, secure, not locking into, team driven solutions. We feel too much time is spend fighting for enhancements in any of these products that would benefit the other products as well. This is mainly [opinion] caused by how these products are traditionally split in product groups (groupware, file). This no longer serves customers in an optimal way and leads to losing customers (opportunity) instead of gaining those as in many cases neither product tends to be a (perfect) fit or is not able to blend into the next step a customer is taking.
Cross posted in GroupWise, Vibe and Filr Idea portal
https://ideas.microfocus.com/MFI/novell-filr/Idea/Detail/14135