Lord Lotus Blog

Document Library template

Mike Sobczak — Tue, 2 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0400

I've been taking to heart what Chris Toohey and others have said about application UIs and how they can impact what users think of an application platform like Lotus Notes.

Before I roll-out another database based on the drab and lifeless Document Library template, has someone already taken the existing emplate and jazzed it up? Or created something like a Document Library and made it open source?

I checked OpenNTF but didn't see anything there. This would be for Notes 8.5 Basic client users. No web or Standard client users at this time.

User-customizable view columns don't work with shared columns?

Mike Sobczak — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Blogger of the year Chris Tooey wrote an excellent article on how to set row colors using profile document. Unfortunately, I discovered today that it does not work with shared columns. I created a non-shared view column and it works just fine. Time to call Lotus Support and complain!

Initializing Java Tooling

Mike Sobczak — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Is there a way I can prevent DDE from initializing Java Tooling every time I launch DDE?

Coupon suspension -- popcorn for dinner?

Mike Sobczak — Thu, 7 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0400

I'm on the MJR Theatre newsletter mailing list. They're a local theatre chain in Metro Detroit. I'm guessing folks were taking the concept of "dinner & a movie" a bit to far...

Mike Sobczak — Wed, 6 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Notes Standard - how to turn off composite application display

Mike Sobczak — Wed, 6 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0400

I have some users who like the Standard client, but don't like how long it takes to load their mail as a composite application. What they'd like to do is have the mail file render in "basic" mode, but also be able to use the sidebar and the new embedded Sametime client.

Is there an easy way to change the mail file so that it displays without the composite application features in Notes Standard?

Validating a radio button group

Mike Sobczak — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:34:54 -0400

I've been searching through all of the various sources for xPages development and haven't found the answer yet. Either that or I completely missed it. (Which is very likely.)

Does anyone know how I can validate that a Radio Button Group control has a radio button selected before the xPage is submitted?

Do my eyes deceive me? 8.5 FP1 fixes issue with Shared Actions

Mike Sobczak — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:18:30 -0400

One problem I've had with DDE 8.5 is that I could not copy an Action in a form and paste it into Shared Actions. I work on a lot of older databases and replacing redundant actions with shared actions is one of the cleanup tasks I do.

Well, now with DDE 8.5 FP1, I can do this again. Woot!

Lotus Knows - how to annoy developers!

Mike Sobczak — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:16:22 -0400

Sorry for my swipe at the current marketing campaign, but I spent the last hour finding that Notes won't do something I thought would be a no-brainer.

I wanted to create a frameset that displays framesets from two external databases. So, in Database A, frame1 points to Database B, and frame2 points to Database C. Each frame uses a formula that retrieves the path to the external database from a profile document. Turns out that the Notes client won't render a frameset that contains more than one computed frame to an external database. One computed frame works just fine. And it all displays properly in Domino Designer. Ugh!

I even tried using Notes URLs, but Domino Designer doesn't allow Notes URLs for a Frame URL. I found that I could get this to work if I use the folder icon to select each database and frameset within the frame properties. I'm glad that I got something to work but I really wanted to use a compted formula for each frame in the frameset so that I'm not left with a hard-coded solution.

The problem is still there in Notes 8.5 too.

How the Notes client resolves database links

Mike Sobczak — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:47:31 -0400

I currently work for a client that has employed a distributed Domino infrastructure. Databases typically reside on up to twenty servers. Unfortunately, whenever specific users click on a doclink to a database they've never accessed before, they end up with an icon on the first server listed alphabetically in the domain.

Several Domino administrators I've worked with in the past explained to me what was happening, but I'd never seen any official documentation on this. So, I spent a decent amount of time today looking for documentation on this particular facet of Notes/Domino. Thankfully, ~~someone~~ JY Riverin in the Notes 8.5 Discussion forum pointed me in the right direction:

How does Notes determine which replica to use with @Command([FileOpenDBRepID]) or a database link?

What's even more interesting is that the Designer Help doco for the FileOpenDBRepID @Command, makes no mention of the Catalog/domain search server setting in the Location document, or that the Domain Catalog comes into play.

Now that I have an official technote, I will be working with my client to possibly use policies to remedy this situation. Why the information in the above technote hasn't been incorporated into the Help databases is inconceivable!