10.25.2017

What!!! Notes 10 is coming 2018!

Tags: Lotus Notes
0

What a fantastic twist!! While IBM has done a fairly good job with Domino over the years, the Notes client has been left somewhat in the void. But head over to this announcement and see for yourself!

03.21.2017

How to get XPages and Bootstrap3_xxx themes to work (or how to check that XPages is correctly installed)?

Tags: Lotus Notes Xpages Question
0

Warning – Not that experienced XPages programmer here Smile 

I have been fiddling around with the Single Page Application control in XPages, but I never got it to work properly with the Bootstrap3, or Bootstrap3_flat themes. In fact it only worked with OneUI before FP8. I supect that I have some issue with XPages on the server.

Below you see a screen shot of the result in Chrome;

image

My question is therefore – Does anybody know how to check if XPages is is properly installed on the server? I search around and find some details, but a lot of the information seems somewhat old (2014’ish), and the nomenclature seems different now and pretty fragmented. I guess I am also a little confused about what features that still needs ExtLib and what has been moved to the core product with FP8.

03.21.2017

Note to self; "Unable to find valid target platform" means "hey, install the core product first" when installing the Notes client

Tags: Lotus Notes
0

Unfortunately I managed to completely wreck my Notes client install and and thus I had to reinstall it from scratch.

To be completely sure that there wasn’t any remains left from the old installation, I ran the “Notes Install Cleanup Executable” (NICE) tool found here. So far so good, and Notes vanished from my computer.

Perhaps it has been too long since I had to install Notes from scratch, so my first attempt was to just fire up the latest and greatest Notes FP8 client installer named notes901FP8_win.exe. After unpacking,  the installer complained about “Unable to find valid target platform”;

image

- What?!? “Target platform”, does that mean my OS or what?

A quick search on the net quickly pointed me in the direction of  IBM’s own “Unable To Find Valid Target Platform" When Installing Notes, Due To a Suspended Installation. Perhaps being baffled about the message in the first place, and somewhat afraid of that the Notes installer perhaps was outdated on Windows 10 (see what a that talk about a dying Notes client can lead too Smile), my speedreading just saw a bunch of Registry tweaks …

So, after reading it again I finally saw “Usually this error occurs when the user attempts to install a Notes Fix Pack over a nonexistent base version”…. And suddenly my brain remembered that I should install core product first before upgrading to the latest fix pack.

After installing the DOMINO_DESI_ADM901_32_BIT_WIN_EN.exe and then installing notes901FP8_win.exe, everything was back on track Smile

03.16.2017

[SOLVED] - Post FP8 install - Does anybody know where the Xpages "Mobile" controls palette has gone?

Tags: Lotus Notes Xpages
0

Update March 16th, 2017: Maire Kehoe (one of the lead developers on the XPages team as far as I remember) posted an answer on this blog and that was “The Mobile controls no longer appear in the palette by default. To re-add them, go to the menu File, Preferences, Domino Designer, XPages, Palette Check the check-box beside: Mobile and click OK.”. There it was;

image

Thanks Maire!

Original post follows;

After installing the latest and greatest FP8, I realized that the Extension Library shifted a lot of components from ExtLibX into the ExtLib.

One thing I can’t seem to find any more is the “Mobile controls” – which contained the “Single Page Application” wizard amongst other things.

Does anybody know the whereabouts of the Mobile controls in the post-FP8 world?

SNAGHTML23315c7

02.24.2017

How to quickly get a nice looking month-calendar together with SmartNSF

Tags: After Hours Lotus Notes
0

Update Feb 28th, 2017: It turns out that Klaus Bild and Christian Güdemann had a presentation at IBM Connect 2017 diving into SmartNSF. I recommend you to head over to see the slides from the session DEV-1478 – Your App Deserves More – The Art of App Modernization for even more details!

===

Have you ever wanted to get a nice looking month-calendar based on your Domino data? Sure you have! Perhaps something like this;

SNAGHTML59cbc42

This is my short take on how to use the fullcalendar.io javascript event calendar together with the fresh SmartNSF-tool from Christian Güdemann on OpenNTF.

Here you see the end-result (go to June to see some data if interested).

09.14.2016

[SOLVED] - Does anybody have a cure for extremely small fonts in some incoming mails?

Tags: Lotus Notes Question
0

Update (only a couple hours later than the post). Thanks to Howard and Jay Marme (unfortunately no link) I learned that I can use the Notes.ini keyword setting BrowserRenderNoFilter=1. When doing so, everything started to work fine!

See the original question at the bottom of this post!

Before (extremely small fonts!) After BrowserRenderNoFilter=1
image image

You can find more on BrowserRenderNoFilter and it’s sieblings BrowserRenderDisable and BrowserRenderPrintNotes here. I copy the text here:

Notes 8 uses Internet Explorer to render MIME emails.
This comes with benefits of better rendering but some emails can take longer to render. There are are some ini variables that control this behavior.
The ini variables in place are
BrowserRenderDisable=1 Don't use the feature at all
BrowserRenderNoFilter=1 Don't run the mail through the active content filter (filters possible security problems from IE issues). Turning off the active content filter may help it run faster.
BrowserRenderPrintNotes=1 When printing from the document, use the Notes rendering and not the browser's
It can also be turned off by deleting the $BrowserRender item on the Memo form in the mail template.
Also noted on the call: This feature works on the basic client with a template refresh to the perweb.nsf database.

02.09.2016

Would it be an idea to warn user about redirect-URLs?

Tags: Lotus Notes
0

For many years the Notes client has protected users from showing images in incoming mail, like this;

image

The purpose is probably twofold - first to save some space if you don’t want the mail in the first place, and second to prevent the user to reveal to the originator that the mail has been seen.

- “How can the originator know that the mail has been seen by me, simply by showing the images?”, you ask

Some sites use clever naming conventions on their images, meaning that the image to are about to see, has a file name tailored specifically for you. For example can the file name be “Masthead_5666776544.jpg” where the number actually identifies you. Yes, every mail they send out, has special file names in every mail. So when the originator’s web server delivers that image, it also knows that you have seen the mail - and that the mail address they used, actually is a live mail address.

Could we do something similar to certain redirect URL-styles in the mail?

01.19.2016

Classic Notes: How to write a "reveal java home" java agent in Domino

Tags: Lotus Notes Java
0

Just to get you going and reveal the whereabouts of the Domino JVM on your computer. Can for example be used when you try to fix any PKIX path building failed - related problems Smile 

Read much more about that error in the post Classic Notes: How to import self signed certificates into your Domino Java environment.

01.19.2016

Classic Notes: How to import self signed certificates into your Domino Java environment

Tags: Lotus Notes Java
0

If you get errors like “PKIX path building failed”... such as ...

javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target

... you may have a problem with self-signed certificates in your Java environment. Read more about how to fix this in this article!

I show you how to export certificates with Chrome, and how to add this to your so-called keystore in your Java environment. In the end you will have both your Eclipse and Domino environment accept the self-signed certificate.

UPDATE Jan 19th, 2016 15:31 CET:  René Winkelmeyer informed me about his blog where he has already described a much more elegant appoach for Domino - which also survives an update! ... Head over to his blog and check it out. Thanks a lot René for the pointer! René's blog points you further to Simon O'Doherty’s answer on Serverfault (Hi Simon, long time since the “chineese API syndrome” Smile).

01.17.2016

A small sample on how to create your own toolbar in IBM Notes client

Tags: Formula Lotus Notes
0

I have just blogged about how users of my product Notes Import Export Library can extend their use of the tool by using a custom toolbar in the Notes client in the How to create Notes Import Export Library Toolbar with buttons for export to Excel.  The users end up with a toolbar like this;

SNAGHTMLbf155b

Clicking on the buttons export the current IBM Notes view to Excel.

Please note that Notes Import Export Library a purchasable product, but you can of course use the described technique to do any @formula-stuff with your own icons.

10.17.2011

[SOLVED] Has anybody experienced problems with iNotes on Safari after upgrading to Domino 8.5.3?

Tags: Question Lotus Notes
0

Update 24.JAN.2012: See comment from Brian below on how to fix this issue

The server has been upgraded to Domino 8.5.3 and now my iPhone nor iPad can’t open the mails without getting an error. I can can log in, and see the Inbox fine. All new mails are present, but as soon as I click on a message to open it, I get an error message (“Cannot open page, the URL cannot be shown”. The exact Norwegian error message is “Kan ikke åpne side, Safari kan ikke åpne siden, Feilen var: “URL-en kan ikke vises”). Has anybody seen this?

10.09.2011

Notes client Bookmark Export and Import database

Tags: DXL Lotus Notes LotusScript
0
From time to time I like to completely reinstall Notes, because Notes, like Windows, accumulate issues  (oh, "features" we call them, he he ...) over time. So just like reinstalling Windows once a year, I try to reinstall Notes too. One of the drawbacks with complete reinstallation, is that you loose settings, amongst them  Workplace and Bookmarks. This means that I have to manually recreate my bookmark folder structure, opening up a bunch of databases and remember to add them to bookmarks. Boring, tedious and error-prone.

I have therefore created the Bookmark Export and Import database, which let you export your bookmarks to a backup document, and then later import it again. Below you see a screenshot of my latest backup document;

A picture named M2

Yup, nothing fancy in regard of design here The backup document contains two DXL files (which the Export agents creates for you) along with a bunch of other fields to keep track of all relations in the original bookmark.nsf file. Below you see the content of the About-document

10.07.2011

8.5.3 installation - What to do if you encounter "Unexpected results have occurred during the provisioning operation"

Tags: Lotus Notes
0
Update 24.JAN.2012: Impressed by IBM! IBM contacted me to receive the log files.

Yesterday I wanted to upgrade my Notes installation. Being a developer, I started the notes_designer_admin853_w32en.exe on my Windows 7 x64 Enterprise, and clicked away. At some point in the installation, I got this;

A picture named M2

12.02.2010

Is it just me? Domino Designer for Eclipse contains some copy/paste issues ...

Tags: Lotus Notes LotusScript Question
0

Using the latest and greatest Lotus Notes 8.5.2 All Clients installation on a Windows 7 64-bit machine…

Let me start by saying that DDE is absolutely a huge step in the correct direction, and I wouldn’t even dream of going back. Just having a serious editor for my LotusScript classes is such a pro that I can’t ever go back to the old editor Smilefjes

But …. some issues almost drives me nuts …. and probably has to do with the way Notes expose LotusScript to Eclipse. That said, most of the problems below doesn’t occur when you edit Java code, so I guess this has to do with LotusScript tooling somehow…

  • First of all, almost no matter when you paste, Eclipse insist on placing the cursor at the end of the line …. This means if you copy parts of code, such as as the “viewNew” from the code below …
    SNAGHTML11a5f83[6]
    …copy “viewNew” to the clipboard, and now doubleclick on the “viewOriginal”, then paste;
    SNAGHTML11ce526
    … the cursor ends up after the Refresh method!!! I don’t like this. Paste and stay at the end of the pasted value, like any other normal editor!!

    This is however, not really a huge problem, just annoying ….
  • Much worse problem! Sometimes the editor inserts the text in reverse order!!!!

    Now I have a problem, this is super-annoying! Below you see how the editor insists on inserting the word “portal” backwards!

    SNAGHTML122b0ae
    I start at (1), and at (2) I have written the first 4 characters “port”… and at (3) I have finished “portal”. Nice eh?!

    When I try to delete this corky text, I always gets the next problem…
  • Something obviously goes completely wrong when deleteing text…

    It always happened when I try to delete reversed text as descriped above, but sometimes it also happens when deleting text for no obvious reason;

    SNAGHTML1265028

    By the way, which log?!? Certainly not log.nsf Smilefjes

    I have also learnt the hard way that when I see such errors, Its best to quit the editor session to get out without corrupting the code.
  • The auto-identer goes haywire and takes forever…

    SNAGHTML12807e2

    As soon as I paste something, the auto-indenter normally indents the pasted text fast. Sometimes it needs a long time to think, and the above dialog box (2) stays on for 15-20 seconds, while the class-explorer marked with the arrow (1) blinks intensively.
  • The class-explorer suddenly doesn’t show all members…

    This problem only occurs if I choose to continue to edit the code after error messages like…

    SNAGHTML12bc9d9

    The code compiles if I try to Recompile All LotusScript, but methods (typically the last ones added to a LotusScript-class) aren’t visible. Sometimes I have to end Notes completely (like kill to get rid of all processes …) in order to make DDE show them again. Hasn’t lost any code yet due to this problem, but it has sure scared me a lot (like “where the h…. is the latest method !!!!!” …)

Has anybody else experienced one or more of the issues above? I hope they get ironed out in future releases Smilefjes

11.04.2010

One machine, same app, two id-files, @MailSend works on one id, fails on the other?

Tags: Question Lotus Notes Formula
0

I experience a very strange problem these days. One of my users phoned me about some mails that hadn’t been received. So, on my own machine, with the same Notes client (8.5.2) and the same application, I experience the following;

  • With my ID, @MailSend works fine. I get the “Mail has been submitted” message in the status bar, and the mail actually arrives at the recipients mail file

  • With another id, the same fails. I still get the “Mail has been submitted” message, but the mail never reaches its recipient

Has anybody experienced this?

Another question; where do MailSend submit data to? The mail.box on the server? I can’t seem to track down the flow here.

BTW; I have also tried the same send operation with NotesUIDocument’s Send, with the same result. No error was caught … same message

10.19.2010

I wish I could combine NotesDocumentCollection with PickListCollection dialog box

Tags: LotusScript Lotus Notes Question
0

I have a database where I want to select some document with LotusScript. These documents should be presented to the user in a dialog box so he or she can choose what documents to delete.

Now, this isn’t hard to do with a dialog box containing a list of selected values from the documents. However, this always looks “oh so dialogish” ….

What if I could present any documents (such as a NotesDocumentCollection) in a PickListCollection dialog box? This would be much more nice looking IMO.

My initial ideas is to use a hidden folder, and store the NotesDocumentCollection with PutAllInFolder. Then the PickListCollection would show those documents. This may however lead to a race-condition if multiple users attempt to do the same thing at the same time.

Unfortunately it seems like I can’t use a temporary folder name either, as the folder must to be known to the design collection at an early stage of the database-open process. The PickListCollection seems to have issues finding newly created folders.

Any ideas?

09.24.2010

Need a high-capacity field-type with type-ahead and automcomplete for use in the Notes client. Any ideas on how to create this?

Tags: Lotus Notes Question
0
In our Notes client homepage, I would like to have a search-field with some special features, such type-ahead and autocomplete. Think of the Recent Contacts dro- down for the mail SendTo field as shown below;
A picture named M2

If this functionality also could be available for other fields, and that I could stuff what I want into the lookup-data, I would have been saved

So far, I see these options;
  1. Use a standard Dialog List field. This can be tweaked to look pretty (place the field within tables, turn of the field delimiters and turn off the field helper, look at Tim Tripcony's blog here). Below you see a test;

    A picture named M3
    The pros for this solution is that it works everywhere and the dialog list contains a list of words which easily could be retrieved via @formulas. Once loaded, it is super fast. On the down side, the data cannot exceed 64 kB, and I don't see the drop down list as for the Recent Contacts type-ahead. I could of course click enter to bring up the dialog box with the list, but I feel this is more cumbersome compared to a real combobox-like field. The biggest issue is undoubtedly the 64 kB limit.
  • Write a XPages solution. XPages may run in the Notes client context, but requires the full Standard client.  Click here to read more about the differences in clients, if you are interested. The pros with XPages is that you are then developing a solution in an über-focused technology Also, you could probably use cool UI frameworks such as Dojo, JQuery etc to aid the development. Solutions such as TagDragon from Ferdy Christant really gives you a glimpse of what you can do;

    A picture named M4
  • Write an Eclipse plugin. I do not have experience with this kind of plugins, and do not know whether an Eclipse-plugin would be feasible or not. Perhaps someone like Mikkel Heisterberg know that?

    I guess the pro-side here would be that we comply to the way we should extend Notes from now on? The downside is perhaps that such a solution would require the full Standard Client with Eclipse-support, and wouldn't run in the Basic client
  • Write an ActiveX component. Here I do have some experience, and one could create an ActiveX component with all the UI bells and whistles of such a field. The cons is of course that I limit the usage to Windows, and that I am perhaps extending Notes in "oh, so 80's"-way?
  • Use a Composite Application. Perhaps one part could be a HTML page utilizing solutions like TagDragon above? Not so much experience with Composite Applications, so I do not know how feasible this would be.
  • With Windows-hooks, subclass a field on the Notes-homepage, and surface your own window. Ok, this is perhaps way off - and even more "oh, so 80's"-solution. And it is Windows only - and super-difficult. Not good.
    If anybody have some ideas or recommendations, please jump in!
  • 09.10.2010

    Since 8.5.1 Notes lost its ability to launch URLs in external browser. Anybody knows?

    Tags: Question Lotus Notes
    0

    When you receive an URL in an e-mail, it’s often practical to launch it

    Fore some reason my Notes client has lost this ability since 8.5.1. I’m now at 8.5.2 and the issue still prevail.

    If I turn on the “Use the browser in this client” in the Preferences-dialog box show below, I may launch the URLs in the embedded browser, but only as long as I have Notes active. When I restart Notes, this setting is “forgotton”, and I have to reset it in the dialog box below. How annoying!

    image

     

    Update! I have just checked whether a policy is controlling this setting, and it seems like one is in play. Below you see the Desktop-policy, under the Basic-tab, in the Internet Options;

    image

    I’m not sure whether this would wreck the internet launching or not. When I click on an URL I see the area flick once, just as it was trying to launch something, but couldn’t find it. I have also tried to switch between IE and Opera, and make each browser default and retry (meaning quiting Notes completely, and restarting). Unfortunately no success yet.

    04.27.2010

    Why is Notes 8.5.1 FP2 constantly trying to connect to AUDIODG on my Win7 64-bit?

    Tags: Lotus Notes Question
    0
    On my Windows 7 64-bit machine, my Notes 8.5.1 FP2 client goes haywire many times every day. Seems like the crashes are triggered when I use Domino Designer (DDE).  Every time the crash force Windows 7 to display the error in some special window-session. Like others has also seen, you must view this message since Windows will keep pounding the message. When you switch to the special window-session, you typically see something like this;

    A picture named M2

    Lots of messages like this;

    ERROR (4): can't attach to process [ audiodg:  1c48] - (5) Access is denied.
    ERROR (48): couldn't access shared memory key 'IRIS$MEM$MM368$C.Program Files (x86).IBM.Lotus.Notes.Data' - (2) No such file or directory
    WARNING (0): SYM file lotusnotes.sym(108) for C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Lotus\Notes\NTASKLDR.exe ignored because it is outdated

    I really  hope that 8.5.2 is a tad more Windows 7-friendly

    10.12.2009

    Hmmm, installing the Notes 8.5.1 package give "RCP Base plug-in not found" ...

    Tags: Lotus Notes
    0

    image

    The installation instantly rolled back, so right now I don’t have a Notes installation…

    Somehow I am not that surprised Disappointed

    Update Tuesday Oct 13th: I never got past this, but received these instead;

    image

    and

    image

     

    The answer – uninstall Notes completely and reinstall from scratch…

     

    What could probably cause this? Perhaps the fact that I have installed some plug-ins from other Update sites etc… Looks like some part of the Eclipse framework got some issues… But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the problem comes from Lotus! I can just as well be the authors of the plug-ins that haven’t been 100% conform with the implementation? Who knows, a new and fresh install is in place!

    10.12.2009

    Have previous AllClient-install and want 8.5.1? Use lotus_dominodesigner_w32_CZ5S0EN!

    Tags: Lotus Notes
    0

    If you have an so-called AllClient installation (the installer contains the Notes client, the Domino Designer and the Domino Administrator), you should look for the installer named “lotus_dominodesigner_w32_CZ5S0EN.exe”

    02.25.2009

    Just trying to add value to the Notes community ... is that bad?

    Tags: Lotus Notes
    0
    Some hours ago I posted an entry with the title "Do you have problems with hide-when formulas in rich text fields? Do you need to change servers in links? Download this free DLL to fix!". The reason for this is simply to add a free tool to anyone that might have problems which my small DLL addresses. My "king-thought" is to make my blog of some value  to my readers (those few that exists, ha ha).

    I didn't for one second guess that it would derive posts like this post, created by Mr. Ben Langhinrichs over at GeniiSoft (the creator of the fine Midas LSX tool, CoexEdit and other super stuff).

    So let me be clear. VCFIXRTF.DLL is by no means any competitor to Midas LSX, his tool has much more features, are much more robust, has sold all over the place etc etc.

    I don't hesitate at all  to recommend Midas LSX to anyone, when they face some real needs regarding rich text programming - not at all.

    But what the heck, my tool has just two small functions, which might even be unstable, they addresses only two rich text problems, it is a raw DLL, it has some "a word of warning", but it is free.

    Do you feel I do something wrong here?

    02.25.2009

    Do you have problems with hide-when formulas in rich text fields? Do you need to change servers in links? Download this free DLL to fix!

    Tags: Lotus Notes
    0
    Some time ago I created a DLL which had two main features. Remove hide when formulas in rich text fields - and - change servers in your rich text field links. If you have such challenges, download my DLL and use some LotusScript to alleviate these problems!

    As a Notes developer you may have tried to add hide when formulas to your rich text fields in Designer. What happens behind the curtain is that all documents created with the rich text field in question, inherits  the hide when formula, which stays put in your documents  no matter what you change your hide when formulas on the form's rich text field in the future. In other words, if you create a rich text field at one point in time with the hide when formula "txtDepartment != "Sales", all documents created with this design will have that formula in place. When you at some later point in time update your hide when formula to for example "txtDepartment != "R&D", only new  documents will inherit this new formula. All previously existing documents will still have the old hide when formula! Unfortunately it is pretty difficult to get at the hide when formulas with standard tools!

    The first main feature of my DLL addresses this problem, and removes all rich text hide when formulas. More on that below!

    You might also have application, view or documents links within your rich text fields pointing at certain Domino servers. When those servers are decommissioned or for other reasons not valid anymore, the links now points to nonexistent servers, and the user will see error messages when he or she tries to open the links.

    The second main feature of my DLL allows you to change servers in your links!

    02.06.2009

    Trying to work some Mojo on the Dojo ... or ... any tips on how to fix Object Error in IE7?

    Tags: Lotus Notes Dojo Question
    0
    In one of my applications, I would like to implement a full day, week and month calendar on the web. Standard Lotus Notes does a fair job and can actually display a working calendar. However, I feel that the cool new web 2.0ish Dojo controls must be much cooler to have! Viktor Krantz created a super article on his blog called Creating a Dojo Calendar, and with the Dojo 1.0.x-compatible version from michelle, I has been able to set up the calendar on my Domino 8.5 server.

    01.30.2009

    How I fixed a problematic view with columns that did not update the underlaying viewdata anymore

    Tags: Lotus Notes LotusScript DXL
    0
    Have you ever had a database where the view-data seems to get stuck? You have an initial design and when you drag the columns around, the underlaying data won't reflect the changes? Hey, you can't even add new columns to the view anymore? ncompact -D, deleting the cache.ndk, reverting the database down from Designer 8.5 to 7.02, reverting the ODS ... and still those b***stard columns won't obey your commands .... Read on if you want to see how I finally got it solved!

    01.13.2009

    Notes 8.5 runs almost fine in Windows 7 Beta (which again runs fine in VMWARE 6.5) ...

    Tags: Windows 7 Lotus Notes
    0
    I installed the Windows 7 Beta in a VMWARE 6.5 image yesterday, and are happy to say that the Windows 7 installation was simple and quick. Approx. 30 minutes from starting the installation in the VMWARE til finish. The installation seemed more streamlined than ever, but unfortunately we still have several reboots. Well installed, Windows 7 booted faster than any Windows I've ever seen, and the overall performance feeling is "very quick" (at least quicker than Vista, ha ha). Take into consideration that my VMWARE image only has 1GB allowed too.

    A picture named M2

     This morning I tried to install Lotus Notes 8.5 standard client, and the installation went without problem. The Notes client started quick and behaved just like it should. I've had one reproducible crash scenario, and that is when I attempt to view an image attachment (hover over attachment, right click -> Select  View ... booom!)

    I am also happy to report that my List Fields and Import Image 2 Lotus Notes products also runs fine on Windows 7 and Notes/Domino 8.

    01.02.2009

    Wow! 179 Lotusphere 2009 PDF-presentations already available!

    Tags: Lotus Notes
    0

    I am going to Lotusphere 2009 and have just logged on to the Lotusphere Online site! Browsing through the Agenda database, I was amazed to see that many presentation PDFs actually are in place already! 179 presentations and 360 MB to be precise!

    This makes it much easier to evaluate whether a specific presentation is worth attending or not!

    Also, compared to previous years, it finally seems like IBM is pretty upfront - very good!

    12.16.2008

    How I created my Blogsphere-skin with Xara Webstyle menus

    QuickImage Tags: Lotus Notes
    0
    My small left-hand company Voith's CODE, has got a new look, and now I use the fantastic Blogsphere database template as a base for that site. Blogsphere is by the way also used for this site, which probably uses Blogsphere much more for what it is supposed to do, running a blog. However, albeit Blogspheres blog-focus, I think Blogsphere has the potential to be used on other sites as well. Maybe this blog-entry can give you some ideas on how to implement Blogsphere for other uses?

    Read on to see how I incorporated a cool menu generated with Xara Webstyle, into my skin!

    12.12.2008

    Using Blogsphere? Use Windows Live Writer to write blogs!

    Tags: Blogsphere Cool Tools Lotus Notes Software
    0

    I have been using the amazing Blogsphere template by Declan Lynch for a while now, and boy am I impressed!

    Here the other day I was looking for a way to let my friends add blogs to a common blog of ours. First I was thinking about ordinary web editing, without the need to install anything. Whilst web-editing is on the way in future versions of Blogsphere, we're not quite there yet. The other options included e-mail (!) and something called MetaWebLog API.

    At first the e-mail interface looked simple enough. All users have an e-mail client, but at the flipside they have to cope with "blog formats", like the following;

    <auth>some secret code</auth>
    <location>Nøtterøy, Norway</location>
    <category>News</category>
    <body><p>This is where your entry text goes</p></body>
    <readmore>Some more to read</readmore>

     

    Additionally the biggest problem with the e-mail interface is that you don't see what your blog-entry will look like until you actually e-mail the blog-entry. Another issue is of course all the possibilties for error. One small mistake in the above tags, and the post may go haywire!

    Then I discovered that Blogsphere has code to support both the Blogger API and the newer MetaWebLog API. After googling around I found that several nice looking clients exists, such as from Wordpress or .... Microsoft... yup, the cleanest and most nice looking in my eyes where Windows Live Writer (WLW).

    I downloaded the installer and started to configure WLW. Specify the homepage of your blog, your username and password (both kept in the User Profile in Blogsphere), and WLW initiated communication with my blog. Looked like a lot of back-and-forth messages between my blog and WLW!! After a short while, I was opted to post a temporarily message to retrieve even more information about my blog, so that I did. After approximately 1 minute, WLW was finished, and I could - WITHOUT HASSLE AT ALL - post my first small blog entry!! Amazing!

    Of course happiness doesn't last too long - neither in the front of new software ... As soon as I tried to post a blog entry with a larger image embedded, I got an error message from WLW, complaining about problems with the response from my blog. It looked like this;

    captured_Image.png

    Since I had already volunteered to add some code snippets to Blogsphere, I took a quick dive into the Java-agent responsible for the MetaWebLog processing. I quickly discovered that the code had an issue with the Request_Content-field. From the Lotus Knowledgebase Technote #1240370 (titled "Using REQUEST_CONTENT with Web agents and large POST data") you learn that Domino 7 and onwards lifts an old limit of 64 kB by introducing multiple Request_Content_nnn fields, such as Request_Content_000, Request_Content_001 and so forth. I am not that fluent in Java, I was able to quickly assemble some code to retrieve the values of all Request_Content_nnn fields. Voila - that worked!! I could instantly post large images, tables and files with WLW after that!! Amazing!

    I believe that WLW has really lowered the bar for new users to blogging, and I am very eager to learn what my friends think of WLW! I'll keep you updated!

    PS! Did I mention that WLW easily can connect to several Blogs! Cool!

    11.12.2008

    How to ensure inline HTML in Blogsphere works!

    Tags: Blogsphere Lotus Notes
    0
    Blogsphere has a feature where you can enter any HTML code between double square brackets such as;

    Hey, <b>this is in bold!</b> and <i>this is italics</i>

    This normally works quite good, when I tried to leverage some form-based code, everything went bananas! The trick was to ensure that the inline HTML code is on a single line!

    07.18.2008

    How to make Domain Catalog Search form more easily accessible - in Notes 5, 6, 7 and 8

    Tags: Lotus Notes
    0
    A picture named M2

    In have access to many knowledge databases such as forums, discussions, knowledge databases and so forth. On our server we have enabled the Domain Search feature and are generally very happy with that.. In order to use the Domain Search, you need to bring up the Search Form, In the Notes 8 client, I feel this is a bit too cumbersome. Therefore read on to see how I surfaced the Search form so I can search my Domain in a more convenient manner.

    06.16.2008

    Hmm, seems to be hard to find a good "webfication" of the Notes Calendar for web

    Tags: Lotus Notes
    0
    In these Dojo and ExtJS times I thought I would find tons of webified Notes Calendars for the web, but not so. So far I have found these;
    1. Dojo Calendar - by Viktor Krantz. This is perhaps the one with the greatest potential so far
  • OpenNTF WebCalendar - by Stan Rogers . Seems a bit old - and wouldn't work directly.
  • An ExtJS demo, by unknown author, which at least shows some cool ExtJS-like things. Another view of the same thing
  • The Dojomino site also seems to be going somewhere, with work based on Dojo and the Dijit.Calendar implementation
    Basically I would like to create a nice looking, web 2'ish calendar based upon Notes data. Any ideas?
  • 05.26.2008

    I was elected as the Norwegian Lotus Evangelist of the year!!

    Tags: Lotus Notes
    0
    Last week the Lotus Software Usergroup in Norway (http://www.lsbg.org) had their 10th anniversary and celebrated that with a fantastic cruise and seminar (cruisinar ?!?!) on the cruiseship Color Magic. At the end of the seminar I was elected as the Lotus Evangelist (or "Lotus Fantast" in Norwegian) of the year! Jiiiha!!

    05.23.2008

    The template for the "Icons and Images" and databases is now available

    Tags: Lotus Notes Software DXL LotusScript
    0
    I am glad to make the database for the "Icons and Images" database available for download.
    A picture named M2

    05.22.2008

    The template for the "Icon And Images" database will be available shortly

    Tags: Lotus Notes Software DXL LotusScript
    0
    At May 21st I held a short presentation about the "Icons And Images" database at the Norwegian Lotus Software Usergroup's anual spring seminar with the title "How to store 1.8 million files in a single Notes database". I will make the template for the database itself available shortly.

    05.18.2008

    Part 6: Continuing with DXL to create the Favorites feature in the Icon and Images database

    Tags: Lotus Notes Software DXL LotusScript
    0
    This is part 6 of a series of articles about the Icon and Images database (started in this article), This article focus on the Favorites page and how it was made.
    A picture named M2

    05.18.2008

    Part 5: Continuing with DXL to create the Gallery feature in the Icon and Images database

    Tags: Lotus Notes Software DXL LotusScript
    0
    This is part 5 of a series of articles about the Icon and Images database (started in this article), This article focus on the Gallery pages and how it was made.
    A picture named M2

    05.18.2008

    Part 4: Using DXL to create imagery in documents - continued

    Tags: Lotus Notes Software DXL LotusScript
    0
    In this the fourth part of  article about the Icon and Images database (started in this article), It continues where the third article left off.

    05.18.2008

    Part 3: Using DXL to create imagery in documents

    Tags: Lotus Notes Software DXL LotusScript
    0
    In this third article about the Icon and Images database (see this article), I will cover how I use DXL to create the imagery in Notes documents.

    04.07.2008

    Part 2; Programming details on Icon and Images - Enumerating files

    Tags: Lotus Notes Software DXL LotusScript
    0
    In the first article I introduced the Icon and Images database, in which I store more than 1.8 million icon files in a single database. This article dive into the programming details, showing how I enumerate the files to import.

    04.04.2008

    Part 1: Icon and Images database -or- How I store more than 1.8 million icon files in a single Notes database

    Tags: Lotus Notes Software DXL LotusScript
    0
    You have always heard that Lotus Notes isn't that  capable of storing millions of documents. While that is mostly true, this article will show you how I store more than 1.8 million files in a single database. Perhaps these ideas can be used by your applications too?

    03.03.2008

    Tool #1; Lotus Notes - my favorite tool of all times!

    Tags: Cool Tools Software Lotus Notes
    0
    My favorite tool of all times is without doubt Lotus Notes!

    A picture named M2

    I use this tool for almost everything. All from working with e-mail in a fancy new user interface, to storing all kinds of information. Lotus Notes has become completely indespensable.

    Tags

    Calendar