About Lotus Notes and Domino and more... provided by the Emcon company.

The need of new shoes

Fredrik Malmborg  April 15 2013 00:16:04
So you think you need a new pair of shoes?

The ones you are wearing are starting to look old and worn out. Maybe you have neglected or not prioritized the periodic shoe care that would have prevented them from being in this state. Could be you bought them a very long time ago. Then the model was fashionable and very well-fitting. Today they look dull and the perfect fit is gone since long time.

You have been looking at the hot sneakers that "all" the others are wearing. Even knowing that they will make your knees hurt after a long walk it is very hard to not consider them. Most of your friends got them already and you have to admit they look sporty and fresh (at least when they are new). Then there is the fact that you got a lot of unpleasant comments about your shoes. Especially from the people that never even tried something else than sneakers.

Finally you get back to your own sane conclusion. If you have neglected the care too long it might be best to buy a new fresh pair of shoes, well-fitted with great support for your feet. In better cases it will be good enough to let a shoemaker recondition them. You will be suprised how good they look afterwards.


If you see an allegory in the text above you might be right.

Searchresult with AJAX from $$SearchTemplateDefault without Domino generated HTML

Fredrik Malmborg  April 9 2013 00:09:52
I have a searchform that sends the query to a view with some simple AJAX. The result is displayed in a div below the search filter without reloading the page from the server.

The result is formatted by a $$SearchTemplateDefault and using "Treat view content as HTML". In the view I generate HTML for table rows and cells.

The $$SearchTemplateDefault also got search specific fields like TotalHits that I use for pagination and more.

This has been working fine until IE10. Then it stopped accepting the somewhat badly structured HTML that was generated from this. The responseText from the AJAX call contained all HTML from the $$SearchTemplateDefault, like some JavaScript and form tags. Nested form tags is not good, but has been working until now.

I came up with the following solution that is very easy to implement and lets you reuse much of what you already have created.

1. Put the content you want from the $$SearchTemplateDefault inside a div.

Image:Searchresult with AJAX from $$SearchTemplateDefault without Domino generated HTML

2. Modify the code that processes results from the AJAX call. Extracting the content from inside the div we just created in the $$SearchTemplateDefault.
Image:Searchresult with AJAX from $$SearchTemplateDefault without Domino generated HTML

Looking at the resulting HTML after the AJAX call, we now see that it is clean and bright. The search result is embedded nicely and without the Domino generated HTML we dont want in this setup.

Image:Searchresult with AJAX from $$SearchTemplateDefault without Domino generated HTML

This trick can be used in many other cases. For example you could use it to get a list from a $$ViewTemplate for a categorized view.

Maybe you noticed the DOCTYPE being used. It is not optimal for IE10 but that is another story.
Some will probably prefer to use JSON instead, but that will force you to change a lot more of the code you already have.

Good old R5 Best Practices

Fredrik Malmborg  April 8 2013 01:38:31
One of the most useful books about Notes development I ever read is the Yellowbook "R5 Best Practices Guide". It gives a lot of valuable tips and tricks and let any developer new to Notes understand the concept. Of course a lot has happened since it was printed but I still consider it as useful. I do not find the current development wiki to be as good as it should be (and yes I know I can participate to improve it if I like to).

I should have the PDF-version somewhere, but I cannot find it. I did find the NSF-version of it and I would like to share it even if there is a risk IBM will mind.

R5 Best Practices Guide (50BPG.zip)

Image:Good old R5 Best Practices
Part No. CT8N2NA

IBM Notes 9.0 Expert chat: Power of simple

Fredrik Malmborg  March 15 2013 03:14:27
Just had the opportunity to watch the recorded expert chat regarding IBM Notes and Domino 9.0 Social Edition. There were some very interesting views and information. I try to sum them up here for you.

IBM is very happy with what they did with the new Discovery Page that is how you get to know your Notes client. The welcome page never really took off in earlier releases.

The migration tools have been totally remade and regarding to Scott Sounder it is now a very strong and useful tool to help others to get into Notes.

The "Embedded experience" is part of what we could say is how we get "Social" into the users daily work without them really knowing what happened. IBM is taking "Social" to the inbox. Then with widgets like Connections Files & Profiles, Sametime and LiveText the inbox is extended instead of moving the users to something totally new and different.

Notes/Domino continues to be OS "flexible". And now even on mobile devices. It does give companies the option to start small and not having to buy high end hardware to get it going. What was very interesting to hear was that Scott Sounder mentioned "Bring your own client". He did not want to say too much about it yet.

And if you wonder where you will find Notes and Domino inside IBM, you should look for "Collaboration solutions" instead of "Lotus".

Finally IBM Notes 9.0 has Ctrl+Shift+v to paste as simple text. That is one of the "Power of simple" that they have been working on for this very fresh release.

Expert chat participants: Victor Toal, Bruce Elgort, Scott Souder/IBM and Steve Farnsworth.

Resources:
The expert chat on YouTube
IBM Connect 2013: Messaging and Collaboration Roadmap
Ibm connect2013 id100-whats-newnotes9


The real deal, IBM Notes 9.0

Fredrik Malmborg  March 12 2013 01:44:54
IBM have now announced the new release of Notes/Domino. It is a major happening.

IBM Notes and Domino 9.0 Social Edition puts you on a solid path to becoming a social business

Here is an excerpt of the "At a glance" from the announcement. I have translated to what they really mean with what they say.
  • Increases productivity by eliminating the need to switch to other applications to take action.
    TRANSLATION: Stop being stupid, the only software you need is IBM Notes.


  • Delivers modern, rich user experience through installed client, browser, or a full range of mobile or tablet devices that already includes iOS and Android, and newly added support for Microsoft™ Windows™ Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10.
    TRANSLATION: Stop being stupid, the only software you need is IBM Notes.

  • Guides your workforce down the path of becoming a social business and delivers social capabilities to exactly where an end user chooses to work.
    TRANSLATION: The end user should never be able to switch away from IBM Notes once she got it.

  • Enables access to your business applications right from the web with the IBM Notes Browser plug-in.
    TRANSLATION: Even if the technicians have not yet installed IBM Notes on your machine, you are expected to run IBM Notes.

  • Integrates, develops, and deploys business applications easier and faster than ever with Domino support for SAML and Oauth.
    TRANSLATION:  Stop being stupid, the only software you need is IBM Notes.

  • Uses existing application investments to easily extend to new levels of integration.
    TRANSLATION:  This is of course if your existing investment is IBM Notes, else see previous point.

  • Supports "bring your own device" with the most comprehensive enterprise mobile collaboration in the market, now supporting Apple iOS, Android, and Symbian, and adding Windows Phone 7.5 and 7.8; Windows Phone 8; Windows 8 Tablet RT and Pro; BlackBerry 10; and IBM i Server.
    TRANSLATION:  Stop being stupid, the only software you need is IBM Notes.

  • Delivers enhanced support for Notes Traveler Companion and Notes Traveler ToDo mobile applications.
    TRANSLATION:  We just needed another point to make the list a litte longer.

Microsoft finds out about IBM Notes 9.0

Fredrik Malmborg  March 8 2013 04:54:47
Being my birthday today I took myself some time to do something fun.

Please enjoy an don't put too much value in the lines, it is for fun.

Youtube: Mirosoft finds out about IBM Notes 9.0

Due to some misconception of the clip being used I have to make a statement. I have no intention at all to glorify the depicted person or make fun of the people that was affected by his terrible actions. It is about using the drama in the clip to make some information fun.

Corporate Social Responsibility -> Corporate Social Marketing

Fredrik Malmborg  December 18 2012 02:28:30
 The Holidays are closing in and there are many attempts to get our attention to be a good citizen of the world.

This year there are many companies wanting us to do good things and share it on Facebook in their name. If we share it they promise to do some good on their side.

This is a Swedish example. In short it asks to buy christmas gifts to children in need via UNICEF. And if you share it, another company promise to clean 800 litres of water. Makes me wonder what child they will neglect clean water if I do not share my goodness in that company's name.

Image:Corporate Social Responsibility -> Corporate Social Marketing

There are examples of artists and companies that promise to donate money for each Like on their Facebook page. But of course they often have a maximum amount they will pay out. Even heard about one that suddenly cancelled his offer and stated that it was now enough of Likes (it got too expensive).

It is a good thing to share of your surpluses with less fortunate human beings. But I do not find it a very tasteful way how some make CSR nothing but a marketing campain. They have not done the homework about being social. It will hit back on them, that is the soul of Social Business. It is not a marketing campain.

This year I will make sure that some homeless people get warm hoods and mittens. Go check your wardrobe, maybe you have a used winter jacket that you do not need anymore. It could mean everything to somebody else.

I wish you all Happy Holidays !

    Interesting from Wired about NoSQL

    Fredrik Malmborg  December 5 2012 07:10:59
    There is a new article on wired.com about NoSQL. I think there are many devlopers outside the Notes scope dreaming about being able to do this, but they have no clue that Notes has offered it since the start:

    "A document database is more like a collection of documents. Each entry is a document, and each one can have its own structure. If you want to add a field to an entry, you can do so without affecting any other entry."

    The full article: NoSQL: The Love Child of Google, Amazon and … Lotus Notes

    Editable field with dynamic default value

    Fredrik Malmborg  November 19 2012 02:49:35
    There are occasions when you want a field to have a default value that depends on what is entered/selected in another field, and that default value should be editable.

    I found my solution for it that I used a long time ago, but think it is not too late to share it.


    The form:

    Image:Editable field with dynamic default value
    You can hide the "two" field.


    Fields in action i a document:


    Image:Editable field with dynamic default value

    BIG data

    Fredrik Malmborg  November 2 2012 01:04:50
    Lots of talk about big data these days. I found BIG data in a cabinet at home.

    Image:BIG data

    Placed my Sony XPERIA P (btw a lovely device) beside it to be able to compare the size.

    Let us have a look at the label again. Wow 1024 bytes !!! Consider that the image file for the picture of that label is 60 000 bytes (not optimized).

    Image:BIG data

    Then some important notes about how to NOT handle the floppy.

    Image:BIG data


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