Softpanorama Scripting for Lotus Notes
Notes may suck from a UI and configuration perspective, but being a truly
cross-platform application, it sucks equally across platforms, and it is quite
powerful (and relatively stable). I use it mostly for email which is a shame
because it's a powerful non-relational database with interesting features.
But as a email client it sucks badly. For example, here are some common
complains
- The quality of the editor built-in in Notes is dismal. This is
really example of the crisis of development talent at IBM.
- Viewing SMTP headers is difficult and counterintuitive.
- Filtering Rules is a shame that discredit IBM image as a software
development company more than anything lese. They never properly worked
since 1998 or so the bug is in version of Lotus Notes for ten years or so
;-). Due to that many including myself suspect that IBM populated the
development staff with too many brain dead managers. And that most people
with grey matter either left or were sidelined.
- The default behavior when replying to a message should include the
message history.
- The navigation to lotus notes databases is very primitive. You can’t
find the information you need unless you know were it is.
The next version of Notes is to be based on Eclipse. While old GUI was ugly
as hell until probably version 6.5, the new GUI used in version 8 is a vast
improvement. It is built on Eclipse. They are moving the Domino Designer client
to Eclipse for release at some point after 8.0.
Notes should not be viewed as a e-mail application, despite the
fact that this is its primary role in many organizations. It is actually a
document database which can be viewed as a generalization of the concept of
email.
- I believe at least some of Notes' problems stem from the fact that it is
NOT an e-mail application. The product is actually a sophisticated
non-relational database environment that also provides a rather limited
and crippled e-mail functionality.
- Replication and networking of many db's worldwide and enabling a single
user to force a replication if truly necessary from the other side of the
planet is very useful for international companies.
- As crappy as the Notes interface can be, it's important to understand
Notes is primary
group-based-document-exchange-and-development-platform-with-poorly-integrated-email-features.
I think with many of the new Outlook style features, Notes will continue to
have a strong presence in the market. In addition, many companies have become
entrenched with the Notes databases.
The following steps are necessary to put a database onto
a CD or other read-only media. These steps need to be
completed with the userID that you will be reading the
database with, i.e. you should not perform these steps for
someone else, as they will not be able to read the database
from the CD.
1. Make a new copy of the database to your local
machine. (This should already be completed)
2. Open the database and press CTRL+SHIFT+F9.
This key combination will refresh all of the views in the
database. This includes both open, hidden views, and private
views. It is important to build the view indexes before
copying the database to the CD or other read-only media as,
if they are not created and stored in the NSF file prior to
adding it to the read-only media, Notes will attempt to
create them and will not be able to because it cannot write
to the media.
Note: If a view index is not built, pressing
CTRL+SHIFT+F9 will cause Notes to build the view. If the
view is already built, pressing CTRL+SHIFT+F9 will cause
Notes to update the view, not rebuild it.
3. If search facilities are not required proceed to
step 4, otherwise create the full-text index for the
database if you intend for the database to be queried using
Notes' full-text indexing capabilities.
You can do this using the View, Search Bar, double click
where it says Not Indexed, click OK. This index must be
created prior to putting the database on the read-only media
for the same reason described for view indexes in Step 2
above.
Note: Most CD mounting software conforms to the
ISO 9660 standard which does not allow for periods in
directory names. When creating full-text indexes in Notes,
it by default creates a directory with the extension .FT
(period - FT) which is against the ISO 9660 regulations. For
example, if your database is called DATABASE.NSF, then Notes
will create a subdirectory called \DATABASE.FT underneath
the directory which contains the file DATABASE.NSF.
To workaround this issue, do the following:
a. Create another directory which has the same
name as the database, but with no extension (i.e. \DATABASE
instead of \DATABASE.FT). This new directory name must be
the same as the database name.
b. Copy all of the files created for the full-text
index from the original directory into the new directory.
c. Delete the full-text index files from the old
directory name (the name with the .FT extension) and remove
the directory from the system.
Notes will now see the new directory and use the
full-text index files inside of it. It does not require the
.FT extension to be on the directory name. The .FT is only
used as a naming convention when creating the directory for
full-text indexes so that those directory names wouldn't
show up along with the other directory names in the File -
Open Database dialog box.
4. Do an operating system level copy (such as
using the DOS or OS/2 COPY command) of the .NSF file from
the current location onto the media which will be used to
press the CD or other read-only media. Be sure that you do
an operating system level copy during this step and not
aFile - Database - Copy from within Notes as using Notes to
copy the database will remove the view indexes.
Basing Notes and Domino 8 on Eclipse is a desperate attempt to
enable IBM product to compete with
Microsoft, which dominates
the current collaboration space with SharePoint and Office collaboration tools.
Supporting
'message recall' and new 'conversation' feature, Lotus Notes 8 is designed
to transform the inbox into an integrated workspace that brings together
e-mail, calendar, instant messaging, office productivity tools and custom
applications.
"Our customers are calling
Lotus Notes 8 the 'desktop of the future' because it consolidates all their
collaboration tools into one screen," said Michael Rhodin, general manager,
IBM Lotus Software. "Notes and Domino 8 is your personal portal to the Web
2.0 world."
IBM is enabling Notes and Domino customers to add Activities component of
Lotus Connections directly into Notes. Licenced
separately, the Activities option enables the worker to share collaborative
content such as documents, e-mail, instant messaging and other items related
to a project into one logical unit.
Lotus Notes 8 includes the IBM Lotus productivity tools enabling users to
create open standards-based versions of spreadsheets, word processing
documents, presentations, etc. These tools are included at no additional
charge with Lotus Notes and Domino 8.
Built on eclipse.org open standards, Lotus Notes 8 supports businesses'
existing applications and extends their life by combining them through
mashups with newer applications. Notes 8 is also built on the programming
model of Lotus Expeditor 6.1.1, which is based on eclipse.org open
standards. Lotus Notes 8 and Domino 8 support Linux and Windows for clients
and Windows, Linux, Sun Solaris, AIX and IBM System i for servers.
If you would like to signup for a live working mail file to
see/test Domino Web Access, you can do so here:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/demos/dwa.html
Karim Hosein A strong leader with extensive experience in systems
management and analysis in small businesses to large enterprises.
You speak of Notes and not of Domino. I have used Lotus
Notes/Lotus Domino for about 4 years from 5.x to 7.x. We had migrated off of
Outlook/Exchange across the entire Enterprise (>10,000 users
internationally) after yet another major failure of yet another Exchange
server.
I have used Notes as a stand-alone mail client and it really doesn't offer
much there. There is more to the notes client than e-mail (as its name
suggest) in that in addition to the usual e-mail, contacts, calendar, to-do,
etc., but the Journal (similar but better than Outlook's Notes) is extremely
versatile and its other databases such as Document db (MSO, Lotus Smart
Suite and Other), Library (database of databases), News (NNTP, separate from
regular e-mail although can be viewable together), Discussion (like forums),
several mail dbs all compatible with each other, applications (Domino
developed) and files for other apps distributed via Domino, etc.
Some of these features are only useful with a Domino server (such as
Discussion, applications) and some are more useful with Domino (such as
document DBs and Calendar). Quite frankly, without Domino, I'd rather use
another e-mail client and find another way to do everything else but
sometimes, keeping things together in one app is a good thing.
Advantages of Domino:
*Lotus Domino recover gracefully from any single server failure. With
Exchange, we had one corrupt server corrupt all others.
*Separate user databases means that one users corrupt database does not
corrupt the DB used by all users.
Or if you prefer, you can watch a video demo (showing DWA on Linux!) here:
http://demos.dfw.ibm.com/on_demand/Demo/IBM_Demo_Lotus_Domino_Web_Access-Jun06.html
Advantages of Domino:
*Lotus Domino recover gracefully from any single server failure. With
Exchange, we had one corrupt server corrupt all others.
*Separate user databases means that one users corrupt database does not
corrupt the DB used by all users.
*Domino & Notes can use a proprietary transport
protocol that uses less bandwidth than POP3/SMTP. Can use POP3/SMTP and MAPI
if necessary to support other e-mail clients.
*Access control can be based on one or more of e-Directory, Active
Directory, RADIUS, LDAP, Local ACLs, LM, SMB, other Domino Address books,
etc.
*Sarbanes-Oxley compliance was extremely easy with Domino. I think it took
all of 29 days; 28 days to clarify exactly what needed to be done and one
day to do it.
Suffice it to say, Lotus Domino has been widely adopted because of its huge
usefulness as a collaboration tool, CRM platform, Resource manager, Time
management tool, etc. as well as an application development environment.
The new question is: what of the trend to move towards open web-based
frameworks?
Domino Web-Access can allow most Notes DBs to be accessible through any W3C
compliant browser. On Windows systems and IE, even more DBs can be accessed
using ActiveX plug-ins. IBM is moving away from ActiveX to other
cross-platform technologies to give wider support Web-Access.
I do not think however that many large corporations are going to rely
entirely on Web based apps for all applications as Internet Access is not
always available even if you have a Laptop, a GPRS/Edge/3G Cellular PCMCIA
card, built-in 802.11a/b/g/n, MaxWiFi and a Blackberry.
Someone pointed you to
http://lotusnotessucks.4t.com/index.html but for balance, here is
http://www.openntf.org/
The former is one users rant. Although some of his rants are justified, you
will get the same rants from people used to MSO, a Windows only app, to OOo,
a cross-platform app. The latter shows that the user community is very
dedicated to using the platform.
IBM is dedicated to continued development as they do have a roadmap to
versions 8-10 and have started to support Linux even more.
Notes/Domino will not be dying soon unless Exchange makes some changes or
some killer app Groupware/collaboration tool comes along with the best of
both worlds. (GroupWise/OpenExchange/other???) I don't think so.
Links:
======
Christopher Byrne Business Controls
and Corporate/IS Governance Consultant
Disclaimer: I worked for Lotus from 1999-2002, and was an independent IBM
business partner from 2002-2006.
We have to be careful how we describe Notes. I started working with Lotus
Notes 4.5/4.6 back in the mid 1990's. I absolutely hated it. It was vermin.
It was ugly. And it was too counter-intuitive to use. It was not until a
light bulb went off in my head during a programming class that I finally
"got it". Even so, I hated the fact that I had to write two totally
different sets of code if i wanted to expose an application to the web.
Then came the promise of Notes R5: Build once for the client and the web.
Well not really, there was (and is) still to much kludging you have to do if
you want a web-based application that looks decent and performs worth a
hoot. I am amazed every time I come across Domino web application that is
right out of the box (and even IBM has some of them).
ND6 made some cosmetic improvements, and ND7 was primarily a server release.
And yes, in all cases the UI was less than desirable, lagging behind many
others.
Notwithstanding the Workplace debacle (and let's not forget about Discovery
server), ND8 is a radical leap forward in usability. I have been using the
beta client for months and can never, ever go back. It is that good. This
does not mean that Notes will still not suck for many users in their view.
To get the full benefits of the ND8 eclipse experience, the desktops will
have to have at least a GB of RAM to run smoothly.
For those that do the smooth upgrade to ND8 (and for the Microsoft people
out there, note that I said upgrade, not "rip and replace"), training will
be required. And any old Notes applications that were built and look ugly
and perform poorly, the experience will still "suck". But that is not the
fault of the software/platform, it is the fault of the developers.
Think of this list of applications, built on Notes, that I have built or
been part of the build team. Look at what we did with a SINGLE platform:
1. Web-based payroll entry system for over 1,500 units using Notes,
JavaScript and Java, integrated with SAP. The customer tried to build other
applications on .Net and gave up because it was too hard. To quote the
customer, "it is one of only two applications that work here worth a hoot"
(and they are both built on Domino.
2. A web and faxed based benefits enrollment system for the same company.
The architecture is hard to describe here, but Notes is the core and ended
up saving the company $US2.5M a year. Did I mention that they use Exchange
for mail?
3. A self-service customer extranet for a global manufacturer that
integrated the Web, the Notes Client, Quickplace and Sametime (instant
messaging). 100% built on Lotus software.
4. A security crisis management system for a global corporation that
required the application be replicated out to 60+ locations.
Ironically, the application was originally built on Websphere, but had huge
performance issues. So we brought it back into Notes.
etc etc One of my favorite moments came last summer when I built a web-based
training registration system for a government agency. I built in in Domino
and leveraged AJAX. As an experiment, I named my forms with a ".ASP"
extension (yes you can do this). I then showed the application to a manager
that despised Notes and Domino. He was blown away by what some simple coding
could accomplish. I told him it was built in Domino and all he could say was
"no way." He thought is was built using ASP.
Now, I know Notes/Domino cannot be used for everything and curse those
developers who try to get it to behave like a relational database. I also
know it has warts and I suffer through them like everyone else. But I have
YET to see anybody show me a single development platform that can do all it
does.
The enterprise has to use the tools that are right for them. There is no
right or wrong answer. But the answer should come from rational thought and
analysis, not emotion.
The Lotus Notes C API is full of
really good information about some of the lower-level functionality of
Notes, and it's got all the tools you need to create and compile your
own Notes utilities in C. It's available on the
LDD site somewhere, although
I'm afraid to put a hard link to it from here because it tends to move
around a bit.
The C API also comes with the source
code for a bunch of sample programs, so you can have examples of
working programs to help you on your programming way. Some of the
samples are neat little programs unto themselves, so I've compiled a
few of the more interesting ones into Win32 binaries for you to use.
Please keep in mind that I did not
write these programs, and I do not offer any kind of support
for them. All I did was compile the source from the C API so that you
can try them out without having to compile them yourself. They are all
copyright Lotus Development Corporation (which I guess is now
technically just IBM).
All the programs I compiled are listed
below, with the directory path that they're in under the "samples"
directory that's created when you install the Notes C API. Each ZIP
file is the compiled binary and its associated README file. If you
want any more information about any of the programs (including the
source code), please download and install the C API for yourself.
These are all from the 5.06 API, except for secdom.dll, which is from
the ND6 API (although it may still run properly on R5).
All of these programs should
be copied to and run from your Notes program directory.
Samples you can download from here:
Cycom, Inc's Lotus Notes Resource Page
Compare Prices for lotus smart suite in Business and Communications Software or
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Notes.net Notes-Domino Rnext
Notes.net Customizing the Welcome Page
Notes.net Notes Rnext Technical Overview
Interface Hall of
Shame - Lotus Notes
LotusNotes Email - Why it sucks
Slashdot Lotus Notes server to come to linux
Alexander Geschonneck's
Security Site Lotus Notes Security
Notes.net Notes spam mail filtering Notes mail rules
This article is first in our series this month
on Notes spam mail filtering. In this article, we learn about a standard
feature of Notes mail called mail rules. You will learn, by example, how to
set up some simple mail rules to filter spam mail:
- From individuals
- From entire Internet domains
- Based on words in the body or subject of
the message
By learning the techniques demonstrated in
these examples, you should be able to set up your own mail rules to filter
spam mail.
You can create and use mail rules whether you
access Notes mail via the Notes R5 client or a Web browser, however, your
mail database must reside on a Domino R5 server.
Note:
For complete instructions on using all the mail rules features, see
Notes 5 Help.
Lotus Notes Tips
Lotus Notes
and Domino Server 4.6 -- Ch 16 --Using Navigators, Agents, and Simple Actions
Lotus Notes and
Domino Server 4.6 -- Table of Contents --
Notes-based support for RBL, DUL
and RSS
Spam Filter Agent for Notes Mail
At Notes.net there is an
article that describes a basic1 agent for spam filtering. I
also created a
modified version2 that filter against
RBL,
RSS,
DUL,
ORBS and
ORSS.
As default, I have disabled DUL. Go into the code and look in the agent
"Manual AntiSpamFilter". I am sure you can find where the different filters
are called. Comment out the filters you don't want to use.
Select one mail at a time and run the agent Manual AntiSpam from the Actions
menu to test it.
To start using the filter on the server, follow the instructions in
the article, but use the agent "Manual Spam FilterFilter" instead. You
also need to edit the agent and set the debug flag to 0 and comment out the
MsgBox line in the subroutine CheckIP.
I also created a
template
for the mail database. It is based on the mail template from Notes 5.013.
Download and replace the design of the mailfile. Don't forget to install the
DLL mentioned in the begiining of this page on the server for this to work!
Please consider all the software as Beta. I take no responsibility for
anything that can happen if you use it.
Let me know if something is not working, and I will see what I can do.
Feel free to play around in the code and change it for your own use.
Have fun! Happy spam killing!
Boston, March 6, 2000
Notes.net Notes spam mail filtering Introduction
Notes.net Notes spam mail filtering AntiSpamFilter agent
Softpanorama Recommended
OpenNTF.org - Lotus Notes and
Domino Open Source Community
Lotus Notes -
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.alanlepofsky.net/
http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/marybeth
http://www-142.ibm.com/software/sw-lotus/products/product4.nsf/wdocs/overvi...
http://lotusnotessucks.4t.com/
Free Book Excerpt -- Lotus Notes and Domino 6 Development
Lotus Notes/Domino, LotusScript Sample Code, Examples and ...
**** Pal's Linux RDBMS Library
What Can You Find Here?
This site is a compilation of the best free online readings
about relational databases on Linux. If you're a Linux RDBMS/database
administrator, a database designer/developer, or simply a Linux user with
database ambitions, you'll find links to valuable resources here: articles,
papers, and books on various aspects of relational database management.
Needless to say, much of this material is more or less applicable to other
(UNIX) environments, too.
MYSQL. - AbriaSoft - Software
for An Open World -- great LAMP distribution ( LAMP: Linux
(operating system), Apache (Web server), MySQL (database) and PHP (scripting
language).)
Abria SQL Lite provides all the tools needed to develop
web-database applications in a quick and easy installation. Abria SQL Lite
includes MySQL, Apache Web Server, Perl, PHP, and phpMyAdmin.
Lotus Development
Corporation
Security
Perfomance
"... I hope this introduction to SQL helped you get some idea
of how to go about creating and using a database, and that you now have a
better understanding of the language."
Pal's Linux RDBMS Library - SQL
SQL
Tutorial 4.3
comp.databases.sybase
Lotus Developer Domain The
History of Notes and Domino
SS-File
Database Manager -- flat file database
Society
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Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as
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History:
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and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman
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History : Unix shell history :
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: CPU Instruction Sets :
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Classic books:
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