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What’s New in Application
Design
Lotus Domino Designer 6
Session 8617
Patricia Egen, Patricia Egen Consulting
Nashville – March 2002
www.egenconsulting.com
Agenda
• General Application Enhancements
• Designer Update
– General Overview – look and feel
– New Design features
• Programming enhancements
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–
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Formulas, Tables, Forms, Views
LotusScript, JavaScript, DXL, XML
Web Development Enhancements
Design features for mobile devices
General Development Enhancements
• Design tools to enable Domino Off-Line
Services (DOLS)
• Tools for mobile application development
• Better support for web enablement
• Support for third party tools and WebDav
• Tools for HTML, XML and increased support
for data connectivity
Designer Look and Feel
• Toolbars have replaced SmartIcons
– Multiple dockable toolbar rows
• Each client “owns” their own toolbar – client,
designer and administrator
• Easier folder management for
database organization
• Drag and drop design elements
between database bookmarks
Floating
Toolbars
Design elements
expanded and
collapsed
New Design Features - I
• Html programming pane
• New Shared Resources
– Files
– Data connections
– Style Sheets
New Design Features - II
• Hide-When options
to restrict design
elements when
programming for
mobile devices
New Design Features - III
• Bookmarks show names of databases
– Actual location of database shows with hover
• Insert Resources
– JavaScript, Java, HTML, Style Sheets, Data
Connections
• Enhanced printing from Programmers Pane
Programming Enhancements
• Lots of new @Functions and @Commands
• Several LotusScript enhancements
• Autocomplete
– When coding in LotusScript, formulas or even
HTML, a dialog box will
“suggest” the next characters
similar to other IDE’s
• My “Favorite” new enhancement!!
Formulas - 1
• In order to facilitate adding formulas and
capabilities, IRIS had to rewrite the formula engine
– Great article in the View Magazine by Damien Katz
– The new engine is at least 5 times faster than the old
engine
• For all of you who are programmers and have been
frustrated by the lack of looping – well, wait no
more.
– @DoWhile, @For, @While @DoWhile, @For, @While
• A new Array syntax
Formulas - II
• Ever get that nasty message when you try to
assign something to a FIELD formula
– Now you can next assignments in a formula
string and it does not have to be at the front of
the formula
– Old way: x := x;@Uppercase(x)
– New way: @Uppercase( x := "hello"); the result
is "HELLO"
Formulas III
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@Transform
@Nothing
@Sort (yeah!!!)
@Compare
@Count – similar to @Elements
@IfError
– No more of that @If(@IsError(temp);””;temp)
on those @DB lookups
Formulas IV
•
•
•
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@GetValue, @ThisName, @ThisValue
Named element formulas
@Eval and @CheckFormulaSyntax
@BusinessDays
@ThisValue
64K limit is removed
Many existing formulas improved
LotusScript
• You can now recompile LotusScript at the databaselevel
– Invoked from a Tools option on Toolbar
• Event Model
– Distinguish between Notes and Web
– New Events
• InViewEdit, OnBlur, OnChange,OnFocus,OnHelp event,
PostEntryResize,PostSend,QueryEntryResize,QueryRecalc,Quer
ySend
– Remote debugging of agents helps in diagnosing
problems with Web agents
Enhanced
styles for
Frames
Enhanced control over
embedded views
XML
• XML tags
• Set contents as HTML and present to XML parser
• Include tags in column formulas
• Uses a Domino DTD
• Stylesheets using Extensible Stylesheet language
(XSL)
• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
– Add XML directly on client
• Use agents for dynamic XML
• DXL
– XML representation of Domino Data
– LotusScript backend classes
Tables, Fields, Layers, Oh My
• Tables
– Use sections to expand tables
– Use tabs or captions to select rows
– Finally – control over tabs
• Fields
– Descriptive text
– Types: time zone, color, Rich Text Lite
• Layers
– Overlapping content on page, forms or subforms
Forms, Fields & Actions
• Forms
– Add a full functional editor inside a form
– Embedded elements include:
• Scheduler, Editor, Folder Pane, File Upload control
• Fields
– Sizing, alignment options New sizing options
– New border styles and accessibility options New
• Actions
– Nested Actions
– More style options, Computed labels, Checkboxes
and Menu separators
Agents
• Easy to change Agents from
Shared to Private
• Run agents “on behalf of”
– Eliminates many of the
problems with agents on
the web
• Remote debugging and user
activation settings
• Can now use imported Java and
Java
Framesets and Views
• Framesets
– Add captions and Shift frames horizontally
• Views
– Programmable control of views, using Domino objects and
LotusScript
– Formulas to hide columns or customize row colors)
– Use different images for twistees
– User-customizable private views without Designer
– Different types of shared options and multiple styles
• Popup text
Outlines and Embedded Elements
• Outlines
– Computed outline and text
– Popup text
• Embedded Elements
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Choose views based on formulas
Show action bar on embedded views
Enhanced styling Enhanced styling
Cross-database referencing
Enhanced styling
Enhanced Web Development
• Language levels upgraded
– JavaScript 1.4
– You can build libraries and share them as Resources
– JRE 1.3.0_02 on Win32
• Use WebDav for authoring and versioning of web
pages
• Users can set preferences for how they access
Domino databases – like preferred language
– http://<servername>/$Preferences.nsf
Additional Considerations
• SOAP – Simple Object Access Protocol
• J2EE - Enterprise Java Beans
• Sametime, Quickplace, Knowledge discovery
integration
• Integration with Websphere
• Designing for Web Services