That's all I have to say.

It's not often you get to see a hole-in-one in your life time - I have only personally witnessed two. The first one was my cousin Patrick hit a 3 Wood at Pinehaven Country Club in Guilderland New York - it was 222 yards long and it was amazing.

The second one is very special to me because it happened today on the 17th hole at the Skenandoa Country Club in Clinton NY. It was 180 yards and I hit an easy four iron. The hardest par three on the course and I hit what seemed to be an absolutely straight shot to the hole - which in the end I realized it was. The ball hit about 8 feet short, bounced once and rolled in. I was so shocked, my father says "it's in!", and my immediate response was "yeah right". I still have the entire flight of the ball ingrained in my head. I am still amazed with my new Ping Raptures and hitting a Titleist Pro V1 just made it all better - a hole-in-one with style.

To anyone who golfs this is up there with the greatest achievements for a casual player. Given this was the 17th hole and it was my second worse round of the year, I still can't believe it even happened. It was so fun sharing this with all the members and the pro in the club house after. Oh yeah, Billy - thanks for lunch!

If you use Firefox you can install the XPather plugin to see how it can be used to figure out the xpath for a text selection.



Tags: Lotus Expeditor : Lotus Notes : Composite Applications

One of the things we have in the new Web Application Container in Notes 8.5 is xpath support. I think people should start getting familiar with it (if they aren't already). This makes web application integration with other kinds of components very powerful. You can now define output properties for just about any text on the screen.

Check out this tutorial Brett D. McLaughlin wrote:

Locate specific sections of your XML documents with XPath, Part 1


Tags: Lotus Expeditor : Lotus Notes : Composite Applications

I love it. Celtics up 2 games to none.

I try to read almost every post on PlanetLotus but lately it has gotten hard to get to all of them. So I now rely on the title of the post and the tool-tip to see if it is something worth my time. I also look at the number of eyes that have clicked the link. Anyway, Theo has a pretty good posting and I don't think many will disagree with him. One comment he made:

I have nothing against composite apps, mind you, but you should use them when needed, not because its the 'new' way of doing things.
Notes is RAD, so let's keep it that way !

You might think since I am the lead for comp apps that I would disagree with him but I don't! I completely agree with him. The bottom line is, composite applications are for integration of components from different technologies and components from different databases. If you do not need this then don't do it! The only thing I would recommend is if you want to think about the future then you might want to consider making your views, docs, etc accessible by other comp apps by making them components up front. Otherwise, design your applications in Designer. If you have god access (designer) to the databases in question then you might want to question whether composites are worth it.

I get this exact question all of the time. My recommendation is to use composites when it makes sense - otherwise use the normal Notes design architecture. Comp Apps give you an easy way to get your new Java plugin components working with and speaking to Notes components.

Tags: Lotus Expeditor : Lotus Notes : Composite Applications

Ok, let me preface by stating this Excel container did not ship in the Notes 8.5 beta. If you seriously want it in the end product please let me know because I think it is slated as a web delivery for the moment.

This is a very basic demo and it still uses the POC landmark editing UI, however I think you will get the point in the end. It shows you how you can define properties and map those properties to cells and cell ranges in a spreadsheet.

Once again, no programming!

click image for video



Tags: Lotus Expeditor : Lotus Notes : Composite Applications

As Mikkel has already experienced, you need to using Eclipse 3.4 when developing java plugins for Notes 8.5 or XPD 6.2. We skipped over Eclipse 3.3 for various reasons.

Another small change is the remote debug options. I often write code, deploy it to the runtime through an update site (once) then copy the plugins over from then on. This way I can remote debug my Java plugins using the following command:

C:\notes\framework\rcp\rcplauncher.exe -config notes -debug -clean -console -vmargs -Xdbg:transport=dt_socket,suspend=n,server=y,address=8020 -Xss512k

You can also use the Expeditor toolkit to setup a workspace and launch Notes directly from your Eclipse IDE.

Tags: Lotus Expeditor : Lotus Notes : Composite Applications

This video was something I put together to show a prototype of a notes view container using the back-end Java classes. The container is based on the new container work going into Notes 8.5 and Expeditor 6.2. The amount of code to write the container was surprisingly small since I just inherited the Notes view parts. This also means anyone could have created this container using public API's.

In this demo, I show how you can use Formula language for the landmark identifier (more on that term later) and also use formula for the field identifiers. This makes for a powerful combination since you are not changing the database design.

Lastly, I made the notes view containers be intelligent about multiple selections - this is what makes the demo possible. I publish the multiple selections as elements separated by CRLF so the Excel container knows to span multiple rows. I also do the same for a single selection on a multi-value field where the value is concatenated together with a TAB separator - to span columns.

The UI is still the beta UI for the CAE stuff - which is actually already changed but hopefully you get the concepts.

click image for video


Tags: Lotus Expeditor : Lotus Notes : Composite Applications

In case you do not follow the Eclipse platform (which Notes and Expeditor sit on top of) the noteworthy new stuff in Eclipse 3.4 is some pretty slick stuff.

Region based controls:


Alpha values on shells:

I happen to be watching American Idol live last night - which is very rare with my DVR. Thank God I did, they once again waited until 10:02 to announce the winner. My wife said so many people were pissed at work today because they recorded it and missed the announcement because the DVR was set to end at 10pm. I think this whole concept is classic and kudos to the producers. Of course I hate it though.

In case you didn't hear, the Celtics won in game 7 and advance to the conference finals! Cleveland actually gave everyone a little scare there for a moment but pulled through.

Mikkel wrote about the CAI url posting Niklas put on the Composite Application wiki. These are all good comments about the format of the URL so I am not going to address the ugliness - I will just say there is a method to the madness.

What I can show you is, you can actually create the URL in code fairly easy (if you are on the Java side of the house of course). Since the page id is the perspective identifier you can use the Eclipse Workbench API's to get that. Then, you can use the method I wrote about in the wiki to get the meta-data associated with the page. Once you get the page object, the application the page is contained in is stored in the property "applicationGUID". You now have the GUID and the page ID for the cai url.

You can also use the OSGI console to see this same information. Start with using the "thsh p" command on the osgi console. Then use the "thsh nctx <page id>" to get the properties that are written to the extension registry for the page. Lastly, you can do the same thing with components: get the list of components on a page with "thsh sc <page id>" and that will show the properties for that component.

See the sample console output below.

Topology OSGI commmands:

---Topology Handler Commands---
        thsh n - Show all navigation elements
        thsh p - Show all Pages
        thsh l - Show all Labels
        thsh f - Show all topology files
        thsh apps - Show all application GUIDs
        thsh e <namespace> - Show all registered extensions under the given namespace
        thsh dp - Show all dirty pages
        thsh nattr <navigation id> - Show all navigation preferences
        thsh nctx <navigation id> - Show navigation context
        thsh sc <page id> - Show components for a page
        thsh b <page id> - Show copies of the specified page

Sample console output:

osgi> thsh p
------------------------------------------------
   Topology Handler All Page Elements
------------------------------------------------
        Application GUID: 11_5JMPDRH1000980269G784H2GO41209749441490
        --------------------------------
        TYPE_PERSPECTIVE; NAME = test application; ID = 6_5JMPDRH1000980269G784H2GO11209749441490; Application GUID = 11_5JMPDRH1000980269G784H2GO41209749441490

        Application GUID: 11_ITM9DGL1087KE02MQFOQ5C2GK3
        --------------------------------
        TYPE_PERSPECTIVE; NAME = Browser sample; ID = 6_ITM9DGL1087KE02MQFOQ5C2G26; Application GUID = 11_ITM9DGL1087KE02MQFOQ5C2GK3
        TYPE_PERSPECTIVE; NAME = Portlet to Portlet Communication sample; ID = 6_ITM9DGL1087KE02MQFOQ5C2GQ6; Application GUID = 11_ITM9DGL1087KE02MQFOQ5C2GK3
        TYPE_PERSPECTIVE; NAME = Portlet to SWT Communication sample; ID = 6_ITM9DGL1087KE02MQFOQ5C2GE5; Application GUID = 11_ITM9DGL1087KE02MQFOQ5C2GK3
        TYPE_PERSPECTIVE; NAME = SWT to Portlet Communication sample; ID = 6_ITM9DGL1087KE02MQFOQ5C2BB1; Application GUID = 11_ITM9DGL1087KE02MQFOQ5C2GK3
        TYPE_PERSPECTIVE; NAME = Double Browser sample; ID = 6_ITM9DGL1087KE02MQFOQ5C2GP7; Application GUID = 11_ITM9DGL1087KE02MQFOQ5C2GK3
        TYPE_PERSPECTIVE; NAME = URL Selector to Launch Dynamic Action Page; ID = nav_CrossPageSource1; Application GUID = 11_ITM9DGL1087KE02MQFOQ5C2GK3
        TYPE_PERSPECTIVE; NAME = Dynamic Action Accepts a URL; ID = nav_CrossPage_ShowURL1; Application GUID = 11_ITM9DGL1087KE02MQFOQ5C2GK3

        Application GUID: 1F_3KE527R20OGG702ELBAT9T10P0
        --------------------------------
        TYPE_PERSPECTIVE; NAME = Getting Started; ID = 6_3KE527R20OGG702ELBAT9T1091; Application GUID = 1F_3KE527R20OGG702ELBAT9T10P0

        Application GUID: 1F_3KE527R20OGG702ELBAT9T10K7
        --------------------------------
        TYPE_PERSPECTIVE; NAME = Home; ID = 6_3KE527R20OGG702ELBAT9T10K6; Application GUID = 1F_3KE527R20OGG702ELBAT9T10K7

        Application GUID: 11_5JMPDRH1000980269G784H2GO41209697938390
        --------------------------------
        TYPE_PERSPECTIVE; NAME = testApp; ID = 6_5JMPDRH1000980269G784H2GO11209697938390; Application GUID = 11_5JMPDRH1000980269G784H2GO41209697938390

        Application GUID: BD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC_1F_3KE527R200VQ502MGJOIMC2096
        --------------------------------
        TYPE_PERSPECTIVE; NAME = Mail; ID = BD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC_6_3KE527R200VQ502MGJOIMC20H7; Application GUID = BD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC_1F_3KE527R200VQ502MGJOIMC2096
        TYPE_PERSPECTIVE; NAME = Calendar; ID = BD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC_6_3KE527R200VQ502MGJOIMC20T2; Application GUID = BD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC_1F_3KE527R200VQ502MGJOIMC2096
        TYPE_PERSPECTIVE; NAME = To Do; ID = BD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC_6_3KE527R200VQ502MGJOIMC20T7; Application GUID = BD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC_1F_3KE527R200VQ502MGJOIMC2096

osgi> thsh nctx BD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC_6_3KE527R200VQ502MGJOIMC20H7
------------------------------------------------
   Topology Handler Navigation Element Context
------------------------------------------------
        Context values for navigation BD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC_6_3KE527R200VQ502MGJOIMC20H7
                com.ibm.portal.app.input.launchUrl = notes:///852568BD0051EF1E/MailFS?OpenFrameset&or1flg=32&hashId=BD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC
                requestUrl = nrpc:/__852568BD0051EF1E/composite.xml?file=mail%5Cbbalfe.nsf&name=NotesMailApps.xml&launchUrl=notes%3A%2F%2F%2F852568BD0051EF1E%2FMailFS%3FOpenFrameset%26or1flg%3D32%26hashId%3DBD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC
                com.ibm.portal.app.input.name = NotesMailApps.xml
                com.ibm.portal.app.input.file = mail\bbalfe.nsf
                applicationGUID = BD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC_1F_3KE527R200VQ502MGJOIMC2096

osgi> thsh sc BD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC_6_3KE527R200VQ502MGJOIMC20H7
Component data for component id = BD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC_5_3KE527R208CCC02M6C5LO53091
----------------------------------------------------
        portletname = Notes 8.0 Mail Nav
        portletwindowid = BD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC_5_3KE527R208CCC02M6C5LO53091
        com.ibm.portal.app.input.launchUrl = notes:///852568BD0051EF1E/MailFS?OpenFrameset&or1flg=32&hashId=BD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC
        com.ibm.rcp.id = TMP_10006
        com.ibm.rcp.ratio = 0.5
        com.ibm.rcp.viewId = com.ibm.rcp.csiviews.viewpart.CSINavViewPart
        com.ibm.rcp.fastView = false
        applicationGUID = BD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC_1F_3KE527R200VQ502MGJOIMC2096
        com.ibm.rcp.closeable = false
        com.ibm.rcp.csiviews.viewpart.dburl = notes:///852568BD0051EF1E/MailFS?OpenFrameset
        requestUrl = nrpc:/__852568BD0051EF1E/composite.xml?file=mail%5Cbbalfe.nsf&name=NotesMailApps.xml&launchUrl=notes%3A%2F%2F%2F852568BD0051EF1E%2FMailFS%3FOpenFrameset%26or1flg%3D32%26hashId%3DBD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC
        com.ibm.rcp.moveable = true
        com.ibm.rcp.title = Notes Mail Navigator
        com.ibm.rcp.extensionType = simple view
        com.ibm.rcp.showTitle = true
        com.ibm.rcp.showquota = true
        com.ibm.portal.app.input.file = mail\bbalfe.nsf
        com.ibm.rcp.objectId = BD973A4E8C0FCDED54C69CB23940B5FC_5_3KE527R208CCC02M6C5LO53091
        com.ibm.portal.app.input.name = NotesMailApps.xml
        com.ibm.rcp.standalone = true
        com.ibm.rcp.visible = true

Tags: Lotus Expeditor : Lotus Notes : Composite Applications