Lotus For Small Business

Before learning XPages my knowledge of javascript was really limited. OK, pretty much nonexistant. This one made me pull my hair out a bit so I thought I'd pass it on to others in case they are javascript newbies like me.

I was trying to set the visible property on an object to be displayed if another field on the document was not empty. So, I thought I could use something like  document1.getItemValue("fieldtocheck" ) !== "" to represent this. However, this startement is always true in javascript. I even tried !== null and it still thought there was something in there. So, to see what it thought the value was I created a computed field and set its value to

if (document1.getItemValue("fieldttocheck" ) == null)
  {
  "Empty"
  }
  else
  {document1.getItemValue("fieldtocheck" )

and lo and behold! The result was the field displaying the value of "[]" (no quotes). Apparently it will return empty brackets if there is o real data in the field and it exists. So, the correct statement to check for empty is document1.getItemValue("fieldtocheck" ) == "[]" and to make sure its not empty document1.getItemValue("fieldtocheck" ) != "[]"
 

Special thanks to Declan Lynch for helping me on this one.

I had a case where I had renamed one of my custom controls in Designer and also changed its content. When I would go to drag it from the controls panel to the XPage it still had the old name. And, even weirder, it still had the old code! A rebuild didn't fix it. Neither did a clean or removing it from designer and then opening it again. Here's what I did to finally fix it (well.. Declan figured it out and I just followed his directions).

1) Rename the control to something completely different than anything else (I renamed mine from "content_Segments" to "somebs" ) .
2) The name displayed in the application\custom controls list can be different from the actual name of the control. Open it up and check its NAME in the properties. If they match you're almost golden.
3) Clean and Rebuild the workspace.
4) Name it to what you want it to be.
5) Check the NAME again in the properties.

So, what I learned was that the names in the Control panel (the one you drag and drop from) are built from the NAME property. And the ones in the App panel... aren't. Not sure where the names come from but they aren't teh same place it appears.

Hope this helps someone else.

I am migrating an app from old school Domino web forms to XPages and am having a problem doing some searching. Specifically, I am having an isue with FT Searching file attachments. I've got files indexed. And the same view in Notes will find words in the attachments like I would expect. But I have tried using Declan Lynch's example  from his OpenNTF project and an example I found in the Lotus Designer Wiki and they both work for text in the records themselves, but not for the attachments within. Is anyone else seeing this or know of a trick to make this work?

I am developing a script to get geographic information on IP addresses (so I can see where my audience is geographically). I found a service to give me the data for the IP addresses. The results are returned by calling a PHP page or XML page. My problem is I don't know how to return these results into a variable in my script so I can parse through it and get what I need. Anyone have any ideas? Lotusscript I can do - XML and Java not so much.

In response to: Subforms within forms causing Domino 8.x server crashes

Jeff, This must not be an "all or nothing" issue. We use subforms and @Mailsends in bounds and have yet ot experience an issue. Granted - we are a small 20 user office but the forms that have them (our ticketing system) are modified heavily throughout the day. I'll be watching for your update as this issue is concerning to me.

In response to: Re: Domino Collaboration Express Licensing Questions

A CAL is based on number of users - not number of software installations. This is good because the same user cann connect via web, Notes, IMAP, POP3, whatever and still use the same license. So it doesn't matter how many people share a client install - each one needs a CAL

In response to: Domino Collaboration Express Licensing Questions

You're right, Jocylyn. A CAL is a CAL. So whether its DWA, Notes client, POP3 or IMAP you just need one license per user. However, if you are running a website not requiring log ins (or limiting the number of people you will give an account to) you need to buy a Utility server license and it goes on a per CPU model

In response to: Re: Bring back 1-2-3 options... Please!

Thanks for the link, Simon. Now if we could get Symphony to do the same thing...

NetworkWorld reported this morning that The White House's email system crashed for a number of hours. Now, I'm not usually a Bush Basher, but this is not the first time the White Hosue has had issues with Exchange. They lost thousands of emails a while ago, too. I have high hopes for Obama and his tech savvy moves. Hopefully he will put Notes back in place like Clinton had before Bush took a step back and converted to Exchange

In the past we were able to import 1-2-3 files pretty easily into views with little programming. But now, that feature is gone. No more importing from Notes, no more save as in Excel and not even the option to do so in Symphony. If IBM would give us the option to import using an excel spreadsheet then we would be set. But as it is if you want to do excel you have to code it in Lotusscript.

Can we please have some kind of spreadsheet import again?

Hello all! Thought I'd take a minute to introduce myself and outline why I started this blog.

I have been living with Lotus products in one capacity or another since 1998. I work for a small consulting firm and we provide all sorts of IT services. Our main customer profile is 10-150 users. So basically, not big enough to have a dedicated IT staff. Small business.

Since I started here we have always been flying the Lotus flag. Yes, even small businesses use and need Notes/Domino and other Lotus applications. And as I've trolled Notes.net and various other Lotus sites it always surprises me just how much my clients are in the minority as far as seats and licenses. Our biggest Notes client has 110 users - small potatoes in most people's eyes. But, Notes helps them too.

So, while I may not have to experience a lot of the issues as the big guys, I do think that I might bring a different perspective to the table. I'll post lots of links and ideas, but it will be more in the vein of "this is how the little guy succeeds with Lotus".

Thanks for the opportunity to babble endlessly

Dave