Book Image

IBM Lotus Domino: Classic Web Application Development Techniques

By : Richard G Ellis
Book Image

IBM Lotus Domino: Classic Web Application Development Techniques

By: Richard G Ellis

Overview of this book

Domino is an application server that can be used as a standalone web server. As part of the Domino suite, it provides a powerful collaborative platform for the development of customized business applications. It provides enterprise-grade e-mail, messaging, and scheduling capabilities. There are many novice and moderately experienced developers who would like to enhance a Web-enabled Domino application, but to do so they need to learn the fundamentals of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and also how to use those technologies in the context of a Domino application. Information about how to do this is available on the Web, but the sheer volume of that information makes it very difficult for the newbie to get started. Topics and techniques presented in this book provide a comprehensive overview of all major design strategies used to Web-enable traditional Domino applications. Illustrations provide clear working examples of how HTML, CSS, and JavaScript can be incorporated into existing applications to improve both look and performance. Early chapters provide suggestions for working with users and for managing your development time and effort. Later chapters focus in detail on forms and pages, views, navigation, agents, security, performance, and troubleshooting. Examples demonstrate clearly how to incorporate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript into Domino designs. By the end of this book you will have learned what you need to know to quickly and competently tackle web application enhancement tasks. Beyond providing a good understanding, this book will continue to serve as a valuable source of ideas and techniques. This book brings together essential classic strategies and techniques used to deploy Domino applications to the Web. Chapters cover all major design elements, with a special emphasis on how to craft these elements to work well with web browsers. Many topics include alternative techniques for solving particular problems. Illustrations and examples can be used where appropriate, or they can serve as jumping off points for your own solutions.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
IBM Lotus Domino: Classic Web Application Development Techniques
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
10
Testing and Debugging

Developing agents


As you look at existing scripts or begin to code your own, keep in mind the general suggestions highlighted in this section. These strategies apply to most agents. If an existing agent does not include a basic error trap, for instance, then you should consider putting one in when you work on the agent.

Use web safe @formulas and LotusScript

As you look to write a new agent or to web-enable an existing Notes application, keep in mind that certain LotusScript classes, properties, and methods do not work in server agents invoked from web applications. Check Designer Help for specifics.

For example, background agents written in LotusScript cannot use the UI classes, so an agent that tries to use such a class fails when invoked from the Web.

Dim workspace As New NotesUIWorkspace
Call workspace.OpenPage("Page2")

Rewrite such agents. Here is one way to achieve the same result:

Dim session As New NotesSession
Dim db As NotesDatabase
Set db = session.CurrentDatabase
url$ = "[/"+db...