Top Tips Every Notes Developer Needs To Know
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This document provides an overview of important topics for new IBM Lotus Domino developers to know. It covers coding best practices, application architecture, languages and features, learning resources, user interface design, and administrative concepts. Specific areas discussed include option declare, error handling, reusable code, testing, the LotusScript debugger, formulas, DXL, layers, help resources, prototyping, documentation, change control, security, readers fields, performance tuning, and basic administration. The presentation encourages asking questions and emphasizes the importance of these foundational development practices.
Top Tips Every Notes Developer Needs To Know
- 1. JMP102 The Top Things All New IBM Lotus Domino Developers Need To Know Kathy Brown | Application Developer Thomas “Duffbert” Duff | Application Developer
- 2. Agenda ● Coding Best Practices ● Application Architecture ● Languages and Features ● Learning ● User Interface ● Everything Else 2
- 3. For the love of all that is holy... Option Declare 3
- 4. OR prevents... 4
- 5. 5
- 6. Comment Your Code (even the Matrix will have errors somewhere...) 6
- 7. Better than nothing... ... Better still
- 8. File > Preferences > Domino Designer > LotusScript Editor > Comment Templates
- 9. Error Handling... do it! 9
- 10. Example #1 10
- 11. Option Public Option Declare Use "OpenLogFunctions" Sub Initialize Example #2 OpenLog Dim session As New NotesSession Dim dbThis As NotesDatabase Dim viewThis As NotesView Dim docThis As NotesDocument Dim dtCutoffDate As NotesDateTime Dim varCutoffDate As Variant On Error Goto logError Call LogEvent("Purge Older Than 4 Months Agent Started", SEVERITY_LOW, Nothing) ' <insert your agent code here> Call LogEvent("Purge Older Than 4 Months Agent Ended", SEVERITY_LOW, Nothing) Exit Sub logError: Call LogError Exit Sub End Sub 11
- 12. All it takes are these two libraries to give you what you see below... 12
- 13. Thank you, Julian Robichaux, for OpenLog http://www.openntf.org/projects/pmt.nsf/ProjectLookup/OpenLog 13
- 14. No Hard Coding... EVER! 14
- 15. Users never change their minds, right? Can you change “Mommie Dearest” to “Mommy Dearest” Jones made partner. in all field options? We’ve changed the company name. Again. 15
- 16. Good code can be re-used 16
- 17. Hard coding Server Names - It's the opposite of that sports slogan, Just Don't Do It. (we'll explain why later...) 17
- 18. Test, Test, Test! 18
- 19. ● Things to consider: Print statements in LotusScript @Prompt statements in Formula alert() in JavaScript LotusScript debugger (more to follow on that) Don't test your own code Test edge cases Load test... with more than 20 documents! Unfortunately, no xUnit for Notes... 19
- 20. Use the LotusScript Debugger (it is your friend!) 20
- 21. Agenda ● Coding Best Practices ● Application Architecture ● Languages and Features ● Learning ● User Interface ● Everything Else 21
- 22. Plan for Replication, Clustering, and Save Conflicts 22
- 23. Server names? Local replicas? Sequential numbering? (Just say no!) 23
- 26. Things to Consider ● Purpose of project ● Who are the key players of the project? ● Who are the end users? ● Length of time given to complete project
- 27. Agenda ● Coding Best Practices ● Application Architecture ● Languages and Features ● Learning ● User Interface ● Everything Else 27
- 28. n:=0; @While (n > 1; Im:=gonna give you up) 28
- 29. VS. VS. No Thanks! 29
- 30. ● You can use @Formula in Lotusscript with Evaluate ' For each document in a Notes database, use a Notes macro to ' compute the average for a list of numeric entries in the ' NumberList field. Evaluate returns a Variant, and Notes ' macros return an array. In this case, the array contains only ' 1 element (element 0). For more info, see the Notes ' documentation. Sub Click(Source As Button) ' The macro text must be known at compile time. Remember Const NotesMacro$ = "@Sum(NumberList) / @Elements(NumberList)" this line... Dim result As Variant, j As Integer Dim db As New NotesDatabase("", "MYSALES.NSF") Dim dc As NotesDocumentCollection Dim doc As NotesDocument Set dc = db.AllDocuments For j% = 1 To dc.Count Set doc = dc.GetNthDocument(j%) result = Evaluate(NotesMacro$, doc) MessageBox("Average is " & result(0)) Next End Sub ● And you can use @Formula in Xpages with SSJS! 30
- 31. LotusScript Is Not Scary 31
- 32. 32
- 33. DXL Is Not Scary 33
- 34. DXL lets you view data and design elements in XML format. You can export, transform, and import that XML into and out of your Notes database... Imagine changing all the occurrences of a font name or some other design element by doing a Find/Replace! But be careful! DXL does not have 100% fidelity, so you could lose important data from your datab... 34
- 35. Layers Are Not Scary 35
- 36. 36
- 37. Agenda ● Coding Best Practices ● Application Architecture ● Languages and Features ● Learning ● User Interface ● Everything Else 37
- 38. Help! I Need Somebody! HELP! 38
- 39. Help! I Need Somebody! It doesn't matter how many years you've been developing... F1 Help from Domino Designer is your best-est friend... 39
- 40. Help Is Just a Click Away! 40
- 41. Resources: PlanetLotus - http://www.planetlotus.org OpenNTF – http://www.openntf.org Twitter - http://www.twitter.com DeveloperWorks - http://www.ibm.com/developerworks Domino Designer Wiki - http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/ddwiki.nsf Martin Scott Domino Supersearch - http://www.martinscott.com/dominosupersearch2.nsf/search?openform Lotus Discussion Forums - http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/community/#publicforums Domino KnowledgeBase - http://www-01.ibm.com/support/search.wss? rs=463&tc=SSKTMJ&q=&loc=en-us JUST ASK! 41
- 42. 42
- 43. Agenda ● Coding Best Practices ● Application Architecture ● Languages and Features ● Learning ● User Interface ● Everything Else 43
- 45. Important: Developers (plumbers) generally aren't very good designers (painters) 45
- 46. So Easy, Even a N00b Can Do It! 46
- 48. Low Fidelity Prototyping 48
- 50. Agenda ● Coding Best Practices ● Application Architecture ● Languages and Features ● Learning ● User Interface ● Everything Else 50
- 51. Basic Understanding Of Admin Concepts 51
- 52. 52
- 53. Document Everything 53
- 54. Document the business requirements Document changes to the business requirements Document your proposed solution to the business requirements Document acceptance/rejection from both you and the client of proposed solution Document time projections Document changes to requirements made after time projections Document anything and everything you can think of 54
- 55. Change Control Process 55
- 56. Security Through Obscurity... is not security 56
- 57. You may be familiar with the ACL, but keep in mind that many design elements have security too. 57
- 58. Reader Fields A Double-Edged Sword 58
- 59. Readers fields can... Negatively affect Restrict users access performance Span more than one field
- 60. Gotchas... Watch name formats Don't let users modify Always have a back door
- 61. Understand Basic Performance Tuning 61
- 62. ● SO many things you can look for... ● ● GetNthDocument vs GetNextDocument ● ● NoCache on @DbLookups ● ● AutoUpdate on views ● ● Repeated @DbLookups ● ● Refreshing form on each field ● ● View indexing ● ● @Today in views (@Now also) ● ● @IsResponseDoc vs. @AllDescendents 62
- 63. Talk to Papa 63
- 64. Question and Answer Time! Contact Information: Kathy Brown - kathysrunningnotes@gmail.com Blog: Running Notes - http://www.runningnotes.net Twitter: kjbrown13 Thomas “Duffbert” Duff - duffbert@gmail.com Blog: Duffbert's Random Musings - http://www.duffbert.com Twitter: duffbert Don't forget to turn in your session evaluations! This was session JMP102 – Top Things All New Notes and Domino Developers Need To Know
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