Tabbed tables in Lotus Notes

Question

I'm asked to develop an automated mail alert in Lotus notes using Java.

The hard part is that the mail content will be tables and each table will be placed inside a tab. I used richtext programming to create tabs first and then iterated each tab, inserted a table and then inserted data into the table.

The problem I face is when I try to format the tables inside the tabs. For example, O need to apply different colors to each column of the table which I couldn't. Let me know if there is any other way to generate the automated email.

I use Eclipse IDE and back end is Oracle 11g. The following link is where I got the idea of how to insert a table and tabbed table: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/domhelp/v8r0/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.designer.domino.main.doc%2FH_APPENDTABLE_METHOD_RTITEM_JAVA.html

Answer 1

The Note Java classes offer pretty limited functionality for formatting tables. If you want more control, the easiest option would bue the Midas Rich Text LSX from Genii Software, however that is commercial software and it is generally used in LotusScript. Off the top if my head, I don't know if it's supported for Java.

Another option is to use DXL. What I would probably do is manually create an email containing a table with the exact look and feel that I want, export that email to DXL, and then write my code to insert my data into the DXL and then import the DXL into the document that I'm mailing.

Answer 2

IMHO the pragmatic way is to use HTML and MIME, and prepare the tables and tabs using hHTML and the NotesMime classes. Here's a link: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21098323

Answer 3

Why not use the Java interface in Notes to pull information into that environment rather than push the information/format into Notes? The Notes designer is Eclipse based. Plus with the recent changes in Notes external db access is simplified.

I am just trying to think a different direction but still using Java. The Notes side might be faster for you.