Lotus Notes Development (Composite App? Or not?)

Question

I am a new Lotus Developer looking for some advice. I am working with Lotus Notes 8.5.2 and using Designer to develop my applications.

I am designing a new application based on one existing database - the 'People' database. This contains all information on all Employees in a certain environment. Some employees are secretaries to other employees, and this is indicated in the employee record, as each employee (along with name, phone, etc) has a field called 'Secretary'.

What I need to do is be able to click on a record (Person) in one frame, and subsequently load the information on their secretary in a seperate, smaller frame. I understand how to target frames at each other and can load information on the selected person in a new frame.

However I cannot load information on that person's secretary in a seperate frame.

If anybody has any ideas, it'd be much appreciated.

Answer 1

If you have the time to learn the technology, XPages would be the way to go, even in the client. A composite application will work also but for a new developer there is more activity around XPages.

Answer 2

I would avoid spending too much energy learning the composite application architecture. I don't believe this is the real future direction for IBM. You could implement a similar design using XPages and taking advantage of the built-in AJAX functionality. (You can have a page with a section which refreshes to show the Secretary details when you change the employee selection). If you have worked with ASP, the XPages approach will seem very familiar.

Answer 3

There are different levels of coding when it comes to compApps. You can have simple interaction through lotusscript which is reasonably high level, to low level Java/RCP development.

From your description it sounds like you are doing high level actions. So I recommend looking at "My First Wire" tutorial.

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/compappwiki.nsf/dx/ibm-my-first-wire

I wrote some time ago but still works. It should explain how to have your code action on a wire update.

As with the others I concur on learning XPages. Later versions allow you to send wire updates to an XPage. A sample is here.

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/ddwiki.nsf/dx/XPage_Components_in_Notes_851_Videos.htm

Answer 4

Looking at what u want to make i personally would go for xpages and not for comp app.

And since you said you are new at developing in Domino Lotus Notes i believe your best bet is to go for Xpages. You will a lot of info,tips, ticks, reusable code and more on:

• openntf.org,
• planetlotus.org,
• xpages.info,
• xpageswiki.com,
• IBM.com, and more just google

Advantages are in the already given in above answers: - To summarize - Xpages is for the web and for the notes client - Far more possibilities than comp app offers - You will have more control on have the app looks and feels, due to HTML(5), CSS(3) javascript - A very big online community, on the above sites, in twitter here( Stackoverflow) - A steep learning curve if u have no knowledge of jvascript, java, html and css, but u will progress in no time.

Here are some books u want.

1. Mastering Xpages
2. Xpages the extension library
3. Xpages portable command guide

Buy number 1 and 3 immediately. Or let your office buy them. Let the admins read Xpages portable Command guide, mm beter order two copies, It has a wealth of info on server settings for xpages, so it is for admins a must read as well.

Considerations:

• Like Ben Poole said be aware for complex stuff in regard to performance
• LN client needs to have the extension lib installed if you used it to develop a App.
• The first time u start a xpages i the notes client (XPiNC) u will have a long load time can be minutes deepending on the application. This is because the xpage engine is not loaded at NC startup. after that it wil be faster. First run loadtime say 20 secs, closing it and starting it approx 2-4 secs.

One other thing if you go for xpages dont try to rebuild it so it looks like it was in the Notes Client.

And since u already have an notes app with views and forms you already have the groundwork. And u can keep it simple, Ed just gave you a glimps of partial refresh of a page.

Hope it helps