tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31366220972937470832024-03-13T17:02:56.794+00:00LotusNotesRocksCode, Links & ideas for the Lotus Notes Professional in you!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-85203884811673585892008-02-13T14:05:00.002+00:002008-02-13T14:07:18.199+00:00Moves are afootThis blog will be migrating to a new URL soon. Once everything has been organised, coded, tested, re-coded, re-tested, users changed their minds, coded, tested and launced I will post a new link. Until such time code well, code smart!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-75909137795153945622008-02-06T09:54:00.001+00:002008-02-06T09:55:20.528+00:00Quote from a user"The intricacies of Lotus requires meditation". Spot on I feel!!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-75631469333824505932008-01-28T07:57:00.000+00:002008-01-28T08:03:40.506+00:00PCLP R7 DevelopmentFinally after about 8 months of trying I took the R7 Development Upgrade exam, this has been becoming a running joke, every time I scheduled the exam, something came up and it just didn't happen. This time I gave myself 3 weeks to prep and thankfully it was worth it and I passed, however for those of you still looking to take this, all I can say is familiarise yourself with the client, there are all the questions that you expect covering all the topics, although I was glad to see no DB2 questions, however it the real b*st*rd questions that catch you out if you have not been using the client day in day out, real shame when you have been using R8 since the day the beta first came out. <br />Thankfully this now gives me a chance to spend some time looking at new techs, so AJAX and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">JSON</span>, here I come!!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-46019337521367936562008-01-22T08:41:00.000+00:002008-01-22T08:52:52.056+00:00It's that time of year when we all get a warm fuzzy feelingYep it's January and the great and the good have gathered in Orlando to announce all things Lotus. Which therefore means that I am still sat at my desk here in dreery Reading, still planning on leaving this place to find an employer that is happy to pay for me to fly to the US and spend some brain time with other like minding Lotus geeks. I see little point in rehashing the announcements that came up, so check out <a href="www.edbrillc.om">Ed Brills</a> website among many others for the latest news. For me, Notes on the iPhone is looking good, yes I know it's just a cutdown version of DWA, but it just ticks another box in the justification of why when my current contract is up, that spending £300ish on an iPhone is the way to go.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-26522636446988747602007-12-18T09:39:00.000+00:002007-12-18T09:47:06.310+00:00The Dangers of Inexperienced TestersHaving just rolled out a major upgrade to one of our flagship apps, we are currently beset by problems. Now I don't want to push all the blame onto the users, but at the end of the day, they insisted on a 2007 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">rollout</span>, rather than giving us another month and rolling out around mid January, however it has meant that we have not had time to test most of the application and have to rely upon our main user to test things. However she is somewhat inexperienced in testing large wholesale changes to the system and in hindsight we have made a rod for our backs by not over-seeing testing ourselves. Sadly enough I keep hearing the comment, "Oh I didn't realise that needed testing because you didn't change it". When you have a complex application with everything interlinking, everything needs testing. Also the point of a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">UAT</span> was completely miss-understood, the list of outstanding issues was reviewed and she checked that each had been fixed, but in true developer style, you fix some you break some.<br />Looking for the Silver lining in this one, hopefully this should mean that we get some kind of backing the next time we say "This isn't ready to be rolled out yet".Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-52196448438540196282007-12-06T15:56:00.000+00:002007-12-07T07:35:29.350+00:00It's Christmas TimeWell it's been nearly a month since my last post and things have been somewhat hectic, hopefully the project I am currently working on will be put to bed within the next 7 days and then it's back to some more interesting work. There's only so much pure Notes Client development you can take.<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Omnifind</span></span> is moving along nicely and once we iron out the last few bugs we will be looking to roll out into production early in 2008 with a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">view</span></span> to expand on it's use probably quite quickly. IBM has worked closely with us to give it the "Wow" factor as our previous interface with Lotus Discovery server, was somewhat bland. Can I just say that when a salesman tells you he will make sure that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">XYZ</span></span> gets done, I always get nervous and expect to be let down, however IBM have more than delivered on their promise and I have given us a product and interface that will please the users.<br />I am hoping to start delving into the world of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Collaborative</span> Applications over the Xmas break so expect information about those in the new year (unless the call of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Xbox</span></span> 360 is too great!!!).Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-87543583025328546222007-11-07T07:24:00.000+00:002007-11-07T07:49:37.708+00:00It can be hard work at timesWhen you work in an organisation where there is a direct split across Notes Support there are always issues which get bounced from team to team because no-one will step up and take ownership of problems. We have a team that is currently split into 3, we have a Notes Support/Day-Day Admin, sitting out in India, here in the UK we have a 3rd line Notes Support team and us Developers. <br />This does tend to mean that any problem that comes through with anything other than E-mail ( and in many cases those too ) being assigned to our Development group without any kind of investigation. The problem then occurs that once we have the call, trying to pass anything back that goes above, granting access the user is missing etc, is difficult as you have to almost diagnose the problem to the extent of coming up with the solution before they will agree that it needs to be assigned back. The guys in India are capable Notes admins and can do all the standard day-day stuff but are lacking in the confidence to investigate further and also to ask questions, although this is not just limited to the Notes field. Consequently a problem will sit with the Notes Admin team in India for a week or two whilst they do very little to advance the problem, before being assigned back to the 3rd line team who invariably are too busy with other stuff to give the time to fully investigate the problem. This of course leads to frustration for the users who only know that they phoned the IT <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Helpdesk</span>, who logged the call to the Notes Team to look at.<br />How can we improve things???? <br />Well first and foremost we have a team that is split across 2 continents and 3 different management chains, yep each team has it's own team leader who answers to another manager who them answers to another manager who then answers to the Global IT Director. Easiest solution to make is surely to bring all three teams under one manager who has some experience of Notes and can therefore cut through the bull-shit <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">argument</span> of "This is a Dev issue/This is an Admin issue", can push jobs directly from one team to another when it's obvious that assistance or extra knowledge is required and can have an overall view of what is going on?? <br />We also need to look at other possible improvements, sharing of knowledge and opening lines of communication. Requests for help should not need to go through <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">management</span> and should be able to be made and actioned at a team level, high priority work withstanding.<br />In general things have to improve to make Notes a stronger product within our organisation.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-7300280344999309402007-10-15T08:13:00.000+00:002007-10-15T08:17:37.732+00:00Quickr vs Sharepoint : IBM vs M$Well it seems as though we are fighting a losing battle here, Sharepoint seems to be rearing it's ugly mug more and more in discusions and our upgrade project to move to Quickr has been put on hold. I am left wondering if this is not the thin end of the wedge as discussion about the dreaded Exchange have also been held, although IMHO I do feel as though some sensible reasoning here will prevent a move from Notes as an E-mail system. However even if the worst comes to pass Notes as a development platform is far from dead and with the amount of database and development time required to replace all Notes systems, Notes is still going to be standing strong and flying the flag. Will keep you posted as things develop!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-84749287451344482432007-09-27T13:22:00.000+00:002007-09-27T13:32:19.385+00:00Reply, but With or Without Attachments??Mary Beth Raven has posted an interesting question over at her <a href="http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/trackback/marybeth/Weblog/changing_the_defaut_for_reply">blog</a>,<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />In Notes 8, (and previous versions) the default for "Reply" includes any attachment that might be in the message. </span><span style="font-style: italic;">We are considering changing the default to "Reply without Attachment" for the Notes 8.0.1 maintenance release.</span></span><br /><br />To me, previously Notes Admin, the answer is obvious, if users want to Reply with Attachment, they should have to work a little harder, we want to save disk space (Reply with Attachment is surely going to mean 3 copies, 1 from the original e-mail, 1 in the reply you send to Joe User and 1 stored in the copy of the reply you sent, after all how many users don't save their sent e-mail) and also reduce the bandwidth overhead.<br />However having experienced the backlash from users when we "tinkered" with the R6 template to make Send Without Attachment the default, it's something that at the end of the day comes down to communication with the users. They may be the bane of out life, but at the end of the day, if they are told what's happening they can't moan too much if they then forget and get something wrong. Personally this kind of option screams for a Preference setting in the Mail Template with an option for Admins to enforce via policy for one option or the other.<br />If they wanted to take this to another level, how about an option when you Save a copy of a Sent e-mail to save without attachments, whether it's a reply/forward or brand new e-mail. At the end of the day you have a copy of the file somewhere already, because you attached it to the e-mail or it's already in the e-mail you are replying/forwarding. Any thoughts on that as an option???Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-32691834793264803972007-09-24T12:48:00.001+00:002007-09-24T12:49:35.027+00:00Admins, the bane of a Developers life!!It comes to something when your Admins, won't download the new 8.0 server install so you can setup a server on a spare PC to try stuff you were shown last week. Bad form guys!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-29430633054278206722007-09-24T07:55:00.000+00:002007-09-24T08:17:32.595+00:00Collaboration Uni - RecapWell it's been a couple of days since I returned from Collab Uni and all I can say is that if you have the oppotunity to go next year then don't waste it. It's is 3 days of intensive theory sessions, informative sessions from the main players at IBM and a good chance to network and meet some of the main names in the blogging community.<br />The last morning of CU just proved to me I was in the right place, sat in the room with a variety of high profile names in the blogging community, from Bob Balaban, Mary Beth Raven, Rob Novak, Warren Elsemore and Wild Bill!! Anyway with Sessions from Bob and Mary, both with the standard, none of this is confirmed, so "We'll deny we ever said it" disclaimer, kind of leaves this section of the blog a little light, however the main message that seemed to come out of the IBM sessions was "IBM is listening", with oppotunities for feedback sessions like CU, meetings with Business Partners to review feature lists and the various blogs all waiting for you to comment, the oppotunities for us in the Lotus Community to feedback what is wrong and what is right about the product, should not be ignored. The other message is that Notes 8.0 is new, it's different and it's only the beginning, 8.0.1 is due out in January and the next Major Feature release is due our in the summer 2008, my money is on 8.5 as the version!!!<br />Well with all the talk about version numbers the nickname that seemed to have stuck through the conf was "Version After Eight", therefore when it came time for Rob to present Mary and Bob with small gifts for coming over, what else could they give them that a large box of After Eight mints each, nice one Rob!!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-45670701975856593412007-09-19T18:20:00.000+00:002007-09-19T18:38:33.535+00:00Collaboration University Day 1 RecapWell after a few concerns over my travel arrangements I managed to make it to CU on time. Just to upset a certain colleague, yes we did get a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">USB</span> key this time!!!<br />Any way from the opening address by Rob <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Novak</span>, through Mary Beth Raven's presentation which began with the theme from Sta Wars with The Rebel Alliance of IBM and Lotus battling against the Evil Redmond Empire with Notes 8 surely being the Alliance's equivalent of the Death Star, the overall message is that Notes is far from dead and surely is not far from being a market leader.<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">MBR</span> also demonstrated the ways in which IBM are now opening themselves up to input from their user community via blogs, online feedback as well as more face to face interaction.<br />With the rest of the day following a path through<br /><ul><li>What's new in 8 with Troy</li><li><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">UI</span> Consistency with Victor (Being taught English best practices by a Swede where else by CU!!)</li><li>Web Services with Bob</li><li><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">RSS</span> Feeds with Troy (How come we only had 4 other people watching this one, surely the draw of Mr <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Novak</span> is only so strong??)</li></ul>Each presenter managing to keep the Brain weary masses interested.<br />Kevin <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Cavanaugh</span> globe trotter <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">extraordinaire</span>, who presented Tuesday morning in New York and this afternoon in London, managed to fight through the jet lag to give the days closing presentation. The amount of information that he came out with that was new and exiting is more than I can cope with tonight, however expect more info here over the next few days and weeks.<br />For now can I just say Notes 8.0.1 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Quickr</span> 8.1, Lotus Symphony, Lotus Notes Traveller and more.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-7516466984540190262007-09-03T14:22:00.000+00:002007-09-04T06:25:35.102+00:00Rich Text fields and tables.Oh boy are they a pain to do, but as I have just spent the best part of a day fighting them I will pass on some of the code that I have pulled together from various places on the web.<br /><br />Firstly you obviously need a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Richtext</span> field and given I am assuming you all know how to set that up and grab it as a NotesItem, I'm not going to tell you how to do it.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> Call bodyitem.AppendTable(dc.Count+1, 8,"",RULER_ONE_INCH, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">rtpsCols</span>)<br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">Append the table to the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Richtext</span> field, here I have a document collection and I'm making the table 1 row bigger than the collection so I can have a header. There are 8 Columns in the table, the "" is where you could add in a list of text if you are using a tabbed table. The Ruler_One_Inch denotes the left margin and the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">rtpsCols</span> is the array defining the Style for each column.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> Dim <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">rtnav</span> As <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">NotesRichTextNavigator</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> Set <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">rtnav</span> = <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">bodyitem</span>.<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">CreateNavigator</span></span><br /></span>The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">RichTextNavigator</span> allows you to move through the table, it's not as easy as saying put this value in the 4<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">th</span> row, 3rd column.<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> Call <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">rtnav</span>.<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">FindFirstElement</span>(<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">RTELEM</span>_TYPE_<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">TABLECELL</span>) </span><br /></span>This sends the navigator to the first cell in the table.<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;"> <span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> Call <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">bodyItem</span>.<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">AppendStyle</span>(<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">rtsTableHeader</span>)</span></span><br />This sets the style for anything else added to the table, until you change it again.<br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Call bodyitem.AppendText(doc.Sortby(0))<br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Add some text to the table cell </span><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> Call <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">rtnav</span>.<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">FindNextElement</span>(<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">RTELEM</span>_TYPE_<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">TABLECELL</span>)</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Goto</span> the next table cell<br /></span></span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> Call <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">bodyItem</span>.<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">AppendStyle</span>(<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">rtsTableRow</span>)</span><br />Set the style to something else.<br /><br />So there you go, the very basics on creating a table, stepping through it, adding text and changing styles.<br /><br />However we have styles and that wonderfully titled <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">rtpsCols</span> still to go. So lets start with Styles, these are simply <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">NotesRichTextStyles</span> and in the code I am using the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">TableHeader</span> and Row formats are as follows, and also fairly self <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">explanatory</span>.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255); font-style: italic;"> Dim <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">rtsTableHeader</span> As <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">NotesRichTextStyle</span></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255); font-style: italic;"> Set <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">rtsTableHeader</span> = <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">sess</span>.<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">CreateRichTextStyle</span></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255); font-style: italic;"> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35">rtsTableHeader</span>.<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36">FontSize</span> = 10 </span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255); font-style: italic;"> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37">rtsTableHeader</span>.Bold = True</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255); font-style: italic;"> Dim <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38">rtsTableRow</span> As <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39">NotesRichTextStyle</span></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255); font-style: italic;"> Set <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40">rtsTableRow</span>= <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41">sess</span>.<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_42">CreateRichTextStyle</span></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255); font-style: italic;"> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_43">rtsTableRow</span>.<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_44">FontSize</span> = 7</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255); font-style: italic;"> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_45">rtsTableRow</span>.Bold = False</span><br /> <br />I think it's always a good practice when you are building a table to have headers and potentially footers or row headings in a larger font to make them stand out, however you need to take into account screen resolutions and get the balance right between the amount of information on the screen and the readability of the font.<br />Finally <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_46">rtpsCols</span>, this is an array of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_47">NotesRichTextParagraphStyles</span>, one for each column in your table, this example just uses the basics on the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_48">formatting</span> available, Column Alignment and Column Width. Alignment is a numeric value 0 to 4, 0 being Left, 1 Right, 2 Full, 3 Center and 4 No Wrap. The Column Width is defined simply using the Left Margin and Right Margin values with the Left Margin set to 0 and the Right Margin set to the length you require.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> Dim <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_49">rtpsCols</span>(8) As <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_50">NotesRichTextParagraphStyle</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> Set <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_51">rtpsCols</span>(0) = <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_52">sess</span>.<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_53">CreateRichTextParagraphStyle</span></span><br />This column in left aligned<br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255); font-style: italic;"> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_54">rtpsCols</span>(0).Alignment = 3</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255); font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255); font-style: italic;"> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_55">rtpsCols</span>(0).<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_56">Leftmargin</span> = 0</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255); font-style: italic;"> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_57">rtpsCols</span>(0).<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_58">RightMargin</span> = RULER_ONE_CENTIMETER * 0.75</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Set <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_59">rtpsCols</span>(1) = <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_60">sess</span>.<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_61">CreateRichTextParagraphStyle</span></span><br />This column is centre aligned<br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_62">rtpsCols</span>(1).Alignment =0</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_63">rtpsCols</span>(1).<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_64">Leftmargin</span> = 0</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_65">rtpsCols</span>(1).<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_66">RightMargin</span> = RULER_ONE_CENTIMETER * 5</span><br /><br /><br />Well that's it for my first attempt at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_67">RichTextTables</span>, more soon if I uncover more gems.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-74707357491196919812007-09-03T14:10:00.000+00:002007-09-03T14:19:29.148+00:00Collaboration University 16 days and countingWell it's only a couple of weeks to <a href="http://www.collaborationuniversity.com/cu.nsf">Collaboration University</a> and it's certainly going to be a busy time until I get three days of brain stretching sessions from the great and the gods and of Domino World. The move into the center of London will certainly improve my travelling as I can "relax" on the train and tube, rather than the fight in a pool car last year.<br />Anyway between now and then I am attempting to put to bed the development on our Omnifind project and pass to the users for testing, fighting to get a revamp project near completion and also attempt to upgrade my PCLP to ver 7. Yes I know ver 8 is out, but I've been really lax this year what with one thing and another.<br />Anyone else out there who has used Omnifind or performed any development on it, do you have any recommendations for development tools to use, obviously Rational Application Developer is the best tool, however can anyone point me in the direction of anything in a lower price bracket???<br />Finally I am going to go and bug my Notes admins again as they have still continued to fail in the ability to download the new R8 client for me. Must do something about getting access to out Passport Advantage login!!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-11103491553351088312007-08-24T15:12:00.000+00:002007-08-24T15:44:32.235+00:00Omnifind Rocks!!I have mentioned Omnifind in the past, but for the first time in the 2 years we have been working with IBM, the product is finally starting to deliver. <br />We had developed a Knowledge Management system over the course of 18 months or so 2003-2004, with Lotus Discovery Server as the backend search tool and with a core set of data already loaded, we were only 2 weeks away from the release date when IBM pulled the plug on Discovery Server and announced that they would only support it for another 12 months. Well once we started talking to IBM things have been moved around and we are now hopefully about 2-3 months away from replacing the Lotus Discovery Backend with a nice shiny customised Search App running off Omnifind. This product's potential has now moved from a single app within a single dept to the potential of becoming our corporate search engine and again putting another peg in the ground for IBM/Lotus against the evil that is Microsoft within this company.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-76494927082782682832007-08-20T07:09:00.000+00:002007-08-20T09:48:41.291+00:00Design and ColorsI am currently about half way through the re-development of an old Notes Application and a thought suddenly occurs why do we let the users get involved. 3:23 on Friday afternoon I have the main user, the IT customer <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">liaison</span> type person, another developer and I stood round my desk arguing over the design.<br />Now there are 2 things wrong with this picture,<br /><br />1. How did I let them get into an argument at my desk at 3:23 on a Friday afternoon, when I want to go at 3:30.<br />and<br />2. I don't give a stuff what the shade of orange is.<br /><br />Yes we are arguing colors!!! Now I am a developer, I create code, I am not artistic, I have no thoughts on colors, shades etc. My wife will testify to that!!!<br />However I will say that at least they were arguing about the orange, which hopefully means that the argument about the shade of blue is over. We had to change the form/menu colors 3 times on that one.<br /><br />Whilst I agree that the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">aesthetics</span> are important, it's not something I really care about, I will talk to the user and tell them to talk to our graphics department to knock something up and then we go with that. This has worked well in the past and I feel has led to some top <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">knotch</span> looking apps, but this is the first time where the main user is female. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Ok</span> beat me about the head, I'm not being sexist (well okay it's probably a little bit) but it's a fact, every other time we get the stuff from graphics, we neanderthals gather in a meeting room, grunt over the layout and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">that's</span> it. End of subject we design, build the interface and just get on with it.<br />This time round we have had 6 different logo styles, 5 different color combos, 3 different splash screens from 2 <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">separate</span> color schemes. And my biggest complaint, they keep asking for my opinion, come on I'm a man, I can't even have an opinion about paint for re-decorating or carpet colors. Why on earth would have an opinion about shades of orange!!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-11179346932626699562007-08-13T07:15:00.001+00:002007-08-13T07:37:47.870+00:00Someone is questioning the future of Lotus NotesHmm, it must be a monday then.<br />To add in your two pence <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/answers/technology/enterprise-software/TCH_ENT/79605-2838075">Click here</a><br />From my POV, the problem with comparing Lotus Notes to Micro$oft Exchange is that you can't compare Lotus Notes and MS Exchange. MS Exchange is e-mail, whilst Lotus Notes does e-mail as well. As well as what I here you cry, well lots of things, there are limits and certainly somethings that Notes won't do, but in terms of a development platform there are few limits and few technologies that you can't integrate into it. From a developers point of view, it's difficult to keep up with the capabilities of Lotus Notes, when I started, @Formula, LotusScript and a smattering of HTML & Javascript were more than enough to keep you at the cutting edge, these days you have all the Acronyms available to you, CSS, RSS, DHTML, AJAX, Dojo, the list goes on and on. In fact I have visited companies that don't use Lotus Notes for e-mail, they have Exchange as the E-mail system with Lotus Notes providing a development platform for purely Web based applications. <br />Questioning the future of Lotus Notes I feel is more about questioning peopes perception of Lotus Notes, if a company only sees Lotus Notes as an E-mail platform, then the likelyhood is that they will sooner or later move to Exchange. If Lotus Notes is viewed as an application platform that offers E-mail for free then it's here to stay.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-77018241534798572452007-08-06T07:40:00.000+00:002007-08-06T07:47:23.448+00:00ITIL, it's easy to understand, isn't it???Well after the months of work that the IT department have spent invested in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">ITIL</span>, we have now launched our service catalog to the rest of the business. However I personally hope that no-one actually reads it as it is just completely rubbish.<br />We have specified a set of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">SLAs</span> that we will aim to meet, however if you read them through they don't mean anything to the business. For example, we have a number of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">SLAs</span> for responding to voice-mails that hit the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">helpdesk</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">SLAs</span> for getting that information logged as a call and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">SLAs</span> for support teams to assign people those calls. So for example, a user phones the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">helpdesk</span> and gets through to the voicemail, they report a server down, which should get logged as a Priority 1. The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">helpdesk</span> now has 30<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">mins</span> to pick up that voicemail and once they do, they have another 30 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">mins</span> to get that logged as a call and assigned to a support team. That support team has 10 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">mins</span> from the time the call is logged to assign it to someone on their team. That team member then has.....<br />Hold on no they don't, all <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">relevant</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">SLAs</span> have been met, the team member doesn't then have to do anything, there is no commitment to contact the user, no <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">SLA</span> for fix times etc. I do think that someone has missed the point here of what <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">ITIL</span> is about.<br />As I said if the users do actually read the Service catalog closely, they are going to realise that they are being screwed big time!!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-35761957958289980672007-08-03T06:38:00.001+00:002007-08-03T06:48:49.173+00:00How to get screwed by 3rd Party body shops in IndiaIt seems to me like I have spent the last 18 months interviewing in Chennai and that's not far off the facts, with issues with some of the developers we have actually hired, ranging from them not being developers at all to them simply not being up to the standard we require.<br />However the current issue we have is becoming a real pain and I am sure that others out there have come across this. It seems to be that our management is very keen on getting people from a 3rd party body shop, not a specific one as we have now hired from 3 different ones within the dept. In the past 3 months we have interviewed 3 people from this one particular company, 2 of which have been fine. In both these cases we have reported back to the parent company that we would like to get this candidate on board, in both cases these are Notes Developers but they also have team leader or man-management skills to head up the team in Chennai and take some of the day-day management away from me. Anyway in both cases we have had positive comeback from the company and then nothing, followed a few weeks later by the reporting back that the person wants more than we currently offer, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">eg</span>. come and work in the UK etc. and consequently they are not joining the contract house. This after my company has given them an HR interview in Chennai, we give them a telephone interview from here in the UK, a technical test etc etc etc and we then find out that in fact we are interviewing these candidates almost on behalf of this 3rd party company who them come to us to try and get more if that is what the candidate wants. Sadly enough this usually never works as we don't want to bring a contractor over to the UK for 3 months (did this once at the cost of £4k per month on top of salary, where did the low cost go) where as if he was an employee of our company it would be a possibility.<br />We are still going through pain with this situation and I can't really see how we can get round this, one of the problems we have is that the kind of candidate we are looking for doesn't want to work for us and if they do we can't get them the kind of salary they want and while this perpetual cycle continues management are happily under the impression that because they have allowed you to recruit for a Developer that that will actually solve the problem even if you aren't actually able to find a competent Developer based on the salary they will offer in this Low Cost Center.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-6737997493519474402007-07-26T13:08:00.001+00:002007-07-26T13:08:16.587+00:00It's Alive I tell you Alive!!!<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Well another 3 weeks roll past and I haven't updated my this blog, the reason, everyone else in the dept appears to have gone on holiday. Anyway with this period passing and the arrival of 2 new Contractors here in the UK and another developer in Chennai things should improve somewhat. <br/>Following my colleagues attendance at Collaboration University last week in London, the feedback on Quickr seems to be all positive and something that has to be pushed internally. I feel the work that <a href='http://www.snapps.com'>Snapps </a>have completed on the Quickr templates will go along way towards allowing IT departments to truly show what the capabilities of Quickr are, even if the templates are not all appropriate for the business. This is surely something that needs to be addressed with other applications, we used to have the "Nifty Fifty" that were Lotus produced Notes applications which could then be built upon. Surely IBM have in house applications they have produced that can be used as some kind of basis for releases. I don't mean that we need a whole suite of products that are going to allow companies to run their entire business on these applications, but for me I would be looking for small chunks of code that show off the nice things that Notes/Domino can do and can be modified to fit into other applications that companies already have or code. For example rather than a fully fledged application, just a couple of views that demonstrate In-View editing from a large application, a simple Web interface that shows Data Entry methods. Anything to spark interest in the product and have people go "Wow, we could use that in......" and then expand what they do with Notes and make it a better more relied upon product.<br/>Some years back we faced the prospect of migration to MS Exchange and we did a calculation that we were going to have to spend 5-10 Man Years of work to get all our applications across to MS equivalent applications. Eventually we managed to fight off the threat and Lotus Notes rose from the ashes, in the intervening years we have integrated Lotus Notes where ever we can, building applications that have become critical to our business. If someone was now to come around and ask the question as to how long it would take to migrate, I would estimate the figure around the 20-30 Man Years. <br/>This increase has been through making Notes do things that people had not envisaged it was possible to do and through the use of Internet resources and experts out in the Blogosphere. Releasing a set of small pieces of code that developers can use to demo and also easily understand, I know from experience how difficult it can be to try to unpick one element from a large template, is surely a benefit to IBM in the long run.<br/>I know this is a topic that comes up for discussion regularly among the IBM Blogs but surely there is a reason for it and it will continue until IBM see sense.<br/><br/><br/><p class='poweredbyperformancing'>Powered by <a href='http://scribefire.com/'>ScribeFire</a>.</p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-8716031688674378272007-07-09T06:05:00.000+00:002007-07-26T12:17:12.692+00:00Is it me, or is it rather quiet around here.I have just noticed it's been over a month since I have blogged here and for that I can but apologise. Work has gone through the roof and with my partner in crime out for 2 weeks on honeymoon it's got really hectic. However with a new contractor here in the UK, a new developer in our India office, plus another contractor both here and in India things should improve and allow me to do some more interesting developments and when I do I will post details of anything relevent here.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-83913775777075057862007-06-01T07:16:00.000+00:002007-06-01T07:32:40.495+00:00FeedDemon 2.5Not exactly a Lotus Notes post, but the post fits more on my "sensible" (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">ok</span> kind of sensible) work side, rather than the mad world side over at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">ChairboyRules</span>!!! <br />I have been using <a href="http://www.newsgator.com/">Feed Demon</a> for a number of years now, originally I purchased the 1 year option, but have since upgrade to a lifetime subscription. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">FeedDemon</span> written by Nick Bradbury and released under the Bradbury Software banner, was acquired along with Nick & Bradbury Software in 2005 by <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Newsgator</span>. This had lead to the tight integration between the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Newsgator</span> online <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">RSS</span> reader and the client of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">FeedDemon</span>. Now rather than having to e-mail myself an <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">RSS</span> feed link and then add it when I get back to my PC I can simply <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">login</span> to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Newsgator</span> and add it there and then and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">FeedDemon</span> will reflect the change when I next <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">login</span>. This is a product that has saved me a lot of time and kept me in touch with many blogs and news sites that update less regularly. <br />Given the price of $29.95, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">thats</span> about £15 at the current exchange rates, I think this is a real <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">bargain</span> and an essential purchase for anyone who reads more than a few web sites.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-60911839421523848422007-05-30T12:12:00.001+00:002007-05-30T12:43:26.165+00:00All quiet on the Notes FrontWell it's been a week or so since my last blog and for that I apologise, work has been somewhat hectic and shows no sign of improving, even though rumors persist that we may be increasing our team from it's current size of 2 to a potential size of 5. It looks as though we will add another member here in the UK with 2 more developers out in India. However with our previous track record with Indian Notes Developers I am not optomistic of any great success, however I hope that I will be pleasantly surprised. <br />The one thing that I can mention is that I have managed to install the Notes 8 Beta 3 client and can sum it all up in 1 word. WOW!!!<br />Yep this is a real facelife for Lotus Notes and is something that has been long overdue, it does make it look more Outlooky, however that is not such a bad thing, Outlook does have some nice features, however the power of Notes behind a more user-friendly interface can be nothing but a positive move forward.<br />I have had one or two crashes with the Beta client, but I'm putting that down to the setup of my PC and trying to run R7 and 8 Beta 3 on the same machine and having 2 copies of Notes & Designer open at the same time. Speaking of Sametime, I do love having just a single window for all of my active chats although I do think it's going to take some getting used to. I am having issues with the RSS feed reader but I think I need to sort out my Proxy server settings, at the end of the day I think that as time goes on more and more of the functionality is going to work it's way out of the woodwork, for example it took me 2 days to getting round to finding the Workspace!!!<br />More soon.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-77569004045177169102007-05-18T06:40:00.000+00:002007-05-18T07:36:37.049+00:00ITILWell having spent the last three days in a classroom learning about <a href="http://www.itil.co.uk/">ITIL</a>, I thought it was time to present a sensible review of what ITIL means and what it could do for an organisation, there will I am sure be a less sensible review of ITIL and what it means for my current company, over at my less sensible blog, in a day or two.<br /><br />The first question is obviously, What is ITIL, well ITIL is simply a set of best practices that any company can use, they don't have to use them all, in fact they could only use one part and ignore the rest, and that would still likely give them some benefits. ITIL covers the varied aspects of IT Service Management, from the poor people on the Service Desk, through the 3rd Line support guys all the way through to the Finance guys, the guys building your Business Continuity Plans etc. Most of the ideas are really simple common sense, but for many organisations, systems were put in place 10-20 years ago, have evolved and in many cases the technology whilst moving on has always been updated with an aim of keeping things the same rather than really making great improvements.<br />The biggest concept that some on our course struggled with is the view that any request to IT should follow the same path to start with, ie. through the Service Desk, if a user reports a server down, phone the Service Desk, if they have a problem with their pc, phone the Service Desk, if they want a new application, phone the Service Desk, if they want a PC, phone the Service Desk etc etc etc. This single interface to the user community should improve user perception of the IT Dept and also improve the flow of information within the dept as well.<br />Once you take in the "incidents" from the helpdesk and start looking at the overall ITIL picture, it becomes somewhat easy (as long as you can remember the acronyms, CDB, CMDB, MTBF, MTTR, SLA, SLR, SLM* to name but a few about 0.5% or so it seemed) to see how incidents/problems/changes flow through the departement in a controlled manner, totally different to many companies current systems I am sure.<br />Anyway I could go on and on and on about this but I think that for those people who want to look into <a href="http://www.itil.co.uk/">ITIL</a>, then training or consultancy are definately the best options as it is certainly one of those subjects where you need to ask questions to get a better understanding.<br /><br /><br />CDB - Capacity Management Database<br />CMDB - Configuration Management Database<br />MTBF - Mean Time Between Failure<br />MTTR - Mean Time to Recovery<br />SLA - Service Level Agreement<br />SLR - Service Level Requirement<br />SLM - Service Level ManagementUnknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136622097293747083.post-44864753412312638802007-05-08T12:30:00.000+00:002007-05-08T12:34:32.255+00:00Anyone looking for a job part IIWell someone finally got off their rear-end and this has appeared on <span style="text-decoration: underline;">J</span><a href="http://www.jobserve.com/W601EB3CB08FE3366.job">observe</a>, you will have to put up with the madness that goes on here but if you can look past that this is a role with possibilities!!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7