A Lotusphere 2007 Session I gave in the Application Development Track

2. AD303
Extreme Makeover – IBM® Lotus® Domino® Application
Edition
Ray Bilyk
Certified Instructor
Data Planners, Inc.
®

3. Ray Bilyk
IBM Certified Instructor
IBM® Lotus® Notes® and Domino® 7
IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 6.x
Certified Lotus Instructor (CLI) since release 4
IBM Certified Advanced Developer & Administrator since R4.x
Certified in IBM AIX, Microsoft, Novell as well
Instructor and Primary Support at Data Planners, Inc.
(Southfield, Michigan)
Speaker and Member of Detroit Notes Professionals User Group
Blogger / Podcaster
http://www.thepridelands.com
http://thepridelands.podshow.com

4. My REAL ‘claims to fame’
Grappled with (and DEFEATED) two professional wrestlers
Bowled a perfect game at a tournament in 1998
Counselor for inner-city youth group since 1988
Proud father of Kiara Anne!

5. Session description
Your once ‘state of the art’ applications are now showing their age,
which means it’s time for an ‘extreme makeover’. You'll learn how
to take a Lotus Notes and Domino application and apply new
features from Notes and Domino releases 6 and 7 that make your
old applications look and act like new. Watch not only how an old
application can be given a visual makeover, but how to apply new
features that will improve application performance.

6. Agenda
What is an ‘Extreme Makeover’?
What it is NOT…
First Steps
What’s New in release 6.x and 7
Where do we go from here?
Database properties
Other design properties
If all else fails…
Conclusion

7. What is an “Extreme Makeover”?
According to Wikipedia:
A television program from ABC in which individuals volunteer to
receive an extensive makeover in Hollywood.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_Makeover
According to me:
Taking an IBM Lotus Domino application created in previous
versions of Notes/Domino and applying ‘new’ technology and
features to improve the look (and possibly the performance) of the
application.

8. What this “Extreme Makeover” is NOT…
It is NOT ‘rip and replace’
‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ has a tendency to tear the house down and
rebuild a new one
This is usually NOT necessary in Notes/Domino
It is NOT necessarily ‘Best Practices’
Sessions like that will be mentioned at the end
It is NOT a code giveaway
It is NOT a session on every feature currently available
It is NOT Ty Pennington’s session!

9. First Steps
Examine existing application
What works?
What doesn’t work?
Find the application audience
Current audience
Future audience?
Look at it with ‘new eyes’
Have existing audience examine the application
Let a neutral audience check it out

10. What’s new?
In Release 6
@ThisName and @ThisValue
Field hints
New field type: Rich Text Lite
Embedded elements
Goodbye layout regions… Hello Layers!
Color fields
Enhancements to tabbed tables
Changing the twistie image
Allowing view customizations
Creating documents at a view level
View style options
Adding colors to a view
@Command([EditRestoreDocument])

11. What’s new?
In Release 7
RSS feed generation (7.0.2)
Shared columns
Autosaving documents
Tighter Sametime Integration
Using web services design elements
Agent profiling
Store, view and access application data in DB2
Adding actions to the right mouse click menu
New @Functions and LotusScript Methods/Properties

12. Where do we go from here?
Database Properties
Form(s)
Layout
Field formulas
Views
Remember to evaluate for either Notes clients, Web clients, or both
Database Performance

13. Our demo application

14. Database Properties
If you see this in your Advanced tab, your ODS is version 20
Upgrade the ODS to 43 by selecting the database from the Files tab
of the Domino Administrator. In the Tools pane, select
Database -> Compact.
Verify that the database extension is not .ns4 or .ns5

15. Advanced Database Properties
Now that we have the Advanced properties...
Don’t maintain unread marks
Document table bitmap optimization
Don't overwrite free space
Maintain Last Accessed property
Disable transaction logging
Allow soft deletions
Don't support specialized response hierarchy
Don't allow headline monitoring
Allow more fields in database
Use LZ1 compression for attachments
Limiting the number of entries in the $UpdatedBy & $Revisions fields
Check Domino Designer Help – ‘Properties that improve database
performance’ for more information

16. Form - Layout
Layout will depend on whether it is a Notes-based application or a
Web-based application
Many options are available, but remember that cleaner is better
One way an application can be modified is through style sheets

17. Adding CSS to the application
Cascading style sheets (CSS) is an easy way to give the application
a consistant look and feel
Domino supports many style sheet properties including:
Background color
Font
Border and margin options
A complete list of properties can be found in Domino Designer Help
Try it today at HND105 ‘The Ultimate Make-Over of an IBM Lotus
Domino Site Using CSS’
Goes with session BP306 ‘How to Make IBM Lotus Domino Sites That Don't Look
(or Act) Like Lotus Domino’

18. Form – Field formulas
Review the field formulas
Many times, code can be reused
@ThisName
@ThisValue
CAUTION – Sometimes it’s okay to NOT share

19. Views
Shared Columns… more sharing goodness
Using views to create documents
Adding colors to a view
Soft deletions view
@Command( [EditRestoreDocument] )
NOTE: @Command does NOT work from the Web

20. More fun with views in Lotus Domino 7.0.2
RSS feed generator
Allowing more people to get the information in different ways

21. Adding Sametime to your application
For a view:

22. Adding Sametime to your application
For a field (for a Name data type):
You can even assign a Contact List Group label for the field

23. Database performance
Besides database properties…
Required reading: IBM Redbook - Performance Considerations
for Domino Applications (IBM Form Number SG24-5602-00)
nsftools.com – Julian Robichaux
‘12 Thoughts About Making Code More Efficient’
http://www.nsftools.com/blog/blog-09-2003.htm#09-08-03
Best advice from Julian…
“Know when to say when.”

24. If all else fails
Remember…

25. Application Development with Lotus software
New Web Site!
Discover how Lotus software
helps you develop Productivity
Applications for your People
You will learn:
How Lotus software helps address
your application development needs.
Key technical benefits you can
realize through Lotus software.
The combined Lotus software
offerings that deliver these benefits
Visit today!
ibm.com/lotus/appdev
(Enhancements planned throughout 1Q)

26. Other Sessions of Interest
JMP301 JavaScript and AJAX JumpStart
HND104 AJAX for IBM Lotus Domino Hands-On
Scott Good
JMP201 IBM Lotus Notes Development for Non-Developers
Kevin Pettitt
BP104 Worst Practices in IBM Lotus Domino Environments
Bill Buchan & Paul Mooney
AD304 IBM Lotus Domino Web Access Customization
Vinod Seraphin & Shu Sia Lukito
AD502 Creating Maintainable IBM Lotus Notes and Domino
Applications
Rocky Oliver

27. Other Sessions of Interest - continued
BP306 How to Make IBM Lotus Domino Sites That Don't Look
(or Act) Like Lotus Domino
HND105 The Ultimate Make-Over of an IBM Lotus Domino Site
Using CSS
Scott Good & Henry Newberry
BP311 The Great Code Giveaway – Web 2.0 Edition
Viktor Krantz & Rob Novak
AD401 Leveraging AJAX Frameworks to Build IBM Lotus Domino
Web Applications
Vinod Seraphin & Akira Sudoh
AD402 @Formulas Meet AJAX
Jack Ratcliff

28. Other Sessions of Interest - continued
ID109 IBM Lotus Notes Hints, Tips, and Tricks
Alan Lepofsky
AD505 DevBlast - 30 LotusScript Tips
Bill Buchan
BP101 Designing the User Experience: Why Your Interface Matters
Chris Blatnick, Nathan Freeman
BOF507 OpenNTF - An Open Source Community
Bruce Elgort
AD305 Application Development with IBM Lotus Domino and IBM
DB2 Integration
HND106 IBM Lotus Domino NSFDB2: Development and Integration
Hands-On
Robert Bertolino, Patrick Mancuso & Giancarlo Giannini

29. Other Sessions of Interest - continued
AD510 How to Deploy IBM Lotus Domino Applications to Mobile
Phones
Michael Brung, David Girle
ID215 IBM Lotus Domino and RSS
Mac Guidera & Dan Gurney
BP305 From Retro to Rocket: Retooling R5 apps to IBM Lotus Notes
and Domino 7 and Beyond
Jack Dausman & Allison Pang

30. Additional Sites and Information
CodeStore – www.codestore.net
OpenNTF – www.openntf.org
Taking Notes Podcast – takingnotes.openntf.org
Bruce Elgort & Julian Robichaux
IdoNotes Podcast – idonotes.com
Chris Miller

31. Please remember to fill out your evaluation
Name of Speaker
Ray Bilyk
Session:
AD303
Session Date:
January 23 or January 25
Session slides found at
http://www.thepridelands.com

32. Legal Information
© IBM Corporation 2007. All Rights Reserved.
The workshops, sessions and materials have been prepared by IBM or the session speakers and reflect their own views. They are provided
for informational purposes only, and are neither intended to, nor shall have the effect of being, legal or other guidance or advice to any
participant. While efforts were made to verify the completeness and accuracy of the information contained in this presentation, it is
provided AS IS without warranty of any kind, express or implied. IBM shall not be responsible for any damages arising out of the use of,
or otherwise related to, this presentation or any other materials. Nothing contained in this presentation is intended to, nor shall have the
effect of, creating any warranties or representations from IBM or its suppliers or licensors, or altering the terms and conditions of the
applicable license agreement governing the use of IBM software.
References in this presentation to IBM products, programs, or services do not imply that they will be available in all countries in which IBM
operates. Product release dates and/or capabilities referenced in this presentation may change at any time at IBM’s sole discretion based
on market opportunities or other factors, and are not intended to be a commitment to future product or feature availability in any way.
Nothing contained in these materials is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, stating or implying that any activities undertaken by you
will result in any specific sales, revenue growth or other results.
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled environment. The actual throughput
or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon many factors, including considerations such as the amount of
multiprogramming in the user's job stream, the I/O configuration, the storage configuration, and the workload processed. Therefore, no
assurance can be given that an individual user will achieve results similar to those stated here.
IBM, the IBM logo, Lotus, Lotus Notes, Notes, Domino, Sametime, WebSphere, Workplace and Lotusphere are trademarks of International
Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Java and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both.
Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Intel, Intel Centrino, Celeron, Intel Xeon, Intel SpeedStep, Itanium, and Pentium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel
Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
All references to Acme Corp. refer to a fictitious company and are used for illustration purposes only.