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...)
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18. Test, Test, Test!
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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...
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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

24. Understand Business Requirements
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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!
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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!
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42. 42

43. Agenda
● Coding Best Practices
● Application Architecture
● Languages and Features
● Learning
● User Interface
● Everything Else
43

44. It's Important
44

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
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50. Agenda
● Coding Best Practices
● Application Architecture
● Languages and Features
● Learning
● User Interface
● Everything Else
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51. Basic Understanding
Of Admin Concepts
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52. 52

53. Document Everything
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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
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55. Change Control
Process
55

56. Security Through Obscurity...
is not security
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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
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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

65. ● Legal Disclaimer
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●
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