Notes Design basics 1: Aliases
Category Lotus Notes Design
Bookmark :
There is often a lot of talk around the complicated parts of the Lotus Notes - agents, scripting, js frameworks, OOP etc. So I thought I'd try and run a few posts on the absolute basics of Lotus Notes development (and for the cynics amongst you, yes your right, it makes for an easy blog topic
).
So since its the absolute basics I'll probably avoid anything relating to serious web design and maybe only run into LotusScript later on. And your more than welcome to shoot it to bits as well.
So number 1..
Always use aliases on design elements and reference the alias in your design - not the actual name. You can then change your view names without changing references in dblookups, change form names without changing view selection criteria. If you don't have tools like Teamstudio's Configurator this is damned useful.
Its often good to name the aliases with that prefix relative to the design element, e.g. viewPeople / vwPeople / frmAccount, particularly as this makes every alias within the application unique.
Despite saying I'll avoid web design .. I'll break that rule straight way: Aliases allow you to refer to the design elements via URLs without a URL command as long as you name the aliases uniquely within the database (sorry - slap my wrist) - application. So http;//www.mysite.com/somedb.nsf/frmCompleteMe will open the form frmCompleteMe without using ?OpenForm on the end.
The only place I might break this rule is when importing documents from applications where you are then going to use a copy of the other applications form design .. e.g. the Memo form in the mail file doesn't use an alias. But equally you could always change the form name on the document and use an alias.
1 down .. next time, fields.
Bookmark :
There is often a lot of talk around the complicated parts of the Lotus Notes - agents, scripting, js frameworks, OOP etc. So I thought I'd try and run a few posts on the absolute basics of Lotus Notes development (and for the cynics amongst you, yes your right, it makes for an easy blog topic
).
So since its the absolute basics I'll probably avoid anything relating to serious web design and maybe only run into LotusScript later on. And your more than welcome to shoot it to bits as well.
So number 1..
Always use aliases on design elements and reference the alias in your design - not the actual name. You can then change your view names without changing references in dblookups, change form names without changing view selection criteria. If you don't have tools like Teamstudio's Configurator this is damned useful.
Its often good to name the aliases with that prefix relative to the design element, e.g. viewPeople / vwPeople / frmAccount, particularly as this makes every alias within the application unique.
Despite saying I'll avoid web design .. I'll break that rule straight way: Aliases allow you to refer to the design elements via URLs without a URL command as long as you name the aliases uniquely within the database (sorry - slap my wrist) - application. So http;//www.mysite.com/somedb.nsf/frmCompleteMe will open the form frmCompleteMe without using ?OpenForm on the end.
The only place I might break this rule is when importing documents from applications where you are then going to use a copy of the other applications form design .. e.g. the Memo form in the mail file doesn't use an alias. But equally you could always change the form name on the document and use an alias.
1 down .. next time, fields.
- 
Comments
Complete Form | completeme | completeme.html |frmCompleteMe
and the use
http//www.mysite.com/somedb.nsf/completeme
http//www.mysite.com/somedb.nsf/completeme.html
You can reference any alias, and you can have as many as you like. The frmCompleteMe is what gets stamped in the 'form' field.
Posted by Tony Palmer At 01:28:06 On 29/08/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Declan Lynch At 01:45:28 On 29/08/2008 | - Website - |