ded. reckoning

Is the Cloud Really Just the Return of Mainframe Computing?

2011-03-23T07:44:00.000-07:00

In his article Is the Cloud Really Just the Return of Mainframe Computing? in SQL Server Magazine, Michael Otley tries to argue we're headed back to the bad old days of mainframe computing. It's obvious he just doesn't understand the impact of the cloud. It reads like a fearful warning to business that they will lose control, but exactly the opposite is true.

"Businesses moved away from that model of centralized computing on purpose. Businesses, and perhaps more specifically their departments and end users, wanted more control of their computing resources. They didn’t want to share them with other business units—let alone other businesses. This is exactly what the cloud requires that you do. These factors led to the rise of distributed PC computing, client/server computing, and the web that we use today."

On the contrary, this is a continuation of the decentralization begun in the PC Revolution. The role of corporate IT will be radically changed by the cloud. Because cloud can scale from micro instances all the way up to high performance cluster GPU instances and can be almost instantly provisioned, absolutely everyone gets their niche solution and eventually the corporate IT middleman is eliminated. We are now seeing the follow-on to the PC Revolution, something that in the future might be termed the Server Revolution.

P.S. Throw Mobile into the mix and corporate IT is in for some radical reconfiguration.

Your thoughts?

Conspicuous Absence

2011-02-21T08:30:00.000-08:00

I felt compelled to make this entry just for the record. If you scroll the entries of this blog, you will see a time line with a big hole: what happened to 2010? Well, my Lotus work went dormant for about a year. Why? Good question. Looking back here's a bit of background and a quick synopses of what transpired.

In 2009 I really tried pushing my Notes/Domino development career into high gear. If you recall ND 8 came into the world late 2007, 8.5 in late 2008. Having the Eclipse client now was great, but I was waiting for projects using X-Pages and DDE. I had done a little Java development starting in 7, but really thought these new features in 8.x were going to be the afterburner Notes needed to really take off. I pitched alot of new ideas to management and even to some outsiders, but I think a combination of not sharing my vision and a tough economy combined into nothing much materializing.

What to do then? Well, an opportunity came along to do some data warehousing/business intelligence projects. However, there really wasn't any money allocated for it. Fortunaetly for me there are some great open source products in this category. So for the past year I have immersed myself in a different, yet not all too unfamiliar world:

I needed a SQL database that was serious enough for a big job. I found MySQL to be powerful enough for the job. Quest TOAD for MySQL was an invaluable tool for working with MySQL.
I needed a server to run it on. Fortunately, we run Vmware ESX so I could use the images available from Bitnami.
I needed an ETL tool. I evaluated many good ones and chose Talend Open Studio mainly because it runs in Eclipse. This thing is amazing and I even got it to connect to Notes via XML. (subject of a future post perhaps?)
I needed a report tool and chose Jaspersoft's JasperServer and their tool iReport. (Currently runs in NetBeans, but an Eclipse version is in 0.x releases).
I needed to understand BI and Data Warehouses and I landed on Dr. Ralph Kimball and his Dimensional Data Warehouse (based on the star schema). This is a very powerful way to structure data and is amazingly fast with queries.
Altova DatabaseSpy turned out to be the only tool I spent some money on. It's not an ERWIN, but did does a great job with my data models.

These are all really cool tools and I was able to accomplish quite alot. Obviously I learned alot about Data Warehousing. Also, my Java skills are getting stronger as alot of these tools use Java to script in. My Linux skills are getting stronger (Ubuntu server) too. I'm also stronger in my understanding of XML. Finally, I got a taste for Cloud Computing and really want to explore Amazon AWS. Although the open source versions of these tools are great, their paid-for versions are even nicer (at a price still way less than than the big boys).

Where does that leave Notes and Domino? I think I haven't lost much time, as it appears that the rest of the world is finally catching up with the new features introduced in 8.5 I still haven't done an official XPages project, but am angling to do one (I like the idea that XPages is a servelet and is extensible). I have done a Notes web service consumer in Java and that turned out to be pretty interesting.

So I haven't abandoned the platform -- in fact I'd say it is probably in the best condition its ever been in. This much I know: going into 2011, I have way more options available to me than I did a year ago.

Update: Name too long - LotusScript web service

2011-02-19T12:32:00.000-08:00

I wanted to close the loop on this issue, so here's what I was able to do in order to get my Notes app. connected to a hosted app. outside the firewall via a web services client. I opened a ticket with IBM on this but other than letting me know they are aware of the limitation and that they will tag the issue so it gets a bit more attention, they weren't very helpful. (BTY, they followed up on my dissatisfaction, so they are at least paying attention.)

Because the only work-around for this "Name too long" issue with the variable names in the LotusScript version of the web services consumer is a Java web services consumer, I had to crack open Apache Axis and find out what goes into a Java web services consumer. Turns out, after you get your bearings it's actually a pretty powerful package once you get to know it. DDE is a blessing in this regard because you have access to all the classes that Axis generates. (It also doesn't hurt that Axis is a widely implemented project and there are plenty of examples if you Google them.)

After creating the new web service consumer by importing the WSDL, I created the Java agent and imported the web services consumer as a library. I then used an import statement to reference the %Soap class and the %Locator class AXIS generated for me (substitute your WSDL-specific names for my %). In my agent I instantiate a new %Soap object by calling the getSoap method of the %Locator. I then use the setCredentials method to pass my ID and password to the service. Finally, I call the web service method I want, pass the parameters and chain on the get% (getResponse for my method) method to fill a variable for use further on in my agent.

As for the SSL piece, it was simply a matter of importing the remote site's certificate to the server's keyring file and making sure the keyring file was available to http (on Internet Ports tab of the Ports tab on the Server Doc). They had a GoDaddy CA so my server didn't know how to negotiate SSL.

Web Service Consumer - Name Too Long

2011-01-25T10:37:00.000-08:00

I'm having some issues with implementing a LotusScript web service consumer. After the WSDL import, the compiler is throwing errors (Name too long) because some of the variable names automatically generated exceed the maximum length. I tried shortening them but that seems to break everything (somehow those auto generated names relate back to the service itself).

This workaround has you create a Java web service consumer (since Java variables don't have the same limitations as LotusScript). I'm fine with using a Java web service consumer, but I also need an authentication component, which does not get auto generated with the WSDL import. This tip explains how to incorporate authentication, but is for LotusScript. If I go the Java route then I'll need some help with the equivalent authentication fix. (Not even sure if this works using SSL.)

I did a ton of Google searches and searched the Notes forums several different ways, but there isn't alot of information available. (Are folks not using this design element very much?)

Any help with "name too long" and authentication would be greatly appreciated.

A few good Linux sites...

2011-01-19T12:17:00.001-08:00

If you're new to Linux or just don't use certain commands regularly, this list is a good start.

I hope I'm As Cool as Ralph Kimball When I'm His Age

2009-09-17T16:46:00.000-07:00

A real gem...

If you don't know Ralph Kimball, here's his Wikipedia entry.

What I Learned About Rich Text This Week

2009-06-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

I don't work with rich text alot, but I am aware of its eccentricities. I learned a few things this week and I thought I'd share them so as to save someone the time and frustration I endured. Starting out, I was at least aware of the whole issue with refreshing rich text in the UI, so this influenced my ideas of how I was going to approach my project.

For a Notes client app. I needed to control editing of a rich text field on a form. My first thought was to have a computed field just display the contents of the field and create a dialog box for authorized folks to edit the actual data. Although this is possible with some workarounds, the default nature of LotusScript dialog boxes is not rich text friendly. By default you can control the passing of field changes from your dialog box back into the underlying form, but not with rich text. The workarounds are to get rid of the default "OK" and "Cancel" buttons and build your own directly on your dialog box form so you can save your changes to the back end and do some script magic to make the changes appear on the underlying form. After working on the script magic and getting things to refresh, I found a show-stopping flaw in my approach. The biggest problem with this approach is that you don't have access to the rich text controls for adding any formatting to your text -- without that, what's the point? The bottom line is I abandoned the dialog box and opted to go with computed and editable fields and some show/hide formulas on the main form.

The first thing I ran into with this approach was the fact that a computed rich text field acts like a computed when composed field. The field gets set the first time it is displayed, but won't change if you make changes to the field it is computed to. Luckily Google is my friend and I found a way to make this approach work. Basically, I added a third computed text field with the formula FIELD myComputedRTF := @DeleteField; "" which blows the computed rich text field away every time the document is saved so that it can be recreated the next time it is opened.

Hope this saves someone the time and hassle learning this the hard way...

Cannot execute the specified command (ViewExpandAll)

2009-06-11T10:06:00.000-07:00

I ran into another glitch in testing the Notes 8.5 client. When opening a couple views in a custom DB, I get the warning "Cannot execute the specified command." The LotusScript debugger wasn't able to help with the diagnosis (no LotusScript firing before the error appears). I then manually tried to follow the sequence of events and found the @Command ViewExpandAll in the PostOpen event of the views. I commented out the formula and that stopped the error.

Google isn't returning any hits to provide insight surrounding the problem. Having the view automatically expand isn't critical and we could live without it, but I'm curious if there's a workaround. Should I be reporting these problems to Lotus?

The peaceful coexistence of Java and .Net

2009-06-11T07:24:00.000-07:00

Hopefully no one takes this the wrong way, but I just found it interesting that the Java group hosts its site using .Net technology.

(Then again, this Notes blog isn't hosted on Domino. Probably in both cases the reason why has a financial component.)

Not a sub or function

2009-06-10T12:42:00.000-07:00

In my testing of custom Notes applications written for version 7 and prior, some applications throw the "Not a sub or function" error message in the R8.5 client. The errors aren't triggered when the LotusScript Debugger is turned on. This leads me to believe that subtle differences in the compiler versions are the culprit. I opened the application in the 8.5 Designer and ran Recompile All LotusScript from the Tools pull-down menu. This appears to have stopped the errors. The recompile had no adverse impact when going back and testing the application in a R7 client.

Recommendation: Parings Market

2009-05-31T06:01:00.000-07:00

This past Friday I had a chance to experience a new business that recently opened up in my 'neighborhood' called Pairings. (www.pairingsfoodandwine.com) It's a great great concept that has been executed especially well. The whole idea is to pair up choice adult beverages with choice cuisine in order to bring out the best in each and maximize the flavor quotient!

First, there is a liquor store. In the land of municipal liquor stores and super-size liquor emporiums, I'll give these guys credit for providing a great selection combined with expertise and even some help finding a great value. The part that makes this liquor store stand apart is their assistance in pairing up your beverage with the food.

Next there is the Deli/Restaurant. In here, the first thing you'll notice is the various market offerings; things such as eight different types of gourmet salt, or pure maple syrup. Walk in a little further and you'll notice the deli case filled with scrumptious salads ready for a trip home or maybe a quick bite right at one of the tables in the store. You'll also see a menu of dishes the chefs will prepare for you while you wait or perhaps a wood-fired pizza or have a custom made salad made for you from the build your own salad bar. Finally there's a huge cheese bar including some nice dried and cured meats.

I suggest you give it a try and for a first pass, get the staff to pair a great wine or beer with one of their meat and cheese trays. While our short Minnesota window of nice weather is present, have your pairings on the outdoor patio and enjoy!

Linked!!!

2009-04-29T08:46:00.000-07:00

DominoPower Magazine picked up my post on Creating PDFs in a Java Agent using Apache FOP.

(Something to tell the grand kids someday.)

Creating PDFs Using Notes Java Agent

2009-04-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

A new project hit my desk a few weeks ago. The project involves the enhancement of an existing Notes workflow application, adding on processes to the start and finish of the workflow process. One of the requirements is to create a PDF for archival as the final step. In order to save some money and learn some new techniques, I chose to look into using the Apache FOP project.

I learned a few things while building a proof of concept and wanted to share what I learned. At a high level, this approach will require some knowledge of Java agents and a little knowledge of XSL-FO. So if you're not already up to speed on these two areas, you might want to spend a little time with the following:

Java agents and the Notes Java back-end classes. The notes help has a pretty good reference, and if you know the LotusScript back-end classes, you pretty much already know the Java classes. Also note that Java is pretty version specific and the Apache FOP project requires 1.4.x or later. That means this solution only works on Lotus Domino 7 or newer.
You'll probably want to learn how to use Eclipse in your Java agent development. Although not necessary, it provides a lot of help organizing and importing your packages, and assisting with your coding so your method signatures are correct, etc.
Depending on how intricate your PDF formatting will be, you'll want to familiarize yourself with XSL-FO. Also, download the Apache FOP zipped source files and look at the example FO files for ideas.
Download and set up OpenLog from OpenNTF.org to help in your debugging and error handling. As always, you can use the Java Debug Console or system.out to the console and log.nsf, but OpenLog gives you a few more options such as including a document link to the document being worked on at the time of the log event or error event. (You can even debug from Eclipse if you know what you're doing.)

My original approach was to import the Jar files into the agent or a script library, but I ran into a few problems with this approach: even if you get your base directory lined up correctly for your classes to access the META-INF path, the Jars are too big to include and will throw a out of memory error. Although not ideal, you will need to put all the Jar files in the jvm/lib/ext directory of your Domino directory (or Notes directory if you're testing locally).

The rest is pretty straightforward:

My agent (download the sample NSF here) will access a Notes document and construct the FO as a string. The string is constructed from various fields in the document and formatted to conform to the XSL-FO standards. When complete, the string is passed into a transformer class. (If the XSL-FO is quite large or elaborate, you will probably want to use a StringBuffer: use the append method to build the XSL-FO; use the toString method to pass the resulting XSL-FO into the transformer.)
Use the example in the Basic Usage Pattern to write the FOP components of your Java agent.
The results are saved to a file on disk, which you will eventually want to deal with. In my case I'll save directly to the file system of another server using a UNC path. In the example you will see a file path in which you can specify where the resulting PDF is to be saved. If you would like to add the PDF as an attachment to a document use the embedObject method of the RichTextItem class. Depending on what you end up doing with these PDFs, you might find yourself with a pile of files. Cleaning up these files can be done with another LotusScript agent or with the java.io.File class delete() method in the same Java agent.
Because the agent is writing to the file system you will need to give it a runtime security level of 2, allowing restricted operations.

Regarding setup, for testing you can run it locally on your workstation. Download the FOP binaries at the Apache site and extract the jar files to your notes/jvm/lib/ext directory. Sign the database and give that ID manager access and double-check that ID can run unrestricted agents. Right-click the ApacheFOP agent and select Run. If everything goes well and you haven’t changed anything, there should be a file in your C:\Temp directory called myfile.pdf. Once you know its working, go ahead and start customizing things to suit your needs.

Note: The code uses the UNID of the Simple.fo document that is inside the nsf, so you can open that document up in your Notes client and modify the XSL to make it custom for you.

There's alot of different things you can do within the FO, different approaches with Notes to build the FO, and different ways to process the resulting PDF (attaching, emailing, etc.). Hopefully this open source solution gives you some new options when it comes to incorporating PDFs into your Notes applications.

LCTY Minneapolis

2009-04-16T08:02:00.001-07:00

Just a couple quick thoughts on yesterday's Lotusphere Comes To You Minneapolis. The one thing that really stood out for me was the number of new faces. Typically, these events draw alot of the Lotus faithful, but I noticed quite a bit more new faces in the crowd. Granted, this is a very unscientific analysis, but I do have another supporting piece of information to back this up. At my lunch table I spoke with two gentlemen who were either brand new to Notes or whose employer is a new Lotus customer. This is a good sign that the Lotus Software climate is not only alive, but growing. There is excitement about the new Notes and Sametime clients and the accompanying new technologies in the 8.x releases.

I think to round things out, the message needs to penetrate upper management of existing customers, both at the I.T. level and at general corporate level. The new customers (my lunch mates yesterday came from a position of not having a good email solution and evaluating the product market from scratch) are finding value, having not known much about Lotus Notes. Does upper management know what these new customers have found out?

After new customers get it, and upper management gets it, the last piece for all of them to be enlightened on is the value Notes and Domino brings as an application development platform. With new tools in our toolbox--composite applications, XPages--we developers can reignite interest in using Notes and Domino to provide excellent solutions to meet business demands.

Keep up the great work everyone!

Microsoft BizSpark

2009-04-14T17:37:00.000-07:00

Got a LinkedIn invitation to join Microsoft BizSpark, so I started the sign-up process. Looks like an interesting deal: get access to developer tools and resources for free. I'm interested for two reasons.

I'm interested in extending the capabilities of the Notes client by scripting into the Microsoft Office Suite. (On the same note I'm also interested in extending the capabilities of Notes by scripting into Lotus Symphony and OpenOffice.)
As a newly minted small business owner, I'm interested in what big corporations are offering little guys like me. I'll keep an eye on things and perhaps let IBM know what's going on inside BizSpark.

I shall keep you all posted when I find out more.

No Ordinary Small Business I.T. Solution

2009-04-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Why settle for an ordinary I.T. solution? Make your small business extraordinary!

Does your current I.T. solution facilitate

COLLABORATION

inside and outside the office? Help with

INNOVATION

in delivering your product to your customers? Provide

BUSINESS AGILITY

in responding to change? Facilitate

SUPERIOR CUSTOMER SERVICE

? Allow you to leverage

SOCIAL SOFTWARE

? Provide

INSIGHT

into your operation and your market? Help seek out a new

OPPORTUNITY

? Would your potential I.T. solution help with

COST REDUCTION

? Does it give you

FREEDOM OF CHOICE

? How about

FLEXIBILITY

?

IBM Lotus offers you all of these.

Want to know more? Contact me.

Does your job give you enough satisfaction?

2009-04-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

Joel Spolsky writes a column for Inc. Magazine in which he discusses how to structure salaries in such a way that things can be equitable and transparent.

A couple paragraphs resonated with me, as I've been that miserable employee:

At the same time, if you hear a lot of griping about salaries, you shouldn't look just at your system for paying people. One thing I've learned from experience is that happy, motivated employees who are doing work they love and feel they are being treated as adults don't gripe about money unless their pay is egregiously unfair. If you hear a lot of complaints about salaries, I suspect that's probably a manifestation of a much bigger disease: Your employees aren't deriving enough personal satisfaction from their work, or they are miserable for other reasons.

It takes a lot of salary to make up for a cruel boss or a prisonlike workplace. And rather than adjusting pay, you might choose to focus on some nonmonetary ways to make employees happy. Happy employees make better products and provide better customer service and will make your company successful and profitable. And success allows you to pay workers better. It's a virtuous circle, and it has worked for Fog Creek.

I've always said that people will work for much less, provided they're happy and they feel like they're a productive, contributing member of the team.

Small Business IT Services

2009-04-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

Following up on a post from January, I wanted to expand on point #2: Develop a Strong Marketing Message and Hook. I really believe IBM Lotus is offering an outstanding value to small and medium size businesses. So the message is...

The lineup is extensive:

The technology's reliability and scalability has been proven in the enterprise. The administration of these products has been refined over many years and they practically run themselves. Their "fit and finish" are on par with all the Web 2.0 offerings presently in the market. They offer out-of-the-box functionality for mobile access as well as provide tools to combine your Notes applications with external data (aka Mashups). Third party solutions to layer on top of these platforms are abundant and talented independent systems integrators (Me!) are ready to help put these products to productive and profitable use.

The hook? Why go with the unproven upstart or the default choice just because you didn't dig a little deeper to find a really great value? With Express licensing, small and medium size business can get these enterprise-grade technologies at a very affordable price.

Document was deleted from this collection

2009-04-02T09:40:00.000-07:00

In LotusScript, you might encounter the error number 4434 and/or the error description "Document was deleted from this collection" when looping through a NotesDocumentCollection object and calling the DeleteDocument method.

I'm a big fan of OpenLog, which has shaved off a ton of development time when coding back-end objects that are difficult to debug with the LS debugger. Most recently, it helped detect a bug in my code that might never have been caught. The error wasn't fatal, but it revealed that my code just wasn't doing what I thought it should be doing.

Anyway, since Google is our friend when we run into issues like this, I thought I'd post it to benefit any future searchers. Notes help is fairly useless for troubleshooting error numbers and in this particular case the example code only retrieves the first document in the collection.

Credit for helping me solve this problem goes to Domino Power and Mick Moignard. The article is about folders, but the relevant piece has to do with utilizing a temporary NotesDocument object and setting it to your current NotesDocument object so you can use that object as the parameter in the DeleteDocument method. This allows you to use your current NotesDocument as the parameter in the GetNextDocument method at the end of your loop. Without it, the GetNextDocument has no reference point to refer to in the collection.

Here's an example where you want to remove a document from a collection based on some criteria (SomeFlag = 1) and maybe do something with the collection later on, such as StampAll.

'Assume I have already built the NotesDocumentCollection called docCol

'and I have dimensioned two NotesDocument objects, curDoc & tmpDoc

Set curDoc = docCol.GetFirstDocument

For i = 1 to docCol.Count

        If curDoc.SomeFlag(0) = 1 Then

                Set tmpDoc = curDoc

                Call docCol.DeleteDocument(tmpDoc)

        End If

        Set curDoc = docCol.GetNextDocument(curDoc)

Next

Using the temporary document allows you to not lose your reference to the current document in your collection.

This should help spur things along

2009-04-02T07:06:00.001-07:00

Accounting board poised to give companies more leeway in asset values. Looks like the market likes it:

My Sentiments Exactly!

2009-03-31T06:44:00.000-07:00

Although I don't share an interest in motorcycles, I do share their sentiments:

I would say the same to the New York Slimes if it were me...
(for background, look here)

Small Business: An IT Strategy Too Good to Pass Up

2009-03-28T19:00:00.000-07:00

Attention all small business owners! IBM Lotus Software has a product to handle just about all your I.T. needs. Lotus Foundations 1.1 delivers email, office productivity applications (word processing, spreadsheet, presentations), firewall and VPN, anti-virus, backup and recovery, to name just a few of the big pieces. Best of all, Foundations is delivered to your small business in one complete, easy to set up, self-maintaining package.

See for yourself by viewing this short video:

Foundations can bring your small business all the sophistication of enterprise-class applications with a price tag most any small business owner can't afford to pass up. I would love to have the opportunity to talk to you about what a valuable contribution Lotus Foundations can make to your business. Contact me.

Lotusphere Comes to You - Minneapolis

2009-03-26T17:41:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard, Lotusphere Comes To You will be in Minneapolis April 15, 2009. The location is at the Park Place Doubletree. No excuses not to attend, admission is free!

Even more than the presentations on Social Software, Unified Telephony, Portal and LotusLive, I'm looking forward to visiting with the vendors. Be sure to swing through and try to visit with as many of the IBM Business Partners as you have time. They're a big reason LCTY is possible.

Look for me and say hello. See you there!

Minneapolis St. Paul Lotus Notes User Group Meeting

2009-03-25T08:22:00.001-07:00

Great turnout last night for the Minnesota Notes User Group. Tom and John did fine job highlighting the recent offerings from Lotus that were announced at LotusSphere this year. Thanks to the Meridian guys for providing the space to meet. I especially enjoyed some of the Q & A that occurred toward the end. I hope there's more of that in future meetings.

Also, it was good to have the opportunity to talk to a few Notes folks afterward at TGI Fridays. (Greg, Mark and Jeff, it was great to get to know you guys.) Hopefully the social time afterward will be a regular component of the meetings.

Finally, if you're a Notes person in the Twin Cities and haven't attended recently, I would highly recommend attending. There is great benefit in having a community of fellow Notes Admins and Developers to bounce ideas off and these days it doesn't hurt to do a little networking too.

Is what's interesting to me interesting to you?

2009-03-21T04:40:00.000-07:00

I've been running Google Analytics for a little while and was curious about what kinds of things people are interested in here. It kind of breaks down into a couple categories:
1. Business and/or Economy, 2. Lotus Notes. This makes sense as that's pretty much the two major categories I find interesting enough to write about. But lets dig a little deeper.

Overall, the most hits I've received on a single post falls into the Business and/or Economy category. A little blurb about the Miller High Life Superbowl ad seemed catch peoples attention. Probably because I titled the Post "Why Didn't Lotus Think of This?" To be fair, I did subtitle it "Don't blink or you'll miss Miller's Superbowl Ad." If you didn't see it, here it is:

As for my favorites, I liked my entry on the Long Tail and the one about how your people are your competitive advantage.

In the second catetory, Lotus Notes, the top vote getter was a reference to a comment I made on Ed Brill's blog. But to be fair, riding Ed's coattails is probably not a legitimate winner. So the number one really should be my post about the difficulty in locating some Lotus Foundations product information.

Seeing as I'm not by nature a complainer, I offer up my favorite in the Lotus Notes category: Notes Formulas for Strings and Lists. (But I am very partial to "Approaches to generating custom HTML of a document collection (view) from notes data via XML(DXL)" as I think the LotusScirpt XML processing classes are pretty handy.)

Contrarian words these days?...hope not!

2009-03-19T17:51:00.000-07:00

Thomas Paine: "I seek opportunity ... not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen ... dulled by having the state look after me … I refuse to barter incentive for a dole; I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence."

MN Lotus Notes User Group Meeting 03/24/09

2009-03-17T15:00:00.000-07:00

If you're not already aware...

The Next Minnesota Lotus Notes User Group meeting has been scheduled.

Date/Time: Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 4:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Location:
Meridian IT, in the Park East Building, near I-394 & Hwy 100
Room 820
5775 Wayzata Blvd
St. Louis Park, MN 55416

Looking forward to mingling at TGI Friday's afterward. Hope to see you there!

More of this please!

2009-02-08T13:05:00.000-08:00

3M chief sees better economy by second half (a huge Notes shop, by the way):

"People get so fixated over what's gone" as they react to declining sales. "You need to focus on what's left. So it's about gaining market share."

Read the rest of George Buckley's comments here.

100 Best Business Books

2009-02-08T08:04:00.000-08:00

I love lists like this. I also love books, especially business books.

I thought I'd make a little list myself. Books from this list I own/have read:

Getting Things Done by David Allen
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
In Search of Excellence by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr.
Reengineering the Corporation by Michael Hammer and James Champy
A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger Von Oech

Now I have a few more to add to my yet-to-read list:

Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will by Tichy and Sherman
Never Give In! Speeches by Winston Churchill
Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar
How to Become a Rainmaker by Jeffrey J. Fox
Growing a Business by Paul Hawken
Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson
The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander

What's on your business reading list? Anything you would add?

Tip of the hat to Bilal Jaffery @ Web 2.0, SMB and Lotus Foundations
Link to the original post: http://100bestbiz.com/more-on-the-100-best/

Thanks, Ed!

2009-01-22T18:04:00.000-08:00

Why didn't Lotus think of this first?

2009-01-20T09:13:00.001-08:00

Don't blink or you'll miss Miller's Superbowl ad

I'm a big fan of folks who now run the Miller Brewing company. Hats off to them and their ad agency for coming up with this gimmick. This totally fits in with micro formats now popular on the web. Also an ingenious tactic to get the most bang for your ad dollar -- especially in an era of tight budgets. It would be cool to see a Lotus ad like this. What would your 1 second Lotus ad look like?

via JSOnline.com Business on 1/20/09

Primary Objective For Notes Consulting

2009-01-19T06:00:00.000-08:00

At great risk of being drowned out by all the updates from the Magic Kingdom, I wanted to echo and expand on what Bex blogs about in Committees Can Only Create Systems That Mirror Their Own Dysfunction. I'm thinking alot lately about the sales process and spending alot of time refining my story. I really want to emphasize the value a Notes workflow application can bring to process automation in a business. Though my target market is SMB and they tend not to foster numerous committees, I still found it important to remember that communication is a key component in designing a successful workflow.

Money quote:

The number one task of any business is to make money...
the number two task is to improve inter-departmental communication.

There is a fine line between just the right amount of notification and too much notification. There's a fine line between getting someone's approval and going around them. It takes a good ear to listen to your customer and some good questions to find out exactly where that line exists. It also takes patience and a flexible design to go back and make adjustments when the customer realizes that perception and reality sometimes have very little overlap.

Lotus Foundations: Hiding in Plain Sight

2009-01-12T07:30:00.000-08:00

I've been doing some research for a prospective client on the possibility of installing Lotus Foundations and had difficulty getting some clear information on the product. (I did not plumb the depths of IBM's PartnerWorld site, so there could be good information there, but I suspect not.) The old Netix site didn't help much, and neither did the official Lotus Foundations site.

Taking Notes Podcast #84 was good, but having something in writing is way better. Some of the stuff Sean Burgess and Graham Dodge have written about and the things Sean has mentioned on a couple episodes of the 1352 Report are helpful, but I'm just looking for some basic specs.

Where do you think I found a good overview of product?

Wikipedia

Go figure...

How To Sell IT Services

2009-01-05T09:45:00.000-08:00

Step 1: Identify a Target Market
Step 2: Develop a Strong Marketing Message and Hook.
Step 3: Create One Piece of Marketing Collateral that will Attract Prospects and Set You Apart.
Step 4: Get Visible in Your Target Market – the Manual Way.
Step 5: Keep Following up to Build Relationships and Credibility.

I typed the phrase "How To Sell IT Services" into Google and was presented with 3,540,000 hits. One of the top ranked sites was Sitepoint.com, so I checked out what was behind the link. A few clicks later I ran across this article which includes the five steps above. I thought the overall concepts conveyed were on target.

After making the committment to start a business, I must admit that the prospect of developing some sales and marketing skills is a challenge I'm excited to put into practice as soon as possible. So where does this put me this week? For starters, I'll be refining the work I've already done but now with the benefit of having the advice from Step 1 and the linked article therein. I will definately be gathering alot more background information on my target market through some Internet searching and some phone calls. After that, I plan on applying Step 2 and Step 3 to some marketing materials I've already created.

By this time next week, I plan on embarqing on some Step 4 work. What sales and marketing techniques have you employed in a startup business? What was successful? What should be avoided?

Here's to an awesome 2009!

2008-12-31T13:20:00.000-08:00

I have a feeling 2009 is going to be an awesome year. Why? Because I'm committed to it!

After the Christmas tree is torn down and the party hats and horns are put away, I plan on pounding the pavement, knocking on doors, telling my story, and making some sales.

Here's to success...I can already feel it, smell it, taste it, and almost touch it.

Join me in making 2009 an awesome year!

Minnesota XPages Workshop?

2008-12-24T03:33:00.000-08:00

It seems that IBM are willing to provide the XPages workshop if enough folks in a particular region are interested in attending. Word has it that if you contact Craig Wolpert and let him know of your interest, he can coordinate setting up the workshop.

So come on Minnesota, register your interest in learning XPages and ask to have it presented in Minneapolis.

Startup: The Long Tail and the Recession

2008-12-13T09:08:00.000-08:00

As I lay the groundwork for moving to independence in my Lotus Notes development work I've been pondering the role of the Long Tail as I work to build a customer base during this time of economic difficulty.

In theory, the Long Tail should be a great place to look for opportunities. With all the recent investment IBM has made to our platform, we all should be in great shape to offer our customers some great solutions. I'm betting that the really good businesses out there are likely taking advantage of the current turmoil and coming up with initiatives to capitalize on when things finally turn around. My sense is that these businesses are fairly small in size (Long Tail inhabitants?) or are small business units within larger organizations.

If your business sits somewhere in the Long Tail and you're looking into ways to collaborate your way to success when things stop shrinking and start growing again, I'd be very much interested in having a conversation with you.

Ytria ScanEZ Update: 8.0.0

2008-12-12T12:01:00.000-08:00

I spent a little time poking around Ytria's ScanEZ looking for interesting additions in this latest release. I found a few handy new features I will looking forward to using:

The ability to add multiple documents that I select from within my Notes client to a "My Selection" group.
Adding all the documents from a view or folder to a "My Selection" group.
The new design elements for Notes 8 appear (composite application, wiring properties, etc.) and I'll be digging a little deeper with these to see what they reveal.

I use ScanEZ every day and have come to rely on it to quickly troubleshoot problems, modify documents for use in testing or in upgrading, and to help build and test formulas during development.

If you're interested in knowing more about the Ytria tools, contact me and I will be more than happy to show you around.

Your People Are Your Competitive Advantage

2008-11-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

Just ran across this article, Social Networks Not Ready for Business? Hat tip to Jeremiah Owyang.

The key quote is from Intel CEO Paul Otellini:

Your people are your competitive advantage. If you don't find ways to have your people work better together, which is where social networking comes in, you're not going to survive.

This is one of the points I've been trying to make recently regarding the role of Lotus Notes Domino in your organization. If you can get your employees to buy into the concept that collaboration benefits the whole of the organization, you can tap into some real power.

Does everyone in your organizaiton...

know what everyone else does?
know how others perceive their strengths and weaknesses?
know what the competition is up to?
feel like their voice matters?

As I have said elsewhere, the latest trends in social computing are all available in the software you have trusted for many years for its reliability, its security, and its flexibility.

Stay Tuned

2008-11-23T15:17:00.000-08:00

Over a month ago I started what I intended to be a series of articles on how Notes can save your business money during these tough economic times. The reason for my five week lapse since that post is I felt that first I needed to put my money (or at least my time) where my mouth was. So I have been laying the groundwork for striking out on my own.

Alot of phone calls, alot of emails, alot of reading and research, and mostly alot of sitting in quiet contemplation of jumping into something during what to most might appear to be the worst possible time to take a risk.

So with that, stay tuned and I shall get back to the topic of Notes and its role in the economic downturn.

Notes/Domino Saves You Money - Part II: Web Services

2008-10-16T04:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I announced that I'd been working on compiling a list of ways Notes/Domino can save your company money during this economic slowdown.

The first item on the list of how Notes/Domino can save your company money is Web Services. Connecting your Notes applications to other systems makes both of the connected systems exponentially more valuable. Since you already have Notes in place, why not connect your Notes applications to your enterprise data through a web service? With a little understanding of http and XML, the fact that many modern software applications offer web services as an interface makes this approach very cost effective.

Furthermore, mobile smart phones have become so prevalent, why not connect your Notes applications to them through web services? I've connected a Notes contact management database to a basic Blackberry application I wrote. Both the web service - essentially, a LotusScript agent - and the Blackberry application were fairly straight forward projects to build.

Let me know your thoughts on ways web services in Notes can help boost productivity, leverage resources, and cut expenses in your organization.

What Notes/Domino can do to help your company in an economic slowdown

2008-10-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

I posted the following on the Lotus Software Professionals discussion group over at LinkedIn

Has your boss approached you about the value of Notes/Domino to your organization? Better yet, have you approached your boss about how Notes/Domino can help your organization save money and boost productivity?

If either of the above are true, I'd love to talk to you about putting a plan in action to make the most of your Notes/Domino investment.

I really believe that the oncoming global economic slowdown is the perfect opportunity to show your organization how Notes/Domino can help your organization do more with less. I've been compiling a list and in the coming days will touch on some things that can contribute to keeping your company in the black and out of the red.

What a country!

2008-09-03T18:34:00.000-07:00

As a Twin Cities resident I had the great privilege of attending the RNC last night. Thanks to the Wisconsin delegation, I was able to spend 30 minutes on the floor. I was revved up for hours afterward.

No matter your party preference, the experience of attending a convention is something all US citizens should have. I have great respect for everyone involved, from the nominees all the way down to the precinct chairman attending as a delegate. Democracy and participation are things we should not take for granted.

I'm proud a citizen of the USA.

Beefing up your JavaScript skills

2008-08-28T16:22:00.000-07:00

I've been spending some idle cycles supplementing my JavaScript knowledge. I ran across a link to the YUI Theater on the Yahoo! Developer Network. The lectures by Douglas Crockford are excellent.

Notes Developer Opening in Milwaukee

2008-08-26T20:16:00.000-07:00

A recruiter friend pinged me about a full-time Notes developer opening in Milwaukee: 3 years Notes experience; pays $65K - $95K; no travel.

Let me know if you're interested and I'll put you in touch.

Minneapolis/St.Paul Lotus Get Together

2008-08-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

I only received a handful of responses to my previous post about a Lotus get together, so I thought I'd give it another go. Anyone interested in getting together after work and networking with other Lotus professionals in an informal setting?

Send me your thoughts on suitable days and venues. Also, please pass this along to anyone you know who doesn't follow PlanetLotus.org and wouldn't see it.

LotusBeer - Twin Cities

2008-08-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

Any Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro area Lotusphiles interested in getting together for a beverage and some Lotus conversation? Leave suggestions here as to dates/times and locations.

Web Development in Eclipse

2008-08-11T18:00:00.000-07:00

For the better part of the last two years I've been doing alot of Notes client development and alot of back-end Notes server work, so its been quite a few months since I have put in a concentrated effort on web development. Thankfully with my most recent project, I've found that my skills didn't get too rusty. Its great to have a chance to exercise that DHTML part of my brain. Another exciting aspect is the opportunity to incorporate a little AJAX and a little YUI into the project.

For every project I try to find a new tool to help get the work done. On this project I'm using Eclipse with the Aptana Studio plug-in. This is a very nice tool to get everything organized and functioning properly. Of course, it does not conveniently integrate with the Notes 7 Designer. I'm not complaining too much, however. I really appreciate the visual cues it provides and the code assist with all the CSS properties and JS object properties and methods. Its a good preview of what things will be like for Domino development in 8.5 and beyond.

Lotus Notes is coming to the iPhone

2008-08-08T15:29:00.001-07:00

I think some in the Apple community aren't up to speed with what has been happening in the Notes world lately. Their impressions of Notes are stuck somewhere back at R4.

Even if Lotus is up to something (i.e. a native iPhone app. to access Notes Mail/Calendar) I'm not sure they'd release it on the Apple App Store. More likely on the Passport site, unless iPhone users find loading apps from the App Store preferable to traditional methods.

UPDATE: Not owning an iPhone myself, I have been informed that currently the Apple iTunes App Store is the only method to procure software. At the moment, I find it difficult to picture corporate IT departments deploying applications from this consumer-oriented channel when they are used to getting their Lotus downloads from Passport. I imagine this will be something that slows the adoption of the iPhone in corporations. On the other hand, sales of handy iPhone apps built by ISVs to access Notes databases through the App Store probably wouldn't appear too unusual.

Lotus Notes is coming to the iPhone

via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) by Christina Warren on 8/8/08

Filed under: Enterprise, iPhone

Good news for IBM Lotus users, Big Blue will bring an iPhone-compatible version of its Lotus Domino Web Access suite to the App Store later this year. The software, dubbed "Lotus iNotes," will allow businesses that utilize Lotus Domino Server to provide their users access to contacts, e-mail and calendars.

No firm release date has been set, though screenshots (which are not final and subject to change) and tentative information is available at IBM's Lotus Domino Web Access site.

Lotus iNotes is just one of the new mobile strategies IBM will be deploying in the coming months, as it looks to stave off competition from Microsoft.

And while Lotus might not be the sexiest collaboration software around, it is used by millions upon millions of people worldwide. IBM's support of the iPhone could really propel corporations to adopt, or at least consider supporting, the iPhone in IT environments.

Notes 8 Day! (8-8-08)

2008-08-07T17:22:00.000-07:00

In honor of Notes 8 Day, I have downloaded and will be installing the Notes 8.5 beta. I have two objectives:

Check out XPages
Dig into iNotes light for the purposes of a super secret iPhone project

Now, I just have to locate something yellow to wear for Monday...

Hire Me

2008-07-29T04:19:00.000-07:00

I'd like to put some idle cycles to good use (i.e. my evenings and weekends), so I'm posting this announcement that I'm interested in picking up any "odds and ends" Lotus Notes projects anyone might have. For a brief overview of my background, see my LinkedIn page.

Contact me directly if you would like to explore things further: mmillerlacrosse_at_yahoo_dot_com.

DXL Inconsistency For Views

2008-07-24T06:35:00.000-07:00

I'm using DXL to pick through properties in the views of a database that I'm doing some maintenance on. At the moment, I'm verifying font settings for Columns/Column Headers.

Two problems I've encountered:

Similar the HTML tags that the Domino HTTP engine generates, if you use the default fonts (Default Serif, Default Sans Serif, etc.) you won't see a node in the DXL.
If you use a font other than the default font, you will get a node along with a "name" attribute, but will only get a "size" attribute if use a size other than the default size, 10.

I know that the HTTP spitting out tags has been a pain in the neck for many developers, but wouldn't you want to have the DXL show all the properties regardless of whether or not the property is a default?

Surly Cynic

2008-07-23T14:55:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not talking about the Yellowcast guys. I'm talking beer.

Surly Cynic is out! Be sure to get some before it runs out. I got my first four pack today. Wow! It can only be topped by my favorite, Surly Furious.

One thing I've really come to appreciate in the Twin Cities is Surly Brewing Company. Summit is my regular brew, but Surly is great for the occasional treat. Surly is the personification of Todd Haug (pictured right--no, that's not Tim Tripcony in tuque) where for the most part the beers have something to do with either the fact that working in a hot, steamy brewery can make you grumpy, or the golden nectar created there is a surefire cure for that surly mood. Believe me, having experienced both (three summers while in college working as a packaging quality assurance tech in the bottle house of the former G. Heileman Brewing Co. in La Crosse, Wis.) I have a great appreciation for beer.

I recall Wild Bill ripping on American Beer whilst visiting Lotussphere. I think many a Lotusbeer fan would agree that Surly makes a great brew.

Comment on John Head's post about ODF

2008-07-09T17:00:00.000-07:00

John Head has posted on how ODF, OOXML and other open formats are the new frontier for application automation.

For me, this is a reminder of how important XSL and XPATH are going forward. Perhaps the Notes community can assemble a collection of style sheets for the translation of DXL into these new open formats? Translate a NotesDocumentCollection DXL into a spreadsheet, or a slideshow? Translate a NotesDocument DXL into a word processing document?

Approaches to generating custom HTML of a document collection (view) from notes data via XML(DXL)

2008-07-08T19:59:00.000-07:00

I was discussing Notes development over the weekend with a buddy and former colleague. He developed a kiosk application off a Domino database, but ran into some trouble styling (CSS) the layout of the view to pick choices. He ended up using the Notes URL with ReadViewEntries to generate the XML, but he ran it through some other platform's XSL translation to build the XML to lay out in columns much like a newspaper. I told him to try running it through the NotesXSLTransformer class.

Here's how I would have approached it so as to keep everything inside Notes:
Start with your database and create a view of the documents you want to use. Mark all the documents with a key value. In a LotusScript Agent, make a NotesDocumentCollection from your view (using getAllDocumentsByKey) so you can use it to create a NotesDXLExporter object. Use the NotesXSLTransformer class to pull in your NotesDXLExporter, your XSL, and output it to a NotesRichTextItem in a new document.

From there its just a matter of understanding the DXL of the NotesDocumentCollection and designing an XSL to transform it into HTML. The rich-text field could be wrapped with HTML on the form and your XSL could focus on just the data from the view, allowing you to do more formatting with CSS. The document could be the first document in a view of a database set to open to the first document. You could then link to the documents using a URL that references the document UNID node in the DXL. If you wanted to incorporate AJAX into it, you could use the XSL to generate custom XML from the DXL or use the JSON parameter on a view URL to pop up a floating DIV with data retrieved using AJAX.

The agent could run on schedule depending on how frequently the data changes. Its kind of kludgey when you consider all the functionality you get from Domino out of the box, but it does address some of the limitations of notes views on the web.

All of this would hold up fairly well, that is, until ND 8.5 and X-Pages changes everything.

Chin Up

2008-07-02T17:00:00.000-07:00

Rich Karlgaard's recent post got me thinking. I've been pretty gloomy lately: paltry salary increase that won't keep up with inflation, profit sharing bonus withdrawn, house value sinking like the Titanic, and throw in the typical 'in debt up to my ear lobes' (notice how I didn't say eyeballs--there's a subtle difference), all adds up to a stinky outlook. However, I need to turn it around and look on the brighter side, like Rich does.

I'm fortunate to have two very bright children who keep me on my toes on a daily basis. I'm fortunate to have a wife that keeps me striving for improvement (though my achievements may not always occur on her schedule). I'm fortunate to be able to work on one of the greatest development platforms ever, Lotus Notes, which allows me to pour out my creativity in so many different ways. I'm fortunate to live in the greatest nation ever conceived, where freedom is paramount and opportunities virtually unlimited. And finally, I'm fortunate to have my extended family and the people I call friends. All of which has been graciously given to me by God.

So with that, it will be my conscious effort to keep my chin up and keep going.

Notes Architecture Is Too Hard To Understand!

2008-06-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

Got the title suggestion from Chris & Tim on Yellowcast episode #3. (Yes guys, I am a fanboy...)

But to be truthful, I might have said something to that affect in the first few weeks of learning Notes development years ago. Chris mentioned the whole separation of data from UI which in Notes translates into data documents and forms and views. I couldn't grasp that right away only using the Domino Designer. Then, when I read one of Rocky Oliver's books where he explained how everything is stored as a note in the database, the light bulb finally went off.

Yet I still wasn't effective at separating the two concepts. That is, until I started working with Ytria's Scan EZ and was able to get at the data in its raw form and deal with it as data and not as something married to the UI.

One thing leads to another and as I built upon that knowledge, I was able to really leverage LotusScript, because now I had a very good understanding of the objects inside Notes. Add to that the relatively recent ability to access objects as XML representations using Notes DXL and now you have some very cool ways to manipulate most anything inside a Notes DB.

Nevertheless, I still marvel at the simplicity and power of the Notes formula language. Scott Good has commented about it at his blog and I was fascinated when reading Damin Katz blog on how he re-wrote the formula language way back when. Even though I aspire to learn the higher-level concepts, I never neglect the fact that Notes is a great RAD platform -- something I learned very early on in my Notes development life.

Notes Formulas for Strings and Lists

2008-06-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

I've spent quite a few hours recently on an application that turns out to have some rather heavy reliance on string and list manipulation. In this regard I'm always impressed with what a developer can do with @Formulas. Sometimes the heavy lifting can come from the pair-wise concatenation capabilities of the Notes Formula Language. Take the following for example:

Say I have a field on my form called "System" and it contains one of the following: WP, SS, PG. (WP=Word Processing, SS=Spreadsheet, PG=Presentation Graphics) The following five lines will find the Technical Lead for whatever value I have in my "System" field.


1) @Set("_System";"WP":"SS":"PG");
2) @Set("_Leads";"Larry":"Curly":"Moe");
3) @Set("_NewList";@Explode(@Transform(_System + ";" + Leads;"x";@If(@Word(x;";";1)=System;x;@Nothing))));
4) @Set("_Count";(@Elements(_NewList)-1)*(-1));
5) @Subset(_NewList;_Count)

Part of the third line combines the two lists into a new list (_System + ";" + _Leads) using pair-wise concatenation...

WP;Larry
SS;Curly
PG;Moe

The condition parameter of the @If formula in line three examines the first word of each item in the new list and the @Transform keeps it if it matches the value in the System field, or removes it using @Nothing it if it doesn't match. The resulting new list...

WP
Larry

created using @Explode subsequently has its first member removed using the @Subset in line five, leaving me with Larry as my Tech Lead for Word Processing. (Note: counting the elements in line four allows me to assign multiple Tech Leads to any System)

The linchpin in this is your two lists must be matched up one-to-one, otherwise the pair-wise concatenation will create a mis-matched new list. Also, sometimes the combination of @Explode and @Implode can help you manipulate your list before you run it through another @Formula like @Transform or @Replace.

One word of caution when doing operations on strings and operations on lists. Sometimes the string operators will work on lists, and if you are wanting to make exact matches on elements, be sure to use the right @Formula. For example, @Contains will check for the presence of a value, but if you have ambiguous values (Frank vs. Franklin), you may not get the results you are expecting. Try @IsMember instead. Same is true for @ReplaceSubstring and @Replace.

Craving Notes 8.5

2008-06-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

Via Nathan, this post Notes view container proof of concept makes me want to dive in deep with the 8.5 designer.
click image for video

Notes as CMS

2008-06-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to start a category on Content Management and this post, IBM Melds Enterprise CMS with Social Software, from CMSWire.com was the stimulus to start. We in the Lotus Notes Domino world have been at this far longer than the recent upstarts such as Sharepoint. However, many of the newer offerings are way ahead of what Notes is able to offer in the way of industrial strength CMS. Here I'm referring to both the industry heavyweights like Oracle/Stellent and EMC's Documentum. Also noteworthy are a couple open source offerings, Alfresco and WebGUI. These systems provide a robust Java API and fairly open architectures dominated by the use of XML.

I'm eager to see what Chris & Tim are able to deliver with Broker. This is more along the lines of how the above mentioned products deliver their CMS capabilities. If done well, this could make Notes a serious contender in this space due to its wide-spread installed base as well as the vast developer community.

Be The Horse, Not The Wagon

2008-05-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

Occasionally, I look back on what I've accomplished and analyze where I've gotten off track. One theme correlates closely with the times I've felt successful and productive. That theme is when I take on the role of the horse in pulling the wagon. The times of dissatisfaction occur when I've become lazy and allowed myself to play the role of the wagon. Wagons have a legitimate purpose in that they carry the loads; loads much larger than the horse could carry on its own back. At times, being the wagon in your work life and even in your private life is fine. It pays the bills and gets the kids to school, but you're still being dragged around by some horse. Oftentimes dragged to destinations not of your own choosing.

Horses on the other hand are out front and steering the wagon. They control the amount of exertion it takes to speed up or slow down. They choose the path that suites their needs, avoiding the potholes that might twist an ankle. Still, horses have alot more responsibility than just looking out for their own needs, they must also make sure the wagon doesn't run into hazards. Horses need wagons to get the job done.

The amount of energy required to be a horse is way more than to be a wagon, but the rewards come in equal proportion. For me, this little exercise serves not only as an observation, but also as a reminder to not let others drag you around. Put on the harness and start pulling.

Domino Designer 8.5

2008-05-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I listened in on Maureen Leeland's Lotusphere Comes To You Online presentation on Domino Designer 8.5. Although I was interrupted several times during the presentaion, what I saw was quite impressive. Being somewhat famiar with the Eclipse IDE, I was eager to see which of the modern IDE features made their way into the new Designer.
I was glad to see that property boxes are going away (albeit not entirely) and that the bookmarks will be co-existing with the Java-like perspectives. Things I really want to drill deeper on are:

Code Folding
Object highlighting and browsing
Client extensibility for third party tools like oXygen's XML tool.(I'm fairly certain this will work, but I'd like to know the level of integration and interoperation between the Notes pieces and the plug-ins.)

One of the surprises I saw was Xpages. Although I had read about these, I didn't realize their potential until I saw them in person. I can see this technology being a real lifesaver for moving old Notes apps. to the Web.

'Today' in View Columns

2008-05-21T07:06:00.001-07:00

I had a request this week to add a column in view to calculate the number of days a document was on a workflow step.

The use of "Today" in this exercise got me to thinking about performance considerations surrounding view selection formulas. Although the view selection formula in this case did not involve "Today", I still wanted to review the literature to verify best practices in this area. A very good resource for this topic is Andre Guirard's recent white paper, Performance Basics for IBM Lotus Notes Developers. He points to an article on IBM's support site entitled Time/Date views in Notes: What are the options?

I've always relied on a nightly agent that writes a date field containing today's date and using that date in the view selection formula. However, after reading these articles, any future work in this area will certainly include some consideration for using the method that utilizes @Text to determine if a document sits in a particular date range that may include Today.

These clever approaches always make my work more rewarding.

MinneBar Follow-up

2008-05-10T17:52:00.000-07:00

Long, but good day at MinneBar today.

Rode up with my good friend Bill, who is embarking on an iPhone adventure -- really exciting stuff!

Thoroughly enjoyed the presentations by Bex Huff on communication (thanks for signing my book!) and Rich Hoag on Social Search in the Enterprise.

Also, alot of thought provoking discussion from how to run a consultancy, to the mathematics of music to storing/cataloging content, to artificial intellegence. Needless to say my head hurts...

Would have liked to see the GTD presentation, but just ran out of stamina.

Thanks to all the sponsors for making this possible.

MinneBar

2008-05-09T20:20:00.000-07:00

Headed up to MinneBar for the day tomorrow. Excited to hear some of the presentations...

Communication for Geeks
Social Search in the Corporation
Consulting for fun/profit
Mathematics of Music
Storing Files/Content Mgmt.
Put info. in the Rearview Mirror
GTD

...and maybe make some new friends. See you there.

Notes/Domino Formula Diagnosis

2008-04-22T05:35:00.000-07:00

Been really busy with a workflow project so not alot of spare time for blogging, though I did want to share a handy technique I discovered. The project is mostly completed, but because of requested tweaks, I was afraid I was breaking some of my view formulas (both view selection and column formulas). I needed a way to quickly view my formulas without opening up each one and clicking around everywhere. In as much as I would love to be the proud owner of a Ytria ViewEZ copy or one of Teamstudio's wonderful products, I resorted to the duct tape and string approach by using good old DXL.

If you're not up to speed with XML, stop by the W3 Schools site and brush up on XSL/XSLT and XPath. Next, get yourself a couple good tools. You'll need your favorite text editor and something to evaluate the XML DOM and to help with XPath. I use the DOM Inspector inside FireFox, and the XPather Browser FireFox add-on. In this particular example I pulled out view design objects using Domino Designer and exported them to DXL. (I also have Ytria's ScanEZ which makes DXL exporting easy too.)

Once you have your XML, you need to open it up in your favorite text editor. Remove the xmlns attribute name/value pair from the database tag (this confuses the stylesheet transformation for some reason). Add in the XML stylesheet refrence:

<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="ColFormulas.xsl"?>

right after the top tag. Now all you need is the stylesheet. Here's the one I used:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<body>
<h2><xsl:value-of select="database/@title"/> Column Formulas</h2>
<table border="1" width="500">
<tr bgcolor="#9acd32">
  <th align="left" >Column Header</th>
  <th align="left" >Formula</th>
</tr>
<xsl:for-each select="/database/view">
<tr bgcolor="#eaeaea">
  <td colspan="2"><b><xsl:value-of select="@name"/></b>; Selection Formula: <xsl:value-of select="code/formula"/></td>
</tr>
<xsl:for-each select="column">
     <tr>
  <td><xsl:value-of select="columnheader/@title"/></td>
  <td><xsl:value-of select="code/formula"/></td>
 </tr>
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:for-each>
</table>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Save both the files and open up the DXL file in FireFox. You should see a nice HTML page listing all your views with their selection formulas and underneath them a listing of all the columns and their formulas.

IE - Flash Dead End

2008-03-12T12:45:00.000-07:00

Been a while since I posted. Very busy.

Thought I'd share an example of what I've been been up to -- ur, wasting my time with... (Seems like most everything I'm working on lately has this sort of theme running through it.)

Now I've not been privileged to attend Lotusphere ever, I do try to make use of all the material generously posted after the event (guess that makes me a sort of bottom feeder). Anyway, thanks to Julian Robichaux for sharing his charts demo. I'm using some of these ideas to create a dashboard for the workflow app I'm building.

Anyway, I spent the good part of the afternoon today chasing down dead ends with MSIE. Here's what I've unearthed about using Flash in an SSL (https) environment. Given the constraints of my environment (meaning I can't use Mozilla), I need to find a Notes server to put this on that doesn't redirect to HTTPS.

Gotta love M$ products.

Update (03/12/08):
I found a work around. Add a computed field to the form that generates the XML with the following formula: @SetHTTPHeader("Cache-control";"no-store"). I swear I searched the help file for "http header" and "cache-control", but never got a hit on this one. Stumbled on it while referencing CGI variables.

Blackberry

2008-02-06T19:55:00.000-08:00

The past couple days I put together a simple Blackberry MDS application. I followed Bill Buchan's slides from a couple different presentations he has given, along with the PDF user guide from the Blackberry developer site.

The app. uses a Domino Web Service I wrote within a simple contact database my company uses. For the Domino web service, I simply married up my LotusScript skills with a Developerworks article explaining how to use holder classes for input/output parameters. The Eclipse-based MDS Studio IDE is fairly easy to work with and I was able to quickly build a couple of forms and connect them to my web service using a wizard.

This is a good first start. I might buy the book "Professional Blackberry" by Craig J. Johnston for some more ideas/tricks. Anyone have any other good resources?

Best line of the campaign so far...

2008-02-06T18:28:00.000-08:00

The best line of the campaign so far belongs to McCain. When asked to comment on Hillary Clinton's proposed earmark for a Woodstock museum, McCain said he didn't participate in the 1960s--that is, the leading-edge-boomer drugs, sex and rock 'n' roll 1960s.

"I was tied up at the time," said McCain.

(Pulled from Rich Karlgaard's blog)

Is the IBM open source model the way of the future?

2008-01-29T19:00:00.000-08:00

I ran across a couple articles that got me thinking about the future of open source software. I land somewhere in the middle when it comes to software. When I really like and really need a particular application I fork out the dough and pay for it (or for work-related projects, get my employer to). However, like most folks, I'm not made of money and most of my personal software needs outweigh my ability pay so I look for the cheap and free ones to get by. (Even if I can't contribute to the project financially, I try to at least help out in other ways.) When it comes to either proprietary or the open source stuff, I always appreciate a well put together application.

Jeff Attwood wonders in a very heavily commented upon post about open source why it is that people don't care that the software they run and platforms they run them on put them at the mercy of vendor restrictions and potential dead ends? Ironically, its also these same proprietary focused vendors that seem to be providing the most innovation. Why is it that people shell out tons of cash for software that is locked down when the open source model can theoretically provide more innovation and a virtually endless lifespan?

One thing I would like to add to the conversation is an observation I have about how IBM has embraced the open source movement. This hybrid model of combining a for profit element to a project (i.e. Eclipse/Expediter or OpenOffice), thereby injecting some much needed financing and even some leadership does show some promise of making software better for end users while at the same time not limiting the platform they operate on.

A post on the ZDNet Open Source blog also confirmed for me that others view Symphony as a worthwhile piece of software too.

DXL Round Tripping

2008-01-28T10:01:00.000-08:00

This is a great idea and is worthy of every Notes developer's support. Go vote now!

Trialpay

2008-01-25T12:00:00.000-08:00

I received a notice from WinZip informing me that the trial period had run out and I should purchase a licensed copy. It also gave me the option of using trialpay.com to pay for the license. The premise is that you purchase something else and that Trialpay vendor pays for your Winzip license. I gave it a try and purchased a magazine subscription for my wife. On the surface, I think this is kind of neat. We'll see how it goes...hopefully I don't get spammed to death.

Lotus Notes Inbox as Social Networking Tool

2008-01-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

Saw this one, Xobni: Social Network in Your Inbox, on ReadWriteWeb a few days ago and was thinking I'd see something similar annoucned at Lotusphere. Now I'm not on Notes 8 yet and haven't had the privilege of using Quickr, Connections, etc., but I'm not aware that Notes has pulled all of this new Web 2.0 stuff together like this yet.

Xobni (that's inbox backwards - cute!) is the next big idea in productivity enhancements for your inbox. The Xobni software is an add-on for Microsoft Outlook that offers email management and quick access to important information in your email. But more than that, Xobni claims to "expose the hidden social network" in your email. That's ingenious because everyone I know is in my email...somehow, somewhere...but they may or may not be my friend on MySpace, Facebook, flickr, YouTube, etc. This is especially true for my family members over 40!

Xobni taps into email's hidden social network by creating information-rich profiles out of every person you have ever corresponded with by mining your email for information about them.

The Xobni software has several features, including fast email search, email analytics, automatic phone number discovery, threaded conversations, and more.

The email search is fast and begins finding the people and/or emails you're looking for as you type. A search for a contact will pull up their profile and every email where you two have corresponded...in 0.3 seconds!

Now I saw Alan post some instructions on adding LiveText search in 8.0.1, and you can argue that Notes has had alot of this all along, but I kind of expected this kind of stuff to be packaged up in the templates and/or included as plugins to the new architecture.

A Xobni profile is created for every person you've emailed with and is displayed on the right side of Microsoft Outlook inside the Xobni sidebar. Each profile displays relationship statistics, contact information, related people, threaded conversations, shared attachments, and the author of the message you are currently looking at.

The relationship statistics show things like the time of day when you receive emails from the contact, the balance of incoming and outgoing messages, and the person's rank out of all of your contacts. These statistics are created by Xobni's powerful analytics engine, which can also be accessed from a menu option to further analyze your email habits with numbers, charts, and graphs.

A contact's phone number is displayed in the Xobni sidebar by automatically extracting that information from your emails. This way, you can see someone's phone number even if you've never actually entered them into your Outlook contacts. If you hover over the phone icon next to the number, you can see the text of the email from which their phone number was extracted.

Further down, the related people section shows other people who are connected to that person in some way, exposing your shared friends as well as your contacts relationships to each other. Clicking on the name of one of the "related people" will take you to their profile in the Xobni sidebar.

Beneath the related people pane, a recent conversations area shows your most recent previous correspondence with that contact. This can be very useful to help jog your memory when replying to a new email, as you can quickly recall what had already been said. It can also save you time because you never have to navigate away from the current conversation to locate previous emails. The conversations are listed by date, and by clicking on them, you can then view the emails themselves. You can also reply or forward one of those emails right in the Xobni sidebar, or you can choose to open the email in Outlook. Attachments they've sent you or you've sent them are underneath the conversations area, again saving you from having to navigate away from the current conversation to find the email with the attachment you need.

Maybe this is just marketing hype by Xobni or possibly an evil Microsoft plot to steal any Lotus thunder this week, but sometimes just packaging this stuff the right way makes the light bulb go off over people's heads. I've seen alot of cool stuff demoed for Notes 8, and even Quickr, Connections, Sametime and the Expediter plugins contain alot of similar (if not same) functionality, but I haven't seen it packaged all together this way. Is Lotus leaving this up to the ISVs?

Notes 8.5 Goodies for Developers

2008-01-22T21:45:00.000-08:00

Several posts are showing up from Lotusphere regarding the 8.5 goodies for developers. Declan Sciolla-Lynch has posted some highlights from AD302 : Lotus Domino Web Server Apps Development Directions.

I'm particularly interested in xPages; can't wait to see this one in more detail.

xPages ( just a code name right now so may change ) is a new feature in Domino 8.5. It leverages JSF based java runtime from Lotus Components. xPages are builtin design elements for creating modern web apps with builtin Ajax features.
xPages is built ontop of JSF. there is no need for JSP or Java. Allows use of scripting languages like JavaScript XPath etc. Built in XML support and most importantly all done in the Domino environment. No need to deployment to a JAR like on WebSphere Portal.

xPages can be looked at as a pure XML file and every property is computable. There is a palette of prebuilt controls and you can add your own custom controls. The custom controls are like subforms on steroids or you can support Java controls.

Loads of AJAX support to make page refreshes lighter, Ajax typeahead can be added to any control and implemented via a formula on the page design No need to write your own AJAX service.

The look and feel is driven by CSS. This can help enforce a look and feel acrosss all your apps. This also allows you to skin your apps, there is a default style used for controls but they can be overridden in the CSS skin.

Skins can also detect the browser so you can have different skins for different browser types ( IE, Firefox, Windows Mobile, iPhone etc ).

I'm also eager to see LotusScript in the "Eclipse" environment. The tools like type-ahead, the class browser, and the properties panel make Java coding so much easier; can't wait to start coding LotusScript the same way!

Back from Colorado

2008-01-22T13:17:00.000-08:00

After many hours behind the wheel across the icy heartland, I'm back from a nice family vacation skiing at Breckenridge, CO. Snow was great, but the temps were a bit on the cold side.

Too bad the Packers didn't have enough in the tank to make it to the Super Bowl. Nothing to be ashamed of; a pretty great season for the young team.

Trying to get caught up on all the Lotusphere posts. I plan on commenting on some of the news, especially as it relates to development.

Attachments Hack

2008-01-13T07:00:00.000-08:00

Until recently, my development work was sequestered to either the Notes Client or the Browser, with very little crossover. A project I'm currently working on made me realize how much I take for granted the ease of programming for just the Notes Client. Even browser-only programming is just slightly more work. Trying to get your application to behave nicely in both worlds can be a bit of a challenge.

Although on a basic level Notes does a fairly nice job of translating between these two worlds, there are some paradigms that work but take alot of effort to approximate. One of those paradigms that does not translate easily between the two platforms is file attachments.

If you've ever worked with attachments in both worlds, you know that Domino sticks them at the bottom of your web page and not in the rich text field you had them in on the Notes client side — rich text is another thing that doesn't translate well, but that's a subject for a future post. To get attachments to approximate the Notes Client experience, start out by borrowing some code from Jake's example database for handling attachments on the web. He uses a few hacks such as '$V2AttachmentOptions', and '%%Detach', along with the familiar '$File', '@Attachments', and '@AttachmentNames'.

That should cover things from the browser side, now throw in a little LotusScript in the WebQuerySave event from the Breaking Par website to clean things up for anyone seeing the document on the Notes client side.
**See my tip at the bottom.

Here's my version of the Breaking Par code sample that I wanted to share:


Option Public
Use "OpenLogFunctions"

Sub Initialize
' This agent moves a file attached via the Web with the File Upload Control to a rich text field.
' Much credit to the Breaking Par site http://www.breakingpar.com
 On Error Goto ERRORHANDLER

 Dim doc As notesDocument
 Dim s As NotesSession
 Dim tempDir As String
 Dim attached As Variant
 Dim fileToEmbed As notesEmbeddedObject
 Dim filePath As String
 Dim rtItem As notesRichTextItem
 Dim moveToFieldName As String

 Set s = New notesSession
 Set doc = s.documentContext
 Let moveToFieldName = "rtf_Attachments"
 numAtt = Evaluate("@Attachments", doc)

 If numAtt(0) > 0 Then
  attached = Evaluate("@AttachmentNames", doc)
  tempDir = s.getEnvironmentString("Directory", True)
    'Put a trailing slash at the end of the directory if it is needed
  If Instr(tempDir, "/") <> 0 And Right(tempDir, 1) <> "/" Then tempDir = tempDir & "/"
  If Instr(tempDir, "\") <> 0 And Right(tempDir, 1) <> "\" Then tempDir = tempDir & "\"

  Forall i In attached  'extract all attachments to the file system
   If i <> "" Then
    Set fileToEmbed = doc.getAttachment(i)
    filePath = tempDir & i
    Call fileToEmbed.extractFile(filePath) ' Save the file on the server  
   End If
  End Forall

  Forall i In doc.Items  'remove all attachments from document
   If i.Type = 1084 Then
    Call i.Remove
   End If
  End Forall

  Call doc.RemoveItem(moveToFieldName) 'remove current attachments field...
  Set rtItem = New notesRichTextItem(doc, moveToFieldName) '...and start over

  Forall i In attached 're-attach the files to the rich text field
   filePath = tempDir & i
   Call rtItem.embedObject(1454, "", filePath)
   Kill filePath  ' Delete the file(s) from the server file system
  End Forall
 End If

 Exit Sub
ERRORHANDLER:
 Call LogError
End Sub

This LotusScript was converted to HTML using the ls2html routine,
provided by Julian Robichaux at nsftools.com.

Although we rely on these 'hacks' to get Notes to behave in these two different worlds, I feel that this is what makes Notes such a valueable tool in the enterprise. And by extension, makes Notes developers valuable too. Leave a comment if you now of any other attachment hacks.

** I know blogs like CodeStore have become the 'go to' sites for sample solutions; Lord knows I rely on them a ton. The new stuff is great, but the old Breaking Par site still has alot of great information, as do the Notes forums at Developerworks. Similarly, I used to rely alot on the old notes list, LNotesL, but it died not too long ago; some posts have been archived though.

Packers one game away

2008-01-12T16:50:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Brett Favre, Ryan Grant and all the Packer players and fans on a huge win over Seattle!!! This game was a great example of how perseverance and never giving up when you're behind (down 14-0 in the first few minutes) can ultimately lead to success. In this case dominating success (42-20).

Wow, what a season for Brett. Let's hope the momentum and the magic continues all the way through to the Super Bowl.

Passion

2008-01-12T05:53:00.001-08:00

I want to keep the topic themes alternating between Lotus Notes and the pursuit of excellence, however, I noticed that I'm a little light in the Lotus department, but wanted to get this 'pursuit of excellence' post in while it is current.

In my hometown newspaper today, there's an article on my old friend Rick and his obsession/hobby/business/love. Before I moved to the Twin Cities, I had my cars serviced at Rick's garage. What I loved best about getting my oil changed at White Glove was the chance to have Rick show me the latest restoration he was working on and give me the history behind it. Rick's collection of classic autos is an amazing sight to behold. But what I enjoyed best was listening to Rick talk about these marvelous machines. The way he talked about them brought everything to life.

Along the same lines is my uncle Jim and his passion for Colt firearms. Like Rick, Jim can tell you everything about a particular model and the passion that comes through sort of imbues a virtual personality in that inanimate object.

What Rick and Jim have taught me is that passion is what separates someone from being average in a particular area to being exceptional. I must say I don't have a hobby or an issue that I'm passionate about, but I do get a big charge out of putting together solutions to help solve a problem. I guess that's why I really like working with Lotus Notes/Domino.

What do you think about passion? Do you have it? Do you know someone who does?

Quality Improvement

2007-12-29T10:48:00.000-08:00

I tend to gravitate toward things that challenge my current skill set. I'm always curious when it comes to new techniques or new tools. I'm also into efficiency and a couple of posts, one at 'Tip of the Iceberg' and the other at 'Coding Horror', have piqued my interest.

Sometimes the posts on these blogs can be a bit over my head, but I enjoy the challenge. In one of Tim's recent posts, he talks about simplifying your code. The post reminds me of a recent post by Jeff Attwood.

This past year I've made a conscious effort to try to be less verbose in my code. I figure it goes hand in glove with good documentation techniques. I'm hoping that one day when another developer looks at my work, she/he won't have a "what the heck was he thinking?" reaction.

In 2008 I hope to incorporate more best practices into my Lotus Notes development. Bleeding edge is cool, but efficiently written, well documented, and thoroughly tested always wins the day.

Transparency

2007-12-29T10:18:00.000-08:00

The most refreshing development from corporate America this past year has got to be the way IBM has embraced Web 2.0 and social networking to make their already world class product, Lotus Notes, even better.

Although the whole Notes community deserves a great deal of credit for their contributions, I believe Ed Brill stands out with his blog at edbrill.com. Postings such as this serve as an example of how the Lotus Notes community is engaged in making the product truly fantastic. Ed's honesty and candor about the product's shortcomings as well as his evangelism for all the recent great improvements for ND8, I feel, have played a significant role in taking the product to a fresh new level.

Nice work IBM on ND8. Nice work Notes community on ND8.

Talent

2007-12-22T05:10:00.000-08:00

My family received the gift of sporting event tickets with the option of either a Minnesota Timberwolves basketball game or a Minnesota Wild hockey game. Seeing as the Wolves are having their worst season ever (could rival the worst of any professional sport) we chose the Wild game.

We attended the Thu. Dec. 20 game against the New York Rangers. Wow what a fun experience and on top of it all I was able to witness Marion Gaborik score 5 goals in regulation play! That hasn't been done since Mario Lemieux had 5 in 1996.

It truly is inspiring to see someone using their God given talents at the highest level of performance. When I ponder performances like this, I am reminded of all hours of effort, both mental and physical, put forth by these achievers toward their craft. Probably the most important aspect is the love these individuals have for their craft and their fellow players/performers, lest we not forget we cannot achieve these things all on our own.

Way to go Marion and thanks for that inspiring performance!

Plotting a course

2007-12-21T19:04:00.000-08:00

For over a year now, I've contemplated blogging this process I'm currently enduring. What process, you ask? The best I can describe it is personal refinement, stepping it up a few notches, going for it, and achieving a level of recognition from my peers for my expertise. More on that to come.

Gotta go back first before going forward. (I've been told not to dwell much on the past nor spend too much time making plans, but to spend the time on the here and now.) So I want to use this blog to document my progress and to hopefully make connections. No doubt the process will be a tool to aid the process of personal refinement.

The title of the blog is 'ded. reckoning', usually called dead reckoning. Right now I'm estimating my current position and trying to plot a course. I plan on writing about the landmarks I see along the way, the previously determined positions I know of and the destination I can, for now, only see in my mind's eye.

Hopefully, all future posts will be far less metaphorical than this.