Lotusphere 2011 agenda app for Android

For the Android adepts it is good to know that there is also a ls11 agenda app available. Search for "lotusphere" in the market and you will find the LS11 agenda app posted by Joseph Jaquinta based on the geniisoft version.
Dave Hay also mentions it on his blog.
As for the mix up of names. The app is written by Jo Grant (as Dave mentions), but appearantly posted in the market by Joseph Jaquinta.
It has a nice and simple layout and good options to filter and tag your favorite sessions.

thanx Jo !!

You will also find a LS11 app in the market from Sogeti, a game with a nice reward for the winner?!

Xpages and the failing Repeat control

I am converting an application to Xpages and use the repeat control to build several levels of dynamic menu structures.
They are based on simple @DbColumn and @DbLookup. But when the result array is only one entry the repeat control fails. The code below shows the failing repeat control (xp:link simplified to keep the code clean).
[Note: single results from @DbColumn or @DbLookup are returned as string and not an array.]

 <xp:repeat id="repeat1" rows="30" var="rowData" indexVar="rowIndex"> 
  <xp:this.value><![CDATA[#{javascript: 
    @Unique(@DbLookup("", "xpSectionList", sessionScope.regionFilter, 2)) 
  }]]></xp:this.value> 
  <li> 
    <xp:link escape="true" id="linkSubSection" title="#{javascript:rowData}"> 
      <xp:this.text><![CDATA[#{javascript:rowData}]]></xp:this.text> 
    </xp:link> 
  </li> 
</xp:repeat> 

After some searching I found a solution in the LDD by Bob Cross, "Hint for Repeating a single value".

Repeat controls are great - but they MUST return an array, even if it is just one entry.

In my example, I used a repeat control to display entries from a dblookup. However, some of my lookups only returned one entry, so the result was a string, not an array. Since the result of my dblookup was a string, the repeat control would not display the one returned result.

The solution is to convert the result to a string first by using valueOf(). This returns a string delimited by commas. Then split the result by the commas to get an array. If split fails, then the result was an array to start with.

var tmpstr = result.valueOf();
try {
var newarr = tmpstr.split(",");
return(newarr)
}
catch(err){
return(tmpstr);
}

The proposed solution works fine and does solve the problem, but I consider it a workaround for a bug. The repeat control should also work when a single value is returned.
I have filed a service request (PMR) with IBM. Please do the same if you think this should be solved!
[Note: IBM have responded to the PMR: The repeat control works as designed and expects an array as input.]
The solution workaround is implemented in the code below.

 <xp:repeat id="repeat1" rows="30" var="rowData"  indexVar="rowIndex">
<xp:this.value><![CDATA[#{javascript:
var result = @Unique(@DbLookup("", "xpSectionList", sessionScope.regionFilter, 2));
var tmpstr = result.valueOf();
try {
  var newarr = tmpstr.split(",");
  return(newarr)
}
catch(err){
  return(tmpstr);
}
}]]></xp:this.value>
<li>
<xp:link escape="true" id="linkSection"  title="#{javascript:rowData}">
  <xp:this.text><![CDATA[#{javascript:rowData}]]></xp:this.text>
</xp:link>
</li>
</xp:repeat>

Migrate quickr places to Notes

Although the latest version of Quickr has great improvements, we didnot see enough adoption of the tool throughout our company to justify keeping the server running at the moment.
I will not go into the reasons for lack of adoption here.

For a couple of the places we had to come up with a solution to preserve the information stored in them. We decided that a Notes 8.5.x Discussion database would be the best fit.

For those that are facing the same issue I added the agent in a rich text file for download. It contains the agent I created to do this migration. It may be a bit rough around the edges, but it does the job and you can fine tune it where you like.

quickrexport.rtf

Note: the agent uses OpenLog, please include this library in your database or set the lines for OpenLog to comment.

LotusSquash - thursday 9 december 18:00hrs

"LotusSquash". What is it? Simple, playing squash with other Lotus geeks (it started last year via twitter by @zonderpoeha and @drenth). You can see it as a friendly training session open for players of all levels and Lotus geeks of all levels.
It is also an alternative, nice and sporty way of networking and chatting about IBM Lotus stuff. Afterwards there is the option to have a meal somewhere, but not mandatory of course.
From now on we aim to make it a quarterly event. Watch for updates via twitter.
Let us know if you want to join via twitter or post a comment here.

Next LotusSquash:
Date: thursday 9 december
Time: 18:00 hrs
Where: Theo Meijer Sport
Address: Groene Zoom 1, 3833AW Leusden (NL)

twitter hashtag: #lotussquash

Note: @dennisvr and myself play weekly on tuesdays (at the above address) and if you like you are welcome to join us (please send a dm in advance).

Domino Designer really as IDE (in Notes client)

I was surprised to see my Domino Designer all of a sudden integrate into my Notes client.
Weird !!
I guess it is time to reboot the laptop.

Click image for a larger view

Version: Domino Designer 8.5.1 - 20091002.1006 (Release 8.5.1)

SNTT: create initial ACL on database create from template

This one is in Lotus Notes for ages, so maybe you already know it.
I had not been using it for a while, but recently re-discovered this little gem. And although not high-tech, thought I would share it.

When creating a Lotus Notes database (or application as it now called) from a template, the database can get a default ACL (e.g. you companies minimum required ACL entries) which is defined in the templates ACL.
Normal ACL entries in the templates ACL are not copied over to the new database when creating a database from a template. But ACL entries marked up in square brackets are copied accross from the templates ACL to the new database ACL (e.g. [my_acl_entry] in a template ACL will get copie to the database.

This screenshot shows an ACL of a template with normal access entries and special entries that are copied to a database when it is created from the template.

Workaround for Xpages file download control bug

Last week I posted about a bug in the Xpages File Download Control.
See the post from 27 januari for details.

We have reported the problem through a PMR with IBM, but that unfortunately only resulted in a response that the problem is resolved in 8.5.1. and it will not be fixed in the 8.5.0 release.

In the PMR response IBM did mention a possible workaround could be found in John Mackey's blogpost and a response to last weeks post from Irina Kojevnikova also pointed to John Mackey's post. And as it turns out John based his code on Irina's initial solution.
In that post the solution to the problem is overriding the file download code with custom code to build the old style url for downloading attachments.
On 8.5.0 Domino the subdirectory is omitted in the file download control, so another work around would be to place replica of the database in the domino data root directory (nightmare for admins).

But John and Irina's solution is cleaner.