Another "repeat control" encounter - multivalue fields

Beginning of this year I reported about some problems I encountered with repeat controls getting data from @DbLookup and @DbColumn. Specifically if the returned results were a single value. These are not returned as arrays.
The other week I encountered a similar thing while displaying a multivalue field through a repeat control. Here is the catch: although the field is declared multivalue on the Notes form, when accessing in Xpages a multivalue field containing a single value is not passed as an array. So you will have to catch it and convert to an array for use in a repeat control.

Also see:
Xpages and the failing repeat control
Getting unique results from xpages @dblookup and @dbcolumn

Typo in code - dbcolumn !!

Had a sametime chat yesterday via BleedYellow started by Ed x Sanford with a question about a post from end of march on dblookup and dbcolumn in Xpages. The cache setting is not working on the dbcolumn code, why?
A glance at the code quickly learned that indeed the dbcolumn code would never cache.
The problem was in the second (actual) line of code. The "not" ! should not be there.
Thanks Ed for contacting me. The code snippets on the original blog entries have been changed accordingly.

Lotus Notes client SSO problem

After rebuilding my laptop end of last year for some reason the single signon, although installed, did not work as expected and every time I started Notes I had to key in my password. Not a big deal, but definitely annoying.
Searching the web for clues also did not bring any anwsers.
The other week the old laptop was replaced by a new one. Data was copied over from old to new machine, except for the notes.ini file which I deliberately left out hoping it would solve the problem. Well it did not!

At the same time I had for some reason clicked the option to use the workspace bookmark as homepage once too often and the client also started up with the home tab and a workspace tab. Again not a big deal, but annoying. And I could not figure out where that was configured.
After going through all the options in the preferences and all lines in the notes.ini and no luck, I also checked all the folders in the "open list" button (or open list "dock" sidebar). In the "more bookmarks - startup" folder I found the workspace was listed twice. Removing those would at least solve that problem!

And indeed next time starting the Notes client, the extra workspace tab was no longer there. But more important, for some reason the SSO started working again as well. Yeeh!!

I wonder if anyone else has encountered this nice little problem as well?

Getting unique results from Xpages DbLookup and DbColumn functions

After using the DbColumn and DbLookup code I posted a while back I found another thing that needed solving.
Frequently I want these functions to only return unique values. But placing @Unique around the function calls gives the empty result as before for a repeat control if the result of the function is a single value, a string in effect.
So I added a line of code and a parameter to the functions to be able to request unique values (see the code below).

DbLookup
The code has been moved and can be found here: http://notesnl.blogspot.com/2011/09/final-version-of-dblookuparray.html


DbColumn
The code has been moved and can be found here: http://notesnl.blogspot.com/2011/09/final-version-of-dblookuparray.html

Another Lotussquash coming up, 7 april - Apeldoorn

Last year in Q4 we picked up the Lotussquash initiative and agreed to have a Lotussquash event approximately every 3 months.
The next Lotussquash will be on the 7th of april in Apeldoorn (NL) and is organised by Clear IT Consulting.
More information can be found on their blog.
I hope to see you there.

Improved caching for Xpages DbLookup and DbColumn

A while back I blogged about a failing repeat control in Xpages when passing it a single value returned from a @DbLookup or @DbColumn. In the comments to this entry it was already mentioned by some that it needs an array as input.
The other week I received a reply from IBM on my PMR (87011,211,788) stating exactly that, "The repeat control works as designed, it needs an array as input.".
From the earlier comments on that blogpost I had already started using the suggested solution from the xpages wiki by Julian Buss.
But like in the Notes client not every situation calls for cached results, so I amended this code to allow for cache or not. And instead of requestScope I used sessionScope as I want the cache to last until the session is ended (browser closed/session times out).
If you want to use it, put the code below in a server side JavaScript library and you are ready to use it.

DbLookup
The code has been moved and can be found here: http://notesnl.blogspot.com/2011/09/final-version-of-dblookuparray.html

DbColumn
The code has been moved and can be found here: http://notesnl.blogspot.com/2011/09/final-version-of-dblookuparray.html

My thoughts on Lotusphere 2011 #ls11

My fourth Lotusphere
This Lotusphere is my fourth. I had the opportunity to go in 1996, 1998, 2008 and now in 2011. This time I was together with my collegue Dennis van Remortel.
The overall experience and excitement of watching great content in the sessions and sharing ideas and thoughts with peers and speakers was just super again and made up for the disappointing number of announcements from IBM this year.
I will definitely try to be back for the 2012 edition.

So finally, after a couple of days back home now, after visiting our collegues of InterfaceFLOR in the US, I think it is time to start writing down my thoughts.

Opening session
Many comments have already been made about this session which can be summarised as too much over rehearsed customer content and to little technical content and demoes. IBM clearly had very little to announce this year. The "next" releases were mentioned without a clear end date. Hopefully we will see some great announcements next year. I hope IBM realise they need to keep the pace to keep/regain the lead.
The guest speaker, Kevin Spacey, possibly made the best impression and touching on the core of the Lotus community, "send the elevator down" to help others learn/expand their skills and knowledge
Remarkable: Later it was announced that almost 1 in 5 attendees at the opening session had been using an iPad!!!

Students?
Yes students, in the opening session 500 students were welcomed to the Lotusphere Opening day (lets hope the OGS didnot turn them off) on invitation of Group Business Software and IBM to get a glimpse of the wonderfull world of yellow. Way to go, students are the link to the future.

IBM
Not sure if it was only me, but I noticed a lot of attendees from IBM this year (blue badges). Coincidence or was it to fill up unsold seats.

Cloud
This years breakout sessions and sundays jumpstart sessions had to make up for lack of news in the opening session. I chose for a mix of strategic and technical sessions. The technical sessions to see how things can be done and the strategic to see the capabilities of products like Sametime Unified Telephony and Connections and to start thinking about how my company could benefit from using these. Very nice to see the transfer of a single phone call being moved to the computer and to the mobile phone. And furthermore the integration of it all into the notes client as well IBM effort to move it all to the cloud with lotuslive, soon even existing Notes applications.
Highlights from the technical sessions:
- Xpages blast - 30 very usefull tips in 60 minutes. Outstanding.
- Symphony - the robust IBM, open source alternative, to MS office
- the increasing extension of the power of mobile devices
- xpages, xpages, xpages - build powerfull webapplications in lotus notes RAD style
- dojo - quickly enhance the user experience

Jeopardy
The closing session was awesome. IBM presented a brief demo of the sametime setup that was put in place to ensure a smooth safety organisation at the coming Superbowl match in Fort Worth. It showes the technology is ready to support mission critical communications. The next thing was the line up of the Watson computer to play a game of Jeopardy against some very skilled Lotusphere attendees. No mean feat to get a computer to understand the finesses of human language, interpret the meaning and coming up with the right solution. Later in february Watson will compete with the best Jeopardy players in the US to show its capabilities. Fingers crossed for Watson!

Energy
In the four times I have been so far, even though spread over several years, each time I found I come back with lots of energy that will last for months on end and at least until the next registration period for Lotusphere comes around. I got home with lots of ideas and things to explore from the technical session I watched.

Thank you
I would like to end this entry with a thank you to all the staff at IBM that work very hard at making this great event happen every year.
And of course thank you to all the people I met at this years Lotusphere.