Newsletter profile

Currently I am working on a function where users can create a profile for a newsletter. In the profile the user can specify a search query and some options.

It all begins with a simple View Action button:

The button will check if for the current user already a profile document exists, if so the document will be opened in edit mode, otherwise the form will be opened (the client requested to make all profiles public…)

varUser:=@Name([Abbreviate];@UserName);

@If(
 @IsError(@DbLookup(“”:”NoCache”;””;”v-userprofiles”;varUser;”Tx_DocID”));
  @Do(
   @Command([Compose];”F-PU”)
  );
  @Do(
   @Command([OpenView];”v-userprofiles”;varUser);
   @Command([OpenDocument];”1″)
  )
 )

The form itself is pretty plain and simple. The user can add more criteria to the search query via ‘AND’ or ‘OR’ options. Default we search on only one type of document.

While specifying the criteria, the user sees what he/she is adding to the query:

The code behind the ‘ADD’ button is this:

varForm:= “Document”;
varField:=Tx_Fields;
varValues:=@Implode(“\”” + Tx_Values + “\”” ;”:”);

@If(Tx_Option=”AND”;
 @Do(
  varConstructor:= ” & ” +  varField + ” = ” + varValues;
  @SetField( “Tx_Query” ; Tx_Query + varConstructor );
  @SetField( “Tx_LastValue” ; varConstructor )
 );

 @Do(

 @If(@Left(@GetField( “Tx_LastValue” );”)”)=””;
  @Do(
   varPrevValue:= @Right(@GetField( “Tx_LastValue” );”& “);
   varConstructor:=  ” & ( ” + varPrevValue + ” | ” +  varField + ” = ” + varValues + ” )”
  );
 @Do(
  varPrevValue:= @LeftBack(@GetField( “Tx_LastValue” );”)”);
  varConstructor:=  varPrevValue + ” | ” +  varField + ” = ” + varValues + ” )”
 ));
 varNewQuery:= @ReplaceSubstring( Tx_Query; Tx_LastValue ; varConstructor );
 @SetField( “Tx_Query” ; varNewQuery );
 @SetField( “Tx_LastValue” ; varConstructor )
));

@SetField( “Tx_Fields” ; “”);
@SetField( “Tx_Values” ; “”);
@SetField( “Tx_Options” ; “”)

I also added a button so the user can check if the specified query results in any usefull document collection. The code behind this button is:

Sub Click(Source As Button) 
 Dim workspace As New NotesUIWorkspace
 Dim session As New NotesSession
 
 Dim db As NotesDatabase
 Set db = session.CurrentDatabase
 
 Dim uidoc As NotesUIDocument
 Set uidoc = workspace.CurrentDocument 
 
 searchFormula$ = uidoc.FieldGetText( “Tx_Query” )
 Dim collection As NotesDocumentCollection 
 Set collection = db.Search(searchFormula$, Nothing, 0)
 numDocs% = collection.count
 If numDocs% = 0 Then
  Messagebox “There are no matching documents” , , “Search Result”
  Exit Sub
 Else
  answer% = Messagebox ( (numDocs% & ” document(s) match this query. “), MB_OKCANCEL + MB_ICONQUESTION, “Search Result”)
 End If
End Sub

Because the Newsletter function has to run on a scheduled basis I added some additional options:

• How often a Newsletter should be sent
• The number of document links in the Notes Newsletter
• How old corresponding documents may be

Note: in the timestamp you can add for a search Notes uses the modified date, so this is the date the document has been modified (nice if you working on a test environment with a copy so all the documents ARE modified). You can also add this option as criteria in your search formula ofcourse.

On the bottom of the form I added a button where the user can instantly receive a Notes Newsletter with everything he/she has specified. The code for the button is:

Sub Click(Source As Button) 
 Dim workspace As New NotesUIWorkspace
 Dim session As New NotesSession
 
 Dim db As NotesDatabase
 Set db = session.CurrentDatabase
 
 Dim uidoc As NotesUIDocument
 Set uidoc = workspace.CurrentDocument  
 Dim doc As NotesDocument
 Set doc = uidoc.Document
 
 searchFormula$ = uidoc.FieldGetText( “Tx_Query” ) 
 maxListSize = uidoc.FieldGetText( “Tx_QueryMax” )
 daysAdjust = doc.Tx_QueryDays(0) 
 Dim dateTime As New NotesDateTime( Now )
 Call dateTime.AdjustDay( -daysAdjust )
 
 Dim collection As NotesDocumentCollection
 Set collection = db.Search(searchFormula$, dateTime, Cint(maxListSize))
 numDocs% = collection.count
 If numDocs% = 0 Then
  Messagebox “There are no matching documents” , , “Search Result”
  Exit Sub
 Else
  answer% = Messagebox ( (numDocs% & ” document(s) found. Creating a Newsletter…”), MB_OKCANCEL + MB_ICONQUESTION, “Search Result”)
  
  Dim newsletter As NotesNewsletter
  Set newsletter = New NotesNewsletter( collection )  
  newsletter.DoSubject = True
  newsletter.SubjectItemName = “Tx_Title”  
  Dim newsletterdoc As NotesDocument
  Set newsletterdoc = newsletter.FormatMsgWithDoclinks( db )  
  newsletterdoc.Form = “Memo”
  newsletterdoc.Subject = “Business Intelligence Newsletter – Your results”
  Call newsletterdoc.Send( False, uidoc.FieldGetText( “Tx_UserName” ))  
  
 End If
End Sub

Some parts of the code above I will re-use in the scheduled agent that sends out the Newsletters on a scheduled base.

Wrap-up: a simple handy function that might save you creating some additional views…