Uhm what did I forget to mention in my im-pressentation? What is Notes Domino and what is special about it
Lotus Domino
Feed highlights of week 2
I processed the feeds in my feedreader and aggregated the most important ones in a short video.
Building a search function with DataTables plugin
Introduction
In Domino you have multiple options how to provide a search function for an application. I have seen many examples where a FT search query is build for a database, where the form type is defined, which fields should be used in the search etcetera. Most of them are a maintenaince nightmare, layout is little flexible and usability is lacking (e.g. perform a search towards a query which will result in zero hits).
What if you make it easier to maintain, more flexible for user specific desires and add facetted search principles? A win situation?
DataTables
In the following posts I will write how to use the jQuery DataTables plugin to provide a quick search function for your Domino apps. I assume you use XPages.
Stage 1 – Getting & presenting the data
In the initial stage we just try to get and present the data we need. As example I will be using the FakeNames application. I have created a public repo which has at the moment:
- an xpage to present the data (dtPersons.xsp)
- an xpage (api.xsp) which will contain rest services
- a Java class that generates the data in JSON format
- a CSJS library to transform the HTML table on dtPersons.xsp to DataTables object
- the required resources from DataTables.net
- a Theme resource to have the resources available
- a Notes view to use as data source.
In order to create some fake documents I have set up an LS agent to do so.
If you bind this all together, you have already a search function:
Right on top you have a search field where you can query the columns in the table. The columns are sortable too. Probably it is matching most of the search functions you have seen for Domino. But wait! There is more possible…
FT Search and symbol characters
A while ago I wrote about how you could build a Live Search function with Domino Access Services & jQuery Tokeninput. Since then the current version of that has been improved on several items, perhaps I will write about it in another post.
Now that people are more using it it appears that it is not bug free or more, it should be more aware that we are using Domino’s FTSearch in the background. I received a note that in certain circumstances the search did behave odd e.g. certain queries failed. For example the following query fails:
“Optimization of the railway station by Fa. Acme”
The term did not cause a failure when performing a search in the Notes view in the Notes client, but on the web in Java the FTSearch method on the NotesView object failed. When checking the data in the view and document the value was exactly as in the text above there.
Then I found the following on the web:
The full text search treats most symbol characters as a white space. The exception is if the search term itself is wrapped in quotes.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19222091/ftsearch-that-looks-for
So it turns out the comma is translated into a white space and that results in zero corresponding documents in my FTSearch!
Placing quotation marks around the query does solve the problem but this would also break the search when users would enter AND OR OR NOT queries 😕
Hopefully some is out here aware which characters are on that symbol character list so I can adapt my livesearch function ???
JQM & Domino Data Service (2)
In a previous post I demonstrated how to use Domino Data Service (as part of Domino Access Service) to populate a listview for jQuery Mobile. Probably the real-world application you want to mobilize has multiple layers of data that is common in Notes (multiple forms & views). I followed Christophe Coenraets’s example and re-used it for the fakenames application.
First let me show you what you get:
At first an overview of the People’s view is presented, from here the user can open the Person details page. In Christophe’s example you can find a more nested navigation but our fakenames application is not setup like that.
What this demo includes:
- 2 XPages; eg people.xsp and person.xsp.
- Your modified version of employeelist.js and employeedetails.js in the download from Christophe page.
- The CSS files in the download from Christophe page.
- The jQuery JS files in the download from Christophe page.
For convenience I have dropped the files from the download via the Package Explorer in the WebContent folder of the fakenames application. In case you want to mobilize your fakenames application a step further e.g. by packaging it via PhoneGap to access device native api’s you don’t want to store these files here and you don’t want to use XPages to render the HTML.
Of course we assume you have Domino Access Service enabled for the Domino server and the fakenames application.
XPage people.xsp & person.xsp
These files do not differ from the index.html and employeedetails.html files in the download from Christophe page. In case you use XPages you should consider to turn of Dojo and Themes.
JS files employeelist.js & employeedetails.js
Since we will provide the information via Domino Data Service these JS files will be altered. Below you find their code:
employeelist.js
var serviceURL = “http://dev1//apps/fakenames.nsf/api/”;
var employees;
$(‘#employeeListPage’).bind(‘pageinit’, function(event) {
getEmployeeList();
});function getEmployeeList() {
$.getJSON(serviceURL + ‘data/collections/name/People?count=1000’, function(data) {
$(‘#employeeList li’).remove();
employees = data;
$.each(employees, function(index, employee) {
var tmp = “”;
tmp+='<li>’;
tmp+='<a href=”person.xsp?id=’ + employee[“@unid”] + ‘”>’ +
‘<img src=”http://greenhouse.lotus.com/plugins/plugincatalog.nsf/NoPhotoPerson.gif”/>’;
tmp+='<h4>’ + employee.$17 + ‘</h4>’;
tmp+='<p>’ + employee.CompanyName + ‘</p>’;
if (employee.$12!=””) {
tmp+='<span class=”ui-li-count”>’ + employee.$12 + ‘</span>’;
}
tmp+='</a></li>’;
$(‘#employeeList’).append( tmp );
});
$(‘#employeeList’).listview(‘refresh’);
});
}
Walkthrough
At the page initiation the function getEmployeeList is called. This makes an Ajax request to the REST API of Domino Data Service and a document collection with the first 1000 entries (if available) in the view named People is being called.
I have not taken a look yet how to implement lazy loading or appending additional document collection(s) when scrolling. If you happen to know how to implement such function please drop me a line here or send me an email.
Then list items in the employee ID element on the Xpage people.xsp are removed (when available) and we loop through the results returned by Domino. We create a new list and establish a hyperlink to people.xsp and add the UNID of the document as parameter.
At last the result is appended to the (emptied) employee ID element and the listview is being refreshed. Wow! You got now a nice list of persons in the directory.
employeedetails.js
$(‘#detailsPage’).live(‘pageshow’, function(event) {
var id = getUrlVars()[“id”];
$.getJSON(serviceURL + ‘data/documents/unid/’+id, displayEmployee);
});function displayEmployee(data) {
var employee = data;
console.log(employee);
$(‘#employeePic’).attr(‘src’, ‘http://greenhouse.lotus.com/plugins/plugincatalog.nsf/NoPhotoPerson.gif’);
$(‘#fullName’).text(employee.FirstName + ‘ ‘ + employee.LastName);
$(‘#employeeTitle’).text(employee.Title);
$(‘#city’).text(employee.OfficeCity);
console.log(employee.officePhone);
if (employee.Manager) {
$(‘#actionList’).append(‘<li><h3>Manager</h3><p>’ + employee.Manager + ‘</p></li>’);
}
if (employee.InternetAddress) {
$(‘#actionList’).append(‘<li><a href=”mailto:’ + employee.InternetAddress + ‘”><h3>Email</h3>’ +
‘<p>’ + employee.InternetAddress + ‘</p></a></li>’);
}
if (employee.OfficePhoneNumber) {
$(‘#actionList’).append(‘<li><a href=”tel:’ + employee.OfficePhoneNumber + ‘”><h3>Call Office</h3>’ +
‘<p>’ + employee.OfficePhoneNumber + ‘</p></a></li>’);
}
if (employee.CellPhoneNumber) {
$(‘#actionList’).append(‘<li><a href=”tel:’ + employee.CellPhoneNumber + ‘”><h3>Call Cell</h3>’ +
‘<p>’ + employee.CellPhoneNumber + ‘</p></a></li>’);
$(‘#actionList’).append(‘<li><a href=”sms:’ + employee.CellPhoneNumber + ‘”><h3>SMS</h3>’ +
‘<p>’ + employee.CellPhoneNumber + ‘</p></a></li>’);
}
$(‘#actionList’).listview(‘refresh’);
}function getUrlVars() {
var vars = [], hash;
var hashes = window.location.href.slice(window.location.href.indexOf(‘?’) + 1).split(‘&’);
for(var i = 0; i < hashes.length; i++){
hash = hashes[i].split(‘=’);
vars.push(hash[0]);
vars[hash[0]] = hash[1];
}
return vars;
}
Walkthrough
The idea behind the details page is similar to the people’s list, except we have now a single object in the JSON.
First the ID provided by the parameter is abstracted from the URL and used in the call to a document source via the Domino Data Service.
From the result a set of details is abstracted and presented to the user. Some HTML5 attributes are used to deliver a more native behavior when clicking anchor links (telephone, mail, SMS).
Some thoughts
jQuery Mobile and Domino Access Service provide good foundations for creating mobile Web apps on Domino. However I am a bit thoughtful on the speed of Domino Access Service. If you happen to know how to speed up performance for this please drop a line here.
In a next post I will write the implementation of CRUD actions with jQuery and DDS.
Domino blog template – automatic page name
I started a discussion on OpenNTF on the project place for the Domino Blog template: (link)
I would expect that the setting would create a bit more user-friendly url’s but somehow this feature does not seem to work as expected. Has anyone a clue why this does not work on my blog app? It seems to work for others…
I notice e.g. for Swedish names including öäå the usage of user initials could cause problems using the default page name syntax generation…
Admin question: Does $$ReturnAuthorizationFailure works with session based authentication?
I tried to implement a custom web authentication error page on application level based on these guidelines: link.
Unfortunately, the custom $$ReturnAuthorizationFailure form never appears when accessing a document I did not have access to. Instead the default error page is being displayed.
I found a discussion on the ND 4/5 forum:
Is it possible to use custom forms when using session based authentication? (link)
One answer says Yes, the other says No. Which one is correct?
Collegue wanted: Systems Developer (Notes Domino)
I do not know about the existens of the SwedishJob.com site but here you can find the advertisement for a System Developer in Lotus Notes and Domino.
You have a degree level education in computer science or equivalent experience and have several years of experience with Lotus Notes Domino, LotusScript, @ Formula, Java and JavaScript. In addition, experience in Web 2.0 techniques (Ajax, XML, and JSON) and, especially, the Dojo toolkit is advantageous. You are fluent in both written and verbal English and you also have the ability to transform customer requirements into working solutions.
Sounds exciting? Then head on to the Sandvik career site.
Collegue wanted: IT Architect Messaging and Collaboration
I saw this function is now posted on Computer Sweden: link and on the Sandvik careers site.
Link: Securing Your Notes Application
Today we discussed to provide a checklist for developers that can help them with auditing the security of their applications.
In the Notes/Domino Best Practices: Security checklist there is a reference to:
Lotus Education On Demand: Securing Your Notes Application
Overview Introduction Controlling Access to Notes/Domino Data Tools The Access Control List Setting Up and Refining the ACL Access to Database Elements Participants Partners in Securing an Application Web Users Anonymous Users Case Studies Problems … 28 Apr 2005.
However the link is dead. Does anyone know if this tutorial is available under a different address?
Kwintessential Notes 
