Domino 8 - All Change Please
Lotus Notes 8 - All Change Please!
Released recently, the Notes 8.0 client is a radical improvement in user experience and capabilities. The new features and improvements it bears are not up for discussion here (that's way beyond the scope of this article), but instead I'll be taking a high level look at how Notes 8 has changed; both on the screen, and behind the screen - in the design.
Assuming the majority of readers have not seen the user interface at first hand, here's a quick glimpse at what your newly upgraded mail file might look like on this platform:
IMAGE REQUIREDAfter you've accepted that everything has nice new round edges and the whole preview pane has take a 90 degree turn, you'll probably begin to see how working with it is becoming much different to Release 7 or 6.5 or 6 or 5
That's the important change of step here: the mail template design that ships with Release 7 is purely an enhancement; an extension of the design that shipped with R4.0. It's a good and solid enhancement, but that's all it is. Notes 8 is no enhancement. It's clearly different.
This change of layout and behaviour has come about for two reasons: changes in the way designers think about user needs complimented by the new services, features and design elements that incremental and planned releases have brought with them to release 8.0, both server and client.
So, what's changed for the designer?
As you would expect from IBM, Lotus Notes 8 offers backward compatibility for all Lotus Notes applications. All applications developed in previous versions of Lotus Notes function correctly in the Lotus Notes 8 client without the need for redesign. That's nice to hear.
DB2 functionality stays as per the specification with Release 7, with improvements. New features of the Lotus Domino Designer 8 give you the opportunity to reuse design elements as components in composite applications and include Web service consumer functionality. These external interfaces of the Domino system are provided with the vision of being able to allow designers and architects to integrate existing Notes applications with other data sources and external applications. Any resultant application that can make use of these enhancements will bring new application functionality to the Lotus Notes user.
So - what's a composite application and a Web service consumer, and how can I possibly use those things?
Well, if you've got this far you really need to check this article out:
Before we close though, a quick look at some 'face value' changes to the Notes 8 Designer client. I challenge any developer to look through these and say 'well, none of those are going to help me'.
- The right mouse menu on forms and views alike. Total control over the context of right-clicks anywhere in an application. IMAGE REQUIRED
- Automatic thumbnailing of images. No need for an upload control, or any Lotusscript to manipulate the image - just click, choose your image file, and its there in a preconfigured size. You set the arguments on the form. IMAGE REQUIRED
- Agents that are triggered 'On Server Start' - not an Amgr restart either.
Plus a whole lot more and the usual introduction of new formulae and Script functions.
Lotus Notes formula language
- @IsUsingJavaElement
- @URLQueryString
- @GetViewInfo([GetFormName])
- @Command([CopySelectedAsTable])
- @Command([OpenInNewWindow])
LotusScript API
Read/Unread marks support: Ability to use LotusScript to collect all read or unread documents or change status of documents from read to unread
- NotesPropertyBroker class
- NotesProperty class
- NotesDirectory class
- NotesDirectoryNavigator class
- GetColumnValues method for NotesView class
- UncompressAttachments property for the NotesDXLExporter class
- OutlineReload method for the NotesUIWorkspace class
So, why not give it a go - you can even install it on a PC that already has Notes installed (yes, another version, just do it carefully - give us a call if you need to know how).
Get the Lotus Notes 8.0 beta code now and try something new:
