11.08.2009

>>Author:  Thomas Bahn
>>Ort:     Schwentinental (Kiel)
        

Notes views showing design elements instead of documents

The "trick" is to change one special item of the view: $FormulaClass. Usually it is always 1, and this means: show documents. Other values cause other elements to be shown. Valid values and their meanings are documented in the file include\nsfnote.h, which belongs to the IBM Lotus C API Toolkit for Notes & Domino.

Note Class Type	Hex Value	Decimal Value	Comments
NOTE_CLASS_DOCUMENT	0x0001	1	document note
NOTE_CLASS_INFO	0x0002	2	notefile info (help-about) note
NOTE_CLASS_FORM	0x0004	4	form note
NOTE_CLASS_VIEW	0x0008	8	view note
NOTE_CLASS_ICON	0x0010	16	icon note
NOTE_CLASS_DESIGN	0x0020	32	design note collection
NOTE_CLASS_ACL	0x0040	64	acl note
NOTE_CLASS_HELP_INDEX	0x0080	128	Notes product help index note
NOTE_CLASS_HELP	0x0100	256	designer's help note
NOTE_CLASS_FILTER	0x0200	512	filter note
NOTE_CLASS_FIELD	0x0400	1024	field note
NOTE_CLASS_REPLFORMULA	0x0800	2048	replication formula
NOTE_CLASS_PRIVATE	0x1000	4096	Private design note [...]
NOTE_CLASS_DEFAULT	0x8000	32,768	MODIFIER - default version of each
NOTE_CLASS_ALL	0x7FFF	32,767	all note types
NOTE_CLASS_ALLNONDATA	0x7FFE	32,766	all non-data notes
NOTE_CLASS_NONE	0x0000	0	no notes

Since there is no way to modify the $FormulaClass item directly in the Domino Designer, we need a small LotusScript agent:

Sub Initialize
        Dim session As New NotesSession
        Dim db As NotesDatabase
        Dim view As NotesView
        Dim doc As NotesDocument
       
        Set db = session.CurrentDatabase
        Set view = db.GetView("Design elements\0x7FFE all design elements") ' adopt view title
        Set doc = db.GetDocumentByUNID(view.UniversalID)
        Call doc.ReplaceItemValue("$FormulaClass", "32766") ' shows all non-data notes
        Call doc.Save(True, True)
End Sub

The version, I've used to modify all views in the demo database, is stored in the "Configure design elements views" agent.


So many types, how to tell them appart?

To show sensible types in the views, I had to try a lot. I've started with the following article in the Lotus Domino Designer Wiki by Andre Guirard: Make a Notes view list design elements (using LotusScript or Java).

But I had a problem: some of the formulas work only in a given note class - especially the formulas for forms, views and agents don't work well in a view with all design elements. With some other design elements, the note class is unique, so there is no formula at all.

In these cases I tried to identify the type of the design element using the $Flags, $FlagsExt and other items. But to be honest: I don't think, the current formula works correctly in all cases. If anyone encounters such a case, please notify me.

Since the resulting formula became quite big, I don't insert it here, but reference to the Type column of all views (and starting with Domino Designer 7 there is a shared column named "Design Element Type").


What can I do with these views?

In the "Design elements\0x7FFE all design elements" view I've added some useful columns.



Have you ever spotted an error in server log, referencing only a note ID or unique ID? There you are...



Have a quick overview for all design elements, if they inherit from other templates (and which templates), or if a design refresh is prohibited for those elements. Did you have the case that in a Notes client some design elements didn't show? Perhaps somebody has set up a language for them?



And in some cases it's useful to quickly discover, who has changend something, when were the last modifications, why is the empty database so big etc.


And...

Recently I had to create a configuration form with a field, in which the user should be able to select a public folder - no views, no private folders. I started using session.CurrentDatabase.Views, iterated through it, collecting only public folders in a list. This list should be stored in a "Computed for Display" field, but since there were many public folders, it didn't fit into a text field.

But using the "trick" and a fitting selection formula, I created a view showing only public folders. Then I created a action hotspot with a @PickList to let the user select one folder.

Using single category lookups you can even use the "general purpose" views in the demo database (for smaller lists).


And that's all?

By far not! When you see something, you can modify it (more easily). Think about an action or agent, which clears the references to other templates in selected design elements. It has just to delete the $Class item. Or another agent could remove the $Language item. Or it could clear the "don't refresh the design" flag by removing the upper "P" from the $Flags item.

You can easily create more specific views showing - say - only agents. Then you could add other columns for the agents' details. You can get a lot of details from the $Flags and $FlagsExt items. Valid values and their meanings are documented in the file include\stdnames.h of the IBM Lotus C API Toolkit for Notes & Domino. I've extracted the most important lines and put it into a table, which I've added to the download file.


Demo-Datenbank:

DesignElementsViews.zip
(170 KB )