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- Programmatic Add To Sidebar
- Mini Catasrophe averted
- Notes Admin Tip
- The Albino Butterfly
- Using COM Automation to create a word document and attach to a Rich Text field.
- Open Attachment based on file extension
- Negative Number Madness in a Column Formula
- THEY BROUGHT IT BACK
- Up and Running on 8.0.1
- Working with Ext.nd
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04/20/2008
Category : 03/31/2008
Mini Catasrophe averted
Category : Win2k3
Today our SAN experienced a bit of a "burp" .... not sure what else to call it really. One of the drive shelves (that happens to be an entire LUN unto itself) decided it was going to unbind itself from its assigned storage processor, causing a whole lot of havoc (just happens to be one of two RAID 5 LUNs used by our main file server in a software-mirrored set for a bit of extra redundancy) ... Anyway, when it burped, I was able to bring the one of the two LUNs back online immediately, but the data was months old. (Note that prior to today, the software RAID mirrored set was reporting as healthy, synchronized and up to date).
After shutting down the SAN and rebooting everything, Good ol' WIn2k3 reported the it found both LUNs and it was healthy and all was right with the world. I didn't believe it, not after seeing months old data. So I broke the mirror, assigned drive letters to each LUN and took a look. Well, needless to say, it wasn't. In fact it looks like it had stopped synchronizing late 2007, but failed to mention this. Not only failed to mention it, it was reporting itself as HEALTHY. One LUN was up to date, the other, seriously behind. MONTHS behind. It's another WTF? moment brought to you by MS....How hard is it for an OS or a File system to realize its not synching properly. One more ding in the faith I'm "supposed" to have in the Windows OS.
Today our SAN experienced a bit of a "burp" .... not sure what else to call it really. One of the drive shelves (that happens to be an entire LUN unto itself) decided it was going to unbind itself from its assigned storage processor, causing a whole lot of havoc (just happens to be one of two RAID 5 LUNs used by our main file server in a software-mirrored set for a bit of extra redundancy) ... Anyway, when it burped, I was able to bring the one of the two LUNs back online immediately, but the data was months old. (Note that prior to today, the software RAID mirrored set was reporting as healthy, synchronized and up to date).
After shutting down the SAN and rebooting everything, Good ol' WIn2k3 reported the it found both LUNs and it was healthy and all was right with the world. I didn't believe it, not after seeing months old data. So I broke the mirror, assigned drive letters to each LUN and took a look. Well, needless to say, it wasn't. In fact it looks like it had stopped synchronizing late 2007, but failed to mention this. Not only failed to mention it, it was reporting itself as HEALTHY. One LUN was up to date, the other, seriously behind. MONTHS behind. It's another WTF? moment brought to you by MS....How hard is it for an OS or a File system to realize its not synching properly. One more ding in the faith I'm "supposed" to have in the Windows OS.
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03/30/2008
Notes Admin Tip
Category : None
When setting up a new server, in a remote location, and you opt to give it a "Configuration Directory" instead of a "Primary Directory", make sure you put in a connection document from the new server to the Primary Directory server BEFORE you run the remote server setup!
.... yes, i'm the D()M3@$$ administrator ...
not my finest moment.
Update:
And in case you are wondering why that's a big deal, outside of the fact that the server with the configuration directory is completely unreachable, it also appears to have caused major corruption with in log.nsf, ddm.nsf and admin4.nsf ... very interesting.
When setting up a new server, in a remote location, and you opt to give it a "Configuration Directory" instead of a "Primary Directory", make sure you put in a connection document from the new server to the Primary Directory server BEFORE you run the remote server setup!
.... yes, i'm the D()M3@$$ administrator ...
not my finest moment.
Update:
And in case you are wondering why that's a big deal, outside of the fact that the server with the configuration directory is completely unreachable, it also appears to have caused major corruption with in log.nsf, ddm.nsf and admin4.nsf ... very interesting.
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03/20/2008
The Albino Butterfly
Category : Serial Story
Yup, I'm doing it ... I'm going to write a chapter.
This is going to be interesting, exciting, and well, nerving a bit.
Check out all the details over @ bens blog: More wits, more pens: "Albino Butterfly" starts Monday
Yup, I'm doing it ... I'm going to write a chapter.
This is going to be interesting, exciting, and well, nerving a bit.
Check out all the details over @ bens blog: More wits, more pens: "Albino Butterfly" starts Monday
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03/18/2008
Using COM Automation to create a word document and attach to a Rich Text field.
Category : lotus notes MS Office COM
Another recent question on the notes.net forum asks how to attach a word document into a new form from a document template. I did this with an application I wrote a few years ago, Here is excerpts from a script as an example on how to do this. This script finds a word document template located in another document, creates a new instance of that template as a document, replaces the values of some form fields, then saves the new document, and attaches it in a new document. This script is something I use for a specific task, I tried to pare it down to only necessary parts, but its not at all generic enough to just use, so you'll have to tweak it to suit your needs, but it will give you the idea.
Email me if you want the design guide I give users to show them how to create word document templates to be used with this script.
Read More
Another recent question on the notes.net forum asks how to attach a word document into a new form from a document template. I did this with an application I wrote a few years ago, Here is excerpts from a script as an example on how to do this. This script finds a word document template located in another document, creates a new instance of that template as a document, replaces the values of some form fields, then saves the new document, and attaches it in a new document. This script is something I use for a specific task, I tried to pare it down to only necessary parts, but its not at all generic enough to just use, so you'll have to tweak it to suit your needs, but it will give you the idea.
Email me if you want the design guide I give users to show them how to create word document templates to be used with this script.
Read More
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03/18/2008
Open Attachment based on file extension
Category : notes win32
A recent question on the Notes 6/7 forum on notes.net asks how you can get Notes to launch a file in the proper application. If you are doing this on a Windows platform, you can use a call to the API, specifically ShellExecuteA() to take care of this for you.
I've uploaded a sample database to the blog that illustrates how to do this.
A recent question on the Notes 6/7 forum on notes.net asks how you can get Notes to launch a file in the proper application. If you are doing this on a Windows platform, you can use a call to the API, specifically ShellExecuteA() to take care of this for you.
I've uploaded a sample database to the blog that illustrates how to do this.
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03/18/2008
Negative Number Madness in a Column Formula
Category : domino lotus notes ViewOk, from the WTF? category .... Ever try to take two positive number, and in a view total their difference? So for example, I have two forms, Form A's field XYZ is 15 Form B's field ABC is 10 .... I want to put them both in the same column, make Form A's XYZ field negative, leave Form B's ABC positive, then total them, giving me the difference of all the values in the column total...
So your column formula could read
@if(Form = "FormA"; -XYZ; Form="FormB"; ABC; 0)
or
@if(Form = "FormA"; (-1) * XYZ; Form="FormB"; ABC; 0)
That would get what you would expect right????
Wrong...
Check out the screen shot.... Where is this .00000000000001 coming from ???. In this view 99.475 is the correct total, Not 99.475000000000001 ... change the formula to not turn the positive into a negative on the one form, and it adds correctly. Get rid of ABC and put 0, it returns the correct number, get rid of -XYZ or (-1) * XYZ, it returns the correct number ... return them both, and hello massively small number added to the sum. WTF?
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03/17/2008
THEY BROUGHT IT BACK
Category : 8.0.1 notes
One of the biggest things I missed was the ability to "key" around the workspace in 8.0. I've got several databases that I refresh occasionaly, and pre-8.0, I would use all shortcut keys to refresh the design of the database. For example. <Alt><F><D><F> <Alt>+<DownArrow x 2><Enter><Enter><Right Arrow> then repeat, again and again, and again ... In 8.0, you couldn't do that (you had to click the database, then you could run the short cut keys (once I figured out you had to use T instead of D (applicaTion instead of Database) ... in 8.0.1 ITS BACK .... Oh thank you thank you thank you lotus ... I thought it'd be gone for good in the new interface, and no one I heard was complaining, so I figured it was _just_ my loss .... Nice to know its back.
Thanks all you lotii designers ...
One of the biggest things I missed was the ability to "key" around the workspace in 8.0. I've got several databases that I refresh occasionaly, and pre-8.0, I would use all shortcut keys to refresh the design of the database. For example. <Alt><F><D><F> <Alt>+<DownArrow x 2><Enter><Enter><Right Arrow> then repeat, again and again, and again ... In 8.0, you couldn't do that (you had to click the database, then you could run the short cut keys (once I figured out you had to use T instead of D (applicaTion instead of Database) ... in 8.0.1 ITS BACK .... Oh thank you thank you thank you lotus ... I thought it'd be gone for good in the new interface, and no one I heard was complaining, so I figured it was _just_ my loss .... Nice to know its back.
Thanks all you lotii designers ...
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03/17/2008
Up and Running on 8.0.1
Category : notes 8.0.1 widgetsSo I'm a bit of a late comer here to the whole 8.0.1 game, i downloaded it as soon as I could, but I just got it installed this weekend. I have to say, I wasn't quite sure before 8.0.1 how I was going to be able to utilize the side bar and take full advantage of it's possibilities without having to do some of my own java coding to build the necessary plugin etc. I heard that the plan was we were going to be able to put views in there from some of the guys that had seen early releases, but I was really looking for the ability for a fully functioning app over there. So when i fired up the 8.0.1 client, and started playing around with it, and saw I could land an entire frameset there from an application, I think i fell in love with Notes all over again. We've got a handy app that is a personalized daily task list. You can add follow ups from other databases right to this app, prioritize, plan your day, week, etc etc. You can link in a document from any database to your task entry, and when you double click the task, the document in question open, etc. Well, a couple of quick clicks, and blammo, its over there in the side bar, always at my fingertips, yet out of the way. Now if I can only get it on the left hand side instead of the right ....
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03/16/2008
Working with Ext.nd
Category : notes Ext Ext.nd javascript
Ok, so its been a while since i've actually blogged... I've been meaning to get back to it for a while.. so on with it. I've been playing around with the Ext.nd library for a few weeks now, getting to know Ext itself, along with the .nd extension. Speaking of Ext itself, I'm really impressed at the capabilities and the power that it provides. It allows you to make a very rich UI very quickly, With just a little work (mostly learning the library itself) I am able to create a web UI that mimics the client app's UI with near exact functionality. I am really excited to work with it more. On the Ext.nd side, I haven't delved too deep into it yet, using mostly some of the basic functionality located within some of the base classes. I am excited by what I see. There is definetly room for more features and functionality, but its a young library yet. It would do us all good to get behind this library and help psuh it forward. I know that IBM is pushing Dojo forward and implanting it within the domino server itself, but I see alot more potential and power in the Ext line than I do in Dojo. I've helped with the coding on NotesView2, and its a great javascript view tool. The weaknesses in NotesView2 are strengths within the Ext.nd notes view, however the Ext.nd view has some limitations that has already been overcome with NotesView2... I think over the next few weeks, I am going to try to merge the features that NotesView2 has into the Ext.nd view and see what I get. I think the results could be a VERY strong web javascript view component that will be second to none.
Ok, so its been a while since i've actually blogged... I've been meaning to get back to it for a while.. so on with it. I've been playing around with the Ext.nd library for a few weeks now, getting to know Ext itself, along with the .nd extension. Speaking of Ext itself, I'm really impressed at the capabilities and the power that it provides. It allows you to make a very rich UI very quickly, With just a little work (mostly learning the library itself) I am able to create a web UI that mimics the client app's UI with near exact functionality. I am really excited to work with it more. On the Ext.nd side, I haven't delved too deep into it yet, using mostly some of the basic functionality located within some of the base classes. I am excited by what I see. There is definetly room for more features and functionality, but its a young library yet. It would do us all good to get behind this library and help psuh it forward. I know that IBM is pushing Dojo forward and implanting it within the domino server itself, but I see alot more potential and power in the Ext line than I do in Dojo. I've helped with the coding on NotesView2, and its a great javascript view tool. The weaknesses in NotesView2 are strengths within the Ext.nd notes view, however the Ext.nd view has some limitations that has already been overcome with NotesView2... I think over the next few weeks, I am going to try to merge the features that NotesView2 has into the Ext.nd view and see what I get. I think the results could be a VERY strong web javascript view component that will be second to none.
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