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HCL Domino Designer Basic User Guide and Reference
This guide provides information on using HCL Domino Designer and programming language reference information.
Application Management
Welcome to the Application Management section of Domino® Designer Help.
Completing an application and managing design changes
As you prepare to deploy an application, consider these finishing touches:
Checking field design

HCL Domino Designer Basic User Guide and Reference
This guide provides information on using HCL Domino Designer and programming language reference information.
- What's new in HCL Domino Designer 12?
  The following features are new for developers in HCL Domino® Designer 12.
- Accessibility and keyboard shortcuts
  Accessibility features assist users who have a disability, such as restricted mobility or limited vision, to use information technology content successfully.
- Application Design
  Welcome to the Application Design section of Domino® Designer Help.
- Application Management
  Welcome to the Application Management section of Domino® Designer Help.
  - Security in an application
    Domino® offers a multi-layered approach to security. Server administrators can secure databases, servers, and domains. Database designers and managers control the following:
  - Completing an application and managing design changes
    As you prepare to deploy an application, consider these finishing touches:
    - Creating a database icon for a Notes® application
    - Providing online Help for an application
      Including Help with your application improves the chances that users will understand how to use it without asking for individual Help from you or a coworker. Database Help can be integrated throughout the application so that users have information as they need it.
    - Creating Using This Applicationand About This Application documents
    - Creating context-sensitive Help for an application
      You can make an application's Help documents or pages context-sensitive so that users can open them by pressing a key, such as F1, or by clicking a Help button. You can associate a Help document or page with each page, form, subform, view, and folder in an application.
    - Writing Help for fields
    - Creating and displaying more detailed application Help
    - Specifying a home page in the Web site document
      To make a design element the site home page, open the Web site document. Specify a URL that includes the design element in the "Home URL" field.
    - Restricting design changes
      Once an application is complete and available, you decide how to protect the design from changes. An application can have a totally open design, where users can update forms and views and pass along design changes. Or an application can have a totally closed design, where users use the application "as is" and have no access to design elements.
    - Checking the application design before release
      After you complete the design, test the application and correct problems before you release it.
    - Checking form design
      For each form you want to check, create two or three documents and enter a variety of information into the fields. Then use this check list to verify that the form is working as intended.
    - Checking field design
    - Checking view design
      Once the database is complete, make sure the design is working. For testing purposes create a view that uses @SELECTALL to select all documents. Follow these guidelines to check view design.
    - Making a design copy of a completed application
    - Pilot testing an application
    - Renaming a database
    - Renaming design elements
    - Design synopsis
    - Updating documents after redesigning a form
      When you redesign a form, be aware of the effect on existing documents. Some form changes, such as formatting changes, automatically display when users open an existing document. Other changes, such as adding a new field, do not affect the contents of existing documents until you update the documents manually or by running an agent.
    - Checking field values in a document
    - Using agents to update documents affected by form changes
      To update multiple documents affected by form changes, use an agent. To do so, it is best to create private agents and run them manually.
    - Changing database and design properties
    - Setting application launch properties
    - Templates
    - Making and distributing design changes
      When you need to redesign an application, make and distribute the changes in one of these ways:
    - Refreshing a design
    - Replacing a design
    - Design changes and replication
      Unless you distribute design changes through templates, design changes and any document updates made in one database replicate directly to replicas, as long as servers have Designer access or greater in the database ACL. To avoid replication conflicts and unexpected changes, only one person -- the database designer or manager -- should make design changes to only one database and maintain its design. Then let replication distribute the design changes to other replicas.
    - Preventing design changes
    - Modifying multiple design elements
    - Hiding the design of a database
    - Hiding design elements
    - Locking a design element
  - Deploying an application
    The tasks involved with application design, database design, database management, and DominoTMsystem administration may overlap, depending on the size of your organization and the structure of job responsibilities. In some organizations, an application developer may be responsible for both application and database design, while in others, a database manager may handle all database design and management tasks. In addition, database management overlaps with Domino® system administration.
  - Procedure for optimizing and troubleshooting databases
- Domino® Query Language
  Domino® Query Language (DQL) is a facility running on a Domino server that provides a terse, shorthand syntax for finding documents. It supports a wide variety and complexity of search terms. It leverages existing design elements, avoiding the need to write detailed code to access them. DQL consolidates all methods in Domino for searching document contents.
- Composite Applications - Design and Management
  Composite applications are a key element in a service-oriented architecture (SOA) and contextual collaboration strategy. The ability to create and edit composite applications lets you easily integrate different types of components and technologies.
- DB2® Access views
  Domino® Designer includes two types of design elements to assist you in managing data contained in DB2® enabled Notes® databases:
- Programming Overview and User Interface
  This section contains general guidelines and examples that show where to use Java, LotusScript, and the formula language.
- Formula Language
  This section documents the formula language.
- LotusScript® Language
  Welcome to the LotusScript® Language section of Domino® Designer Help.
- LotusScript/COM/OLE Classes
- Java/CORBA Classes
  This section documents the Java/CORBA classes.
- Connectors
  Connectors provide native access to a wide variety of DBMS products, ODBC, the platform File system, Enterprise Resource Planning systems, and Transaction Processing systems.
- Javadoc™ for Domino® Designer related APIs
  As part of providing additional Java™ reference documentation, Domino® Designer ships with a help plugin that contains Javadoc™ for additional Domino Designer related APIs.

Checking field design

Are fields (including keywords fields) showing the correct information when first displayed?
If not, check the default value formula.
Does every editable field have a Help description?
If not, add Help descriptions for those fields. Ensure that field descriptions are consistently worded -- for example, all are full sentences or all express commands. Check that ending punctuation is consistent for each. Note that you can also add field hints for each field.
Can users enter information in editable fields?
If not, check the field definition. You may have selected the Computed option when defining the field.
Are editable fields formatted correctly once the document is saved?
If not, check the input translation formula and the format for the field.
Are editable fields accepting invalid data or not accepting valid data?
If so, check the input validation formula.
Are computed fields computing correctly? Are they returning values of the appropriate data type?
If not, check the field formula. The formula may need to include some data type conversion such as @TextToNumber.
Do inherited fields inherit their data correctly?
If not, check the field's default value formula.
Do required fields have input validation formulas that display an appropriate message when the user tries to save the document without filling in the fields?
If not, create the input validation formulas and include an explanatory message for the user.
In time-date fields, is the time displaying correctly?
If not, make sure you selected the appropriate time zone option in the Field Properties box.
Are fields aligned properly with a variety of window sizes and on different monitors?
If not, check the tab settings for the form.
Are encrypted fields accessible to users who have the encryption key and inaccessible to all other users?
Make sure that only authorized users have the encryption key. If unauthorized users have the encryption key, change the encryption key and redistribute it only to authorized users.
Do fields have field hints?
If not, you might want to consider adding them.

For information on writing field help and field hints, see Writing Help for fields.