Home
HCL Domino Designer Basic User Guide and Reference
This guide provides information on using HCL Domino Designer and programming language reference information.
Application Design
Welcome to the Application Design section of Domino® Designer Help.
Designing pages
Pages and forms are similar in certain ways. A page is a database design element that displays information. Pages can be used anywhere in your application that you have text, graphics, or an embedded control, such as an outline, to present to the user. A page or form can contain the following:
Creating sections

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.
  - Introduction to Domino® Designer
    Welcome to Domino® Designer. Domino Designer is an integrated application development environment that lets developers and Web site designers create, manage, and deploy secure, interactive applications.
  - Planning an application
    Before you begin any design work, create a plan for how users will access and use your application. At the minimum, your application plan should address these questions:
  - Creating an application
    All Domino® applications begin with a Domino database. Domino databases are the containers for your application. Databases hold the data, logic, and design elements for your application. Your Domino application can be made up of one or more Domino databases.
  - Designing pages
    Pages and forms are similar in certain ways. A page is a database design element that displays information. Pages can be used anywhere in your application that you have text, graphics, or an embedded control, such as an outline, to present to the user. A page or form can contain the following:
    - Creating pages
    - Displaying a page
      Pages do not display in views. To work around this, you can display pages in the following ways:
    - Creating a home page for an application
    - Styling text for the Web
      For Web applications, Domino® automatically converts text styles to HTML tags when there is a corresponding HTML equivalent. Bullets, numbers, alignment (except Full Justification and No Wrap), spacing, and named styles are some HTML equivalents. Certain types of formatting such as indents, interline spacing, and tabs do not appear when viewed from a Web browser because HTML has no corresponding format. Be aware that different browsers may display tags differently and that not all browsers support the HTML tags that Domino generates.
    - Creating computed text
    - Changing all text styles
    - Creating and formatting horizontal rules
    - Creating programmable tables
    - Creating sections
    - Creating links
    - Using graphics
    - Adding an applet
      You can add a Java™ applet to a page or form to provide visual interest or additional functionality -- for example, you might use animation to make your home page or form appealing. Applets can range from programs you build yourself to prebuilt programs that you simply drop into a page or form. In Web applications, you might want to display an embedded view or embedded outline as an applet rather than as HTML to provide a richer user interface.
    - Creating an attachment
    - Embedding elements
    - Inserting a JavaScript™ library
    - Using HTML on a page, form, or subform
    - Setting launch properties for pages or forms
    - Layers
      Layers let you position overlapping blocks of content on a page, form, or subform. Layers give you design flexibility because you can control the placement, size, and content of information. You can create and stack multiple layers. Transparent layers reveal layers underneath; opaque layers conceal layers underneath.
    - Creating style sheets as shared resources
    - Programming a page or form
      A page or form has events associated with it that you can use to run a simple action, a formula, a LotusScript® routine, or a JavaScript™ program. To see what events are available for a page or form, open the page or form in Domino® Designer and look at the list of events in the Objects tab in the Programmer's pane. When you select an event, the programming choice for that event appears following the Object tab. For example, if you select the onLoad event for the Web, you program it using JavaScript or Common JavaScript. If you select the onLoad event for the client, you can use JavaScript, Common JavaScript, LotusScript, or Formula.
    - Adding HTML header information
    - Adding JavaScript™ header information
  - Designing forms
    Forms, like pages, display information. Everything that can be done with a page can be done with a form. What sets forms apart from pages is that forms can be used to collect information. A form provides the structure for creating and displaying documents, and documents are the design elements that store data in the database. When a user fills out the information in a form and saves it, the information is saved as a document. When a user opens the document, the document uses the form as a template to provide the structure for displaying the data.
  - Designing fields
    A field is the part of an application that collects data. You create fields on forms, subforms, or in layout regions. Each field stores a single type of information. A field's field type defines the kind of information a field accepts, such as text, numbers, dates, or names. When a user, either in a Notes® client or a Web browser, creates a form, fills out the information in the fields, and saves the form, the data in the fields is stored in an individual document. The contents of the fields can then be displayed in documents and views or can be retrieved for use in formulas. A field can be used on a single form, or you can create shared fields for use in multiple forms in a database.
  - Designing framesets
    A frameset is a collection of frames and can add structure to your Web site or Notes® database. A frame is one section, or pane, of the larger frameset window and is independently scrollable.
  - Designing views
  - Designing navigation for an application
    You can use the following navigational tools in your application:
  - Adding automation to applications
    Automation in an application speeds up repetitive tasks, handles workflow, updates information, performs calculations, runs programs, and checks for errors.
  - Developing applications using third-party tools and WebDAV
    As you are developing an application, you may want to supplement the tools provided with Domino® Designer with tools of your own choosing. For example, you may have a favorite graphics editor you use to design images for your application, or you may have a favorite HTML editor that you want to use to design pages. You launch and use third-party tools from within Designer.
  - Connecting to enterprise data
    Incorporating back-end data into everyday business processes maximizes the value of a Domino® Designer application. Designer includes a range of technologies for the security and control of business processes, forms routing, and approvals management. With enterprise integration technologies, you can incorporate traditionally difficult-to-reach data into your business applications.
  - Including Java™ applets in applications
    Applets are self-contained Java™ programs that can run in your Domino® application. Java applets are often used to add animation to Web applications. Although Java applets are mostly used for Web applications, you can also include them in the following elements of a Domino application:
  - Including Java™ servlets in Web applications
    A servlet is a Java™ program that is run by the Domino® Web server in response to a browser request. Servlets provide a convenient way to add powerful functionality to your Web application. In some ways, servlets act like CGI programs, but they are more tightly integrated with the server and can take advantage of special Java classes. For example, a servlet may connect to a relational database or enterprise system and get data in response to a Web browser request.
  - Including XML in Designer applications
    Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a standard for creating markup languages that describe the structure and meaning of data in a document. XML separates the content of a document from its presentation and provides a common format for transferring data across the World Wide Web (WWW) or company intranet. The result is a technology that makes data available regardless of the proprietary systems involved.
  - Including OLE objects in applications
    Using Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) and OLE tools lets you extend the capability of Domino® Designer. OLE technology lets you integrate data from other applications, such as spreadsheets, graphics tools, and other data sources, into your application.
  - Creating a workflow application
    Workflow applications let you automate tasks. These tasks most often involve automatically sending mail messages or automatically routing documents, such as tracking orders and project plans to be reviewed. All projects need one or more people to complete a series of tasks and can benefit from workflow applications because they guide the project through these tasks automatically. Workflow applications reduce overhead and errors, speed processes, and track the status of a project. For example, a workflow application might automatically send a document in a publishing company from writer to editor to proofreader to production. At each stage, an individual is responsible for specific tasks related to that document. Once the task is complete, the workflow application ensures that the individuals responsible for the next task are notified and receive the data they need to execute their part of the project.
  - Domino® Designer templates
    The templates described in the following table are available with Domino® Designer and are specifically intended for use by application developers.
  - Importing to and exporting from views
  - Developing applications using MAPI
    Domino® Designer Release 6 and later supports the messaging application program interface (MAPI), which allows mail integration between Domino and a MAPI-compliant messaging application, such as Microsoft™ Outlook, Microsoft Office applications, or user-written C++ programs.
  - Features to avoid using in Web applications
    Developers creating applications specifically for the Web, or for the dual purpose of serving Notes® and Web clients, should review the following tables for features that are not supported on the Web.
  - URL commands for Web applications
    You have a variety of options for programming a Web site. You can directly manipulate objects such as documents or views in an application using Domino® URL commands. Adding Domino URL commands as HTML in forms gives users shortcuts for navigating databases and performing other tasks quickly.
- Application Management
  Welcome to the Application Management section of Domino® Designer Help.
- 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.

Creating sections

About this task

Use sections to group and organize elements on a page or form. Sections work well to present large amounts of information in an uncluttered way. For example, if you have two different procedures on a page, and users only need to see one at a time, you can put each procedure into a collapsible section so that the users can expand only the section that they need.

To create a section

Procedure

Open the page or form.
Highlight the text, graphics, and other elements to include in the section.
Choose Create - Section.

To format a section

Procedure

Select the section and choose Section - Section Properties.
On the Section Title and Border tab, you can:
- Enter a title for the section. Titles can be either text or a formula.
- Select the border style. The border appears around the section.
- Select a border color.
On the Expand/Collapse tab:
- Select options for showing the section expanded or collapsed depending on whether a document is being previewed, opened for reading, opened for editing, or printed.
- Select "Hide title when expanded" if users don't need to see the section title when the fields are displayed.
- Select "Show as text when not previewing" so that the user sees the section only when the document is being previewed. If the document is being printed or is opened for reading or editing, the user sees the text with no visible sign that the text is contained in a section.

To delete a section

Procedure

Select the section and choose Section - Remove Section.