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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 Design
Welcome to the Application Design section of Domino® Designer Help.
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.
Creating databases
There are three ways to create a new database:
Starting a database from scratch

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.
    - Creating databases
      There are three ways to create a new database:
      - Creating a database from a template
        Domino® Designer comes with a collection of templates that you can use to create applications. You can recognize these templates by their NTF extensions. A template is a file that contains the structure for the database -- that is, pages, forms, and views -- but does not contain documents. For example, to design a discussion database, use the Discussion template (Discussion8.NTF), which contains forms that track discussion threads in a hierarchy, as well as views that display the entries by date, author, or category. Designer templates have NTF as their file extension.
      - Application Properties - Advanced tab
        Unread Marks
      - Copying an existing Domino® database
        If you have found a Domino® application that contains all or most of the functionality you are looking for, you can:
      - To create a new database by copying an existing database
      - To copy individual design elements
      - Copying a design element to a new location
      - To protect individual design elements
      - Starting a database from scratch
    - Specifying fields to exclude from full-text indexes
      To generate more useful full-text search results and to save space, you can exclude fields in an application that aren't relevant for full-text searches from being indexed.
    - Creating and using working sets
      When working with applications, you may wish to group several applications together as a "working set." The Applications Navigator can use working sets to restrict the sets of applications that are displayed. If a working set is selected in the Applications Navigator, only resources, children of resources, and parents of resources contained in the working set are shown.
    - Using toolbars
      Toolbars contain icon buttons that when clicked perform simple actions like printing a document or opening a database. Toolbars give you a quick alternative to looking through a series of menus to initiate an action. Notes® provides a number of pre-defined toolbars that contain a set of icon buttons for specific tasks, as well as the capability to create your own.
    - Enabling subscriptions
      Subscriptions work in conjunction with the Headlines database. The Headlines database enables users to stay informed of current events both within their company and on the Web by subscribing to databases that are of interest to them and then receiving notification when a posting meets their subscription profile.
    - Reducing database maintenance with shared code and shared resources
    - Sharing file resources
      Domino® Designer allows you to share non-NSF files within and across databases. This capability gives you greater flexibility in designing your application. For example, all applications in your company might share a welcome page that is an HTML file, created by and maintained in a tool other tha Notes® or Domino Designer. To share files, you must designate them as file resources.
    - Creating an image resource
    - Creating image resource sets
    - Document locking
      When you set the database property "Allow document locking," users with Author access or higher can lock documents in that database. Locking a document prevents editing and replication conflicts by ensuring that person who locks the document has exclusive rights to modify the document; others with the same rights cannot modify a locked document even if they are working on a different replica on the same LAN. Managers of a database cannot edit a locked document. However, managers can unlock documents that are locked.
    - Customizing twisties
    - Previewing your design work
    - Adding instant messaging to an application
      Some Notes® applications, such as mail or discussion applications, can benefit from instant message services that allow users who are online at the same time to communicate directly with each other. You can integrate HCL Sametime® in an application to provide this capability. For an example of how instant messaging works in an application, see the Notes mail template. In order for users to use the instant messaging feature, they must be connected to a Sametime server through their Notes location document.
    - Preventing users from accessing forms and views in a Web application
      As you design an application users will access with a browser, you may want to restrict browser users from using URL commands that would open forms and views in your application. For example, you can design your application so that a servlet that uses forms or views will only use the forms and views using URL commands. With the "Don't allow URL open" property set, it will be impossible for browser users to manipulate these application components using Domino® URL commands.
  - 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:
  - 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.

Starting a database from scratch

About this task

If you need a unique application, start from scratch. To do this, begin by creating a blank database, based on the -Blank- template. A blank database contains no design elements such as pages or forms. Blank databases have one default view. You must create all of the elements you need for the application.

Procedure

Choose File - Application - New.
In the Server field do one of the following:
- Leave Local selected to store the new database on your computer.
- Select or enter a server name to store the new database on a server. This allows multiple people to work on the database design.
In the Title field, enter a title for the new database. The title can have a maximum of 96 characters.

Note: As you type a title, Domino® Designer adds the name to the File Name field. You can accept this database file name or change it. Database file names can be any number of characters long (within the limits of your operating system). If you want the database to appear in the Database Open dialog box, it must end with the file extension NSF. If you plan to use the database you are creating as a template, use the file extension NTF rather than NSF.
Optional: Click Encryption, select "Locally encrypt this database using," and select an encryption type. For information on encrypting a database, see the topic "Notes® and Domino® encryption" in the chapter "Security in an Application."
Optional: If you are developing an application for use with Notes® and Domino® 4.x or if the application will be on a Domino® 4.x server, click "Size Limit" and select a size (in gigabytes).
Select -Blank- as the template.
Click OK.

Results

You are now ready to begin creating the design elements for your application.