Home
HCL Domino Designer Basic User Guide and Reference
This guide provides information on using HCL Domino Designer and programming language reference information.
Programming Overview and User Interface
This section contains general guidelines and examples that show where to use Java, LotusScript, and the formula language.
Programming Overview
This documentation describes how to attach Java, JavaScript, LotusScript, and formula code to Domino design elements. Here are some overview topics:
Event sequencing
The following table shows the sequencing of events during common Notes tasks.

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.
- 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.
  - Programming Overview
    This documentation describes how to attach Java, JavaScript, LotusScript, and formula code to Domino design elements. Here are some overview topics:
    - Programming in Domino Designer
      Formula, LotusScript, Java, and JavaScript code provide an integral programming interface to Domino Designer. You attach code to various design elements depending on need. For example, if you create a computed field on a form, you would attach a formula to compute the value of the field. Or you could attach JavaScript code to the onFocus event of a field; this code would execute whenever a user places focus on the field. Or you might decide to create a formula, LotusScript, or Java agent to automatically update all the documents in a database at scheduled times.
    - Where to use scripts and formulas
    - Table of programmable design elements
      The following table outlines the programmable design elements in Domino. The table specifies the scope of the design element and whether it supports simple actions, formulas, LotusScript, Java, or JavaScript.
    - Toolbars
    - Replication formulas
      A replication formula selects the documents that are pulled into the current database during replication.
    - Writing scripts and formulas for agents
      An agent is a user procedure that you can trigger through a number of mechanisms. An agent runs on:
    - Writing scripts and formulas for actions
      An action is a formula, LotusScript, JavaScript, or simple (no programming) procedure that you can associate with a view, form, subform, or page. You can create a standard action, an action with subactions, a shared action, or insert system actions that are supplied with Notes.
    - Hotspots
      In form design, subform design, page design, navigator design, layout region design, and rich text fields, you can create hotspots. A hotspot activates when the user selects it and can be any of several types:
    - Form, selection, and column formulas
    - Window title, section access, and insert subform formulas
    - Section title and hidden paragraph formulas
    - Hidden column and row custom color formulas
    - Named element formulas
    - Image formulas
      Formulas can be used to specify the name of an outline image, the background image in a view, the background image in an embedded outline, the twisties image in a column, and the twisties image in an embedded outline.
    - Writing scripts and formulas to handle events
    - Field design formulas
      As part of the field design process, you can write the following formulas to run on the user's workstation:
    - Event descriptions
      Simple action, Formula, LotusScript, JavaScript, and Java code executes in response to the occurrence of events in the following objects: actions, action hotspots, agents, hotspot buttons, databases, fields, folders, forms, formula pop-ups, outlines, pages, script libraries, subforms, and views.
    - Event sequencing
      The following table shows the sequencing of events during common Notes tasks.
  - User Interface
  - XML for Domino
    The following topics cover some general guidelines for using XML in Domino applications and list all the elements, attributes, and entities in the Domino Document Type Definition (DTD):
  - JSP Custom Tag Libraries
    A JavaServer Page (JSP) is a HTML Web page that contains code which executes application logic to generate dynamic content. The page is created at the time it is requested. JSP pages are compiled into servlets; the code they contain is executed by the server. For more information on JSPs, see the Sun Microsystems Web site: http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/.
  - Programming Domino for Web Applications
    You should be aware of certain procedures, restrictions, and enhancements available to you when using Domino Designer to program Web applications. This section describes the following areas:
- 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.

Event sequencing

The following table shows the sequencing of events during common Notes tasks.


Task	Sequence of events
Changing modes (edit/read) in a document	QueryModeChange (Form) PostModeChange
Closing a database	QueryClose Terminate [optional] Script Library Terminate
Closing a database from a view	QueryClose (View) Terminate (View) Globals Terminate (View) [optional] Script Library Terminate (View) QueryClose (Database) Terminate (Database) [optional] Script Library Terminate (Database)
Closing a document	QueryClose (Form) onUnload Terminate (Fields) Terminate (Form) Globals Terminate [optional] Script Library Terminate
Composing a new document	[optional] Script Library Initialize Globals Initialize Initialize JS Header QueryOpen Initialize (Fields) PostOpen onLoad
Deleting a document in a view	QueryDocumentDelete (Database Script event) PostDocumentDelete (Database Script event)
Editing an existing document	QueryOpenDocument (View) [optional] Script Library Initialize (Form) Globals Initialize Initialize (Form) JS Header QueryOpen Initialize (Fields) PostOpen onLoad
Entering a field	Entering onFocus
Exiting a field	onBlur Exiting onChange
Leaving a view	QueryClose Terminate Globals Terminate [optional] Script Library Terminate
Opening a database to a view	[optional] Script Library Initialize (View) Globals Initialize (View) Initialize (View) QueryOpen (View) PostOpen (View) [optional] Script Library Initialize (Database) Initialize (Database) PostOpen (Database)
Opening a database	[optional] Script Library Initialize Initialize PostOpen
Opening a view	[optional] Script Library Initialize Globals Initialize Initialize QueryOpen PostOpen
Refreshing a document	Postrecalc (Form)
Refreshing a view	QueryRecalc
Running an agent	[optional] Script Library Initialize Initialize Terminate [optional] Script Library Terminate
Saving a document	QuerySave (Form) onSubmit PostSave
Undeleting a document in a view	QueryDocumentUndelete (Database Script event)