Advanced options for columns

The Name field displays a name assigned to the column for referring to the column in a script or formula. For columns that just display a field, the name is automatically assigned to match the field name. Other columns will have a unique value assigned which is represented with "$" followed by a number. You can edit this name to make it more descriptive, especially if you want to use the name to refer to the column elsewhere. Take care when renaming the column and keep the following in mind:

If you already have code that refers to the column by its name, changing that name will break the code.

If you already have code that refers to the column by its formula, changing its programmatic name with an existing field will break the code.

Avoid assigning the same name to two columns in the same view, as this will cause the same value to display in the columns even though their formulas may be different.

The column programmatic name is useful in the following contexts:

When programming the InViewEdit view event. For more information on this feature, see "Allowing users to edit or create documents from a view."

As the column argument to @DbLookup. We recommend using the column name, rather than number, in lookups, for better readability and to avoid breaking code when rearranging view columns.

A column may refer to the value in another column, by use of its column name in a formula. This can make your view more efficient by avoiding repeating a complex calculation. The referring column must be "after" the column referred to.

Some methods of the NotesDirectory class accept a column name as argument.

When creating a User defined column, the name of the column is the name of the profile document item that contains the formula for that column. If you rename the column, the new name must begin with "$" or the user-defined functionality will not work. Other than this, however, the column name does not need to start with "$".

You can locate the column in LotusScript® by means of the ItemName property of the NotesViewColumn class, or in Java™ by the ItemName property of the ViewColumn class.

You will need the programmatic name for the column to program the InViewEdit event that allows users to edit documents from the view. For more information on this feature, see "Allowing users to edit or create documents from a view."

If you first define a column using a simple function, then you create another column that depends on the value of the first, you must edit the programmatic name of the first column to something other than a dollar symbol ($) and a number. If you put $1 in a formula, it is evaluated to = the quantity/value of 1. If you put "$1" in the formula, it is treated as a string rather than a variable, field or column name.

For example, if the first column in the view is the author (simple function), with a programmatic name of $1 and you want the second column to display something based on the value in column 1, you can change the programmatic name of column 1 from $1 to $one and then refer to the new programmatic name in the formula for column 2. For example: @if($one = "Mary Stone/Acme";"READ THIS"; "ignore this")

The following column names assigned by simple functions are restricted -- that is, you cannot use their programmatic name in a formula: # in View column, Collapse/Expand, # Responses, or # Response levels.

Use a hide-when formula to hide a column based on conditions in place when the view first displays. For example, to hide a column from a particular user, click the Advanced tab on the Column Properties box, check "Hide column if formula is true," and enter formula:

@If(@Name([CN];@Username) = "John Smith")

Note that because the formula evaluates when the view first displays, a hide-when formula that matches a certain condition will fail if the condition is met subsequent to opening the view.

In Release 7 and earlier, the full width of a view could be filled with columns by selecting the view style option, "Extend last column to window width." Notes® 8 offers additional customization, allowing you to specify which column is extended to use the available window width. The column selection is not position dependent. If the column order is later revised, the selected column will remain selected.

To open a document from a view, Web users click a column that links to the document. By default, Domino® uses the leftmost column in a view as the linking column, but you can change this default by designing another linking column. After you set up customized linking, you cannot revert to Domino's default behavior -- you must continue to designate at least one linking column in that view.

Notes® 8 standard configuration offers the ability to display a view in a vertical (narrow) layout for the Personal Information Management (PIM) composite applications Mail, Calendar, and Contacts. In a vertical layout, the columns are adjusted to fit within the layout without scrolling. Columns can be displayed on two lines, with each column in the view designated as always being on the first row or potentially wrapped to the second row, or hidden in vertical layouts. A sequence number allows the designer to control the order in which columns are wrapped to the second row. The second row can also be indented, by designating a column on the top row under which the second row will be left justified.

Notes® 8 standard configuration offers the ability to display a view in a tiled layout for the Personal Information Management (PIM) composite applications Mail, Calendar, and Contacts. In a tiled layout, the information about each document that would normally appear as a line in the view is displayed as an individual tile within the screen space allocated for the view. For example, a view containing rows of contact information could be displayed as a series of business cards. The Tile ordering is horizontal then vertical, and only scrolls vertically. The tiles are all the same size. Each tile contains a beginning, header section, and an ending, attributes section.

The Composite Settings section of the Advanced tab of the Column properties lets you map properties to data available in specific columns.

With the support of composite applications, you can choose a property to be associated with a column and its data by selecting the name of that defined property. In composite applications, Web Services Description Language (WSDL) files (XML files) containing properties, actions, namespaces, and data types are used by components for component interaction in a composite application. A property name is the unique identifier stored as WSDL content in the application WSDL file. It is used as a programmatic identifier.

A property is a typed exchangeable data item which components can produce. All the components in a Composite Application share a single property broker which passes messages between the components. Notes® applications can publish and consume properties. Publishing involves sending a value to the property broker, for it to pass on to other components. Consuming a property means receiving information that another component published, and doing something with that information. Properties can be published at any time by LotusScript® code, or automatically when a view row is selected by associating a column with a publishable property; when the row selection changes, the data from that column is published.

Refer to the "Working with the Properties design element in Domino® Designer" topic in the "Composite Applications - Design and Management" section of this documentation for more detailed information. For general information on how properties and actions work in composite applications, refer to the topic "A closer look at component interaction" in the "Composite Applications - Design and Management" section.

Properties that are published by a component are called output properties. Properties that are consumed by a component are called input properties. An output property of one component can be an input property to other components.

The list of input and output properties available for a component is stored in the wiring properties design element. You can create wiring properties design elements by importing a WSDL file containing an XML description of the properties.

The Composite Settings section of the column properties advanced tab displays a drop-down list of all output properties defined in any of the composite properties design elements in this application. Input properties are not listed, because they cannot be published.

To specify a property to be associated with a particular column: