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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.
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.
Creating navigation
Every application needs to include a way to navigate from one place to another. You add navigation to an application using:

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 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.
    - Overview -- applications and databases
      A major new enhancement in Notes® 8 is the support for composite applications, a key element within service oriented architecture (SOA) and contextual collaboration strategy. Using HCL Domino® Designer, developers can extend Notes applications to be Notes components in composite applications. A composite application can include any combination of Notes components or Eclipse components. The ability to combine multiple technologies into a single application provides significant business value: It enables companies to protect and extend their existing assets with increasing degrees of flexibility, and to respond quickly and cost effectively to their emerging business requirements, with applications that are significantly easier to assemble than alternative application development environments.
    - Starting Domino® Designer
      There are three ways to start Domino® Designer from the Notes® client:
    - Exploring Domino® Designer
      Building a great application requires the correct tools. You can think of Domino® Designer as your workshop -- it contains all the tools you need to build a powerful application. Before you start building, examine the work area.
    - Creating a database
      There are three ways to create a database:
    - Displaying, collecting, and storing information
      How you display, collect, and store information is an important part of any application. The design elements you use to accomplish these tasks are:
    - Organizing your data
      You organize the documents in your database using:
    - Creating navigation
      Every application needs to include a way to navigate from one place to another. You add navigation to an application using:
    - Structuring your display
      For an application interface to be intuitive and efficient, it must make good use of the user's screen. One way for a designer to accomplish this is to use framesets.
    - Adding automation
      Adding automation to an application can speed up repetitive tasks, route documents, update information, perform calculations, run programs, and check for errors.
    - Sharing, locking, and editing design elements
      Notes® is a powerful tool because it helps developers work collaboratively. Domino® Designer enhances team work by enabling developers to:
    - Autosaving Notes® documents
      Autosave is a Notes® Client feature by which Notes documents are automatically saved to a local database at regularly scheduled times determined by the user. If Notes crashes, or if the user loses power, the user can recover the work that was done prior to the crash or power loss.
    - Extending access to applications
      Domino® applications are easily accessible to outside tools both during the design process and after application completion and deployment.
    - Communicating across platforms
      Domino® data can be shared across platforms because HCL Domino supports two of the most widely used, multiple platform technologies:
  - 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:
  - 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 navigation

Every application needs to include a way to navigate from one place to another. You add navigation to an application using:

Outlines
Navigators

When you create a new database from a blank template, Domino® Designer provides a default navigation structure called the Folder pane (sometimes called the Navigation pane). The Folder pane displays all the shared views and folders in the database. It displays on the left pane of the Notes® client and at the beginning of a browser window. You can choose to use this navigation structure or design a different one.

Outlines

You can create an outline to customize the Folder pane of an application. An outline is the skeleton of your application: each outline entry represents a key piece of the application. An outline can include background graphics, custom icons, links, or actions. When the outline is embedded on a page or form, users can click on the outline entries, which take them where you want them to go. The process of creating a navigation structure with an outline involves three steps:

Create a new or default outline and create an outline entry for each piece of the application you want to include in the navigation structure or site map.
Embed your outline on a form or page.
Format the display of the embedded outline. You can put the page or form in which the outline is embedded into a frameset if you choose.

You can also use an outline to plan your application before you create any design elements.

An outline can not be used as a component in a composite application, but an outline embedded in a frameset can be used as a component, when the frameset is used as a component.

For more information, see Designing Outlines.

Navigators

Navigators are graphical road maps that direct users to specific parts of a database. They let users find documents or take actions without having to open views. Navigators are like image maps. You can create hotspots on a graphic that take the users to links within or outside of your application. You can embed navigators on forms or pages. Navigators can take the place of the folder pane or work in conjunction with it.

Navigators can be used as components in composite applications.

For more information, see Designing Navigators.