Teamstudio Voices

Tags: Development

Did you catch my earlier post on UI?  It reminded me of my favorite shared column.  Why should you just display a paper clip in a view when the document has an attachment when you can add value by displaying what kind of attachment it has?   Try this formula and be sure to check Display values as Icons.

extList := ".ODS":".XLS":".ODF":".DOC":".ODP":".PPT":".NTF":".TXT":".MP3":".ZIP":".PDF";
ext := @UpperCase( @Right( @AttachmentNames; 4 ) );
choice := @Member( ext; extList );
@If( @Attachments > 5; 30:30;
        @Attachments > 1;150 + @Attachments;
        @Attachments = 0; 0;
        @If( choice = 0; 5; @Select( choice; 141;141;142;142;143;143;145;1;15;10;171) ) )

To add other icons, add the extension to the first line, and add the icon number to the last line.  Also note that in ND 8, the icons for the M$ products have changed to a generic icon, despite the documentation.  

Also note that if you want to modify the mail template, this column is copied to every folder, which needs to be modified separately.  And if you want help interpreting the formula, the first clause checks to see if the version of Notes is less than R4 - you can probably safely remove this clause along with its other clauses that start with the @IsAvailable( $ContentIcon) phrase.  You can then fit this @if into the remaining @If statement.

Posted by John Kingsley At 8:16 AM | Location: Beverly, MA | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Tags: Development

The good news is more people have access to Designer and can start making those small changes to their databases that have been bugging them for ever. The bad news is that now even Bob in accounting has access to Designer (no offense Bob).

Now, more than ever, developers need to be sure their data is secure. Remember, a ‘Hide when’ formula is not a security feature. Just right click on the document and show document properties. Fine, you say. I'll just hide the design and the list of fields isn't displayed. Still not a security feature.

I am not going to go into the details here, but think of a View with the first column categorized on a sensitive field like BirthDate, and be sure to not check the option to 'Don't show empty categories'. For real security, you need to encrypt the fields, or use Reader fields. Since a Reader field applies to the whole document, put that sensitive information on a 'daughter document' with appropriate Reader access.

We know Bob is a nice guy, but don't give him a head start down the wrong path.

Posted by John Kingsley At 1:43 PM | Location: Beverly, MA | Permalink | Comments (8) |      

Tags: Best Practice

The other day I was watching a football game.  Okay, it was the Patriots 59 to nothing blow-out in a snow storm.  I noticed that the graphic that showed the score had 3 yellow dots over each team’s name.  Later in the game I realized that these dots were not just part of the graphic.  They conveyed the all important information as to how many time outs each team had left.  Intuitively obvious to the casual observer.  

In contrast, I found myself completely confused by the graphic superimposed on the field showing what down it was and how many yards were needed to get a first down.  I found myself trying to make sense of the head or tail of the graphic.  It isn't where the ball is.  It isn't where they need to go.  It appears to be totally random.  Even though it is a really cool thing, instead of adding value it just added confusion.

Which reminds of the Notes application I was using recently.  I was looking for some information and couldn't find and couldn't even understand why I wasn't finding in.  Then I realized the first column of the view was categorized, the second column had information, and the third column was sorted.  So when I read the view from left to right, scrolling down the unsorted second column, nothing made sense.  

Who knew that you would have to explicitly state that a requirement for that application should be that the sort order of views made sense.  If the third column really needed to be sorted, it should be the first column after the categorized column.  Or sort the second column.  It makes it much easier for simple people like me to find stuff.

Posted by John Kingsley At 7:56 AM | Location: Beverly, MA | Permalink | Comments (9) |      

Tags: Hobbies Personal

No matter how fast or slow you run, when one of these songs comes on I guarantee you will change your pace to match.  In no particular order

     1. Mambo No. 5 by Lou Bega
     2. Candyman by Christina Aguilera
     3. Hanky Panky by Madonna
     4. Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne
     5. Chelsea Dagger by the Fratellis'

 And just for fun, any steel drum song because whenever that comes on, no matter where you are or what you're doing, you can't help but smile!  Happy trails!

Posted by John Kingsley At 1:38 PM | Location: Beverly, MA | Permalink | Comments (2) |      

Tags: Lotus Notes Developers Admins
Have you read your Database Catalog recently?

It really does make for a good read, and no spoiler alert because I am not going to reveal how it ends. I talk to a lot of companies these days that are trying to eliminate unneeded resources, and I mean disk space and servers, not people. But disk is cheap, so why should I care? Well, you know your storage array has some fault tolerance built into it which adds extra disk. And that cluster doubles the amount of disk you need. And you know all those things that run every night, like backup, or catalog? They have to look at those databases to see if they have changed. So unused databases are not really free. And as you plan to upgrade to 8.5.1, would you rather have to think about testing 20,000 databases or only 5,000 databases?


Have you read your Database Catalog recently

Posted by John Kingsley At 9:40 AM | Location: Beverly, MA USA | Permalink | Comments (4) |      

Tags: Hobbies Personal

Sorry, Michael, I keep my fitness regimen to distances under 4 miles - something I can do in a half hour.  Because that's all you have to do right?  Just enough fitness?  And to prove it, I ran a 5K race this weekend (3.1 miles).   And here are my tips for doing 'well' in a race.  Pick a 'first annual' race that no one has heard of - there won't be as many entrants.  Pray for bad weather (cold and rainy was what I got) so the sunshine runners won't show up.  And wait until a milestone birthday so you will be in a different age bracket.

But I have to tell you, those old people don't have to go to kids soccer games, so all they do is train.  So this was my first race in almost three years.   Because you have to stay healthy and avoid injuries (and hope your gym doesn't go bankrupt) in order to train.  So I found this race because it was near me.  The short version is I finished in 24 minutes, 52 seconds!   My wife was going to document my finish, and I said I wanted to break 25 minutes - I guess I was too fast and beat her to the end, so no pictures.   I came in 3rd in my age bracket, and 24th overall.   Never mind that there were 6 people in my age bracket and 90 runners total.  

So, Michael can have his triathlons - I'll stick to the short ones!  Happy trails!

Posted by John Kingsley At 9:28 PM | Location: Beverly, MA | Permalink | Comments (2) |      

Tags: Friends

It was my pleasure getting to know Rocky better and to work with him

So it is not good-bye, just catch you later.  In the time that Rocky was here at Teamstudio, I had the pleasure of working with him on several projects.  And even though I have been working with Notes since release 2, I learned some new things from Rocky about old stuff (we are always learning about the new stuff).  And I was able to teach Rocky a few things.  Okay, it was only mnemonic to remember the 9 most used letters in the alphabet, but in true Rocky fashion, he took it and came up with his own mnemonic.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to poke Rocky about his complete silence on season 8 of American Idol.  I mean, more people voted in the finals than voted in the last presidential election (since I said it on the internet, it must be true).  I was calling for a final between Adam and Allison, so I got that half right.  No matter what, I am sure we will hear from many of these contestants in the future.  

Anyway, if you see Rocky at a conference, you should ask him the most commonly used letters in the alphabet.

Posted by John Kingsley At 7:28 AM | Location: Beverly, MA | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Tags: Best Practice Techniques Conferences
Recently I commented on the Getting Things Done session at Lotusphere (BP304 - IBM Lotus Notes and Me: Maximizing Personal Productivity with Lotus Notes), over at the Governance for Notes blog. Well, I was one of the worst offenders. My inbox had over 150 UNREAD messages alone. Since that time, my inbox is empty every night when I leave, I have only 4 folders I put things in (isn't searching much easier?), and all those screen shots end up in my personal journal rather than cluttering up my desktop (and I am working greener too!). I now use the mail preview feature all the time (one less click) ( note to self - change the calendar invite to allow accepting in preview mode). The one aspect I haven't embraced is the To Do list, unless you count my calendar.

My aversion to lists goes way back. When my kids were little (they both own their own houses now, thanks for asking ), they had a series of stories with a toad and a frog. One of my favorites has the toad (or the frog) sitting by the side of the road and the frog (or toad) comes up and asks him what he is doing. The toad says he lost his To Do list. The frog says why don't you find it. The toad says I don't remember all the things on my list, but I am pretty sure finding the list was not one of them! This goes on for awhile and ends when the toad remembers one item on his list - go to bed. So, at 10 am, that is what he does.

Anyway, I don't know if I am getting things done any better than before, but at least my inbox is empty and I am trying to be more efficient. Incidentally, I will be at the View's Developer 2009 show (or the Admin 2009 if you prefer) in Boston, so stop by our booth and we can talk about it!

Posted by John Kingsley At 5:20 PM | Location: Flowery Branch, GA | Permalink | Comments (0) |