Seven things Lotus Notes must know

Author:It168Li Qian Compilation2009-01 1

 

Mention Lotus
Notes, there are always a variety of responses, from the question of "Lotus is still alive" to the affirmation of "Lotus is vital to applications. As an excellent enterprise collaboration application platform, Lotus has nearly 20 years of history. Surprisingly, there are still so many IT professionals wondering: What is notes/Domino? What are their purposes? How to add them to IT infrastructure.

Lotus Notes is like the Ginsu knife in application development. Whether slice or slice, whether cutting an apple or leather, it is convenient and practical. This extreme flexibility also means that it cannot be attributed to a single software product by definition or function, of course, it also means that for enterprises that use notes/Domino, it is not only a set of email systems. You can also use it to do more!

Your company may be using Lotus Notes/domino or considering purchasing and applying the platform. You must know the following seven things. Understanding these seven questions will help you make better use of this enterprise application platform.

1. NotesNot just email

Email is almost a standard tool for enterprise communication. Notes users spend a lot of time on emails. There seems to be endless debate over who is a better messaging system for Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange. In fact, such a comparison is meaningless.

If only Lotus
As an email tool, notes has more and better options. For example, download the open-source mail proxy tool Sendmail and the mail client Thunderbird to easily implement the email function. From a historical perspective, the Notes mail client is not the best, but Lotus Notes can provide more functions than the mail client, bringing more value to the Enterprise.

In addition to the email function, Lotus Notes is also an integrated full-featured application development platform. Enterprise Personnel integrate their document information, work processes, and application systems through the platform to achieve better commercial effects. As a document database management system, the most basic element of Lotus Notes is documents. Notes documents can contain both structured and unstructured content. Therefore, notes can store and manage relational database systems and various types of data that cannot be stored and managed by other database systems.

Lotus Notes integrates communication processing, document storage, and application development environments. It supports sharing various types of data between different computing platforms and networks, including the Internet; it also provides users with a large number of useful functions: processing complex texts and multimedia, full-text search, version control, document links, and so on. The latest version of notes expands these functions to process various information stored on the Internet. This means that users can easily create their own workflow applications through notes, such as a series of processes such as proposing new requirements, notifying relevant persons via email for approval, and automatically processing requirements after approval. Another example is that a fee approval application established on the notes platform allows users to submit the application fee. The system automatically submits the application to the corresponding superior for approval, and then notifies the accounting department of the corresponding amount to the user. There are countless examples of Notes applications.

2. NotesAnd Domino are powerful and open application development platforms

Most enterprise users do not want to be locked by a product or technology. With Caution, proprietary technologies may limit the company's future options for upgrading the platform or integrating with other platforms.

Applications developed based on notes can use a variety of open-standard technologies, such as JavaScript, HTML, Java, and Lotus script (a script language similar to VB ). As long as developers master one or more of the above technologies, they can quickly develop Notes applications and develop complex workflow applications in a very short time.

During the Notes application development process, developers use the client of the designer to construct and modify special parts of all Notes applications, such as forms, views, and proxies. You can preview and test applications through the Notes client or web browser for immediate feedback. To improve efficiency, you can get twice the result with half the effort. On the other hand, the easy-to-use interface of the designer may even make high-end developers frustrated by the simplicity of development. The latest version of Notes/Domino is based on Eclipse, which allows developers who are used to the eclips environment to more easily master the Notes development environment and develop high-quality applications.

 3. NotesIs the client, Domino is the server

Lotus, notes, Domino, and even notes/Domino... what is the correct name of the software? In fact, the full name of this software product provided by IBM is IBM Lotus Notes &
Domino. Lotus Notes refers to the Notes client, which is installed on your PC and used to access emails and Notes applications.

Domino is the server part of the Notes/Domino combination. It can run in various operating systems. When a user connects to the server through the Notes client to back up mail data, the Domino server is used to extract content from the user mail database. The Domino server is also responsible for controlling the logon and security of emails and application databases. The Domino server has a powerful security mode to control the security of accessing a single Notes document. Log on to the system based on the user's Notes ID, and implement database and network communication encryption technologies.

4. NotesA long history of backward compatibility

The most impressive feature of onotes is its backward compatibility between versions. A notes V1-based application developed in 1989 can run on the latest Notes version without any conversion or rewriting. The application mentioned here is not dedicated development to prove the backward compatibility of notes, but a legacy system application that can bring value to enterprises in the real world and no longer need to enhance any other functions. Few other software applications dare to promise their version compatibility like notes. This means that the investment for application development will continue to bring value for a long time in the future.

Generally, a Domino server migration task that includes installing and running the latest version can be completed within 15 minutes. All applications developed based on previous versions of notes can continue to run on the upgraded version without any conversion.

5.The copy function makes it easier for you to connect online and offline

Today, knowledge workers are no longer waiting in the office nine to five days later. They need to access relevant data and information at any time, whether or not they have available network connections. The Notes client can meet this requirement by copying mail and application data between the client and the server. This is the oldest and most valuable feature of notes.

Notes synchronizes data between the server and the client. The copy operation is performed locally, so two people can update different fields of the same file at the same time. The server will merge all updates. Yes, both changes can be displayed in the file. Notes users can copy their email files to their local laptops so that they can work offline. When they connect to the network again, all the changes will be copied to the server, and the mail will be automatically sent out. Replication applies to all the Notes databases and applications, not just emails.

6.Both the Notes client and Web browser can access the Notes application.

The flexibility of notes is also manifested in that the Notes application can be accessed either through the Notes client or through a web browser. Domino has a built-in HTTP server used to convert content based on traditional HTTP requests. Domino captures the design and data of the application and converts it to HTML that can be understood by the browser. This method can quickly migrate legacy internal applications to the Intranet or the Internet.

Because it can simultaneously provide a unified source of the Notes client and Web browser content, the investment in application development can get a return faster and give end users more flexibility.

7. NotesNo dead

Notes has been declared dead many times. When the Web appears, some people think that notes will be replaced by browsers. When Java becomes the latest popular development platform, many people think that notes will be replaced by the mature Java Enterprise Architecture. When Microsoft launched a popular collaboration feature in Sharepoint, someone once again predicted the demise of notes.

However, notes not only survived, but also grew stronger. A long time ago, when Internet applications became enterprise requirements, IBM added Web functionality to the Domino server. Java has also become one of the languages supported by the notes programming environment. Notes Domino 8 also adds the ability to build a composite application. That is to say, these applications allow developers to mix data and functions from both notes and non-Notes applications and integrate them into a composite application so that notes can be seamlessly connected to other applications. For example, you can integrate SAP applications and Notes applications to use and update data between the two platforms.

With the ever-accelerating demand for innovation, it is tempting to find a silver bullet that can solve all technical and business problems. Unfortunately, silver bullets do not exist. Rather than being dazzled by the latest technology, let's take a step back and ask yourself if you have effectively used the technology you already have. After learning about the above seven points, I learned that IBM's Lotus Notes & domino has long been far beyond the functions of email. As you have invested in it, you should do your best to make good use of this platform, obtain the largest return on investment.