Nostalgia
I am sure most of you who started programming around the same time that I did (in the first few years of the 1980's) at one point carried something like this in your wallets:
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October 11, 2012
Things to think about when programming in Notes
Inspired by some of the posts in the DeveloperWorks forums and on StackOverflow, I thought I would post some more basic concepts and how I handle them. I am not saying my way is the best way, this is just what works for me. I am sure there will be more posts in the future"..." I will also mention a few other things I noticed while reading the code posted in the forums. Retrieve something that doesn´t exist The question is how to identify what dates there are no documents created for. This is where lists are very useful. Richard Schwartz answered this question and posted some good code. Rich suggests to create a list of dates, with each list item having an initial values of false, and then loop through the documents. As each document is processed, the value of the corresponding list item is changed from false to true. You can then go through the list and see which dates still have a value of false, those dates are missing documents. My version of the same code is to actually delete the list item you have a match for, instead if setting it to true. In the end you have a list of just the items of dates without a corresponding document. Write readable code This could be a blog entry all by itself. But I notice that much of the code in the DeveloperWorkds forums is hard to read"´". Partially because any tabs or multiple spaces used for indenting the code is stripped out, but also because the posters don´t write easy-to-read code. Variable names are often not descriptive: Dim db1 As NotesDatabase Dim db2 As NotesDatabase vs Dim thisdb As NotesDatabase Dim nabdb As NotesDatabase Which one is easier to understand? In my opinion (and I am sure you agree) the second variant. Also function names and other variables should be named so you understand what they do and what kind of data they contain. Comments are mostly non-existing. It is not that hard to add some comments to the code that explain what the code is doing. But don´t explain every line of actual code (it should be self-explanatory, if variables are named correctly), explain what a particular section of code is intended to do. Here is a section of code from an agent I wrote earlier this week: '*** Read PhotoUNID field in LossControl document'*** and build a list of the UNID values in the fieldphotoUNID = lcdoc.GetItemValue("PhotoUNID")(0)If photoUNID<>"" Then '*** Create array of values and put into photolist tmparray = FullTrim(Split(photoUNID,";")) ForAll t in tmparray If t <> "" Then photolist(t) = t End If End ForAll End If The comments above will help the next person to look at the code to quickly understand what it is intended to do. More on variables Use Option Declare/Option Explicit. This will find many errors, especially for more inexperienced programmers, where variables are misspelled or missing, something that is a very common…
October 4, 2012
Movie Review: Looper
Last night I went to see Looper. I had actually not heard much about it, but I looked it up online real quick and at least it sounded like a good premise for a movie. I have always enjoyed sci-fi, and especially time-travel. The premise is that Joe is a "looper", a contract killer in a near future (2044). About 30 years after that, time-travel has been invented, but declared illegal. So only the biggest crime syndicates have access to time-travel, and they use it to get rid of people. The send the victim back 30 years in time, bound and gagged with a hood over their heads. The looper promptly kills them and disposes of the body. The looper is paid with silver attached to the victim. Occasionally the future version of the looper is sent back, who kills his older himself. The is called "closing the loop". Joe (played by an excellent Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a looper. One day his future self (Bruce Willis) shows up, but promptly escapes. In the future, a new gangster boss, "The Rainmaker" has taken over, and he is closing the loop on all loopers. In doing so, the future Joe lost his wife, and he is now looking to prevent this by finding the young Rainmaker in the past and kill him. I truly enjoyed this movie, it was absolutely much better than I had expected, and it makes you think more than the average movie. The story is clever and it works. You see influences of both Back to The Future and The Terminator in the story, as well as to Carrie and X-Men (with the concept of telekinesis), but it all fits well into the story. I would highly recommend this movie. However, it´s not a movie for kids, due to violence (and for sensitive Americans, some nudity).
September 29, 2012
Are inexperienced developers the death of Notes?
Lately I have been more active in the IBM DeveloperWorks forums, as well as on StackOverflow, trying to help people with development problems. As I am just myself starting with Xpages, I been staying in the forums for "classic" Notes development. I have noticed a trend, based on the postings. It seems like there is a substantial number of new developers who are not very familiar with Notes/Domino development. They sometimes think Domino works like a relational database. There are then several who are posting about very simple things, that can easily be found in the online help, or by looking at the properties for an element. Like how to extend the last column in a view to use all available space. There was even one user asking about how to duplicate a specific @Formula in Lotusscript, when the help file got a cross reference to the class and method to use… There are others who does not seem to even understand the basics, either when it comes to programming in general or specifically of Notes/Domino. Some of them don't understand data types. They declare a variable as integer, then make a calculation that results in a value of say 3.5, and is then wondering why the result is 4. Others don't understand the difference between strings and variables, they are surprised when @SetField("myField"; "myField + 1") does not give them the expected result (the value in the field ‘myField’ increased by one). On StackOverflow it is possible to see what other areas the user posted in. Some of the users seems to have a background in Java, SQL, .NET or other platforms. My guess is that they been thrown into a Notes projekt after their company took on a new development project, with the hope that they could learn it quickly. I think this could be dangerous, from some of the code I have seen, the lack of experience and understanding of the Notes/Domino platform will cause sub-standard or slow code, which of course will make executives think that Notes is a bad development platform. After all, if the expensive consulting company (or the off-shore based development house with all developers being at least Ph.D.) can't write fast and good code, the platform must be at fault, right? Another thing I noticed over the last year or so is that in the Notes-related groups on LinkedIn, there has been a number of requests for the answers to the IBM certification tests. They have originated from both some big consulting companies and from within IBM. None of them were from the US (or Europe, if I remember correctly), but from countries more traditionally associated with outsourced or "off-shore" development. My guess is that the companies want their developers to be certified on paper, as they can either charge higher rates, or pass themselves off as being “experts” on the platform. A number of the questions in the DeveloperWorks forums were posted under names that often are associated with the same…
September 11, 2012
Neil Armstrong dies at age 82
Neil Armstrong. The first man on the moon. Speaker at Lotusphere 2007 (where I took the picture above). Self-proclaimed geek. I always loved reading about space growing up, and I read everything from sci-fi to real stories. One of my favorites was Carrying the Fire: An Astronauts Journey by Michael Collins (the third Apollo 11 astronaut), which I read in Swedish translation (as I was just 7 or 8 years old at the time). So when Neil Armstrong stepped up on stage at the 2007 Lotusphere Opening General Session, that was the coolest speaker ever. And he was not just another celebrity, he was interesting and funny. My favorite quote was this (as far as I rememeber): The scientists came up with an experiment to measure the distance from Earth to the moon, using a laser. But in order to do that, they needed a mirror placed on the lunar surface. I was the service technician tasked to put the mirror there. Best speaker ever, and with Lotusphere being renamed to Connect, he will keep that title forever.
August 25, 2012
Review: Samsung Galaxy S3
Last Thursday I got the Samsung Galaxy S3 I pre-ordered back in the beginning of June, and I have now been playing with it for a few days. There are of course other reviews (mainly of the international version) and overviews of the phone, so I will not list all the features and functions here. As I am in the US, I received the North American version. It differs from the international version in that it has a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor and 2GB system memory, instead of the Samsung’s own processor Exynos 4 Quad and 1 GB memory. This is due to the latter processor not supporting the North American LTE networks. With this phone I am also moving from the Blackberry platform to Android. I have been looking forward to getting a nice big screen and a more powerful phone, but at the same time my biggest fear was the on-screen keyboard. The times when I have been using an iPhone or played with older Android phones in the store, I did not feel like I would be able to type as fast as with the Blackberry’s excellent physical keyboard. I am coming from the Blackberry Bold 9700, with OS 5. The phone is about 2 years old, and originally came with OS 4. After I upgraded, the phone became more and more sluggish, and I constantly ran out of memory, in certain applications as well as when browsing the web. The GPS started taking longer and longer to get a fix, it could take me 2-3 minutes (if it even got the position) if I was indoors. The screen on the blackberry is also tiny compared with today’s phones, even if it was a very good screen when it came out. So it was about time for me to get something more modern. I was very pleasantly surprised with the keyboard on the Samsung Galaxy S3. As soon as I started typing, the correct text came out. The predictive text works very well, as long as I use English. I know there are other keyboards (like Swiftkey 3 that Mitch Cohen blogged about last week) where I can set different languages, so that is not a big deal right now. The 4.8 inch Super AMOLED screen is just gorgeous, and features a resolution of 720x1280 pixels. The internal memory in my phone is 16GB (32GB and 64GB models are also available or coming soon). The memory can be expanded using microSD cards up to 64GB, and in some markets customers get a free 50GB DropBox account. My carrier, AT&T, opted out of this promotion. I already use DropBox, SugarSync, SkyDrive and Google Drive, so after downloading clients for those services, I can now easily transfer my pictures to my cloud storage of choice. Just like on the Blackberry, and most other smart phones, the Galaxy S3 has several screens where I can place widgets, icons for applications, and folders containing additional icons. This way it is easy…
June 24, 2012
Irony: FunnyJunk lawyer criticizing the same actions as his client engage in
In a blog entry from 06/23/2010, Charles Carreon (the lawyer who is suing The Oatmeal), posts about the outcome of the case Viacom vs. Google. Youtube, owned by Google, allowed their users to upload copyrighted material, and they then benefited financially from this through the sale of ads on the site. Exactly the same activity that his client FunnyJunk engages in. As that blog entry in retrospect is somewhat embarrassing for Mr Carreon, he took that down. But since the internet never forgets, Google still got the page cached. Some interesting quotes: If Google can generate ad revenue by taking in every kind of content without distinction, and make money on the infringing attractions, then Google can “work the float,” and always have enough infringing content to keep its blood pressure up at the expense of copyright holders. The only way that content owners can act proactively is by implementing digital “fingerinting technology” through the “Claim Your Content” system that Google uses as its only screening mechanism. Fingerprinting your content is not, however, cheap. … Please don’t take me for a copyright hawk, but this seems like a ruling that benefits a company that has made a habit of turning other people’s work into their payday, and is being encouraged to keep on doing it. Here is an image of the page as well, as retrieved from Google this morning: Click image for larger/high resolution version. Source: Google cache Disclaimer: The blog entry is reproduced under “fair use”.
June 16, 2012
How to make enemies (and a fool of yourself) on the internet
This last week we have seen two high profile examples of how you can screw up and make a total idiot of yourself on the internet. With social networks like twitter and Facebook, news spread quickly, and if it is perceived that there is something unfair going on, expect furious people to share it. When you or I, with perhaps a couple of hundred Facebook friends and twitter followers, post about it, it will still spread, but slowly. But when people like Jamie Oliver (2.5 million followers) or Neil Gaiman (1.7 million followers) tweet about it, things start spreading like wild fire. The first example is The Case of The Thief Suing His Victim. Most of you are probably familiar with the online cartoon The Oatmeal. Matthew Inman, the guy behind all the funny cartoons, complained a year ago that a website called FunnyJunk was full of his drawings. FunnyJunk allow their users to post material (from a quick glance it looks like a large part of the contents is copyrighted material), and then when complaints are sent to them just blame the users, while cashing the checks for all the advertising on the site. Matthew blogged about FunnyJunk doing this about a year ago, and described their business model: Here's how FunnyJunk.com's business operates: 1.Gather funny pictures from around the internet 2.Host them on FunnyJunk.com 3.Slather them in advertising 4.If someone claims copyright infringement, throw your hands up in the air and exclaim "It was our users who uploaded your photos! We had nothing to do with it! We're innocent!" 5.Cash six figure advertising checks from other artist's stolen material Last week, Matthew was served with papers, demanding him to pay FunnyJunk $20,000 or be sued. FunnyJunk had hired Charles Carreon as their lawyer, who wrote that letter. Matthew responded publicly here: http://theoatmeal.com/blog/funnyjunk_letter I highly suggest reading the whole thing. It is extremely amusing. So Matthew sets up a fundraiser. Not to raise money to pay off FunnyJunk, but to split even between the National Wildlife Federation and the American Cancer Society. He raised the $20,000. In 64 minutes! The amount collected by "Operation BearLove Good. Cancer Bad." is currently at $169,000. However, the lawyer, Charles Carreon, is trying to shut down the fund raiser, according to MSNBC. He is also complaining that he was not expecting an outpour of hate and people being upset at him, or having his mom accused trying to seduce a Kodiak bear (the drawing is supposed to be of the mom of the FunnyJunk admin/owner, not the lawyer, by the way). Very strange that someone who market himself as a cyber attorney is so clueless to how the internet works. He should lookup the Streisand effect, as well. Even other lawyers chime in. The law-blog PopeHat.com uses some strong words: So, The Oatmeal tried to turn this into something good ?something that would benefit wildlife protection and cancer research ?and Charles Carreon had a snit and tried to shut it down because…
June 15, 2012
Regular Expressions in Notes (Lotusscript)
Today I needed to use regular expressions (a.k.a. regexp) in a Lotus Notes application. I just wanted to check if the user entered a claim number (in the format "nnXXXXXnnnnn", e.g. 12RICTX12345) in a field. A quick online search found a blog entry with some code using the VBScript object available in Windows, and I adapted it for my application. Just in case someone need this, I am posting the code below. I am not taking credit for the code, I found it on Giles Hinton´s blog and just adapted it a little bit. I also found information about using LS2J and Java to handle regular expression in Notes, which should be platform independent, not restricted to just Windows. Since all our users are on Windows (either directly or through Citrix), I could use the quick method below. But I would probably use the script library posted on OpenNTF for more serious code. Dim ws As New NotesUIWorkspace Dim uidoc As NotesUIDocument Dim regex As Variant Dim pattern As String Dim result As String Dim match As Boolean '*** Define pattern and get text value to check for match pattern = |b([0-9]{2}[a-zA-Z]{5}[0-9]{5})b| Set uidoc = ws.CurrentDocument subject = uidoc.FieldGetText("ShortDescription") '*** Create RegExp object Set regex = CreateObject("VBScript.Regexp") regex.Global = True regex.IgnoreCase = True regex.Pattern = pattern '*** Test for match of pattern in text match = regex.Test(subject) If match = True Then Msgbox "Claim number was found in the field." End If
May 29, 2012
Review: LEGO Lord of The Rings
This weekend I spent with my son building some of the new LEGO kits from the new Lord of The Rings series. Here is a quick review of the kits we have built this far. You can click on the images for high-res versions of them. 9469 Gandalf Arrives – 83 pieces A small but nice set. Contains Gandalf in his cart loaded with fireworks, as well as Frodo welcoming him. Plenty of nice details, like the fireworks, a carrot for the pony and an envelope for Frodo to put the ring in. 9472 Attack on Weathertop – 430 pieces This is a very nice set. It contains five minifigs: Aragorn, Frodo (with the ring), Merry and two Nazgûl (ringwraiths), as well as two horses. The three first minifigs have a feature I have not seen before, they have two sets of faces. By turning the head and exposing the part hidden by the hair, you get two different facial expression, like stern and aggressive or scared. The Frodo minifig in 9460 got the same feature, but not Gandalf as the back of his head is visible. All the minifigs are extremely detailed, it is obvious that the designers of the kits realized that collectors and adults will buy these kits. The kit itself is of the ruins on top of Weathertop (Amon Sûl), and it features a trap door and a cooking fire. The ruins can be opened and in the inside you find weapons, toches and much more. Even a rat! There is also a stand-alone pieved of ruin with a bush and some plants. The plants are the only thing I did not like with the kit. For some reason, perhaps the kind of softer plastic used, they don’t stick well to the bricks they are placed on. But that is a minor detail, otherwise this is a great kit. 9473 The Mines of Moria – 776 pieces This is a big set, the second largest in the series, and it depicts the events in the Chamber of Mazarbul. It contains six minifigs (Gimli, Legolas, Boromir, Pippin and two Moria orcs), as well as the cave troll. There are four separate sections, a large wall section, the doors to the chamber, the well with the skeleton and the chain and bucket, as well as Balins tomb, containing the skeleton of Balin. By pulling a lever, the skeleton, bucket and chain will fall down in the well, just like in the book and movie. There are plenty of details, from old weapons to gems and even the Book of Mazarbul. 9476 The Orc Forge – 363 pieces This is currently my son’s favorite kit. It features a light brick, so when a rod is pushed, it looks like fire under the melting pot. In addition, there are four minifigs: Lurtz, two Mordor orcs and one Uruk-hai. To be really picky, Lurtz was created by Sauron, just like the Uruk-hai, so there should not…
May 27, 2012
35 years ago in a galaxy far, far away…
May 25, 1977. Imagine it has been 35 years"..." When the first movie (then called just "Star Wars", later renamed "Episode IV ?A New Hope") was released in Sweden, the age restriction was set to 11 years. With a parent you were allowed to see it even if you were younger. I was 8 years old, but my parents did not want to go see it. It was not until "Episode VI ?The Return of The Jedi" was released in 1983 that I actually got to see the two first movies. They were shown back-to-back with a short break in-between, and a few days later the last movie premiered. I had of course read the book that was released around the time the original Star Wars came out, so I was familiar with the story even before watching the movie. As a young boy, I really enjoyed the movies, and I still do. I recently watched "Episode I ?The Phantom Menace" in 3D. I am however slightly irritated at George Lucas and how he keep changing the movies"..." From Wikipedia: Star Wars debuted on Wednesday, May 25, 1977, in 32 theaters, and eight more on Thursday and Friday. It immediately broke box-office records, effectively becoming one of the first blockbuster films, and Fox accelerated plans to broaden its release. Star Wars remains one of the most financially successful films of all time. The film earned $1,554,475 through its opening weekend, eventually earning over $220 million during its initial theatrical run. Star Wars entered international release towards the end of the year, earning $410 million in total. Reissues in 1978, 1979, 1981 and 1982 brought its cumulative gross in Canada and the U.S. to $323 million, and extended its global earnings to $530 million. Following the release of the Special Edition in 1997, Star Wars briefly reclaimed the North American record before losing it again the following year to Titanic. In total, the film has earned $775,398,007 worldwide (including $460,998,007 in North America alone). Adjusted for inflation, it has earned $2.5 billion worldwide at 2011 prices, making it the most successful franchise film of all-time; at the North American box-office it ranks second behind Gone with the Wind on the inflation-adjusted list.
May 24, 2012
Lord of The Rings LEGO
Today I got the final delivery of the new Lord of The Rings LEGO I purchased the other day. The kits I got were: The Mines of Moria Gandalf Arrives The Orc Forge Attack on Weathertop Uruk-hai Army Shelob Attacks The one I am still missing is The Battle of Helm's Deep, but I plan to get it shortly. I have a very excited 11 year old son who can't wait to come over this weekend and build with me. :-)
May 24, 2012
Lotusscript Code – HTML retrieval class
I saw a question in the DeveloperWorks forum about retrieving a web page (in this particular case in order to get some data out of it), and realized that I never posted my HTML retrieval class... So without further ado, here it is. It should be fairly self-documenting... Create a new object, then call the GetHTTP method with a URL to get a string representing the HTML code of that URL. This is Windows only, by the way. Class RemoteHTML Private httpObject As Variant Public httpStatus As Integer Public Sub New() Set httpObject = CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP") End Sub Public Function GetHTTP(httpURL As String) As String Dim retries As Integer retries = 0 Do If retries>1 Then Sleep 1 ' After the two first calls, introduce a 1 second delay betwen each call End If retries = retries + 1 Call httpObject.open("GET", httpURL, False) Call httpObject.send() httpStatus = httpObject.Status If retries >= 10 Then httpStatus = 0 ' Timeout End If Loop Until httpStatus = 200 Or httpStatus > 500 Or httpStatus = 404 Or httpStatus = 0 If httpStatus = 200 Then GetHTTP = Left$(httpObject.responseText,16000) Else GetHTTP = "" End If End Function End Class
May 23, 2012
How IBM could make my life a little easier
Dear IBM, I like that I now can use database icons with more than 16 fixed colors. I have updated pretty much all our applications (or is it called databases again?) with new and modern looking icons. The users likes it too. However, with the old icon editor,it was easy to use the flood-fill tool to add a (in my case red) background to all templates. This made it very easy to differentiate between applications and templates. There is no option like that when I use the new database icons, I have to make a second icon in Photoshop and manually re-color it. Why not add some kind of indicator to the application icon, to show that it is a template? Below is my attempt to design something. You see the red indicator that it is a template, you see the version number of the template and the server at the bottom is alwasy visible, as it is in a section of it's own. As you see above, I use version numbers on my templates. Would it be too much to ask for a version number property and have the version number displayed on at least the template icon, like I have in my image above? The version number should be transferred over to the application at design refresh time. The build number could be automatically updated when a "Recompile All Lotusscript" is performed, or automatically when any design element is modified and the build number has not been updated the same day already. A fully manual option shold also be available. How the build number gets updated should be an option in the settings for Domino Designer. Of course, you need to create a way to access the version number programatically. Something like this: Dim version as NotesVersionNumberSet version = db.VersionNumberPrint version.Major ' Returns 1 Print version.Minor ' Returns 3 Print version.Revision ' Returns 0 Print version.Build ' Returns 1234 Print version.FullVersion ' Returns "1.3.0.1234" A formula function like @AppVersionNumber would be nice as well. Thank you, Your friend Karl-Henry
May 17, 2012
YUI3: Powerful Javascript Framework
Last week I came up with a small side project. It was basically a simple web chat, working pretty much like the comments on a blog. I decided to build this as a classic Domino application, not using Xpages. I started development Wednesday mid-afternoon, and the application needed be done Thursday evening, and I of course had my regular job to do. So I could not justify spending the time I needed to learn doing it in Xpages, and then try to write CSS to get it to look like I wanted it. So there you have the reason for why I did not use Xpages. I decided to take a look at YUI, the framework developed by Yahoo. The latest version is version 3, and it is really nice and powerful. I looked into in, and realized that I could do things very quickly, getting the same functionality as using Xpages (partial refresh or page, etc) in just a few lines of code. So what did I need for my application? I started with a blank Notes database. I created a page, which is where all the action would take place. On the page I created a header section (logo), a content section (where the messages/chat would be displayed) and a form section where I put a few fields for the users to fill out. The fields were name/handle, email, (optional) website and lastly the message to send. I also put two images there, one to use as a submit button, and one to refresh the chat content without having to submit a text. I added some javascript at the top of the page, loading YUI3 (hosted by Yahoo, I did not even have to download anything): <script src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/3.5.1/build/yui/yui-min.js"></script> The next step was to add some code for the actual logic on the page. YUI works by binding functions to events on elements on the page. I wanted to bind function functions to the onClick event of the two buttons, "submit" and "refresh". To avoid this blog entry to be too long, I will just show the code behind the refresh button: Y.one('#refresh').on('click', function(e) { e.preventDefault(); var contentcell = Y.one("#contentCell"); if (contentcell) { var currentTime = new Date(); Y.one('#refresh').set('src','webchat.nsf/ajax-loader-150.gif'); var args = &refresh=true&datetime=" + currentTime.getTime(); contentcell.load("webchat.nsf/SendText?OpenAgent" + args,"", function() { Y.one('#refresh').set('src','webchat.nsf/refresh.png'); } ); } }); This code gets a reference to the first element with the id "refresh" using Y.one(), then bind a function to the "click" event. The function is defined right there, and it will do a couple of things. First it get a reference to the element (in this case a DIV) with the id "contentCall". I check if it was found, and if so I get the current time (get a unique number). I then change the image of the refresh element to a spinning "loading" icon. The next line is the coolest one. In one line of code I perform an Ajax call to an agent on the Domino server, and put the returned data into the contentcell element. Finally, after the server…
May 15, 2012
Notes/Domino future roadmap survey results
Yesterday I created a simple survey to see what people wanted in a future version of Notes/Domino. It was based onEd Brill's post, where he summarized the result of the comments to his request for suggestions on what areas to focus future development of Notes/Domino. I think the results speak for themselves. But with 74 survey takers, more than two in three want the client performance to be improved, and almost as many want the limitations (32K/64K) removed and teh Notes cleint UI modernized. Rewriting all templates using Xpages and match the templates delivered with Sharepoint was another popular feature, as well as better documenattion and a more stable Domino Designer. I think the 52% who voted on improving Domino NSF performance mainly were thinking about faster indexing, and moving view index to separate drives, outside the NSF file itself. The "other" answers were: * Make Connections free * Create an AppStore for Domino applications * Make Deployment easier, as easy as outlook * Solve the known bugs * Enhance Linux support Update: There are still responses coming in, I will update the result as more results come in.
May 9, 2012
Ed Brill: Notes/Domino future roadmap workshop
The other day, Ed Brill invited comments on what IBM should focus on in regard to improvements for upcoming versions of Notes and Domino. Today he posted a chart showing the result: I used that chart as a base for a simple survey using SurveyMonkey. Feel free to fill it out. Let's see what that survey will show...
May 7, 2012
[Code] – Mail Merge/Form Letters in Lotuscript
Back in 2003 or so, I wrote some code to take a form letter (stored in a Notes document) and merge that with data stored in another Notes document in order to create a personalized letter that could be printed or emailed. Back then we were still on Notes 5, so very limited rich text functionality and no budget to purchase Ben's excellent Midas LSX. The end result worked, but any formatting in the form letter template was lost. Eventually we upgraded to Notes 7 and later to Notes 8.5. Now I had much more rich text functionality to play with, so I rewrote the code as a class. I added some additional functionality, like formatting values using a mask, and some lookup functionality. The class support all kind of formatting in the form letter template, including fonts, colors, tables, graphics, etc. This is what a typical form letter look like: As you can see, the placeholders are using curly brackets to hold either a field name or a command. The commands are indicated by the percent sign (%). There can also be different arguments, for formatting, lookup into the NAB/Domino Directory, etc. I even have functionality to present a nice dialog box where the user can pick recipient from a list of everyone associated with the claim (as this is from a claim system used by an insurance company). Here is a description of the syntax for the placeholders: {fieldname} Displays the content of the specified field from the selected source document. Additional (optional) formatting arguments can be used, for example to format values to desired format. By using the argument LOSSNOTICE or SOURCE="LOSSNOTICE" the value of the field is retrieved from the Loss Notice instead of the current source document, e.g. {adjuster LOSSNOTICE}. Use the argument SELECTED to get the fields name, address, city, state, zip, email, SSN and DoB for the recipient selected in the separate dialog box. {email SELECTED} will return the email address for the recipient selected, either producer, insured or one of the claimants. The optional argument NABFIELD will retrieve the value of the specified field from the NAB for the user specified in the field (field must be spelled exactly as in the NAB design): {Adjuster NABFIELD="JobTitle"} will return the title of the person in the 'Adjuster' field. {%DATE} Displayes the current date. Default format is mm/dd/yyyy but the FORMAT argument can be used to change the value into desired format. The old {%DUS}, {%DUT}, etc have been removed and must be replaced with the new format, as they don't work. Examples of date formats: FORMAT="mmmm d, yyyy" -> March 3, 2010 FORMAT="yyyy-mm-dd" -> 2010-03-01 FORMAT="mmmm yyyy" -> March 2010 {%TIME} Displayes the current time. Default format is hh:nn:ss (24h universal format) but like with the date, the FORMAT argument can be used to change the value into desired format. Note that minutes use the letter N, not M (which is used for month)! The old {%TUS}, {%TUT}, etc have been removed and must be replaced with the new…
May 4, 2012
Samsung Galaxy S3 released – Will it live up to the hype?
Yesterday Samsung presented the new Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone in London. Samsung had been very secretive about the new phone, and speculations on the internet were wild. Some of the rumors were true, while some were not. So will this be an iPhone contestor? I think so, for anyone who look at functionality, technology, etc. For anyone content with the iOS experience and being locked into the Apple eco-system, I am sure the next iPhone will be the given choice. The predecessor, Galaxy S2, have been a big success for the company who recently took the title of biggest phone manufacturer in the world. Early reviews of the S3 have been mainly positive. The main complain is the plastic case, which makes the phone seem cheaper. There were rumors about aluminum or ceramic cases, but that did not end up being the case (pun intended). The phone got impressive specifications, with a huge 4.8" screen (720x1280 pixel), quad-code Exynos 4 processor (at least for the European/international 3G model, the US 4G LTE model is rumored to get a dual code Snapdragon S4 instead), 1GB RAM, up to 64GB internal storage and expandable up to 64GB more though SD card. The camera is alos a little bit of a disappointment, instead of the rumored 12MP it ended up being 8MP, but with some nice functionality like burst mode and automatic selection of the best picture. The battery has a 2100mAh capacity, better than the S2 but with the faster and more power hungry processor, it will be interesting to see real numbers on how long the phone actually lasts. NFC (near field communication) and proximity sensors are other interesting features. The proximity sensor allows the phone to detect that it is lifted to the user's ear, and if a text message is curently being viewed, the phone understand that the user want to dial the person and dial automatically. There is also voice control, similar to Apple's Siri, and the front camera use eye tracking to detect when a user is looking at the screen. That means that if you are reading a long text, you don't have to touch teh screen every 20 seconds to keep it from dimming/turning off, the phone know you are looking at it and keep it on until you look away. The phone supports a number of formats for audio and video, including MP3, AAC, Flac, OGG, Divx, WMV, etc. It also supports full 1080p recording and playback thorugh an external HDMI-adapter. Another interesting option is a wireless charging station. Availability: In Europe on May 27 and in the US "this summer", with a end-of-June date hinted at. Price has not been released, but it is expected to be $299 on a 2-year contract with US carriers, and $700 without contract. It will be interesting to see how it compare to an upcoming iPhone 5, rumored to be released after the summer. Currently the Galaxy S3 looks like the phone to get, especially if you want an Android based…
May 4, 2012
Ubuntu 12.04 to be released tomorrow
The next version of the Linux distribution Ubuntu is scheduled to be available for download tomorrow, April 26. Ubuntu 12.04 will be a so called LTS (Long Term Support) version, which means that it will be supported longer than the regular versions. For 12.04 the support will last for five years, both for the server and the desktop version. Previous LTS-releases were supported for five years for the server version, but only three years for desktop. Non-LTS-releases are supported for 18 months after release. Ubuntu 12.04 is using version 3.2 of the Linux kernel. Below is a list of other changes, taken from the Ubuntu website: New Applications and Defaults The default music player has been switched to Rhythmbox, which again includes the UbuntuOne music store. LibreOffice has been updated to 3.5.1. Interface updates The System Setting's "Appearance" panel now allows users to easily configure some properties of Unity. Nautilus quicklist support has been added to Unity launcher. There is a new way to quickly search and access any desktop application's and indicator's menu, called the "HUD". Tap the Alt key and enter some letters and words, and it will show the corresponding entries, including some fuzzy matching. Press enter to execute the action. This one is executed on the current focused application as well as all indicator facilities (like managing emails, sound list, quit…). Also it learns from your previous choices to make the search more and more accurate for you. ClickPad support ClickPad devices are trackpads where the physical button is integrated into the trackpad surface. Ubuntu Precise now has enhanced support for these devices. When the button is pressed on a ClickPad device, a second finger may be used to drag the cursor. ClickPad support requires extra handling that conflicts with "Click Action" support. Click Actions allow for separate actions when multiple fingers are active on a trackpad. The default Ubuntu settings enable right button behavior when two fingers are in contact with the trackpad surface and the physical trackpad button is pressed. Because of conflicting behavior, ClickPad devices do not support Click Actions in this release. Most Synaptics brand ClickPads are recognized out of the box. Apple MacBook trackpads are recognized as well. Support for Apple Magic Trackpads and more Synaptics brand ClickPads will follow in the next release. Ubuntu One All new Control Panel provides an installer, setup wizard, ability to add/remove folders to sync, and more Proxy support is now fully functional Ubuntu One music store in Rhythmbox Ubuntu One contacts sync has been removed Nautilus ribbon with enable sync check box has been removed Other Until Ubuntu 11.10, the Unix group for administrators with root privileges through sudo had been admin. Starting with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, it is now sudo, for compatibility with Debian and sudo itself. However, for backwards compatibility, admin group members are still recognized as administrators. Automatic Apport crash reporting now checks for duplicates on the client side, which will avoid uploading debug data and creating Launchpad bug reports unnecessarily in…
April 25, 2012