Lotus notes code#

A Lotus Notes developer can design forms to display individual data records, and views to display whole sets of data. The databases themselves can be highly customized to present the data that is associated with them. All of these icons can be grouped together, so that the distinction between local and remote data becomes very trivial. A typical Notes client 'workspace' will have icons for a handful of local databases as well as a number of databases that reside on one or several Notes servers. The physical database files can be stored either on the workstation itself or on a server. The Lotus Notes client is a desktop application that organizes and displays databases on a user's local workstation.

Lotus notes code#

Besides data, a database can also contain modules of programming code that will perform background, scheduled, or on-demand tasks for a user. Individual users have their own e-mail databases, and different sets of users can share application databases that can display, add, or manipulate information. Because Notes has both a client and a server piece, users can use it to read and respond to e-mail, and administrators can use it as an entire e-mail environment.įor all practical purposes though, everything in Notes is a database. It has most or all of the features of the other popular e-mail products on the market, including calendaring and scheduling, and it uses standards-based mail protocols such as POP3 and SMTP. While this is not necessarily it's largest strength as a product, e-mail is probably the most recognizable component that it has. Unlike other application suites (like Microsoft Office) that split these pieces of functionality into separate products (like Outlook, Access, Front Page, etc.), Lotus Notes presents all of these components using a single front-end.įor many people, Lotus Notes is an e-mail system. Lotus Notes is an application suite that includes the following components: NOTE: in version 1.1 of this document, I also added a short entry at the end: What is a Notes Database? If you want a very technical description of some of the inner workings of Notes, try reading Inside Notes (if you can't find it there, search Google for insidenotes.pdf). I know it's not complete, but my intent was to provide a quick overview instead of a description of the entire feature set.Ī good overview of the Lotus Notes/Domino product is also available on the IBM website, in a document called ' The History of Lotus Notes and Domino'. Everyone will want to customize these descriptions based on their own knowledge, personality, and situation, but maybe it will give you a good starting point for understanding or explaining the application. I've written two different versions of this description: one for managers, and one for technical people. This is my attempt to give a slightly more complete description of the Lotus Notes product. Often times, these conversations are more heavily biased in one direction or another, and they are usually accompanied by certain amounts of huffing and puffing based on preconceived notions about various things, but that's pretty much it. I think I'll have to show you some sample applications.' That's what makes it such a powerful workflow application.' But it's packaged so that you don't see all those separate components individually.

'Then it's like Exchange, SQL Server, Access, Visual Basic, and IIS all wrapped together?' It's also got support for several programming languages, and a web server component that allows you to access the data from a web browser.' 'Okay, so how do I manipulate the data? Write an Access front-end or something?' 'Probably nothing you should worry about. It's more of a flattened data structure.' 'No, it's not a relational database system like those are. 'Okay, so it's like SQL or Oracle or something.' It's actually primarily a database system that happens to have built-in e-mail functionality.' 'Only in the sense that it's an e-mail system. A typical conversation will go something like this: What Is Lotus Notes? What Is Lotus Notes? by Julian Robichauxįor as long as I've been working with Lotus Notes, people have asked me, 'Just what the heck is Lotus Notes anyway?' That has always been a difficult question to answer, because there are no equivalent products to compare it to.