Anyone able to help me add an action to DWA?

This is my first attempt at customizing DWA, so please excuse me if I am asking something stupid here.

I have read the redpaper “DWA 7 Customization”, and have followed it as much as possible through the sample exercise where they add an “Account” form and associated action.

This is very similar to the task I am trying to achieve.

I have successfully added the action to the “New” menu action button (albeit, it only displays an alert at this time).

I have used Domino Designer to create the new custom form in the mail template, and refreshed my mail database design (all works ok).

I have added a FormsMap mapping document to forms8.nsf as instructed (using the correct values).

I have created the 5 special subforms and 2 additional forms that correlate to my new form (simple copies/modifications of an existing set), and they all look correct.

After all that, the instructions indicate that I should be able to use my new action.

I replaced the simple javascript “Hello World” alert behind my new action with the following code (similar to that in the redpaper instructions)…

var aAddTEST = [ {find: {title:“New”, suboffset:3}, pos:50,

submenus: [{title:“TEST”, href:“openNewShimmerDoc(‘($ToDo)’,‘TEST’)”, help_text:“create a new test form”}]} ];

addActions(s_TopBranchId, aAddTEST);

I ensured that I stopped HTTP, flushed the cache (dbc f), and restarted HTTP.

The issue is with the “openNewShimmerDoc” command. That generates an “unknown command exception” error on the server.

Obviously, the command is not available to the server, and I have messed up a pointer to the code somewhere.

I know that DWA customization has changed since R7, and have tried reviewing the Lotusphere 2008 presentations (most notably: AD305 - IBM Lotus DWA Customization) to see where I may have overlooked something.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to get this new action to work?

I simply want to open the new form to enter some data.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Regards,

T.

Subject: Problem solved (should learn to read!)

Sorry for wasting anyone’s time.

I replaced the code…

href:“openNewShimmerDoc(‘($ToDo)’,‘TEST’)”

with what was SUPPOSED to be the code…

href:“javascript:openNewShimmerDoc(‘($ToDo)’,‘TEST’)”

… and it all works OK now.

Geez, sometimes these kinda things stare me straight in the face and I still miss 'em!!

Cheers,

T.

Subject: Add new forms to the Forms8 file

You said you created your new form in the mail template? It should go in the Forms8.nsf file instead. All (well, almost all) design elements for DWA are in the Forms8 file.

Subject: I don’t think that’s it tho

Thanks for your response Eric.

The form that was created in the mail database is used to review documents using a Lotus Notes client after they have been generated via DWA.

I believe that is still the way that it is supposed to work, no?

Subject: Right.

Yes, customizations for the Notes client should go in the mail template or mail file. Customizations for DWA should go in the Forms8 file.