I’m relatively new to lotus notes development and am unclear as to how to install the things I’ve developed (menu addin, lotus script, lsx, etc) onto client’s machines.
The end result I’m looking for is button(s) either on a toolbar or in an action bar that will call an agent or action. The lotus script that executes basically creates a reply to the currently open or selected email. So it only needs to be visible or active when a memo is the current document.
Do I have to copy my agents or actions into each user’s mail database? Do users have multiple mail databases? If so, do I have to copy all of the stuff to each mail database? Can I have my own separate database and just use the agents and actions in it without copying them to users’ databases?
I’ve been looking through this forum and through the documentation for the apis (c, c++), but its all still really fuzzy to me. So I apologize if my questions don’t make much sense.
I should add that I think I understand how to install the menu addin and lsx. Its the lotus script part that I really don’t have a clue about. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Subject: installing a lotus script agent/action onto client’s machine
All you should have to do is “install” your button in the mail template and let the Design task (which updates the design of databases from templates) handle the “deployment”. Note – you are not making a permanent change to the client, you’re just adding something to a Notes application. You will have to make sure that the mail template(s) get your changes before you allow an updated mail template onto your system when you do version upgrades.
Subject: RE: installing a lotus script agent/action onto client’s machine
So then I just have to somehow get my buttons and script into a client’s mail template. How do people normally go about doing this? Note that I won’t have access to the templates myself. I will have to provide some relatively painless way for client’s to do it.
Subject: RE: installing a lotus script agent/action onto client’s machine
No good – Design will wipe out anything you do unless the view(s) and form(s) are set to prohibit refresh, which will, in turn, make version upgrades a pain.
You don’t have to visit or bother the users; the mail template that they’ll be using lives on the server. If you don’t have direct access (and, as a dev/admin, you should), you can get somebody to give you access or go through whatever red-tape procedure your org has in place.
Subject: RE: installing a lotus script agent/action onto client’s machine
Maybe I should provide a bit more detail about my situation. I’m primarily a c\c++ developer. I’d never even seen notes before about a month ago. We don’t use it in the company I work for. We’re doing some contract development for another company. They don’t use lotus notes either. I developed an addin for outlook and they wanted us to develop similar functionality for lotus notes. So we’re trying to oblige. So they sell and distribute the software that we build.
Now for the relevant information. I won’t have access to the mail templates. Neither will the company we build the software for. So we will have to get a db/sys admin to make the changes to the mail template, if that’s what’s required. I guess I’m trying to find a way to make it easy for some sys admin incorporate my stuff without ever seeing or talking to me.
Subject: RE: installing a lotus script agent/action onto client’s machine
All you need is a copy of a mail template, and Domino Designer. Make your changes on a local copy – you don’t need any access to the client’s server. You can hand the customer the modified mail template and tell them to copy it onto their server. There’s nothing to install, as such; all of the Notes users’ mail databases will be updated by the Domino server’s Design task after the new template is in place. Don’t look for anything complicated – Notes doesn’t work that way.
Subject: RE: installing a lotus script agent/action onto client’s machine
Ok, thanks very much for the info and clarification Stan.