Hi,
I have created a database of type “Doc Library - Notes & Web”. The default form had 2 readers fields by default. They were
$Readers
readers
I added 2 more readers fields by names
readers_1
readers_2
I find that users who are part of any of the 4 above readers fields will get access to that document. Is this understanding correct?
Is the following way correct to determine the actual readers list of a document?
$Readers + readers + readers_1 + readers_2
TIA
Priya
Subject: Is completeReadersList = $Readers + readers + readers_1 + readers_2 and so on?
Correct. All readers fields on the document are concatinated and treated as a single list of names (roles, groups) to control access to the document.
Author fields work the same way.
Subject: Is completeReadersList = $Readers + readers + readers_1 + readers_2 and so on?
One more question:
Suppose the creator of document is “user1”. Now i set the $Readers field to “user2, user3”.
“user1” does not appear in $Readers. How can i get the creator of document?
Subject: RE: Is completeReadersList = $Readers + readers + readers_1 + readers_2 and so on?
The creator of the document will always be the first name in the $UpdatedBy field
Subject: RE: Is completeReadersList = $Readers + readers + readers_1 + readers_2 and so on?
I found the following in Help Topics.
"Every document includes an $UpdatedBy field that stores, by default, the name of the user or server associated with each document editing session. To conserve disk space use the Advanced database property “Limit entries in $UpdatedBy fields” to specify the number of entries that the $UpdatedBy field can contain.
When the $UpdatedBy field reaches this limit, the oldest entry is removed to make room for the newest entry."
This means the oldest entry. i.e. the creator of document, will be remove from this field. 
Is there any other way in which i can get the document creator name?
Subject: RE: Is completeReadersList = $Readers + readers + readers_1 + readers_2 and so on?
Yes - store it as the document is created in it’s own field. This has to be built into the design of your database.
Notes does not store this information out-of-the-box.
Subject: RE: Is completeReadersList = $Readers + readers + readers_1 + readers_2 and so on?
Agreed. For existing documents, you may be able to use the first entry in $UpdatedBy and move that over to the new field you create using an agent to “upgrade” documents to the new form design.
Subject: RE: Is completeReadersList = $Readers + readers + readers_1 + readers_2 and so on?
Sorry. Looks like i didnt clearly state my problem. I am not going to change anything on domino. I am just writing crawlers for domino which will fetch all data and metadata. This crawler application should work with all types of database configurations.
In such a case if someone has made the configuration to delete fields in $UpdatedBy after its size reaches, say 10. In such a case, my crawler wont get to know the creator of database.
Any idea how to resolve this? TIA
Subject: RE: Is completeReadersList = $Readers + readers + readers_1 + readers_2 and so on?
In that case, your best bet is still $UpdatedBy for the generic case. As Graham pointed out, unless the designer of the database specifically told Notes/Domino to store the creator name in a particular field, Notes will not otherwise keep track of it.
Bear in mind that the default setting for databases is to keep the entire list of document editors and unless a document has constant changes, it is unlikely that the names will “scroll off” as it were…
You can also use NotesDocument.Authors to get an array of people who edited the document but I believe that is just a “friendly” way of getting at the $UpdatedBy field.
Subject: RE: Is completeReadersList = $Readers + readers + readers_1 + readers_2 and so on?
If your application needs to know the name of the Creator of the document (what we would normaly think of as the author, but Lotus uses that word to identify who can update documents) you should probably code a field into the design that captures that information.
Make it a readers field, and computed when compsed, so no one can change it.
Don’t depend on the built in $Readers field becuase (as you’ve found) it can be modified.
The $Updated field is a possibility, but as it’s limited to the number of names stored there, the creator can be removed if a document is updated by many people.
Subject: Is completeReadersList = $Readers + readers + readers_1 + readers_2 and so on?
Great! Let me clarify one more doubt. Now all these users (i.e. concatenated list of all readers fields) should have permission on database also. i.e. they should have explicit permission or they should be part of some group which has permission on the database. Is that correct?
Subject: RE: Is completeReadersList = $Readers + readers + readers_1 + readers_2 and so on?
Access to the database is completly separate from Reader fields. Updating one will not effect the other.
So if you want “Graham Richards” to be a reader of one of your documents, they need to be in the ACL (probably as a member of an access group) and also added into your reader fields.