My company is converting from a Windows .exe application (developed in VB) to web app developed in Lotus/Domino. Here is my question: If we write code in Lotus, push it to Domino (Server?) where it is converted to HTML and published to the Web, why don’t we just write HTML? Thank you in advance for any feedback.
Subject: Question about Lotus Domino and HTML
The Domino server converts your Notes design elements to HTML and Javascript automatically, saving you the trouble. You can always add a style sheet or pass-thru HTML if you want more control over the appearance. If you aren’t using any Notes-centric design features, you could just write everything in HTML.
Subject: Question about Lotus Domino and HTML
You seem to have forgotten about the Notes client. There’s nothing stopping you from creating an all-HTML+Basic (LotusScript) version of a Domino web application. It’s done all the time by poor and underinformed developers all over the world. You just wouldn’t have a Notes-client equivalent.
The fact of the matter is that for applications that suit the Domino platform well, there is one heck of a lot less work involved in Domino than there would be on other platforms. That’s true even when using custom HTML in your form and view designs (as opposed to the WYSI-sort-of-WYG UI design one does in Designer), since there is almost none of the request-handling code that other platforms absolutely require for every single submission. Anything submitted to a script is subject to scripting (XSS) attacks; Domino has not demonstrated any such vulnerability. And there’s the little matter of security that Domino does well and other (unnamed) platforms have had a record of trouble with.
You don’t like the fact that your VB skills will not be exploited directly in an ASP application. Get over it. ASP “Classic” does not scale; ASP.NET would involve as steep a learning curve for you, and from the company’s point of view would take longer to develop and would cost more to implement.
Subject: Question about Lotus Domino and HTML
Well you can just write HTML: many Domino web apps out there use a lot of “pass-thru” HTML that isn’t generated directly by the Domino box. That doesn’t mean the benefits of using the Domino platform are lost though.
Presumably you’re moving to Domino partly out of certain functional needs?
Well, whether you use Domino’s own HTML rendering, or do some of it yourself, you still have the option of a Notes client-style back end application. You can span your web app over multiple Domino databases easily. You have Domino’s excellent inbuilt permissioning and security system. Workflow. Mailflow. Easy form submissions. In-built Domino fields, functions, @Commands and so forth that let you do all those wee nitty gritty things easily, and without fuss: I love @UrlQueryString myself, and then of course there are look-ups, easy string manipulation, and so on and so forth. I haven’t mentioned views yet: excellent stuff, whether generated or pass-thru. Or agents – you can code them in @formula, Lotusscript or Java, take your pick. Content management? The system’s right there. All together: another benefit of basing a website or sites in one or more Domino databases. Everything can be contained in the db and replicated.
So, whether you let the HTML be rendered, or do it yourself, there are still good reasons for doing this within a Domino framework.
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