Running Notes

Come meet other Nerd Girls for some lively conversation! Not a Nerd Girl already? We'll share Twitter IDs, Skype names, and introduce you to our Linked In group and Twitter list.

It is during the second half of lunch on Monday. We've done panel discussions and BOFs in the past at other conferences, we'd like this to be more interactive. Let's meet, mingle and connect.

AND, we will have a big Nerd Girl announcement to make, so make sure to be there!

As with all of the Nerd Girl events, men are welcome!

Posted by Kathy Brown At 9:19 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Kathy Brown At 7:51 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (8)

Very cool way to see a lot of sites using Lotus Notes.

Now of course, many of the results will just be links to OTHER sites that are using Lotus, but still I thought it was very interesting.

Posted by Kathy Brown At 2:43 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yesterday, I blogged about a crazy Domino Designer problem I was having. Many of you commented with suggestions or ideas. One of those suggestions including shutting off the Eclipse LotusScript editor. Guess what? That worked! That isn't the fix, however, or the end of the story.

Last night on Twitter, I happened to see a tweet from Mary Beth Raven from someone having a problem with LotusScript. The problem was suspiciously like mine. Mary Beth had suggested the user ask Maureen Leland. I pinged Maureen and told her that my problem sounded eerily the same. She took a look and discovered the item "$AssistAction_error" had been added to my wonky agent. Using Noteman, I was easily able to remove the item and all was well with my agent!

This still begs the question of HOW or WHY the item was appended, when there was no error. HOWEVER, I at least have a fix and understand why the code wasn't displaying correctly.

Posted by Kathy Brown At 10:28 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (1)

On Tuesday, I went into the office and using the same version of Designer, on my Windows XP desktop. Accessing the same application template on the same server, I open the same agent...and the code is old. Basically, while working over the weekend, I had made several changes and saved frequently. The code being shown on my LAPTOP is correct and the latest version. The code shown on my DESKTOP is from an earlier save, and has errors.

To add oddity to this problem, when the code is run, it is the correct and final code. No matter which machine it is run on. When the code is viewed in the debugger it is the correct and final code. When the code is exported to DXL it is the correct and final code. ONLY when viewed in Designer (which is, you know, kind of fricking important) is the code the old code.

Here is what I have tried to figure out the problem:

Different versions of application? Nope, checked several times to be sure the server is the same, the application is the same, everything is the same.
Different users? Nope, tried accessing with different users on different machines, and the same user on different machines. The code is only correct on my laptop.
Local replica? Nope, checked sever times to be sure it's the server version. In fact, no local replica existed until I tried that as a means for fixing this.
Make a local replica, check it, and replicate to the server? Tried it, didn't work. Looks good on the laptop, wrong on other workstations.
Export the agent to DXL, compare and import? Exported, they were identical. Imported ANYWAY, still shows incorrectly on workstation.
Different version of Designer? Nope. I am in the 8.5.2 beta, and it didn't work there either.
The different OS? Nope, installed on another Windows 7 machine, still no love.
Reinstall? Nope. Uninstalled, completely cleaned the machine, reinstalled. No good.

Now, something that may or may not be related. On the workstation, I frequently get the following error:

I did a quick search on google and found that some people had that error and found their LotusScript agents weren't always compiling. That sounded PERFECT! Except, their resolution didn't work for me. Their suggestion involved getting rid of antivirus software. Which I tried, and still no love. In fact, I uninstalled the antivirus software, uninstalled Notes, reinstalled Notes and tried again.

Anyway, seeing that the error involved Java, I made some comparisons there. Hmmm, laptop on Java 6, update 16. So put other machines on same version. Still not working.

So, anyone? Any thoughts? Suggestions? At this point, I am ready to sacrifice chickens or something, if it will work.

Modified to add all the things I tried and already forgot that I tried:

Removed the app from desktop and bookmarks
Deleted cache.ndk
Deleted the workspace
Fixup Updall Compact on the app
New Copy of the template
Copied just the agent into a new blank application

Nada zip nothing. Still broken. Fun, right?

Posted by Kathy Brown At 11:32 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (19)

Us application developer types may not be numbers people. And Lotus Notes isn't exactly known for its number functionality. You probably aren't calculating complex mathematical equations in your Notes applications. However, even if you are calculating simple calculations, you need to know about @Round.

Note that:

3.3 * 3.3 = 10.89

and

3.33333 * 3.33333 = 11.11

No big deal, right? Except if these calculations are on a much larger scale. And if they are compounded by further calculations on the results.

Enter @Round

Determine where the decimal place should go, and apply it consistently with @Round.

@Round (value, factor)

@Round (10.555, 0.1) = 10.6

Note that the syntax for the LotusScript method Round is slightly different. The second parameter is simply the number of digits after the decimal place, not a factor. In LotusScript, Round (10.555, 1) = 10.6.

Posted by Kathy Brown At 9:47 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (1)

We will post simple (it has to fit in 140 characters) tips for Lotus Notes Developers. Please follow, retweet and most importantly reply with your tips! We will retweet your tips, so send them in!

Posted by Kathy Brown At 11:32 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (4)

The wise Nathan Freeman posted a comment, which I think has quite a handy littly tidbit in it, but I fear not enough people read my blog, let alone read the comments on my blog days after a posting, so I am blogging about his comment. With an example and screenshot.

Here is what Nathan said:

"Make a set of documents with several multi-value fields, all text.

Field 1: Red, Green, Blue
Field 2: Me, Myself, I
Field 3: This, That, The Other
Field 4: Apples, Churches, Very Small Rocks

Give them all the same values for Field 1, but randomize the values for fields 2-4

Now create a view that has a column for each of these fields, in order. Set them all to "Show multiple values as separate entries."

On the first column, turn on categorization.

Now look at your view CLOSELY.

If you want to do something really special, try CreateViewNavigatorFromCategory("Red"). Then walk the entries and retrieve the .columnValues.

Discuss."

So, I tried it out. Really special indeed.

Say you had an application with a salesperson form. In this example we have a whopping three documents, but stick with me. We have three fields, "date", "item" and "quantity". These three fields are multi-value fields. We’ll assume we have three documents because we only have three salespeople, one for each.

Doc 1:
11/15/09; 11/30/09; 12/15/09; 12/31/09
Apples; Oranges; Grapes; Peaches
10; 30; 40; 20

Doc 2:
11/15/09; 11/30/09; 12/15/09; 12/31/09
Oranges; Apples; Grapes; Peaches
40; 30; 20; 10

Doc 3:
11/15/09; 11/30/09; 12/15/09; 12/31/09
Peaches; Grapes; Apples; Oranges
30; 40; 20; 10

Now if we put these three docs in a view, without "Show multiple values as separate entries", I would have three rows in my view, with all the data lumped together, separated by semi-colons.

Or I could follow Nathan’s tip and get this:

And then I could use CreateViewNavFromCategory(dateVariable) to get all my column values. Sort of the "GetAllEntriesByKey" version of the NotesViewNavigator, but better. Way better.

*Newbie tip – don’t sort the remaining columns. Notes will screw up the whole "show as multiple values" thing and each sorted column adds rows for each value for each field. Not good.

*Second newbie tip – don’t rely on the view preview in Designer for this type of view. It almost never looks the same in Designer as it does in the client. There is a reason for the "Preview in Notes" button, use it.

Posted by Kathy Brown At 7:42 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (3)

Okay, so the view is set up and displaying exactly as I want it to. For example, five documents, two values in the field, show as ten rows. Perfect.

Elsewhere in the application, I had an agent that I wanted to walk the view and get the values. I know, this is revolutionary stuff, eh?

So the agent went something like this...

dim view as Notesview
set view = db.GetView ("myMultiValueView")

dim viewcol as NotesViewCollection
set viewcol = view.AllEntries

dim viewEntry as NotesViewEntry
set viewEntry = viewcol.GetFirstEntry()

While Not (viewEntry is Nothing)

myVal = viewEntry.ColumnValues(8)

set viewEntry = viewcol.GetNextEntry(viewEntry)

Wend

Great, right? Except that "myVal" kept returning just the first value of the multivalue field. If there were two values, and consequently two rows, myVal would return the first value twice. Really infuriating when I knew the code was right. This was pretty simple stuff and was NOT working. A quick check of the help files...everything checks out. My view is good. My code is correct. What's the problem?

Google to the rescue and I found this SPR, which explained that what I was doing was not going to work. But also provided a workaround.

dim view as Notesview
set view = db.GetView ("myMultiValueView")

dim nav as NotesViewNavigator
set nav = view.CreateViewNav

dim viewEntry as NotesViewEntry
set viewEntry = nav.GetFirst

While Not (viewEntry is Nothing)

myVal = viewEntry.ColumnValues(8)

set viewEntry = nav.GetNext(viewEntry)

Wend

Hooray! Success! It would have been nice if this was documented in the help file, but at the end of the day (almost literally), I found the way to make it work. And, as is frequently the case, I'm blogging this mostly for other people to find the answer if they have this same problem (including my future self).

Posted by Kathy Brown At 1:36 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (7)

Posted by Kathy Brown At 7:14 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (3)

Well, I *could* use an array, but not knowing how many names would be added to the array would mean having to ReDim the array, but that’s no fun. So enter Lists! Creating a list is super easy, and you don’t have to know how many items will be in the list. I added a little counter to count the number of items in my list as I added them. Yes, I could have added them, and then looped through afterward and counted them that way, but I actually had some other stuff to do, so did it when I added.

Dim clientList List As String	‘dim the list itself
		
	Dim n As Long	‘dim n as long for the counter
	n = 0	‘start the count at 0
	
	While Not entry Is Nothing
	‘obviously prior code would have dimmed a view entry collection and 
          'provided a way to loop through it, this part of the code just insures we are acting on an actual entry
		

	‘This next bit checks to see if the item is already in the list and if it is NOT, then increases the counter by 1,
           'and adds the entry with column value 5 as the listtag and column value 6 as the value
		If Not (Iselement(clientList(entry.columnvalues(5)))) Then
			n = n + 1
			clientList (entry.ColumnValues(5)) =entry.columnvalues(6)
		End If
		
	Print Cstr(n)	‘this prints the count of items added to the list

	‘This just shows something we can do with the list, such as printing the listtag 
          '(aka column value 5) for all of the entries in the list.
	Forall clients In clientList
		Print ListTag(clients) 	
	End Forall

ls2html was brought to you by nsftools.com

Pretty easy, huh? Easy to create and easy to use the data. So Lists! Use ‘em!

Posted by Kathy Brown At 11:23 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (9)

One thing I wanted to add to the code was a header on the final merged document. One bump in the road I ran into, I also wanted to pass a parameter from Lotus to the header in Word. No problem, I can do that. HOWEVER, it wasn’t working. Why? you ask. Well because I’m an idiot. I was using a “directory” type output, which has multiple “records” (in Word-speak) per page. However, the header only occurs once on the page. Even though the field I wanted to use had the same value for each of the merged records, Word is not capable of discerning that. Since Word has no way of determining which record I wanted the value from for the header, it just did nothing.

Once I realized that, I easily got the value I wanted myself using Lotusscript and passed that as a string into my “writeHeader” sub and all was right with the world. Or at least the merged document.

Sub  writeHeader (textstring As String)
	
	hwd.ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers (1).Range.Select	' This gets us into the header for editing
	
	hwd.selection.typetext textstring	' enters the passed in string
	hwd.selection.typeparagraph		' creates a new line
	hwd.selection.typetext "Test Text"
	
	hwd.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.Close	' closes the header pane
	
	'checks if the window panes in Word are split, since code to return to print mode differs if open or not.
	If hwd.ActiveWindow.View.SplitSpecial = 0 Then	
		hwd.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = 3
	Else
		hwd.ActiveWindow.View.Type = 3
	End If
End Sub

ls2html was brought to you by nsftools.com

One other change I made from the code provided in the constants database was to remove the Merge Wizard from the user interface. In my particular application, I had already formatted the template being used and did not want the users to be able to change the output. Removing the wizard in essence makes Word a nice (did I just say Word is nice, oh dear) reporting tool for Lotus Notes. I can format the output (using a self-made template) much more than I can in Lotus Notes and merge the data into the template. I love Lotus, but there is a, uh, limit to the "reporting" capabilities. So format/create a Word template, use the code from the constants database to merge it, remove the option for the merge wizard to appear, put the code in a button for the user and POOF! Pretty reporting of your Lotus data!

Posted by Kathy Brown At 8:47 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (1)

It is titled "Input Validation and Translation Formulas - The Paring Knives of Lotus Notes Application Development". (Running readers, I know you are SO disappointed you don't have a subscription!)

Anyway, check it out! Hopefully more to come in the future! Feel free to drop me a line if you read it!

Posted by Kathy Brown At 12:04 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (16)

Twitter I really *can't* get away with writing a wrap up about this conference without discussing Twitter. As many of you know, I am an avid Twitter user. And yes, "user" is appropriate in this context, as many tell me I have a problem. I don't see it as a problem at all. Thanks to Twitter, I have gotten to know many people in the Lotus community. This made meeting people and getting to know them that much easier in person. It is highly amusing the number of pictures of IamLUG attendees with mobile devices in hand. And I become the butt of many Twitter jokes. In no less than THREE of the sessions that I attended, the speaker made reference to me and my Twitter addictions. I was even made fun of in Chris Miller's closing.

Regardless, I think it made my experience at the conference that much more fun. For those of you who still hang back and aren't on Twitter, or are on, but don't participate, jump in! CAUTION: Be sure you REALLY are sending a Direct Message if that is your intent. And perhaps after having a beer or two, consider a ban on sending Direct Messages from Twitter. Just sayin'.

Wrap Up

Overall, I think this was a fantastic conference. I have been to Lotusphere twice and (obviously) it is a completely different experience. I believe attendance to IamLUG was near 200 people. That creates a much more casual atmosphere. People really get to know eachother. I never once passed out a business card. Isn't that funny? I think part of this was the casual and close nature of this conference. As I said, I already knew a lot of the people I was meeting face to face from Twitter. Judging from the number of new followers I got this week, I think any new people I met just started following me on Twitter rather than exchanging business cards. Although I think Lotusphere is an integral part of my year, I really recommend attending one of the smaller user conferences such as this one. It's a really fantastic experience. All the benefits of the big conferences, like great speakers and great content, but a more casual and open atmosphere.

HUGE kudos go to the team that organized this! Things really proceeded smoothly and had I not known that this was the first time for this conference, I never would have guessed it. I'm sure more work than we could ever imagine went into this conference behind the scenes, and I THANK YOU ALL.

Run Report

Final day for a run. I was running on empty! I'd had very little sleep, but I knew Paul, Karl and Paul would be waiting for me, so I went. We ran. I won't lie and say it was a good one, but we got it done!

[edited for a typo, I REALLY CAN recommend this conference! Duh. Why I should never write/tweet/email/really do anything when sleep deprived.]

Posted by Kathy Brown At 7:17 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (7)

I attended some great sessions throughout the day, John Head’s Integration and Coexistence, Paul Steel from RIM showing development for the Blackberry and Julian Robichaux’s Free Your Data!

My last session of the day was Ed Brill’s session. Again, I am sure a lot of others covered the content a lot better than me, so on to…

The Run Report

This morning the group grew to five people and we didn’t lose anyone. A very very humid run, so an impressive run for all of us, especially since three of the runners come from countries where the humidity is less than it was today, which felt like it was about 10000%.

Running again tomorrow, meet at 7 AM at the fountain if you’re interested! (way to get people to run, hey join us, it's really humid!)

Posted by Kathy Brown At 9:30 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Run Report

Johnny Noltensmeyer joined me for my run this morning, and much to my surprise, so did Paul Mooney. Despite his protestations that we would have to (and should) leave him behind, Paul managed to keep up.

Anyone else who would like to join us for a run, we’ll meet in front of the fountain at 7AM…

Posted by Kathy Brown At 4:03 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)

I flew to St. Louis yesterday. Got here in a reasonable amount of time. Checked into the hotel. The rooms are terrific, they’re all suites with a living area and a separate bedroom. Met up with some IAMLUG’ers, had a few drinks, and wound up at a rap concert of all places. Apparently they have concerts by the arch during summer. I saw that guy, you know, the one with the two CDs. Unh huh. Him. Right. Sorry, I don’t really follow rap, but I had a fun time, probably due to the excellent company.

I had to call it a day around 10:30 or so. Need to pace myself.

Up this morning and headed out for a run. Taking the advice of the front desk, I headed over towards the arch. A nice little pathway circles around the arch, making for a very nice run. There are some river views, views of the arch of course and just for @AngryJohhny there are some stairs if you’d like to run them! The surrounding park has a nice little pond, and is shaded much of the run.

I always find running in a new place an interesting way to see it. The area near the hotel is a popular spot for bars and clubs and such, so of course running there the next morning includes seeing a lot of people cleaning up a lot of um…messes.

Also watching the crews in the park taking down the equipment from the prior night’s concert.

So, a great start to what I think will be a great conference. (I was told there will be diet Coke available all day.) Looking forward to a lot more people arriving today! And heading out for a Cardinals/Astros game!

Posted by Kathy Brown At 11:33 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (3)

My situation: my customer is looking to implement Quickr as a document management system (among other things, but this is first priority). The current system consists of a server drive with folder and subfolders. I’m looking for input on the best Quickr implementation.

Let’s call the server “Fruit”. There are two main folders, “Apples” and “Oranges”. Within both Apples and Oranges, there are subfolders. Apples contains “McIntosh”, “Granny Smith”, “Fuji”, “Rome”, etc. There are various folders and documents within each of those. Same goes for Oranges, there are subfolders, “Navel”, “Valencia”, etc.

So my question is whether Apples and Oranges should be Quickr places, and McIntosh and Navel should be rooms within those places, or if McIntosh and Navel should be places of their own? What are considerations for either way of setting it up?

With over 300 types of apples, we’d rather get this right on the first try. I’ve done a bit of searching around (admittedly, not a lot) and not found anything regarding a Best Practice for the architecture of a Quickr server.

I realize we can use tagging and such to categorize documents, so that will eliminate some of the need for “folders”, particularly, I am thinking the subfolders within each variety (Navel) will be unnecessary.

My first instinct is to create a place for each variety. Creating more places with fewer documents, rather than a few places with loads of documents. However, I am not a Quickr expert, and so turn to the “Yellow-verse” for your opinions.

We will need to search across all Apples. I’m not entirely sure if that makes a big difference.

Don’t be too hard on me, remember I’m a dev, not a Quickr Implementation Specialist! My admins don’t have blogs, so I’m asking the question on their behalf. Anyway, I’d love to hear your thoughts/experiences. Or feel free to tell me I am a moron, and show me a link.

Posted by Kathy Brown At 7:00 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (10)

Several reasons occurred to me, some with easy solutions and some not. What do you think? What are your solutions?

Here are my thoughts…

Reason #1) Users go “offline” and don’t realize that the Notes app can go offline with them. They mistakenly believe if they are off to the airport, or in a cab, that the Notes app is unavailable to them, so they want a printout of materials for review.

Solution #1) This one is easy. Introduce the user to local replicas and location docs.

Reason #2) Habit. They are just used to having stuff printed off and continue to request new materials in the old way.

Solution #2) Retrain the users. This one is a little tougher to implement, although some of it is the same solution as #1. It can be difficult to teach an old dog new tricks.

Reason #3) Bad design. Maybe the UI is so bad that users either can’t find what they are looking for, or can’t read it once they find it.

Solution #3) Redesign the UI bits that people are printing. Make sure your users can find stuff and read it on screen. Take into account your user’s screens. How are they typically accessing the documents? Big screens, little screens? Web? Blackberry? Email? A view?

Reason #4) ?? Maybe they really hate trees.

So what am I missing? Why do users cling to hardcopies?

Posted by Kathy Brown At 10:25 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (15)

One day at work, I was sitting with several users trying to figure out unexplained application behaviour (it couldn't be a bug, I wrote the app, it had to be user error, right?). I sat there and asked them several questions, they responded and in turn tried to suggest possible reasons for the unexplained behaviour. At one point, one of the users said, "Wow! You're just like House!". I of course immediately wondered if he meant that I was a sarcastic, uncaring, but brilliant asshole. He *said* he just meant the part about me asking questions and "diagnosing" the problem.

Anyway...where was I? Oh yes, so an important characteristic of House's is his obsessiveness (if that's a word). I think that is an important characteristic for IT people, too. When I can't figure out how to accomplish something in one of my apps, I obsess over it. I ask a million questions (admittedly, to myself, since I can't afford a team of underlings to listen to me). I read anything and everything I can get my hands on that might have an answer. I bother everyone on Twitter. (I was going to make a joke and name a couple of people that I bug with questions, but there are so many, I can't even list them all). I don't stop until I get the answer.

Huh. Kinda similar to my post on running hills. Hmm. Get mad. Yell a lot. Be stubborn. Yep, running hills and IT are very similar.

Back to House - IT can also be like House in that we come up with a diagnosis, and it's WRONG. And we come up with another one, and guess what? It's WRONG, too. And then we decide we need to perform brain surgery...oh wait, that's the show, okay, we open up the server and are JUST about to remove, um, something (I don't do hardware), when we realize, WAIT, I've got it! And it's something simple and stupid, like a typo, or malaria.

Case in point, I have spent the last two days trying to figure out how to get non-Contact Lotus Notes data into a pre-formatted, already created Word template and merge into a "pretty" document. I was obsessive. Google-ing, researching, asking, reading my heart out. I THOUGHT I had the answer several times. Sarcoidosis? Nope. An immunity deficiency? Nope. Okay, seriously, I used the MSConstants.nsf from openntf.org, which had a mail merge of sorts. It had the functionality to create the data file in Word, but was lacking the merging with Word merge fields part. More research and I learned loads of VB code for creating merge fields. BUT, I already HAD my merge fields defined in my template file, I just needed to fill them in with my Notes data.

John Head and Tom Duff helped me out. Of course, due to my vicadin addiction, I was looking at the wrong code. Oh wait, that's House. I don't have a vicadin addiction, or a legitimate excuse for being a dope. My point being (there is a point, in case you wondered) that a NORMAL person might have given up, but an IT person obsessively keeps looking. Finally, correct file, correct code, ah yes! All I have to do is change one or two lines of code (depending on personal preference) and I can do EXACTLY what I set out to do.

Oh, the line? Instead of "documents.Add" which creates a new merge file, "documents.Open ("[insert filepath here]"). Doh.

So to recap, IT is just like running uphill and House MD. :P

Posted by Kathy Brown At 2:24 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (2)

Anyone else have this? When I am in the Designer client (8.0.2) and am working on some Lotusscript, say in an action or something, if I get an email in my Notes client, the focus in Designer is taken from the action and puts me up in the "Window Title". I don't have popup notification (because it's too distracting!), just the icon in the system tray. This behavior drives me a little nutty when I'm in the middle of coding something and it loses focus. I have enough trouble keeping focus!


[Comments posted on my prior blog]


David Jones said...
Happens to me all the time and I don't have any type of email notification enabled at all.
I just unchecked "Refresh Inbox Automatically" and I'm guessing that will solve the problem as the Standard Notes client has horrible horrible focus issues.
April 13, 2009 4:33 PM


Carl Tyler said...
Notes taking focus in strange ways is driving me crazy in Notes 8.x
April 13, 2009 4:43 PM


Carl Tyler said...
By the way congrats on the Great Bay half marathon. It's a great area.
April 13, 2009 4:44 PM


Kathy said...
Well, at least I'm not alone. Misery loves company, huh? :)
Thanks Carl! I just recently noticed, you're in New Hampshire, too, right?
David, let me know if that works!
April 13, 2009 8:47 PM


David Jones said...
No luck on changing that setting. However, if I close out of the mail tab my focus never gets stolen.
April 15, 2009 10:17 AM

Posted by Kathy Brown At 8:18 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, while filling out an online application for a race (look, running and developing in one post!), I came across this field…



Seriously? The form had radio buttons for other fields, so clearly they are aware of the technique. They just chose not to use it, but THEN they have to include instructions (that no one will read), for the user to select only “a Maximum of 1”. Ugh. That isn’t even well written. Ignore the fact that it says “Mens” shirts, but that the shirts are Unisex. Oh, and there is an asterisk, as though there is a footnote, but there is no footnote. One presumes it references the poorly worded instructions in red.

The worst part is that this is a huge website, used by TONS of races for the purpose of registering racers. This isn’t some podunk little site that no one ever sees. And this wasn’t exactly their first race registration form.

I was very tempted to check them all off, just because I could.

[ETA: BTW, when I got to the race, they just asked me what size I wanted!]


[Comments posted on my prior blog]

Richard Shergold said...
I'm trying to think of some reason why they might have NEEDED a checkbox for a field rather than use a radio button ? (but I can't!)
How did the race go?
April 7, 2009 8:07 AM


Chris Blatnick said...
WOW! This is exactly one of the things Bruce and I warned against in our Worst Practices session at Lotusphere last year. Talk about confusing the user...really sad.
April 7, 2009 9:18 AM


Kathy said...
Quick! Everybody hide! It's the UI police! :) Just kidding, Chris. I KNEW you'd be annoyed by that!
Richard, the race went well. Thanks. Think of a good reason yet? I can't!
April 7, 2009 9:23 AM


Richard Shergold said...
I've been thinking and I cannot come up with anything!
April 7, 2009 11:43 AM


David Jones said...
Is it possible to register more than one person at a time?
Wait, even that would be horrible because what if each wanted the same size. No idea why someone would want it to be checkboxes.
April 7, 2009 3:13 PM


Kathy said...
You can register more than one person, but not at the same time, you go through all the screens over again (and past the same bad field) to register multiple people. Scary, huh? :)
April 7, 2009 4:05 PM

Posted by Kathy Brown At 7:53 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)

I’m not feeling the love for Facebook lately. Or maybe I’m just not using it right. Maybe I’m like one of those people who signs up for Twitter, doesn’t follow anyone and then “doesn’t get it”.

I signed up for Facebook sometime last year, probably May, judging by the date on my first profile photo. I friended a bunch of actual friends. It was fun. A great way to share photos, catch up, etc. I put in my high school and college information and a bunch of people from that part of my life started finding me and friending me. Initally, that was fun, too. We caught up on our lives, shared more photos, talked about careers, families, and more. However, after each initial connection, there would be a flurry of discussion and then it would die down. They would become just another photo in my friend list.

Then, Facebook started gaining in popularity (I know it was already popular, but then it started gaining in popularity with the 30+ crowd). Suddenly, EVERYONE I knew was on Facebook, and started friending me. Seriously, I am “friends” with my friend’s mother. Groups that I have vague associations with now have given me oodles of “friends”.

I have co-workers as “friends”. I see these people all day at work, do I really need to get home and see that they’re making dinner or feeding the dog now? Accompanied by pictures of said dog? (Sorry, if you’re a co-worker and you’re reading this, I really did love that picture of Fido!).

I haven’t really started connecting with people from the Lotus community on Facebook. I did connect with a few, but we’re in the Domino Divas group, how could I pass that up? :) The reason I haven’t connected with Lotus people on Facebook is because I’m not entirely sure I want to mix up my Lotus world with my personal world. (I know, I know, I’ve mixed running and Lotus on blog, I’m a hypocrite, what can I say?).

I honestly find Facebook confusing enough as it is. I already get 500 requests to “pass a drink”, do I really need to add a whole new community to that? I can’t handle the news feeds either. Is there a way to filter it to only show things that might actually interest me? I WANT to see when my friend posts pictures of her new baby. I don’t really need to see that 45 people took some silly quiz.

I know there are lots of Lotus peeps on Facebook. How do you handle this? Do you have multiple personas on Facebook? Do you just tune it all out? Do you freely mix your personal life and your Lotus life? I realize many Lotus peeps can actually be your friend and that’s a bit different, but how do you handle all the people who aren’t really and truly your friend? Connect with them anyway? Let them see that awful picture of you in high school that someone else posted? Or that stupid note that your friend’s sister’s brother-in-law wrote about you and some embarrassing story from the third grade?


[Comments posted on my prior blog]

svenm said...
I use my facebook account for personal stuff and for personal stuff only. I don't want to share my foto's and events with the Lotus community.
And yes, I do have collegues and even some customers in my friends list but I never intended it that way. But what can I do? I never invited them but if they send me a friend request it's hard to let them down... I still have to work with these people. That's why I try to keep it to an absolute minimum.
I use my LinkedIn profile for the 'serious' work. That's where I connect to the Lotus Groups.
April 1, 2009 9:39 AM


Garrett Wolthuis said...
Is this why you haven't responded to my friend's request???
Just kidding. ;) I use Facebook for friends outside of work and business ONLY. I'm friends with my Lotus team, and even in the same Jeep club as my manager, but none of them are linked to me on Facebook.
I use LinkedIn for anything business related. Coworkers, Lotusphere people, etc. all are free to connect to me on LinkedIn. But Facebook is for life outside of work.
April 1, 2009 10:59 AM


Greyhawk68 said...
Hi Kathy,
In the top left corner you will see News Feed, Links etc. etc. Underneath there is a Create link. click it and you can create different friend lists. That way you can separate all of your different lives into the different groups. I have a group for High School friends, College Friends, Family, Lotus, etc. etc.
Once you create groups, you can filter down to the streams of each.
Also, you can block certain applications, so if you don't want to deal with Pass A Drink, block it, and you never see it again.
Also, if you see people in your news stream, and you don't really care about their updates, click HIDE next to their names. Then they don't show up in the streams.
Also, check this link to take care of the preferences. There are sliders that can help you dictate what you see:
http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=794
You can also choose who you see more from and who you see less from.
It can get pretty granular, so I hope this helps!
Take Care,
Greyhawk68
April 1, 2009 11:25 AM


Kathy said...
Ahh, see? I WAS one of those people. Is that stuff all new, or was I just being a dope? Soooooo much better now. Maybe I'll start friend requesting people now. Look out! :)
April 1, 2009 1:04 PM


Greyhawk68 said...
Most of it has been there, but they don't really make it easy to find. I think I found it out from some old Tips and Tricks for Facebook post on a mainstream blog... But yes, it becomes VERY useful once you know it exists
-Grey
April 1, 2009 1:56 PM


Marcus Foerster said...
If it helps, I don't get it either... I use it, but feel confused every time, no matter if on the web or on the iPhone. Their interface is just bad, you never know where you're at or what you're doing...
April 1, 2009 5:30 PM


Gavin Bollard said...
I don't mind mixing my Lotus and Personal life up. If I'm not appealing "as I am" to someone, then they shouldn't bother "friending" me.
What's really cool is when you discover that someone who is into Notes is also into some of the other things you do for hobbies/sport.
April 1, 2009 10:11 PM


Kathy said...
Funny, I cleaned up my Facebook profile in the event I decide to broaden my "friend" base. My wall ended up looking very similar to a Twitter stream - all that was left was updates and replies to updates! :)
Maybe I'll stick with my Lotus/Personal separation for now. BUT those groups REALLY helped wade through all of the crap on my Facebook homepage. Thanks Greyhawk!!
April 2, 2009 7:08 AM


IdoNotes said...
Kathy, we talk about this very topic in the recent podcast. GIves you insight from a Lotus person, a bunch of bloggers and also some big media people. It is Episode 14 of http://TheSocialGeeks.com
April 2, 2009 9:54 AM


Kathy said...
Thanks Chris! Listening to it now...
April 2, 2009 11:41 AM

Posted by Kathy Brown At 7:25 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)

I mentioned talking to Bob Balaban a few posts ago. I am thrilled to say my employer was lucky enough and smart enough to hire him for a bit. I have gone from self-taught-struggling-newbie to self-taught-struggling-newbie who is working with Bob Balaban!!

Can you tell I’m excited? It’s like a dose of Lotusphere every week for me!

The best part is that he hasn’t looked at my applications and said “Oh my god, you’re a complete moron, this is crap”. Not that I was afraid that was what he would say or anything…

Posted by Kathy Brown At 5:44 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)

I need to improve my defensive programming. This kind (the third bullet from Wikipedia): “Making the software behave in a predictable manner despite unexpected inputs or user actions.”

I use the tools that are available to me. I make fields that should receive numbers into number fields. I make required fields, well, required. I use field validation and translation. I don’t allow pasting or deleting in applications where users shouldn’t be pasting or deleting. I use drop down lists where possible and don’t “Allow Values Not in List” wherever possible. I use Julian Robichaux’s awesome OpenLog for error handling. The list goes on.

I test the applications. I test them myself first. I test them with actual users. I BEG them to try and do what they would normally do. I ask them (dare them) to try and break the application during testing.

And STILL those pesky users find ways to break the application *after* the final release.

I swear the UI could include a blank screen with a giant button in the middle that says “Click Here” and users will still say it doesn’t work because they clicked on the menu, and tried to select “Create” and do five other things besides hitting the giant button. . Maybe it’s my fault. I told this to Bob Balaban and he said the button should say “Click Here TO DO EVERYTHING”. :)

So my goal is to improve the ways in which I can program defensively. Yes, the onus is on me. I have to get better for a couple of reasons. 1) It is actually my job. 2) It makes my life easier (less complaints, less training, less calls).

On the other hand, complaining about users is a lot of fun. ;)

[Comments posted on my prior blog]

michael said...
big smile... thanks for this amusing post...

Posted by Kathy Brown At 3:09 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just finished reading Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcom Gladwell. I’ve been obsessing a bit about the 10,000 hours thing. I'm not doing the book or the idea justice, but he asserts that most “masters”, regardless of what they are master of, have amassed around 10,000 hours at their specialty. He uses violinists, computer guys, hockey players, etc. as his examples. This is actually good news for me. I’ve been doing Lotus Notes development full time for four years now. Let’s see…four years, 48 weeks (gotta subtract out vacation), 30 hours per week (that’s probably generous, although I’d like to say I devote all my time to development, I don’t, I can’t, there’s meetings, helpdesk calls, etc.)…that’s 5,760 hours. Sweet! I’m halfway there! That's actually encouraging.


[Comments posted on my prior blog]

Tim Paque said...

Once you get it mastered, something completely new and different gets added to make you feel like a beginner again
March 23, 2009 9:33 PM


Kathy said...

Um, Tim? Not helping me. ;)

Posted by Kathy Brown At 10:40 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)

I definitely NOT an Administrator. I occasionally become acutely aware of that fact whenever I have to do something Admin-y.

Now, I am not completely inept. For my first couple of years in IT, I actually did some basic administration for our Domino server: create users, manage mailboxes, etc. However, I only know what I’ve been taught. In other words, my admin said “create a new user, here, this is how you do it”. See, I am not completely inept, just mostly inept.

So, imagine my delight when I saw Jess Stratton’s Lotusphere session “Administration for the Developer: Build and Secure Your Own IBM Lotus Domino Server Playground in an Hour!”. Fabulous, just what I need and now I can do it on my own. No need to bother the admin. Great! She made it look so easy, too. Her slide deck was terrific with step by step instructions. Yeah!

Of course, I come back from Lotusphere (and back to reality) and get busy with work, so I don’t get around to trying it until this week. Okay, download VMWare. Got it. Hmm, which VMWare product? There are approximately 500 of them (I’m exagerrating a little). Well, let’s see, this Workstation thing looks good, and I can download a free trial, let’s give that a go…downloading…installing…hey, look at that! It created an image of the computer it’s installed on. Fantastic. Jess said we could use Windows 2000 since it’s free and Domino 8.5 server works on it. But, look VMWare Workstation made a virtual machine of my XP workstation. We have the licensing, so I’ll just go with that. [Mistake #1]*.

Okay, that worked, let’s install the Domino server…installing…pretty…hey, that worked! Woohoo! Now, go to host machine, launch Notes client, make a connection doc, and a location doc. Umm. Hello? Nothing. Crap.

I then dig out Jess’ presentation slides. Prior to that I had decided to ignore them, since, you know, I know what I’m doing! [Mistake #2] Flip through the slides. Oh look, she recommended pinging between the host and guest BEFORE installing Domino. Hmm. Oh well, no biggie. I’ll just ping now. Ping from guest to host. All good. Ping from host to guest. Nothing. Crap. So then I start playing with the Network Adapter setting on the virtual machine, thinking maybe I just have the wrong setting. Which each time (I think) requires me to shut down and restart the virtual machine. Since I installed Domino as a service, this means I get to watch my Domino server start up and have to shut it down each time. [Mistake #3].

Still no go. Okay, next I Google my problem. No one ever seems to have a problem pinging the guest from the host. Lots of people have problems the other way, and lots of people have solutions, but nothing for my problem. Crap. Again.

Finally, something goes off in my brain that I remember something somewhere about XP and ip addresses. Oh yeah, and Jess said she uses Windows 2000. Hmm. Let’s try that. Dig out old Windows 2000 Server CD. Install…hey! Look at that! PING! PING! PING again, just because I can! Success. Now I install my Domino Server. Ah, look at that. A thing of beauty.

Launch the Notes client. Make a new connection doc and a new location doc (because now I’ve moved on to a new machine, new installs, etc. out of sheer frustration). And…crap. Still can’t see my server. Ping again. Yep, that still works.

Finally, I ask my admin. What the heck am I doing wrong? He comes over, tells me to put the ip address in where the connection doc asks for the server NAME. Not the tab that asks for the Server Address, I had that right, but the tab that asks for the Server Name. I do that, and sadly (because I am now embarrassed in front of the admin, who thinks I’m an idiot), but happily…it works! I make a joke about how long this took me and the following conversation occurs:

Admin: Why didn’t you ask me? Me: Well, it was really the whole thing about XP and the virtual machine ip address that took so long. Admin: Oh yeah, XP [blah blah] ip address [blah blah] I could have told you that wouldn’t work.

Sigh.

Moral of the story: Don’t use XP for your virtual machines and read the instructions.


*Admins may argue my FIRST mistake was actually trying to do anything adminstrative to begin with, since I am just a lowly developer. ;)



[Comments posted on my prior blog]

Dan Soares said...

[grin]

You are FUNNY ! I enjoy reading your posts !

Dan Soares
March 12, 2009 10:48 AM


Jess Stratton said...

LOL great post, and now you have a great learning experience for everyone else to read! Thanks for downloading my presentation!
As for the player, it wasn't Windows 2000 that was free, it was the VMWare Player if you already had an image somewhere.
Hopefully the MP3 of my session will be available soon on LotusLive.com... it was Windows 2000 client that I used. The reason I gave was to show everyone that it does work if you need it in a pinch - and you are a developer. The chances of having an old, unused version of Windows 2000 lying around vs. new server software is much higher!
Anyway, I need to know any steps that are not clear for someone who is not an admin, so I really appreciate you pointing it out to me (needing the IP address for the server name) - I will update the slides.
March 12, 2009 10:53 AM


Kathy said...

Thanks Dan!

Jess-I in NO WAY meant that your presentation wasn't complete. Just that I am a dope who didn't listen as well as I thought I did! :) March 12, 2009 11:14 AM


Lotus Evangelist said...

This was a great post. Always want to hear your perspective. And there is no better way to learn than doing it yourself.
There are some small, but important pieces when setting up a demo environment a few people have posted about it since LS09.
I should load VM now that you mention it on my rebuilt laptop.
March 12, 2009 11:33 AM


Jess Stratton said...

Kathy... LOL, our presentations are *never* complete. If they were, they'd be called "Redbooks."
Thanks again for such kind words!
March 12, 2009 7:06 PM


Jeffery said...

Thanks for not mentioning that the first admin couldn't figure that one out so you had to turn to the real smart guy for the answer.

japerk57
March 13, 2009 7:33 AM

Posted by Kathy Brown At 10:26 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (1)

Okay, I am once again overwehelmed. But this time, in a good way. I posted earlier how I was overwhelmed with what I DON'T know. The comments, on my post and on Twitter, by people considered gurus was really wonderful to see.

To know that the gurus don't always feel like gurus, makes us little guys feel so much better.

I feel so much better, in fact, that I downloaded some VMWare, installed a sandbox Domino 8.5 server, and started in on Declan's XPages "book". That should get me better acquainted with Designer 8.5!

Of course, I can't get my laptop to see my VMware server, but I'm sure I'll figure it out, right? :)


[Comments from the prior blog:]

belgort said...

We are here to help. If you need help getting your laptop to connect to your VM shoot me offline. We can fire up a GotoMeeting and fix it up.

March 6, 2009 9:57 AM


Marie Scott said...

The power and love of this community is awesome!
:) March 6, 2009 11:34 AM

Posted by Kathy Brown At 8:51 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, so I’m a middle-bie. Not a newbie, but not an oldbie either. However, I’ve recently become acutely aware of how much I do not know.

There are times when I attend a Lotusphere session, or read someone’s blog and I feel like I could sit and read books, read code, take classes, develop, etc. for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for YEARS and still never feel up to par with these people.

I have good days, too, where I figure out some cool way to accomplish what I needed in LotusScript and I stand up and do a little dance at my desk, but today, I am just feeling overwhelmed. I don’t know Java. I don’t know Javascript. I don’t design websites, I’m not Web2.0-cool. I’ve looked at the 8.5 Designer and freaked out because it just looks so different from what I am used to. I don’t have a computer science degree and sometimes I think that fact can erode whatever confidence I may have had in myself.

I know this feeling will pass. I will take a few hours (days?) to get acclimated to the new Designer. I will someday learn Java and Javascript. I know I have to be patient. But right now, I just want to know it all, and know it all now, and feel comfortable and confident in what I know.

Anyone else ever feel that way? Anyone? (Feel free to lie and say yes to make me feel better).

[Following are the comments from the prior blog:]


Nate said...

I feel that way almost every day. We're all only apprentices at *something*. (For me right now, it's SWT component development.)

A suggestion on preparing yourself for the ultimate leap from Lotusscript to Java: it's MUCH easier if you start writing all your Lotusscript as custom classes. It'll take some getting used to, but it will make all the difference when you start working with Java.

Plus, it usually improves your Lotusscript code quite a bit.

March 4, 2009 10:10 AM


Kevin Pettitt said...

Kathy, chill . No CS degree here either. My first exposure to Notes was as a temp. No Java, minimal javascript. Why not? Two reasons: 1) I've always been able to find work solving problems using the "traditional" Notes languages, and 2) Prior to 8.5, learning these skills in the Domino context was a major PITA, and given #1 didn't seem worthwhile.

Why am I not too worried? One key reason is that the new DDE has a proper set of Java and Javascript editors that earlier versions lacked. Another reason is that the Javascript environment supports the use of @Functions *inside* the javascript code.

Like many people, I learn mostly from tearing apart existing applications to see how they were put together. With all the new Xpage and composite sample applications coming out, there will soon be plenty to learn from. As problems come up that can be solved using some of these new capabilities, I expect my learning to accelerate and I'll be paying much closer attention to those members of our community who have been pioneering the new stuff.

Just remember that folks like us who started on the "business side" have an advantage in that regard over folks that were programmers from the get go. Take heart in the fact that once you've gotten the hang of coding in general, picking up a new programming language is easy relative to developing a sense of how business works.

Feel better?
March 4, 2009 10:44 AM


Lotus Evangelist said...

Speaking for a non-developer who posted a few weeks back about my foray into development land, for a weekend,I can safely say you have the right idea.
One can't learn it all, but if you know what you want to learn that is half the battle.
There is no shortage of ways to learn, just time usually.
I know there is more out there for me to learn on the admin side and I spend the time I need to when I can.
As to being comfortable, do what you can, then google it or research it and if still stuck ping one of the happy coders on bleedyellow's ST server or post it to Twitter.
Someone always has an answer.
March 4, 2009 11:08 AM


Anonymous said...

Hello,

Acquiring a new skill takes time and repetition (practice). There are no lasting short cuts.

Java took me a while to 'learn'. Of any IT certification I'm most proud of the Java one, it was the hardest. It's got a few big concepts so you have to eat the elephant bit by bit don't try to do too much at a time. I'd recommend working toward the certification it will add structure to your studies and add to your CV. Once you have it under your belt use it regularly. Lotuscript is so deeply ingrained I can't forget it but I can forget Java so easily.

The lovely thing about this community is the many giants shoulders for you to stand on. Matt White, Julian Robichaux, Scott Good, Henry NewBerry, Bill, Steve "domi-no yes maybe". Go, abuse their good nature.

My current project is to learn Objective C and do some useful iPod Touch/iPhone Development. It's a bit like Java but no so. Another client to learn too (xCode). I'm getting by with chocolate and decaff coffee.

This is all supposed to be fun isn't it and if it's fun it's easier to learn. I hope it all becomes fun again soon.

Jason Hook

March 4, 2009 11:25 AM


Kathy said...

Thanks everyone for your responses!

Jason - it is still fun. That is part of the problem, I really love what I do, so I want to be really good at it! :)

I am the lone developer where I work, so it's nice to reach out and hear from others. Especially from people whose sessions I've attended!

Thanks again, it really does help!

March 4, 2009 11:33 AM


Steven Kennett said...

I don't know anywhere near as much as I would like, part of the reason I think that is because I spend time reading the blogs of the experts who do seem to know it all.
BUT, the difference is these guys have been owrking with Notes since R1 or R2 and have many years of experience. I bet you'll also find that they spend many an hour in their own time playing with this and that.
I don't do that I have 3 young children to look after, so one has to accept that to become that good will take time and experience.

March 4, 2009 2:07 PM

Anonymous said...

Hi, Kathy my name is Kenio i'm from Brazil.I have 10 years of experience with Domino and a lot of certifications, but...every change comes with feelings like yours.
Keep learning
March 4, 2009 6:43 PM

Mr Ports said...

Hi Kathy,

I have been working for Lotus for the last 14 or so years (if you do the maths that is just days after we were aquired by IBM). Support, Competitive, Advocate, Tech Sales - the sort of stuff. The day I don't feel overwhelmed is the day that I leave. I love that new technologies and paradims arrive all the time. That every time I think I can relax in my comfort zone a curve ball comes out of development. And reading the tone of your post - I think you might really like that too

Good Work Fella Ports

http://www.mrports.com/

March 4, 2009 7:08 PM


Rich said...

I have been working with notes for nearly five years and it can be a bit overwhelming at times. I think notes only started to click with me after two years and then it wasn't so bad. I still consider myself to be a notes newbie! There are a lot of incredibly good developers out there who are happy to share their knowledge.

March 4, 2009 7:58 PM


Kathy said...

WOW! Thanks everyone! The Lotus community is the best! :)

March 4, 2009 8:52 PM


Lady Sterling said...

Girl, I thought I wrote this post! I feel the same way both overwhelmed but also like I am eating the elephant bite by bite. I have been doing development since V3 but am still a "middle-bie" - I've just never needed to do the sleek up to the minute cool development, although I would love to. You are on the right track and so am I. Fortunately, we are in an awesome community that is worth its weight in gold. March 9, 2009 11:47 AM

Posted by Kathy Brown At 8:38 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)

At Lotusphere, I was lucky enough to see a session by Chris Blatnick and Tom Duff. Chris covered low-fidelity prototyping among other things. He was gracious enough to allow me to post a guest-post on his blog. Check it out!

Posted by Kathy Brown At 5:05 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Kathy Brown At 4:57 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)

As a newbie developer, I constantly have Designer Help open. Thankfully, I have dual monitors, so one has the Designer client and the other has Help open, most of the time.

I love when I run across gems like this one...

Syntax flag = notesDocument.ComputeWithForm( doDataTypes, raiseError )
Parameters doDataTypes
Boolean. The method ignores this parameter. Specify either True or False.

I realize it is probably there for backwards compatability, but usually the documentation notes that. This just blatantly says, put in the parameter, put whatever you want because it is ignored!

I probably need to get a life, but that cracks me up!

Posted by Kathy Brown At 4:51 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)

It worked! Both professionally and for running.

Yesterday, I ran again! I also uploaded all of my runs since December and realized I was being much harder on myself than I deserved. I haven't been running a LOT, but I have been running some, which is better than nothing.

Anyway, thanks to the four questions from yesterday's post:

I went running.
I made up a running schedule to get me to the Great Bay Half Marathon in April.
I convinced my friend and running partner to also do the Great Bay Half.

I also cleaned up my desk, cleaned out my emails, organized my to-dos for the many development projects I am working on, and knocked out quite a few of them.

The four questions really can be applied to anything...

What would I like to have happen?

I would like to finish the Contact Management System I am developing in Lotus Notes this week.

What needs to happen to finish?

I need to get the specs on a couple of reports that the users want. I need to finish up the remaining requirements.

Can I?

The specs are up to someone else to create, so we'll see if I get those. I can finish my stuff while I wait.

Will I?

Yes.

See? The beauty of the questions is that you can see what is realistic for a goal. Then you can readjust. For example, I may not get the specs, but rather than be disappointed at the end of the week that I didn't finish the CMS, I know that I can do the rest and that part may or may not happen. Realistic expectations = happiness!

Posted by Kathy Brown At 2:17 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think many people get to Lotus Notes and Domino from “winding” career paths. It isn’t like most of us started out our careers saying, “Hey, I know! I want to be a Lotus Notes and Domino Application Developer!”. In fact, most people I speak to didn’t even set out to be any kind of application developer or system administrator. Many of us started out in one place, and through various circumstances found ourselved suddenly tasked developing in Lotus Notes or suddenly in charge of a Notes/Domino server.

That is essentially what happened to me. Long story short (if you want the longer version, check out my first entry), I was never officially trained. I don’t have a masters in computer science. I don’t have a bachelor’s in computer science. Heck, some days I can’t even spell computer science. Anyway.

I suddenly found myself faced with need to know how to develop applications in Lotus. I quickly realized there was no “Lotus Application Development for Dummies” guide. It seemed that there were very few resources available. AND many of those assumed a level of knowledge that I did not have.

Of course, how you learn a new skill depends greatly on understanding your own learning style.

Go to the Lotus website and spend an hour or two navigating your way through 1000 links to get to the Certification and Training page. Find a certification path that makes sense for you, i.e. if you want to be a developer, look for the developer certification. From there, you should be able to find resources such as online and in person classes that would prepare you for the certification tests. (I won’t provide a direct link since they always seem to change).

One such provider is TLCC. They provide various online classes for learning Lotus Notes and Domino. I highly recommend these classes. If working at your own pace works for you, then these are a great option. You actually download an .nsf file that has lots of working examples of the material. WARNING: if you are like me and don’t “pace” yourself well, these may not be for you as I find I never complete them.

In person classes, offered in various locations. These can be pricey, but well worth it. I have taken classes from Davalen and Workgroup Connections. Both were excellent. Davalen also offers a virtual classroom, which is a lot more convenient than buying a plane ticket and hotel room! The great thing about these classes is that you get the official IBM book. Step by step instructions and examples to learn the material. WARNING: if you find yourself annoyed and bored if you get something and others in your class do not, the in person class may not be for you. WARNING: if you find yourself falling asleep at your monitor when you “work from home”, the virtual class may not be for you.

You will also find some IBM documentation on their site that may or may not be useful. Honestly, if you are just starting out, some of their “documentation” may be a little too much to handle. Downloading Volume 2 of the Programmers Guide might just make your ears bleed.

Get the Lotus Notes and Domino 6 Programming Bible, even if you aren’t using R6, this book is still invaluable. Realize though, that if you are a true newbie, some of this book will make your head explode. Get it. Read what you can and don’t worry ‘cuz the rest will make sense later.

Get Code Complete. If you are like me, and don’t have a programming background this book will help you write good code. It doesn’t matter what language, Code Complete discusses and demonstrates good code structure. Just like the previous book I mentioned, get it, read it and don’t worry that it doesn’t all make sense right away.

Definitely definitely definitely check out www.planetlotus.org. It’s a giant list of all people who blog about Lotus. Scan through stuff, search, whatever, it’s a great place for resources.

Last, but certainly not least. The way I learned the MAJORITY of what I know. Jump in. Go to openNTF.org and download an application (highly rated or popular). Open it up in the client, understand what it does, then go open it up in Designer. Try to figure out the code that does what you experienced in the client.

ETA: A Planet Lotus blogger just asked a similar question and got a bunch of great responses, check them out here

Posted by Kathy Brown At 2:08 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (1)

Due to the high cost of Lotusphere and the poor economy, I almost didn't get to go to Lotusphere this year. In fact, had I waited to book just a month, my company probably would not have paid for it. Luckily, I had already paid the registration fee and it is non-refundalbe!

When I got back, I suggested my co-worker and I write up our thoughts on each of the sessions we attended. We each did a presentation that included the session titles, the session abstracts and our comments about what we learned and how it applied to our jobs and our company.

It was very well received by a partner of the firm and by the boss' boss. The boss' boss joked about me writing twice as much next year. [insert record scratching noise] You mean, I actually get to go next year?! I thought for sure, this would be my second and last Lotusphere. Now, I don't have anything in writing for next year, but that is certainly promising!

* Note: Almost more surprising is the fact that the boss' boss seems to have actually read all 20 pages of the presentation!

Posted by Kathy Brown At 10:15 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am a Lotus/Domino Developer and a runner. So get it? Running Notes? Notes on running and running (Developing) Notes? Wow, I am so clever, right? Hey, what can I say? The good titles were all taken.

About me:

My running background - Prior to 2007, I was a sloth. Seriously. I was 40 pounds overweight and wouldn't run unless a bear was chasing me. I had tried running a few times before in my life and despised it. Why would anyone want to torture themselves like that? Then, in September of 2007, I decided to try the Couch to 5K program. Literally taking people from couch potatoes to running a 5k in 9 weeks. With the program, I took it slow. I mean SLOW. Like old-ladies-passing-me-slow. And in November I ran my first 5k. Slowly. 34:41. BUT, I RAN it. The whole thing.

Then, I was bit by the running bug. I loved it. Kept running all winter. Keep in mind I live in New Hampshire, so that actually means something. I ran in 24 degrees with snow blowing sideways. I built up my mileage and signed up for several races in the Seacoast Series. I ran my first 10k in June 2008.

Then, I really did something crazy. I signed up for a half marathon. So it was that just over a year after I started running, I ran my first Half Marathon in November 2008.

I've cut back since then and really need to get back into a consistent schedule. Especially since I *may* have signed up for another Half in April...

My Lotus Notes and Domino background - this one is a little longer. I started out post-college as an Actress in Music Theatre, living in New York City. After I got tired of that and wanted a "real" life, I moved to New Hampshire. I had intentions of taking a temp job and possibly becoming a web designer (I had some experience with some technical temp jobs while trying to support myself as an actress). I got a temp job in 1999, which was data entry-ish at an Investment consulting firm.

I moved up through the firm from temp job, to permanent job (Data Analyst) to Performance Analyst, to Investment Analyst. It was a small firm, so while I did the investment side, I was also part of the "Tech Team". Part of my duties on the tech team were to perform some of the junior duties of a Notes/Domino System Administrator. I was also involved in hiring and managing an outside consultant who developed an internal application for our firm. Managing the consultant involved learning the design of the application in the event he was "hit by a bus". He wasn't hit by a bus, but he did move back to India.

It was shortly before that I was made a full-time IT person. Still performing junior system administration tasks, and also maintaining and developing Lotus applications. When our consultant left, it was trial by fire. I had to learn everything about development and learn it quick.

Not surprisingly, development soon became my sole focus. So, I've been involved with Notes since R5 and a full time developer for the last several years. I am both self taught and IBM trained. I am officially an "IBM Certified Advanced Application Developer - Lotus Notes and Domino" for 7 and 8. I've attended Lotusphere 2008, Developer2008 and Lotusphere 2009. I completely feel that Lotusphere is THE best way to learn anything Lotus related.

Thanks for reading if you made it all the way here.

Posted by Kathy Brown At 10:03 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)