Course Code: R5AD1
Course Title: R5 Application Development 1 for Notes and Domino
Units: 16
Duration: 4 classroom equivalent days
CourseRoom Access: 4 months1
1. Up to 12 months access when purchased as part of a Curriculum Package.
Summary Description
Learn how to develop Domino R5 applications any place and any time. This course is for developers who are new to Notes and Domino application development. Using R5 Notes and Domino Designer, you will learn how to create a Domino database, create forms, add fields to a form, create views, use the formula language, and create agents. Learn how to make your Domino application available to web browser users and how to enhance your application using framesets, outlines, pages, tables, single category views, hotspots, buttons, and actions. Complete your application by adding help documents and applying Domino security. This course is packed with demonstrations and activities to quickly get you developing Notes and Domino applications. As you progress through the course, you will build a customer tracking application.
The R5 Application Development 1 course will prepare you for the Lotus Domino R5 Designer Fundamentals certification exam. When you pass this one exam, you will receive a certificate from Lotus indicating your achievement level as a Certified Lotus Specialist (CLS). This exam is also the first of three required exams for certification as a Certified Lotus Professional (CLP) Domino R5 Application Developer.
Audience and Prerequisites
Must have experience using the Notes R5 client as an end user. No programming knowledge is required.
System Requirements
A single R5 Domino Designer client and a Domino compatible browser. Unrestricted access to the Internet is required to get instructor support.
Course Modules
Module 1 - Creating a Domino Database
The Domino database is a container. It holds a variety of design elements such as forms, fields, and views, as well as all data entered into your Domino application. This module describes the different types of Domino applications and the different ways to create a Domino database. The Lotus Domino Designer environment is introduced and explored. The student creates a customer database which they will continue to develop into a full customer tracking application as they proceed through the course.
Module 2 - Designing Forms
Domino uses forms as templates for creating new documents, displaying existing documents and printing documents. This module introduces the basics for creating, naming and setting the properties for a form.
Module 3 - Notes Fields and Data Types
The Notes form is made up of static text and Notes fields. This module describes how to add fields to a form and how to control user input using the basic field data types.
Module 4 - Designing Views
Notes Views display summaries of documents so users can find the information they need quickly and easily. The documents that appear in a view can be controlled using a view selection formula. Different views in the same database can display different sets of documents. This module introduces the basics for creating, naming and setting the properties for a view.
Module 5 - Field Value Formulas
Field value formulas are used to set field values for computed fields. For editable fields, they are used to provide default values, validate user input and translate it into standardized formats. This module describes common field value formulas for editable and computed fields.
Module 6 - Notes Formula Language
The Formula Language is the original programming language of Notes. It is a non-procedural language that is a direct descendant of the Lotus 1-2-3 macro language. It is easy to learn and use, and can emulate the Notes user interface and menu system using @commands. There are more than 200 @functions or built-in formulas. This module details the Notes Formula Language and its lexical building blocks. In addition, the most useful @functions are described and demonstrated including dialog functions, conditional functions, string conversion functions, string manipulation functions, arithmetic functions, time functions and name functions.
Module 7 - More on Forms and Formulas
This module outlines several advanced techniques to improve the aesthetics and usability of forms. Topics include adding window title formulas, allowing multiple values in fields, creating and using subforms, applying hide-when attributes and formulas, adding form actions, creating a document hierarchy and inheriting field values when a document is created.
Module 8 - More on Views
This module outlines several advanced view techniques. Topics include how to show response type documents in a view, how to develop a logically sorted view and adding functions using view actions.
Module 9 - Automation Using Agents
Agents are design elements added to a Domino database to automate tasks. This module covers the details of creating agents using the Domino Agent Builder. Creating an agent using predefined simple actions and formulas is also covered.
Module 10 - Extending Applications for Web Browsers
Unfortunately, not everything that works in the Notes client will work in a web browser. Learn to recognize the differences and accommodate your applications for web browsers. This module details the main client differences and offers alternatives and techniques when developing for web browsers.
Module 11 - Navigation Enhancements
Domino provides many tools to enhance the user interface and navigation in a Domino application. Presentation of information can be enhanced using sections, tables, pages and embedded views. Navigation can be controlled and enhanced using hotspots, links, outlines and framesets. This module focuses on tools and techniques to enhance the presentation and navigation in a Domino application.
Module 12 - Completing the Application
Once you have all forms, views, pages, outlines and framesets designed, the database is almost complete. This module walks you through some of the final steps before a database is released to the users.
Objectives
- List the Domino application categories and the advantages of developing using Domino.
- List the steps to create a Domino application.
- Describe the main design and data components of a Domino application.
- Describe the three ways to create a new Domino database.
- Create a Domino database and explore the design tools available in Lotus Domino Designer.
- Distinguish between the form and document objects in a database and describe how they work together.
- Outline procedures and guidelines for creating and naming forms.
- Design a simple form.
- Explore and set Form Properties.
- Learn field naming rules and guidelines.
- Add fields to a form and change their data type.
- Describe the basic field data types.
- Demonstrate and use different selection type fields.
- Outline procedures and guidelines for creating and naming a view.
- Create a view and introduce the view design environment.
- Add view columns and set column properties.
- Create view categories to assist the user in locating documents.
- Explore and set view properties to add function and improve usability.
- Base the design of a new view on an existing view.
- Explore the use of a view selection criteria to select and display a set of documents in a view.
- Add a view selection criteria using the Easy Selection conditions.
- Differentiate between editable and computed fields.
- Establish a default value for an editable field.
- Discover how to translate user input into a consistent format.
- Establish required fields on a form using Input Validation formulas.
- Outline and demonstrate the differences between the three types of computed fields.
- Create fields that are computed for the user.
- Describe and demonstrate the Formula Language lexical building blocks.
- Differentiate between field variables and temporary variables.
- Outline the syntax for creating and using text, number and time constants.
- Describe the many available operators including arithmetic operators, list operators, comparison operators, text operators and logical operators.
- Outline the rules for precedence and order of evaluation.
- Define and describe the five Keywords in the Notes Formula Language.
- List, demonstrate and test the Formula Language syntax rules.
- Compare how fields in the current document are accessed using the Formula Language and LotusScript.
- Show how formulas return values or perform actions.
- Define the main expression of a formula and its significance.
- Describe how some @functions return values and some produce side effects.
- Describe @function syntax and the steps to building an @function formula.
- Describe, demonstrate and use the @Prompt dialog function.
- Describe, demonstrate and use @If and other conditional processing tools.
- Set up conditional program branching using @If, @Return and @Do.
- Describe, demonstrate and use the string case conversion functions.
- Understand and use string comparison operators and string pattern matching.
- Describe and demonstrate the many @functions that support substring manipulation.
- List the many arithmetic @functions and demonstrate some of the most useful functions.
- Describe, demonstrate and use the many date and time @functions.
- Use the name @functions to access and manipulate the name from a user's Notes ID.
- Use Window Title Formulas to add a window title.
- Explore property settings to allow and display multiple values in a field.
- Explore advanced property settings for text, date/time and number fields.
- Outline procedures for creating, inserting and using subforms.
- Explore hide-when attributes and formulas. Detail procedures and techniques for their use.
- Describe and demonstrate the "scope" of a hide-when paragraph.
- Introduce @Commands and their use in form actions.
- Detail techniques to add form actions using shared actions and subforms.
- Describe document hierarchy and the form types used to create a parent-child document relationship.
- Outline procedures and strategies to inherit field values from an existing document to a new document.
- Outline the requirements to show response type documents in a view.
- Show how to develop a logically sorted view using hidden columns.
- Outline procedures for creating, editing and adding view actions.
- List strategies for displaying and hiding view actions.
- Describe how to create cascaded view actions.
- Introduce agents and agent terminology.
- Describe how Domino security impacts agents and what actions they perform.
- Demonstrate and use the Agent Builder to create and edit agents.
- List and describe each agent setting.
- Demonstrate and use Simple Actions to create an agent.
- Demonstrate and use formulas to create an agent.
- Launch the Web Preview feature from Notes and Domino Designer.
- Describe how Domino converts documents, forms and views to web pages.
- Introduce the Domino URL Syntax.
- Describe the differences between the Notes client and web browsers.
- Describe and demonstrate the client discovery functions available in Domino.
- Understand the result of various text alignment techniques when viewed with web browsers.
- Describe and demonstrate how to add Passthru HTML to forms.
- Describe the main differences with forms and fields when viewed with web browsers.
- List the @functions not supported in Domino web applications.
- List the @commands which are supported in Domino web applications.
- Enable the Rich Text Editor Applet and understand the advantages and disadvantages for its use.
- Describe the main differences with views when opened with web browsers.
- Enable the View Applet and understand the advantages and disadvantages for its use.
- Enable the Actions Applet and understand the advantages and disadvantages for its use.
- Use hotspots and links to provide help, execute actions and support navigation.
- Use expand/collapse sections to organize information and reduce display space.
- Outline the procedure for developing complex tables.
- Introduce the tabbed, animated and programmed table types.
- Detail the procedures for embedding views and displaying single category views.
- Outline the procedures for creating and using shared image resources.
- Use pictures and image maps to enhance presentation and navigation in an application.
- Introduce the Page design element and demonstrate how to use it in an application.
- Use Outlines to provide customized menu navigation.
- Use framesets to create a panelled application.
- Create or modify the database icon.
- Identify the essential elements of an effective About Database and Using Database document.
- Create help documents for your database.
- Discover and set the Database Launch Properties.
- Introduce Domino Database security.
- Set up the database Access Control List so users have the proper level of access.