xpages: In an effort to make mass emails from IBM less sucky looking

Since i complained about how bad the IBM emails from supoort looked, i decided to make an easy way for people to create html emails.

I created a simple xpages application where you paste in your html(may i suggest something based on OneUI) into a field, preview it, and then send it to yourself as an html email( so you can then forward it to whoever), It took 30 minutes.

Here is the form, i copied the source html from planet lotus and pasted into the html field. Of course not all images are full paths, so they are broken, but could be fixed easily.

The Xpage source Code :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<xp:view xmlns:xp="http://www.ibm.com/xsp/core" style="padding-left:20px;padding-right:20px;padding-top:10px">

<xp:this.data>
<xp:dominoDocument var="document1" formName="main"></xp:dominoDocument>
</xp:this.data>
<xp:table style="width:100.0%">
<xp:tr>
<xp:td>
<xp:button value="Close" id="button4"><xp:eventHandler event="onclick" submit="true" refreshMode="complete">
<xp:this.action>
<xp:openPage name="/view.xsp"></xp:openPage>
</xp:this.action></xp:eventHandler></xp:button>
<xp:button id="button2">
<xp:this.value><![CDATA[Save & Close]]></xp:this.value>
<xp:eventHandler event="onclick" submit="true" refreshMode="complete">
<xp:this.action>

<xp:actionGroup>
<xp:saveDocument></xp:saveDocument>
<xp:openPage name="/view.xsp"></xp:openPage>
</xp:actionGroup>
</xp:this.action></xp:eventHandler></xp:button>
<xp:button id="button3" value="Send"><xp:eventHandler event="onclick" submit="true" refreshMode="complete">
<xp:this.action>
<xp:executeScript>
<xp:this.script><![CDATA[#{javascript:
doc1 = database.createDocument()
doc1.appendItemValue("Form","Memo")
var3 = document1.getItemValueString('html')
body = doc1.createMIMEEntity()
subject = body.createHeader("Subject")
subject.setHeaderVal(document1.getItemValueString('subject'))

stream = session.createStream()
stream.writeText(var3)


body.setContentFromText(stream, "text/html; charset=iso-8859-1", 0)

doc1.appendItemValue("SendTo", document1.getItemValueString('creator'))
doc1.send()
}]]></xp:this.script>
</xp:executeScript>
</xp:this.action></xp:eventHandler></xp:button>
</xp:td>
</xp:tr>
</xp:table>
<xp:br></xp:br>
<xp:label value="Mail To:" id="label3" style="font-weight:bold"></xp:label>
<xp:br></xp:br>
<xp:inputText id="inputText1" value="#{document1.creator}" disabled="true"><xp:this.defaultValue><![CDATA[#{javascript:@Name('[CN]', session.getEffectiveUserName())}]]></xp:this.defaultValue></xp:inputText>
<xp:br></xp:br>
<xp:br></xp:br>
<xp:label value="Subject" id="label2" style="font-weight:bold"></xp:label>
<xp:br></xp:br>
<xp:inputText id="inputText2" style="width:400px" value="#{document1.subject}"></xp:inputText>
<xp:br></xp:br>
<xp:br></xp:br>
<xp:label value="Paste in HTML" id="label1" style="font-weight:bold"></xp:label>
<xp:br></xp:br>
<xp:inputTextarea id="inputTextarea1"
style="width:610.0px;height:326.0px" value="#{document1.html}">
</xp:inputTextarea>
<xp:br></xp:br>
<xp:br></xp:br>
<xp:button value="Refresh Preview" id="button1">
<xp:eventHandler event="onclick" submit="true"
refreshMode="complete">
</xp:eventHandler></xp:button>
<xp:br></xp:br>
<xp:br></xp:br>
<xp:label value="Preview" id="label4" style="font-weight:bold"></xp:label><xp:br></xp:br>__________________________________________________________________________________________________
<xp:br></xp:br>
<xp:br></xp:br>
<xp:text escape="false" id="computedField1"><xp:this.value><![CDATA[#{javascript:'<div id = "test me">' + document1.getItemValueString('html')+ '</div>'}]]></xp:this.value></xp:text></xp:view>

Why customers think Lotus is Legacy Software!

because they get emails like this from IBM about there products

Notice the 1995 era html table

Now here is an example from cdw, not the greatest but not bad either

New Blog Series - Taking Notes data offline(Add, Delete, Change) - HTML5

I am starting this new blog series with the intent of showing how to take Lotus Notes data offline on mobile devices, and have them "Replicate" back to the server sending and receiving any changes that have been made.

For this example i will use the Lotus Notes Journal/Notebook or whatever we are calling it these days, but we will not modify that template. Instead we will create a new database that will act as a proxy on the users behalf of locating and "Replicating" the journal file for the user who is logged in. It will store the data locally on the mobile device in a SQLite database.

When i am finished with this project my intent is to post the resulting code on OpenNTF.

So one caveat to begin with, and it really sucks, You must have Domino 8.5.2 beta to make this work. We need to use the cache manifest file which is an upcoming feature in 8.5.2.

Here is a link to the default database, there is way too much formatting, and that is not what this blog series is about.

Beginning Database

This database contains an xpage, that is formatted really for any device. It will size to whatever size you need it. The xpage name is MyJournal.xsp. BTW use Google Chrome or Safari for correct rendering.

In the next post i will show how we will get our data from the journal file.