Some feedback on Lotusphere 2007
I am sitting on a plane returning from Lotusphere 2007. Thought about live blogging, but decided that it's better to pay attention during the presentations. Besides a laptop gets very heavy by the end of the day. For the first time in years, I can say that IBM finally "gets" Notes. What I mean is that Notes now finally has a decent roadmap for the future.
Because of my work, I was looking to see the plans for the future of Notes. I well remember the collective groan that went up at the opening session of Lotusphere a few years ago when Lotus introduced the "dual lane" approach. So I was very interested in where Notes is going. My real interest is "How effectively can I use this tool to solve business problems that other tools haven't been able to solve.
With that in mind, I attended a designer session. It was mildly interesting until last 15 minutes when Maureen Leyland arrived and demoded where the Designer client is going; based on Eclipse, the Designer now has an open architecture. Same for the Notes client, also based on Eclipse. Finally, I saw IBM with a decent, logical, plausible future for Notes.
With these new directions, I think Microsoft finally has a reason to look over their shoulder. When IBM and Microsoft battle it out, I score as a customer. Remember how long IE6 was Microsoft's browser? Years. Only when Firefox appeared and started taking market share did Microsoft start improving IE. I see the same thing happening with the Apple / Windows race. These races are ones that we, as customers, do not want any vendor to win! As long as these companies are competing we score.
Much to my surprise, I bumped in Gary Devendorf at the Dolphin on Wednesday. Gary used to be "Mr LotusScript" until IBM laid him off. A few months later he was working at Microsoft, helping them integrate their products with Notes. It was very interesting to hear his comments on the culture, and on how people relate at Microsoft, compared to IBM. Personally, I think IBM rather shot themselves in the foot letting someone like Gary go.
This year my favorite presentation was "Worst Practices" by Bill Bucan & Paul Mooney. When you put an Irishman and a Scot of doubtful sobriety on the stage together you will have an interesting banter. I hope to post a video on this soon...
DocMaster 4.0.x
Below is a summary of the recent changes to DocMaster 4.0.x. This information is also in the help file. The attachment below contains the DocMaster help database (.nsf), and the production template (.ntf).
DocMaster_4-0-82.zip
15 January 2007: Release 4.0.82
505 Add ability to create an email comment. (User Requirements: Feature Improvement)
510 Removed "Test" folder that crept into the design template. (Bug: Regression Bug) 1 September 2007: Release 4.0.81 236 Can't edit the title of a "System setting" document. (Bug: Feature not working correctly)
244 Allow comments to be added from "Sent" mail. (User Requirement: Feature enhancement)
195 Add "New Design Element" action button to "Manage help docs" view. (User Requirement: New feature)
374 If rev History comments are turned off, hide the Rev History comment column in views. (Design Requirements: UI Improvement)
490 Add "Revision History" for the "Doc" action menu. (User Requirements: New Feature)
245 Right align "search" button in all views, folders. (User Requirement: UI Improvement)
201 Extra tab, extra field on FAQ document. (Bug: UI error) 21 August 2006: Release 4.0.80 173 Put title docs in their own category in the "Doc management" view. (Bug: Feature not working correctly)
174 Ensure that all views that categorize docs by folder use the same "Folders and others" shared column that the "Doc Management" view uses. (Requirement: Refactoring)
176 Comments still show on new "System setting" documents. (Bug: Feature not working correctly)
175 Ensure all views like "Docs by owner" use the same view selection formula as the "Doc Management" view. (Bug: Feature not working correctly) 20 August 2006: Release 4.0.79 111 Doc comments show on new document created from template. (Bug: UI error)
169 Metadata action button no longer visible on documents. (Bug: Feature not working correctly)
165 Help key "Help button calls "HelpKeyuserTX" instead of "HelpKeyTX". (Bug: Feature not working correctly)
166 "New Comment" action does not show on DocMaster Help when used at DCI (Bug: Feature not working correctly)
167 Remove "Prohibit design refresh ..." from 2 views (Bug: Code error)
171 Problems with "Docs not in any folder" category in doc management view. (Bug: Missing features)
74 Wrong icon used for attachments (Bug: UI error) 16 August 2006: Release 4.0.78164 Improve the auto generated doc subject for "Design element" form. (Requirement: UI Improvement)
161 Doc Owner field lookup not working correctly. (Bug: Feature not working correctly)
160 Keyword index doesn't sort properly. (Bug: Feature not working correctly)
159 Add help for database title documents. (Requirement: User Requirement) 15 August 2006: Release 4.0.77155 "Design Element" form help calls "Doc Basic" form help. (Bug: Code error)
152 If "Design element" is used as a help doc, hide the action buttons in read mode. (Bug: UI error)
156 Remove "Open URL" from "design element" form. (Requirement: Refactoring) 15 August 2006: Release 4.0.76 151 "Help key" field on subform "Doc help" shows in read mode. (Bug: UI error) 15 August 2006: Release 4.0.75 145 Remove auto generaled help key from "Design element" form (Bug: Feature not working correctly)
147 "Doc management" subform: the button to add keywords adds them to the wrong field. (Bug: Feature not working correctly)
146 Remove help key lookup; put "Help" table & field on subform (Bug: Feature not working correctly)
148 Remove "Target URL" from "Design element" form. (Requirement: User Requirement)
150 Prefix field names on "Design element" form with the actual design element selected (Requirement: UI Improvement) 10 August 2006: Release 4.0.74 119 Auto generated indexes (Requirement: User Requirement)
140 "Design Element" form shows table in read mode. (Bug: UI error)
141 AutoHelpKey should only use the design element name (Bug: Feature not working correctly)
142 Remove obsolete "user lookup" code (Requirement: Refactoring)
143 Remove "Library Corporate" (Requirement: Refactoring)
144 Add blank line to top "Management" tab on top of "Glossary" form (Bug: UI error) 9 August 2006: Release 4.0.73 113 Add "Design Element" form (Requirement: User Requirement)
137 "Help" does not work on "My documents" view (Bug: Feature not working correctly)
138 Modify the "Person lookup" so that the field names specified on DocMaster setup are used to get the fields from the lookup doucment. (Requirement: Design Requirement)
139 When specifying the corporate lookup DB on the DocMaster setup, display the DB title as well as the rep ID. (Requirement: User Requirement) 2 August 2006: Release 4.0.72 118 Modify code to allow manager & dept lookup to be configured. (Requirement: Design Requirement)
131 Add "Lookups" to System Setting form (Requirement: User Requirement)
133 People tab - "Editors" field "Add" button contains "Help" code, instead of the code to add names. (Bug: Missing features)
117 View meta data as a document, instead of via a dialog box (Requirement: Design Requirement)
127 On System setting form, move the Vendor Default above the line. (Bug: UI error)
128 Database type "Full House" does not set the Glossary or FAQ entries on the folder tab. (Bug: Feature not working correctly)
130 Database type: Full House added a tab at the start of the SOP line. (Bug: Feature not working correctly)
134 Help button on "Dept Manager" field on "People tab" does not work (Bug: Feature not working correctly)
136 On the DB Setup form: Move the "People" tab off the "Documents" tab, and onto its own top level tab. (Requirement: UI Improvement)
135 On the people tab - Hide the buttons that remove field content if the field is empty. (Requirement: Design Requirement) 20 July 2006: Release 4.0.71 126 Remove unused "Meta data" tab from Standard document (Requirement: Refactoring)
125 Workflow missing from several forms: Help, Glossary, FAQ (Bug: Missing features) 20 July 2006: Release 4.0.70 120 % Done field has error in "Hide when" formula (Bug: UI error)
121 Glossary explanation text does not show in read mode. (Bug: UI error)
122 [more...] indicator in the glossary view is not clear. Try using a smal icon to indicate more text in body of glossary doc. (Requirement: User Requirement)
124 Add "Setting Purpose" field to "System Setting doc, to describe what the system setting is controlling. (Requirement: Design Requirement) 17 July 2006: Release 4.0.69 114 "Doc Management" tab shows in read mode on "Standard" form. (Bug: UI error)
115 Add "System Setting" form. (Requirement: User Requirement)
116 Move "Subject" off the "Doc Title Builder" subform. (Requirement: Design Requirement)
109 "Basic" setup should not show Index, Glossary, FAQ or Docs by date (Bug: UI error) 12 July 2006: Release 4.0.68 107 Inconsistent display of TargetURL (Bug: UI error)
105 Fix spelling & clarify wording on URL link form (Bug: UI error)
106 Modify the glossary so the first line of the body is used as an explanation. (Requirement: User Requirement) 26 June 2006: Release 4.0.67 98 Can't create a help doc for a folder (Bug: Code error)
99 %done checkbox field & doc sort field: help buttons are missing "hide when" formulas. (Bug: UI error)
100 HideWhen error in view / folder actions:"Change form" (Bug: UI error)
101 Target URL help button has faulty HideWhen formula (Bug: UI error)
103 Fix reference to edit mode form in "CreateFromDbDefaultForm" in "Library DocMaster" (Bug: Code error)
102 Remove unused function "GetFormEditName" from "Library DocMaster" (Requirement: Refactoring) 19 June 2006: Release 4.0.66 91 Move "% done" to the workflow tab (Requirement: User Requirement)
90 Subject field missing label in edit mode on "Basic" form. (Bug: UI error)
88 Faulty "Hide When" formula on people tab of "Attachment" doc. (Bug: UI error)
89 "Attachment" document does not automatically launch the first attachment. (Bug: Missing features) 31 May 2006: Release 4.0.65 69 Add ability to copy emails and paste them as comments (User Requirements: Feature Improvement)
76 Remove buttons from modal help doc. (Bug: UI error)
72 Error editing document (Bug: Code error)
79 Hidden "Comments" help button shows. (Bug: UI error)
78 "Shared text" form incorrectly shows Notes field delimiters. (Bug: UI error)