Lotus Notes View

The Lotus Notes View (formerly Notes and Domino) portlet allows the user to access Notes databases using a Web browser.

The portal administrator can configure the Lotus Notes View portlet to provide access to specific types of Notes databases as described in the following list:

• Notes Mail displays any view (for example, Inbox, Calendar, or To Do) of the Notes Mail database specified in the Domino Directory's Person document for the authenticated user in the portal.

• Notes View displays any view of any Notes database to which a portal user has access. Users can add multiple views to a View menu, and the views can be from multiple Notes databases.

• Notes Teamroom displays any view of a Notes Teamroom to which a portal user has access.

• Notes Discussion displays any view of a Notes Discussion to which a portal user has access.

• My Notes Mail displays a portal user's own Notes Inbox, using the identity with which the user logs into WebSphere Portal to open that view from the Notes Mail database specified in the Domino Directory's Person document for the user.

• My Notes Calendar displays a portal user's Notes Calendar, using the identity with which the user logs into WebSphere Portal to open that view from the Notes Mail database specified in the Domino Directory's Person document for the user.

• My Notes To Do displays a portal user's Notes To Do (task) list, using the identity with which the user logs into WebSphere Portal to open that view from the Notes Mail database specified in the Domino Directory's Person document for the user.

An example of the Lotus Notes View portlet appears on the Applications -> Collaboration page of the portal when you click Lotus Notes. For information about working with the Lotus Notes View portlet, see the Help that is available from the portlet title bar.

As an administrator, you see the command Edit Shared Settings instead of Personalize for Lotus Notes View portlet instances. This command works the same as Personalize except that changes apply to all users of the instance of the portlet whose settings you are editing, up until the time a user decides to personalize the portlet. Use caution when editing shared settings. In particular, it is recommended that you do not select Edit Shared Settings and then add views intended for all users of the portlet; instead, select Configure and then add any such views.

What's new

Configuration mode:

Lotus Notes View now has a configuration mode where you, as the administrator, can set the portletType from a list instead of using the parameter in Portal Administration. The default type of a new Lotus Notes View portlet is Any Notes View and is controlled by the value of the parameter (NOTESVIEW). However, as soon as the portlet type is changed in the configuration mode for an instance of the portlet, the value of the parameter in the portal Administration will no longer affect that portlet instance.

In the new configuration mode, you can perform all the tasks available in personalization. You can add views to the View menu, thus making them available to all users of the instance of Lotus Notes View you configure. If you also grant users of the portlet access to add their own views, they will be able to personalize only the views they add, not the ones you provide to all users.

You can use the configuration mode to specify view columns for awareness.

Because the configuration mode provides an easier method of modifying settings, the UseiNotesTemplate, PeopleColumn, and DocumentLaunchColumn parameters are no longer necessary and have been removed from the portlet.

Considerations for adding views:

As the administrator, you have the ability to add views to all instances of a portlet so that users of site will have access to them. The method of adding the view determines the behavior of the view.

When you select Configure and then add a view to the portlet, the view appears in all instances of the portlet in the site, and users cannot delete or personalize the view. You can add a new view intended for all portlet users at any time and it will appear regardless of whether users have personalized their instances of the portlet. In addition, you can use this command to modify a view that appears dimmed to users.

When you select Edit Shared Settings and then add a view to the portlet, if a user has not yet personalized an instance, or does not have access to do so, the view appears in that user's portlet. However, as soon as a user personalizes the portlet in any way, views you add subsequently will no longer appear for users who have personalized. If site does not grant access to users to personalize the Lotus Notes View portlet, this difference will not affect view behavior. But when users do have personalization access, avoid using Edit Shared Settings to distribute a view unless you intend users to personalize the view for themselves, and you also do not intend to distribute other views afterwards, or update the ones you have already distributed. Using Edit Shared Settings to add the view is currently the only method that allows modification of the Application Title field, which controls the portlet title the user sees.
CAUTION: Do not use both Configure and Edit Shared Settings to add views in the same portal session.

DIIOP requirement:

DIIOP is now required to gather critical information used by the Lotus Notes View portlet. The following items are all supplied by DIIOP, and without its being enabled, the portlet cannot function properly. DIIOP gathers the following items of information:

• The current portal user's name in the Domino Directory

• The list of Notes databases available for selection as a source for the portlet

• The list of view categories for selection

• Calendar information (when the Domino release is unknown)

• The number of entries (count) in a categorized view

• The name of the design template used for the source Notes database, once selected

Considerations for adding documents:

As the administrator, you can enable the Action for creating new documents. If the portlet type is Any Notes View, it is recommended that you specify a form name under Notes form name for new documents. If you leave the form name blank, in portlets of this type, selecting the new document action will show an error message, unless the portlet is also set to launch into the Lotus Notes client, and the user has the client installed. In the Lotus Notes client, instead of an error message, users see a selection list of forms in the source database design. The selected form is used only for the document the user is creating at the time, and the list appears every time a user attempts to create a document.

Allow the user to select from a list of forms may be appropriate in application. Ensure that all users have the Lotus Notes client installed, and that the form names are useful and understandable.

Portlets of the other types can use a preconfigured form if you do not specify one, and no error message appears.

Other new features:

The Launch Application feature in Lotus Notes View now can open a document into the separate Lotus Document Viewer portlet instead of into a separate browser window. . The user interface is also updated with other improvements such as better paging and column management. For information on the new features, see the Help that is available from the portlet title bar.

Lotus Notes View is supported as a remote WSRP service; however, people awareness will not work in an WSRP instance of the portlet.

Use the Lotus Notes View portlet

The Lotus Notes View portlet displays information stored in a Notes database on a Lotus Dominoserver that is set up to work with WebSphere Portal.

The Lotus Notes View portlet works with Web-enabled Notes mail databases that have either the standard Notes mail design or the iNotes (iNotes) design.

For ease of use in the portlet, if you have designer access to a source Notes database for the portlet, enable sorting in its views.

The parameter that is most important to the appearance and function of the Lotus Notes View portlet is PortletType. The following table provides detailed information on the behavior of the portlet when configured with different values for this parameter.

PortletType parameter value	Portlet functionality
NOTESVIEW	This value is equivalent to the portlet Configuration setting Any Notes View. Specifying this value configures the portlet with one view, if you as portal administrator also pre-configure values for the NotesServer, NotesDatabase and NotesView parameters. Otherwise, the portlet requests the user to specify a data source in edit mode. Users can add more views in edit mode.
NOTESMAIL	This value is equivalent to the portlet Configuration setting My Notes Mail - All. Specifying this value configures the portlet with the following views: All Documents, Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Calendar, To Do, Meetings. With this value, the values for the NotesServer, NotesDatabase and NotesView parameters are ignored, and the portlet looks up (auto-detects) the Lotus Domino server and Notes mail database specified in the Domino Directory's Person document for the authenticated user in the portal. Users can add more views in edit mode; if so, a View menu appears in view mode.
MYINBOX	This value is equivalent to the portlet Configuration setting My Notes Mail - Inbox. Specifying this value configures the portlet with the default view of Inbox. With this value, the values for the NotesServer, NotesDatabase and NotesView parameters are ignored, and the portlet looks up (auto-detects) the Lotus Domino server and Notes mail database specified in the Domino Directory's Person document for the authenticated user in the portal,. Users can switch to the All Documents view in edit mode, but cannot add more views.
MYCALENDAR	This value is equivalent to the portlet Configuration setting My Notes Mail - Calendar. Specifying this value configures the portlet with the default view of Calendar. With this value, the values for the NotesServer, NotesDatabase and NotesView parameters are ignored, and the portlet looks up (auto-detects) the Lotus Domino server and Notes mail database specified in the Domino Directory's Person document for the authenticated user in the portal. Users cannot add more views.
MYTODO	This value is equivalent to the portlet Configuration setting My Notes Mail - To Do. Specifying this value configures the portlet with the default view of To Do. With this value, the values for the NotesServer, NotesDatabase and NotesView parameters are ignored, and the portlet looks up (auto-detects) the Lotus Domino server and Notes mail database specified in the Domino Directory's Person document for the authenticated user in the portal. Users cannot add more views.
NOTESDISCUSSION	This value is equivalent to the portlet Configuration setting Notes Discussion. Specifying this value creates no views and, unless you as portal administrator also pre-configure values for the NotesServer, NotesDatabase and NotesView parameters, requests the user to specify a data source in edit mode. Users can add more views, selecting from a list of views available in the Notes Discussion database design; if they add any views, a View menu appears in view mode in the portlet.
NOTESTEAMROOM	This value is equivalent to the portlet Configuration setting Notes Teamroom. Specifying this value creates no views and, unless you as portal administrator also pre-configure values for the NotesServer, NotesDatabase and NotesView parameters requests the user to specify a data source in edit mode. Users can add more views, selecting from a list of views available in the Notes Teamroom database design; if they add any views, a View menu appears in view mode in the portlet.

Portlet security

By default, the Lotus Notes View portlet supports single sign-on (SSO), with an LTPA token, giving the user access to both the Lotus Domino server that has been set up for use with Collaborative Services, and the Notes database that is the source for data displayed in the portlet, based on the identity (name and password) the user types to log in to WebSphere Portal.

Set up the portlet

This portlet is installed automatically as part of the Domino and Extended Products Portlets.

Before you configure the portlet, make sure WebSphere Portal environment meets the following client and server requirements.

Client requirements

The portlet supports browsers and devices capable of rendering HTML markup.

Item	Description
Markup level	HTML 4.01 Transitional
Java applet	None
JavaScript	1.30
<iframe>	Yes
Style sheets	Portal styles only
Software	The Lotus Notes View and Lotus Document Viewer portlets are compatible with specific Web browser software releases. For details, refer to the WebSphere Portal v7.0 hardware and software requirements document on the Web. The iNotes portlet is compatible with the specific Web browser software releases listed in the WebSphere Portal v7.0 hardware and software requirements document, as long as those releases are also supported by the release of iNotes running on the Lotus Domino server configured as the data source for the portlet. For information on supported browsers for iNotes, see the Release Notes for the relevant iNotes release.
Accessibility	Yes

Awareness in this portlet may be supported in a slightly different set of browsers and client platforms than listed in the table above, because the portlet depends upon the STLinks applet on the Lotus Sametimeserver.

Server requirements

The Lotus Notes View portlet requires access to a Lotus Domino messaging/application server with HTTP support enabled. The Lotus Domino server hosts the Notes information source. A Lotus Sametime server supports awareness in the portlet.

The portlet is compatible with the specific releases of Lotus Domino and Lotus Sametime server software listed in the Software for collaboration section of the WebSphere Portal V6.1 hardware and software requirements document. If you want users of the portlet to be able to select the source Notes database file name from a drop-down list, the Lotus Domino server must run the DIIOP service, and on the Server document Internet Protocols - HTTP tab, the option "Allow HTTP clients to browse databases" must be set to Yes..

If you do not choose to run the DIIOP service on Lotus Domino server, you can specify a default database filename in the portlet parameter NotesDatabase, and users of the portlet can type over that filename if necessary to specify the information source.

Deployment/Installation

This portlet is installed automatically as part of WebSphere Portal installation.

Configuration parameters

The following configuration parameters are available in this portlet.

Parameter	Value
NotesServer	When the PortletType parameter is set to NOTESVIEW, NOTESDISCUSSION, or NOTESTEAMROOM, you can specify the fully qualified Internet (HTTP) host name of the Lotus Domino server that hosts the Notes database that is the information source for the portlet. Example: yourdominoserver.yourdomain.com
NotesDatabase	When the PortletType parameter is set to NOTESVIEW, NOTESDISCUSSION, or NOTESTEAMROOM, you can specify the file name of the Notes database that is the information source of the portlet. Example: mail/notesid.nsf (for a Notes Mail database) Example: mail/jdoe.nsfnotesdatabasename.nsf (for any other type of Notes database) Example: sales/salesdiscussion.nsf
NotesView	When the PortletType parameter is set to NOTESVIEW, NOTESDISCUSSION, or NOTESTEAMROOM, you can edit the following default values for this parameter to change the view of the Notes database that displays when users view the portlet. NOTESVIEW: ($All) NOTESDISCUSSION: ($All) NOTESTEAMROOM: ($All)
PortletType	The PortletType parameter determines the type of Notes database source that will be displayed in this instance of the Lotus Notes View portlet. The following examples are fixed values that determine the type of Notes database source that will be displayed in this instance of the Lotus Notes View portlet. Enter one of them exactly. For details on the results of configuration with these parameters, see Use the Lotus Notes View portlet . Example: NOTESVIEW (default) Example: NOTESMAIL Example: MYINBOX Example: MYCALENDAR Example: MYTODO Example: NOTESDISCUSSION Example: NOTESTEAMROOM As soon as the portlet type is changed by selecting Configure from the portlet drop-down menu for an instance of the portlet, it overrides the value of this parameter for that portlet instance.
selectedViewIndex	Default view to show from the source Notes database. Default:: $All
useAnonymousAccess	Specifies whether portal users who have not authenticated can use the portlet. Default:: no
pTitle_attr	Specifies a custom title for the portlet instance. This parameter has no default value.
authTokenName	Allows the administrator to specify the use of a third-party authentication token, for example in a site protected by Computer Associates eTrust SiteMinder. This parameter does not exist by default; the administrator must add it to the portlet instance. Example: SMSESSION

• Specify a view column for awareness and chat in the Lotus Notes View portlet

Parent

Collaboration and Messaging portlets

 

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