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06/11/2008 RPC Monitor plug-in for Notes 8

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I have been working on some old and slow Notes Client applications recently and found the RPC (Remote Procedure Call) debug information from the Notes Client to be a really useful tool for seeing exactly what is going on behind the scenes when a document or view is opened.

For those that don't know, there are a few settings in the notes.ini file which make the client write RPC debug information to a file or console. The information shows each transactions between the client and server, how long it took and how much data was exchanged.

To make it easier to configure and understand the output I thought I'd write a plug-in, so here it is, the RPC Monitor plug-in for Notes. It can be downloaded from the usual place and the source is in the CVS.

I've tested it on Windows OK but I'd be really interested to know if it works OK on Macs and Linux.

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The plug-in code is pretty straight forward, it just monitors the debug file for new data, parses it into transactions and plonks it all in a table. The neat things from a programming point of view is the use of EMF (Eclipse Modelling Framework).

I've used EMF before in the DXLPeek plug-in but that was more black-magic than deliberate programming. The RPC Monitor uses a simple EMF model I built from scratch. It's really made Eclipse programming much easier. All of the model Java code is automatically created and it even generates most of the presentation code.

If anyone's thinking of writing any plug-ins, EMF is definitely the way to go.

Posted by frunobulax At 22:40:27 | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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13/06/2008 Anaximander, a Notes 8 plug-in for visualising the connections between Notes Databases

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One of the perennial problems faced by all Notes developers is understanding the connections between different Notes Databases.

Anaximander is a plug-in I'm writing for a client which visualises the connections between Notes Databases. Here's the very first output from the very first version. Shown in the picture are the connections between about 550 Notes Databases. I thought it would be complex but not this complex!

Clicking on a target database highlights which source databases have one or more connections to the target database.

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The next step is to improve the visualisation so that information about the connected design elements is shown in a tree view. The Java model driving the graph already has the information so it just needs a TableTree to display it.

I'd also like to filter the display to make the graph simpler. Perhaps by only displaying n generations of children from the target database so in the picture above one would only see the yellow nodes.

Oh, if you're wondering, Anaximander was pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who created one of the first maps of the world. Cool name, cool dude!

Posted by frunobulax At 16:43:14 | | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

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11/04/2008 How I got started with Lotus Notes

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One day I was walking down the main corridor of F Building at IBM North Harbour when a firm hand grabbed me from behind and pressed a damp chloroform cloth against my mouth. I struggled for a few moments and then passed out.

I awoke to find myself lying on the floor of a small, glass-walled comms room with a banging headache. "Nothing new there", I thought to myself. The only other things in the room were a pile of straw, a spinning wheel and a small yellow box.

From a speaker in the wall a voice demanded that I spin the straw into a Notes Server by morning or I'd be executed. What was I going to do? I didn't know one end of a TCP from the other! Just as I was about to give up hope an IBM Dwarf appeared in the room and offered to show me how to spin the straw into a server in exchange for my watch. The following day the dwarf returned and took my walkman. This happened for several days until I thought, "Sod this for a laugh", beat up the dwarf, stole his pointy hat, married the princess and lived happily ever after.

And that's how I got started with Notes...

Posted by frunobulax At 10:16:59 | | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

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01/04/2008 DXL Peek is now DXL Explorer. New name, same great taste!

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DXL Peek is now DXL Explorer! New name! Same great taste! Same half-baked, unfinished, pointless and buggy plug-in!

It appears that there is already a tool called DXL Peek on OpenNTF.org.  So, to avoid confusion, I've renamed the plug-in to DXL Explorer.

I should also add that there is no affiliation between DXL Peek and DXL Explorer, they are completely independent tools which share no code and were written by different people.

Apologies for any confusion caused and toes trodden on.

Posted by frunobulax At 19:12:07 | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

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01/04/2008 DXL Explorer plug-in

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Yesterday I was chatting with someone about DXL and remembered that some months ago I wrote a very experimental (ie half-baked, unfinished, pointless and buggy) plug-in which uses the Eclipse Modelling Framework to build a Java model from DXL and then presents the Java model as a tree/properties combo.

Rather than let the plug-in fester away in a damp corner of the Frunobulax Laboratory I thought I'd drag it, unwashed, into the daylight. So, for your viewing pleasure, may I present DXL Explorer.

More information can be found here.

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Posted by frunobulax At 12:23:45 | | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

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28/03/2008 Database selection dialog for Eclipse

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The DbSelectDialog is an SWT Dialog which can be used in Eclipse plug-ins to select Notes Databases.

For more details see this page.
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Posted by frunobulax At 19:32:19 | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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20/03/2008 Installing the Composite Application Component Library in Eclipse

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The Composite Application Component Library is a collection of sample components provided by IBM. The library can be found on the OpenNTF.org site here.

This article will show you how to import the source code for the components into Eclipse so you can see exactly how they work.
There are two steps. Firstly we install the components into the Notes 8 client. Then the source code is imported into Eclipse.

Installing the components in Notes 8
  • Download the latest version of ComponentLibrary.zip from OpenNTF.org here.
  • Extract ComponentLibrary.nsf The password is in the readme.
  • The ComponentLibrary.nsf database is an Eclipse Update Site database which is based on the Eclipse Update Site (8) template (updatesite.ntf) that comes as part of Notes 8.
  • Make a replica in your local data directory.
  • In Notes 8 select File -> Application -> Install. If you can't see the Install menu option follow these instructions.
  • Select the Search for new features to install option and click Next >.
  • Create a new Remote Update Site that points to nrpc:/__852573710072208D/site.xml

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  • Select the Utility Components feature, click Next > and click all the right options to allow the installation to continue.

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  • Once the installation has finished you will be prompted to restart the Notes 8 client. The components are now installed in Notes.

Installing the Source Code in Eclipse

Now that the components are installed In Notes we can import the source code into Eclipse.
  • From the Eclipse main menu select File -> Import...
  • Select the Plug-in Development -> Plug-ins and Fragments option and click Next >.

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  • In the Import Plug-ins dialog de-select the The Target platform option and browse to the workspace\applications\eclipse directory within your  Notes 8 data directory. The default for this will be C:\Program Files\IBM\Lotus\Notes\Data\workspace\applications\eclipse.
  • Select the Projects with source folders option and click Next >.

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  • The next page of the dialog will show a list of Plug-ins found. Select all those which start with com.ibm.cademo. and click on the Add --> button.
  • Click on the Finish button.

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  • All the selected plug-ins are imported into the current Eclipse workspace. The Package Explorer view shows all the plug-ins and their source code.

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Posted by frunobulax At 13:59:03 | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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04/03/2008 Long Job Demo Plug-in

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A new plug-in has been added to the update site which demonstrates how to run long jobs in the Notes 8 Standard Client without making the client unresponsive. You can read more about the plug-in on this page.

Posted by frunobulax At 10:58:36 | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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03/03/2008 New host, new website and new blog.

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Welcome to the brand new Domiclipse website! I'd like to thank Bill Buchan for providing space and bandwidth on his server for hosting this site.

I have taken the opportunity to upgrade the design of the website so that it now uses the Domino Blogsphere template. Unfortunately this means that most of the old url's and links have changed. I will be moving the old content over to it's new home over the next few days.

The Domiclipse Update Site has also moved. The new address is http://www.domiclipse.com/domiclipse/update.nsf. In addition to having a new url it's also based on the new Notes 8 Eclipse Update Site template rather than just being a bunch of files in a folder.

Posted by frunobulax At 00:00:00 | | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

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