Domiclipse :: Developing a simple plug-in for Lotus Notes. Part 3

This is part 3 of a three part tutorial.
Part 1
Part 2

8. Creating an Update Site Project

• To create a new Update Site project select File -> New -> Other... from the main menu.
• Expand the Plug-in Development section, select Update Site Project and click Next.

• On the Update Site Project page enter the name of the project. Give it the same name as the plug-in with .update on the end and then click Finish.

• The new update site project can now be seen in the Project Navigator view and site.xml is open for editing.
• Select the Site Map tab and click the New Category button. On the Category Properties form change the values of the Name and Label fields to Tutorials.

• Select the Tutorials entry in the Managing the Site form, click on the Add Feature... button, select the com.domiclipse.tutorial1.feature feature and click OK.

• Click on the Build All button and wait for all the features to be built.
• Save and close site.xml

• In the Package Explorer we can see that there are two new folders in the update Project, a features folder and a plugins folder. These folders contain the actual jar files that will be installed on the Notes 8 Client.
• In addition, the site.xml file defines which plugins and feature are available on the update site.

• The tutorial1 feature is now ready to be installed in Notes 8.

9. Installing the plug-in in the Notes 8 Client

• Before any plug-ins can be installed in Notes 8 the client needs to be configured correctly. Locate the file {notes install dir}\framework\rcp\plugin_customization.ini, add the line com.ibm.notes.branding/enable.update.ui=true and restart the client.

• From the main menu select File -> Application -> Install.
• Select Search for new features to install
• Create a new Local Update Site which points to the site.xml file in the update site project.

• Select the new location and click Finish.

• Select the Tutorial1 Feature, click Next and agree with all subsequent dialogs. Finally, allow Notes 8 to restart.

• Once the client has restarted you should see the plug-in in the Sidebar.

10. Creating a Notes Application Update Site

The local update site we created in the previous section is fine for testing purposes but if we want to make our plug-in available to the world there are two choices.

Copy the update site folder onto a web server and publish the address of the site.xml file.
Create a Update Site Notes Application and replicate it onto a web server.

In this section we will create a Notes Application Update Site and replicate it onto a web server.

• Open the Notes 8 client and select File -> Application -> New... from the main menu.
• Specify the Title and Filename, select the Show advanced templates option, select the Eclipse Update Site (8) template and click OK.

• Once the new application has opened, click on the Import Local Update Site... action.

• Browse to the site.xml file in the update site project and click OK.

• After a few moments the local update site is imported into the database.

• After setting the ACL appropriately, create a new replica on a web server. I made a replica on the Domiclipse server. The URL is http://www.domiclipse.com/domiclipse/TutorialUpdateSite.nsf
• Accessing the site via a web browser displays the default web page that describes how to use it and what features are available.

• To use the new update site we need to create a new Remote Update Site that points to http://www.domiclipse.com/domiclipse/TutorialUpdateSite.nsf/site.xml and then install the plug-ins as normal.

11. Conclusion

This tutorial has shown how to configure Eclipse and Lotus Expeditor for the development of Lotus Notes 8 plug-ins. We have seen how to create a simple plug-in and test it in Notes 8. We have also seen how to package the plug-in for deployment via a Local Update Site and a Notes Database Update Site.

Future tutorials will explain some of the fundamental Eclipse concepts and look in more detail exactly how the plug-in works.

Comments

1 - Good stuff! Thanks!

Posted by Dennis van Remortel At 07:31:52 On 01/12/2008 | - Website - |

2 - Very useful article, thank you.

Posted by Torben Bang At 07:46:43 On 01/12/2008 | - Website - |

3 - Nice work! Emoticon

Posted by Erik Norfelt At 07:58:37 On 04/12/2008 | - Website - |

4 - Excellent!

Posted by Alex At 20:50:55 On 27/05/2009 | - Website - |

5 - Gr8, good stuff.

Thanks .
Ravi

Posted by Ravindra Aluru At 12:38:26 On 10/07/2009 | - Website - |

6 - Excellent article!! I really appreciate if you can post creating .NET application as a component and working with it in a composite application.

Thanks for your hard work!!

yk

Posted by ykoggu At 14:51:40 On 17/07/2009 | - Website - |

7 -

Excellent Article!! Very helpful indeed. Thank you.

Just a quick update for those using this article with "Notes 8.5" Eclipse based client:

1. While setting the "Test Environment", one should leave the defaults that comes with selecting "Notes 8". Changing compliance level or VM is not a good idea for the first timers.

2. While setting "Run Configuration" for Client Services (also availble from Window -> Preferences). Make sure "Target" is set to "Notes 8.5 Target".

3. Ref: Step 9.
File -> Application -> Install

This feature is not available by default. The administrator needs to enable this feature.

Using Help contents in Notes client, look up :
"Installing or updating features"

For Administrator to enable the feature click on the link or refer to:
{ Link }

Once the Administrator enables the feature and you have added the entry to the plugin_configuration.ini file, restart the client and you will have the ability to "Install" feature. Emoticon