Building composite applications with Notes widgets in IBM Lotus Notes 8.0.1

Level: IntermediateLiu Jun, Software Engineer, IBMHardy Groeger, Certified Senior IT Architect, IBM Corporation25 Nov 2008This article introduces the concept and usage of Notes® My Widgets. Through several examples, it shows you how to create Notes widgets from different kinds of resources in IBM® Lotus® Notes® 8.0.1. Finally, it depicts the process that you can use to build a sample composite application leveraging Notes widgets.

Notes My Widgets is a newly introduced user interface (UI) feature in Lotus Notes 8.0.1. It offers Lotus Notes users an easy but effective way to leverage other existing resources, such as Web sites, Lotus Notes databases, Google gadgets, or feeds. It works as a stand-alone application, together with another new feature called Live Text. Widgets can be triggered using Live Text, accessed within the MyWidgets sidebar application, or leveraged as components within composite applications. Like other composite application components, through the composite application editor (CAE), Notes widgets can be easily configured to interact with other composite application components.For detailed information regarding composite applications in Lotus Notes, see the composite applications topic on the IBM developerWorks® Lotus Web site.

PrerequisitesThis article assumes that you are familiar with composite applications and how to build them using the composite application editor in Lotus Notes. To use the examples on your own computer, you also need to install Lotus Notes 8.0.1, including the CAE.

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Notes widgets overviewNotes My Widgets is a new feature first introduced in Lotus Notes 8.0.1. Notes widgets are small, specialized applications that enable users to leverage existing services or resources based on automatically recognized Live Text in their Lotus Notes documents. A widget can be accessed through the sidebar, launching it from Live Text or text selection, or adding it to composite applications. In contrast to ordinary Lotus Notes applications, creating a Notes widget does not require that you write any code or script. Notes widgets configuration wizards make it easy to create and configure widgets from Lotus Notes view searches or documents, Web pages, feeds, or even Google gadgets.Figure 1 is an example of a popular usage of Notes widgets. From a Lotus Notes mail document, a floating window containing Google Map is launched by right-clicking selected text and using the context menu. The input search term is the selection in the Lotus Notes mail document. The floating window here is the

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Notes widget itself. It looks like a common Web page running directly in a window other than a browser. Actually, the Notes widget shown in figure 1 is created from a Web page (Google Map), and all the content in the window is provided by the Web page (Google Map).

Figure 1. Notes widget in floating window

To use Notes widgets in Lotus Notes, you can either import created Notes widgets from the Notes widgets catalog server and XML files or create your own customized Notes widgets. Lotus Notes 8.0.1 provides tools to perform all the related actions. Figure 2 shows you the widget toolbar and the My Widgets sidebar. The widget toolbar is used to launch the Notes widgets configuration wizards, which can help you create your own customized widgets. The My Widgets sidebar is used to manage all your existing Notes widgets. You can configure the trigger actions and remove Notes widgets in the sidebar.

Figure 2. Notes widgets toolbar and sidebar panel

Through administrative policies or local preference settings, you can control whether users see the Widget toolbar and the My Widgets sidebar. Unless restricted through policy settings, users can display them by selecting the option in the Widgets preference settings as figure 3 shows. If you have a Notes widgets catalog server, you can also import existing Notes widgets there.

Figure 3. Notes widgets preference window

In addition being shown in a floating window or a sidebar, Notes widgets can also be built into composite applications working as composite application components interacting with other components. Figure 4 shows a sample composite application made up of a Notes view component and Notes widgets.

Figure 4. A sample composite application with Notes widgets components

To better understand the building blocks of this composite application, review the four components that make up the overall functionality: UserTable. A Notes view containing records of the user’s profile, including name, location, address, and zip code. myWeather. A Notes widget created from a Google gadget showing the weather forecast for a specific city. Yahoo News. A Notes widget created from a feed displaying news related to a specific topic. Google Maps. A Notes widget created from a Web page showing map information of a specific address.

After a user selects a record in the UserTable, the other three components immediately reflect the changes according to the selected user’s profile. myWeather displays the weather forecast of the city where the user lives, Yahoo News displays news related to the city where the user lives, and Google Maps shows the map information of the user’s address.In the following sections of this article, we provide step-by-step instructions on how to create this sample composite application. We first create all the required

Notes widgets using the Notes Widgets configuration wizards. Then we create the composite application from the created components through the composite application editor in Lotus Notes.NOTE: This article does not cover the process of creating the Notes view component. We start directly from an existing Lotus Notes database containing the UserTable Notes view. Download the sample Lotus Notes database.

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Creating Notes widgets in Lotus Notes 8.0.1You can create Notes widgets from Web pages, Google gadgets, or feeds.

Creating Notes Widgets from a Web pageThe following section depicts the process of creating a Google Maps widget.

1. Launch the Notes widgets configuration wizard by clicking the button in the Notes Widgets toolbar as shown in figure 5.

Figure 5. Launching the Notes widgets configuration wizard

2. Select the Web page option to create Notes widgets from a Web page. 3. Select the Web page by URL option, and then type the address of the Web page from which you are going to create the Notes widget. In this example,

enter http://www.google.com/maps. Click Next. See figure 6.

Generally, you can create Notes widgets from any Web page that can be accessed through a browser. To make the Notes widgets interactive, select Web pages that allow you to pass parameters to change the content shown.NOTE: You can also select the Browse the Web option here. In that case, the wizard takes you to the Lotus Notes embedded browser. There you can first browse the Web page from which you want to create the Notes widgets, and then you can perform the following actions.

Figure 6. Configuring a component from a Web page

4. Select the From a form on this Web page option.

The difference between the two options here is that HTTP GET passes parameters through a URL link while HTTP POST passes parameters through a Web form submission. Google Maps shows different maps according to the user’s address input through a Web form submission on the Web page.

5. Select the correct Web form to collect the user input address.

A Web page can contain more than one Web form, including visible and invisible ones. When you select the number, the corresponding Web form in the Web page is highlighted as shown in figure 7. It also displays a preview of the widget that you are going to create.

Figure 7. Selecting a form and previewing the widget

6. Configure the settings for the Notes widget.

The wizard automatically recognizes all the accepted parameters of the selected Web form. As Google Maps requires only a query address to show related maps, here you just need to check the ID, which means you only need to pass one parameter to the widget (which in turn passes the parameter to the Web form on the Web page). You can change the label of the parameter to make it more user friendly. In this case, set the display name address.

Because we use the Google Maps widget as a composite application component, you need to select the Just configure a component for now option. You can select the Wire as an action or Display as a sidebar panel option if you want to configure it as a stand-alone widget integrated with Live Text or accessible through the sidebar. We do not cover that part in this article. See figure 8.

Figure 8. Configuring a component

7. Click Finish. A Google Maps widget is added to the My Widgets sidebar as shown in figure 9.

Figure 9. Google Maps widget added to the My Widgets sidebar

Creating Notes widgets from Google gadgetsThe following section details the process used to create the myWeather widget from a Google gadget.

1. Launch the Notes widgets configuration wizard by clicking the button in the Notes Widgets toolbar. 2. Select the Google Gadgets option to create Notes widgets from Google gadgets. 3. Select the Add a Google Gadget by URL option, and then type the URL of the Google gadget from which you are going to create the Notes Widget. In this

case, enter http://www.notkewl.com/myWeather/myWeather.xml.

For detailed information regarding Google gadgets, see the description on the Google gadgets Web site.

4. Configure the settings for new the Notes widget.

The wizard automatically recognizes all the accepted parameters of the selected Google gadget. Here we can see that the myWeather Google gadget requires two parameters: one for zip code and one for the weather display unit.

Figure 10. Configuring a component

5. Click Finish, and a myWeather widget is added to the My Widgets sidebar as shown in figure 11.

Figure 11. myWeather gadget added to the My Widgets sidebar

Creating Notes widgets from a feedThe following section details the process used to create the Yahoo News Search widget from a feed. Follow these steps:

1. Launch the Notes widgets configuration wizard by clicking the button in the Notes widgets toolbar. 2. Select the feed option to create a Notes widget from a feed. 3. Select the Enter a feed URL option, and then enter the URL of the Yahoo News Search feed from which you are going to create the Notes widget. In this

case, enter http://news.search.yahoo.com/news. 4. Click Finish. A Lotus Notes embedded browser opens that displays the Yahoo Search page. 5. Type "America" and click the News Search button. The browser shows the search result. 6. Launch the Notes widgets configuration wizard by clicking the button in the Notes widgets toolbar.

NOTE: You can also launch the wizard by selecting Tools - Widgets - Configure a Widget from Current Context. 7. Select the Feed: Yahoo! News Search results for America option. 8. Click Next to open the Configure a Component window. 9. Instead of always searching for “America” we want to use the search key as a parameter on the widget. Enter "topic" in the Display name field to give it

a more meaningful name. 10. Click Finish. A Yahoo News Search widget is added to the My Widgets sidebar.

Figure 12. Yahoo News Search widget added to My Widgets sidebar

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Building composite applications with Notes widgetsAlthough using widgets in Lotus Notes can already save you a lot of the time that you spend opening a browser and searching bookmarks or Web sites directly, Notes My Widgets can also use widgets directly as components within composite applications. This approach allows you to mash up solutions built from simple widgets that interact with each other and provide a higher value than they would separately. Let’s use your newly created widgets in the context of a composite application.

Create a blank composite applicationFollow these steps:

1. Choose File - Application - New to open the New Application window as shown in figure 13.

Figure 13. New Application window

2. Enter the Title of the new composite application, select Blank Composite Application in the Template field, and then click OK to finish creating a new blank composite application. The warning shown in figure 14 displays.

Figure 14. Empty Content View window

Add components to the composite applicationFollow these steps:

1. Choose Actions - Edit Application to open the composite application editor (CAE). 2. Add NSF components to the composite application editor component palette.

Before you can carry out the following actions, copy UserTable.nsf (you can download it from the Download section) to your Lotus Notes data directory, for example, C:\Program Files \Notes\Data.

3. Choose Tools - Component Palette - Add Components - Add NSF Component to open the New NSF Component window as shown in figure 15.

Figure 15. Opening the New NSF Component window

NOTE: You can also add components from the context menu by right-clicking in the Component Palette and selecting Add Components - Add NSF Component.

4. In the New NSF Component window, click Browse, and then select the view User Table from the application titled UserTable.

NOTE: You might need to navigate to the database using the folder button to the right of the Application drop-down field as shown in figure 16. Click OK.

Figure 16. Using the folder button

5. After locating the NSF component, append &HideNavigator to the Lotus Notes URL. This option prevents the display of the Lotus Notes navigator panel for the component and allots the entire component display area to the Lotus Notes view pane.

Your result should look like the screen shown in figure 17.

Figure 17. New NSF Component window

6. Click OK to add this NSF component to the component palette.

A new palette has been created called My Palette, and the component that you added displays in the component palette on the right as shown in figure 18.

Figure 18. Component Palette window

Define the visual placement of components using drag and dropNow you should be able to see four components in the My Palette component palette. In this step, you need to drag those components to the blank composite application page and adjust the layout to meet your preferences. The layout does not affect the functionality.Figure 19 shows a sample layout.

Figure 19. A sample layout

So far, you have aggregated components into a composite application, but none of the components can interact with one other. You still have to finish the last step: wiring. After you finish the wiring, the Notes widgets get input from the UserTable view and show information accordingly.

Wire components in the composite applicationThe wiring capabilities of the composite application editor can wire components of heterogeneous technologies. The property broker feature of the Lotus Notes 8 client provides the required runtime environment to carry out action triggers based on property updates. Next, you wire the three Notes widgets that you created to the NSF component, called User Table.Follow these steps:

1. If you have closed the CAE before, open the sample composite application in Lotus Notes and choose Actions - Edit Application to open this application in CAE.

2. Choose Edit - Page - Wiring to open the Wiring Pane page.

In the Wiring Pane page, all components together with their properties and actions are listed. From the User Table component, you can see that four properties and one action are defined. In the other three Notes widget components, you can find the names that you defined during their creation. The last thing left to do is to wire the three Notes widgets to the User Table component. In other words, you are going to send information (property data) from the User Table component to the predefined actions in the three Notes widgets.

3. Select the Address property in the User Table component, hold down the main mouse button and drag the property to the Address property listed in the Google Maps component, and release the mouse button.

4. Select the ZipCode property in the User Table component, hold down the main mouse button and drag the property to the ZipCode property listed in the myWeather component, and then release the mouse button.

5. Select the Location property in the User Table component, hold \down the main mouse button and drag the property to the topic property listed in the Feed: Yahoo! News Search component, and then release the mouse button.

Figure 20. The Editing window

6. Choose File - Finish Editing to confirm the changes to your composite application.

Test the wiringAfter you have finished editing the composite application, the updated composite application displays automatically. See figure 21.

Figure 21. The updated composite application

To see the new property and action wirings in action, select a document in the User Table view component shown in the top left of the window. When a document is selected, the location, address, and zip code in this document are published. Then the three Notes widget components receive information as configured in the Wiring Pane page. You should be able to see that the myWeather widget displays weather information of the location (zip code), the Yahoo! News Search widget displays the latest news related to the location (city), and the Google Maps widget shows the map of the address.

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ConclusionThis article introduces the concept and use of Notes widgets. Then, through some examples, it shows you how to create Notes widgets from different kinds of resources and services in Lotus Notes 8.0.1. Finally, it depicts the process to build a sample composite application leveraging previously created Notes widgets.

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Download

Name Size Download method

UserTable.nsf 320KB HTTP

Information about download methods

Resources

Participate in the discussion forum .

Read the developerWorks article, "Designing composite applications: Component design." Read the developerWorks article, "Designing composite applications: Design patterns." Read the developerWorks article, "Designing composite applications: Unit testing." Read the developerWorks article, "Designing composite applications: Writing an Eclipse component for IBM Lotus Notes." Read the developerWorks article, "Designing composite applications: IBM Lotus Notes components." Read the developerWorks article, "Designing composite applications: Composite application assembly, part 1." Read the developerWorks article, "Designing composite applications: Composite application assembly, part 2."

About the authors

Liu Jun is a software engineer from the IBM Software Services for Lotus team at the IBM China Development Lab in Beijing. His working experience includes IBM Lotus Forms, IBM Lotus Connections, composite applications, and IBM Lotus Mashups. You can reach him at liujunsh@cn.ibm.com.

Hardy Groeger is a Certified Senior IT Architect working as a Services Solution Architect for IBM Software Services for Lotus in Europe, where he focuses on application architecture and development based on the Lotus product portfolio. Since he joined IBM in 2001, he has held various positions in product development and services. Before joining IBM he was a Project Manager Development at a German Lotus Business Partner and was specialized in SAP R/3 and Lotus Domino integration. You can reach Hardy at hardy.groeger@de.ibm.com.