• code assist for javaScript, html, css
• outliner for snapshot view
• error handling
• cross-platform
• available as Eclipse plugin

I was setting up a request form last week for a client's website when I stumbled upon one of those Domino "gotchas".

I believe the cause of this issue has something to do with a shortcoming in the Domino server's capability to handle "mappings".

For example, I would like a request to "/madeUpCustomPathWhichIsPrettierToLookAt/" to arrive at "/path/filename.nsf ". Seems straightfoward enough, unless there is no reference to this file path and nsf with your base href. Frinstance, this site here, the base href = "andrewbarker.com/home/".

So, back to the client... "What we seem to have here is a problem to communicate." I was making use of Domino's "?createDocument" url in order to have a form created via html make me a Document in the backend. It's a little something I picked up from "Mr Codestore" a while ago.

Initially, I was simply using this directly in the form's post action: "doc?createDocument&ParentDocUNID=...". Nothing. No docs created. So then I referenced my baseHref value by inserting a <computedValue> into the front: "<ComputedValue>doc?createDoc...".

Still nothing. And what was really strange was that this was working just fine in my local instance and in my dev instance. Exact same code. (Design templates and all.)

I ended up asking around the Domino community (see below) for any insights, cause this was smelling like a bug. It may still be, but I do at least have something to offer as a solution for any of you who may encounter this at some point.

The problem seemed to resolve itself as: If the path with the "nsf" is explicit with the baseHref this "?createDocument" URL works fine. If, however, the path and nsf info has been completely removed then you are gonna have troubles.

I make use of a config document for this site, a place where I can adjust different settings, including what I use for my baseHref and the ambient temperature of the office. I finally decided on adding a couple of computed fields which take my setting for the baseHref, and if there is no "nsf" referenced within that value will add the file / path information to the end of the domain.

For this site, this would look like:

baseHref = "andrewBarker.com/"
computedField = "andrewBarker.com/path/file.nsf/"

And now when I want to create an inline document I can reference this value.

(The community I'd like to thank... seriously, what a great bunch of people. Julian, Vince, Jerry, Richard, Chris, Tony, Bruce, Chris, all the folks at DDN.)

It has been bothering me for awhile now... everytime I see Michael Jackson I am reminded of someone.

I think this is it.

Thanks, I feel better now.

I was setting up a new account today with Domino Developer Net. A very good organization, by the way.

After getting the new ID file and the path to the new file I created my local replica. Hmmm... a small problem here. I could not get to the ACL or the design. I was getting a prompt about "local access privileges..." or some such.

Turns out I needed to delete my local (hadn't made any changes yet, thank goodness) and when re-replicating had to de-select the "Encryption the replica using |Medium Encryption|" option.

All was well. Local access was mine.

OK, OK

It is right about now that my "friends" from the Land of Cheese (Wisconsin) will accuse me of being a fair weather fan...

I have several responses to this:

1. Who CARES! We beat your Packers... bad! Hahaha.
2. Yes, this is true, I am a fair weather fan. Oh well.

The first point does give my inner teenager great pleasure, I cannot help it. It is always satisfying to hand the Packers their arses, even if I do like Farve.

It is the 2^nd point, however, which causes me to question just how much courage I have in the Vikings and my convictions about my team. You see, we in Minnesota have been in this place before. Many times.

I so badly want them to do well. I want them to surprise all the naysayers and play like champions, toughing it out through the cold, the wet, moving the ball confidently against legitimate defenses, forcing turnovers against potent offenses. I want it all!

Hell, I'd even settle for winning the Superbowl.

But they school me every year.

Every time in my life (for that matter, all Minnesotan's lives) when they seem to pull it together - when they display the confidance, the skill, the fortitude to play like champions - they invariably pull the rug out from underneath me. And to tell you the truth, my reflexes are not what they used to be. ;-)

And it is not like they have been playing well this season anyway. I admit it, I am somewhat embarassed by the fact they made it to the playoffs at all. I got tired of hearing them make excuses for the last 2 months about what they needed to change, and how they were going to be better next week. They never were.

How they won yesterday is quite stupifying, really. But you know what?

For the next week I going to be a Vikings fan again... for better or worse. And, seriously, I am praying that there is no rug pulling/landing on my ass in my near future.

Go VIKINGS!!!

Red. Blue. Purple. Canada 2.0?

Although I take small amounts of pleasure in thinking about letting the "Red" States stew in their own juices, I know that it is not a long term solution. There are folks right now slamming all those who voted for Bush and bemoaning the great divide of America. Yet, Kerry barely lost... 3%... one state. I'd rather us liberal/progressive types regroup and rethink the strategy. The following image is the 1000 words I needed to see concerning voter patterns:

Let's start with this and see if we can take 'er back in '08.

And then it is time to do it.

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

 And hopefully, we can all get some rest starting Wednesday morning.

Who agreed to these rules of engagement? I have watched all 3 debates. I feel I have been doing my best to understand the issues and where our Presedential candidates stand on them. But there is one thing I don't get... how is it that these guys can take their potshots at each other when they are in different states, but when they are on a nationally televised debate they can only address the moderator (or audience member)? I have a feeling it was the Bush camp that said so for fear of being made out to be a fool by Kerry.

What I really wanted to hear Kerry say was something like "Listen you DOLT! Cut the f*&kin blabber about my plan for nationalized health care!!! The people out there are not as stupid as you'd like to think! The only person who seems confused by my proposal is you."

I really would've liked to hear him say that.

The rest of the corrections would have come nicely from this list of outrageous flipflops by our current Commander-in-Chief.

This author (Arthur I. Blaustein), puts it well when he states:

Kerry has been a model of consistency by comparison. On the Iraq war, his position is complex. It requires the ability to understand history and shifting circumstances.

Pass it along... please.

SearchDomino has a chapter (21 to be precise) of Sam's Teach Yourself Java (warning - that's a pdf link) available.

On the development front, I've added a "googlable" link towards the bottom of each entry. If there have been any keywords identified for a given entry, those keywords will be "googlable" via... well Google. Duh. It made more sense to me to Google some entry related keywords than the title of the entry. So there it is.

I recently read Colin's post about "View Source" and text editors. I used to be a fan of Textpad, and though I still like it, I have recently been turned on to Crimson Editor.

Why you ask? Well for starters it's free. (Donations accepted). The real killer aspects, however, are:

+ The options to have Crimson handle your "View Source" needs without having to run a reg hack, both as a IE menu choice and a right-click menu choice.

+ It comes bundled with about a hundred syntax files for different languages, including one for LotusScript thanks to our friend Julian.

+ When you choose view source for a web page it is automatically syntax highlighted. With Textpad it had to be saved first before it knew how to highlight.

+ It has an ftp function built in. You can even include remote files into defined projects.

All in all, very slick.

The other tool I wanted to mention is Webnote. Kinda wiki-like, but with a better interface I think. Also has an xml feed built in to it.

Eric Meyer is good. Have you seen his slideshow? Go take a look at that, and then if you like it you can grab an NSF I posted over at OpenNtf that rolls Meyer's code into a Notes app.

A couple other presentation flavored sites that I've run across recently:

+ The Tony Ramos site for those who must use Powerpoint regularly.
+ A reason to avoid Powerpoint if you use it regularly.
+ The incomparable Edward Tufte
+ Some very good links via Jack Dausman

Hopefully someone will find the Notes app useful. I'll post some updates to it this week yet, I hope. I've got some more ideas for it.

close.

Sun, Kodak Settle For $92M In Patent Dispute Involving Java

Well, I can't wait to see how the media alters the results of the debate over the coming few days. This smacks of 2000 in the way Gore came out ahead and then was spun into the ground.

A couple things that caught my eye last night:

1. Watching the listener on the split screen while the other was talking... Kerry looked composed, attentive, sometimes amused. (Hard to blame him, but I wished he hadn't.) Bush could not have been more rude. The look of disgust/confusion/bewilderment on his face was amazing... so much for this Prez having a poker face.
2. I thought Bush's crack about not holding Kerry's Yale background against him was funny.
3. What was up with 'Vladimir'? somehow I don't think other leaders of the world refer to President Bush as 'George'.
4. This one really pisses me off... Bush implies that Kerry is offending leaders of the world (those in Iraq with us) because this war "is not the right place...balh blah blah". Later in the debate he defends the US abstinence from the World Court by implying that no one should tell us what is right or wrong. Are the other leaders of the world , and especially are those in the "Coalition" members of this World Court? If they are, then is not Bush implying that they are ninnies by joining this Court? How is it that they came to a conclusion to join, and be willing to admit that their actions/policies in the world arena can be evaluated by the rest of us? How is it that the US thinks they are above this?
5. And finally, I am tired of hearing Presidents, any of 'em, claim they need to be re-elected just because they have special knowledge now that they are the Prez. C'mon! It is the nature of our system to elect the best people for the job. None of them had this 'special knowledge' before they held this office, and none of them will have it for more than 8 years. Our system accepts, expects, that our Commander-n-Chief will learn on the job. So, George, skip the crap about your being qualified just because you've been doing it for 4 years.

A couple of links for you:

• Speech by George Soros
• Exercize you right to free speech
• The Optimism of Uncertainty, just to give reasons for hope

And Sun has put in niceley in a Nutshell.

I've noticed people seem to pronounce "gmail" with a hard "g", as in "gigantic". What if it is supposed to be pronounced with a soft "g", as in "Google"?

Anyway, I've got some. Would anyone like a gimail acct? Drop me a note if you do...

Received this in my mail the other day. I generally do not forward or post these kinds, but it did strike a nerve. So...

- Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.

- Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

- A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.

- Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.

- The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.

- If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.

- Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.

- HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.

- Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.

- A president lying about an extramarital affair is a impeachable offense. A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.

- Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.

- The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's cocaine conviction is none of our business.

- Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness, and you need our prayers for your recovery.

- You support states' rights, which means Attorney General John Ashcroft can tell states what local voter initiatives they have the right to adopt.

- What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.

FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS VOTE REPUBLICAN

Last week I read the article "Scientific Method Man" in Wired magazine. It seems to me he (Carl Rugg) is attempting to establish a method by which big problems can be reevaluated. In other words, is it possible to systematically shift a paradigm?

That is a plenty big question, so I am going to leave that one for a bit, and comment on something else I took from this article.

"he saw that no one had seriously explored the idea that the book was a grand hoax"

For those of you who have not read the article, I will now place my own spin on this quote... He allowed himself, in fact, instructed himself, to think outta the proverbial box. I have found this to be an extremely viable choice, at times, in my life.

Rugg "got his mind right". If you take a perspective, as opposed to a position, you can gain many an insight. To me the difference between those two is that "perspective" is merely standing temporarily in those shoes, "position" is more about what you believe in.

Rugg decided to try on the "these guys don't know a joke when they see one" spectacles, and therefore could never identify it as such. I have found it useful to try on several other goggles over the years: "they're full of shit", "they might be right", "I am right", "I can learn from this", and even "I should be spontaneous here".

It is amazing what you can see from the other side. And it doesn't even have to be their side or your's.

ok ok already! I am an idiot. Turns out I can break all kinds of things if I am going to pretend that I can be a site admin, though I had best learn quick!

So several weeks (4 now?) I lined up a new job for myself. All was going well with the transition out of my old job when I realized I had still had this site hosted on one of our sandbox servers (with Tony.)

"Hmmm..." I thinks to myself, "might be a good idea to move this site before I hand in my keys". So quick as a bunny I throw everything onto DDN. They have been good to me, but I have suffered some horrible growing pains. Namely, remapping incoming urls. I now know it should not have been such a problem, but I did not wish to lose any wild bookmarks out there, or god forbid a Google ranking. Well, let's just say I am starting from scratch now.

It is late now, so I am going to hit the hay, but in the next few I explain what I learned about incoming translationed urls.

...I think.

I am not much of an sys admin, and I may be on the verge of paying for that dearly.

In the spirit of S. Covey, I hope you all will "pre-forgive" me as I am attempting to move my site permanently to DDN. Quite honestly I just closed my eyes and punched some buttons and now I'll have to wait and see. Hopefully this won't cause too much damage.

If it does, well, see you on the other side.

Cheers

Travels in lotusscript land -

Once upon a time I had come across this entry ( Learn Lists, Love Lists ) over at Rocky's site. Tuesday I had a need to a bit more digging and came across this entry ( LotusScript Lists. ) at the Home of the Bilderbeast (?).

I had a need and a desire to make this work. The setup is as follows: I have one view with about 50,000 docs. Each doc has an organizational name for which I need to get its numerical counterpart. For example, "Redwing School Board" and I am looking for an id # of "101234".

Well, these name / value pairs are available in another view of docs consisting of these organizational profiles. The data I needed to match on and retrieve were exposed in the viewEntries as ColumnValue(0) and ColumnValue(4) respectively. I considered for about 45 seconds the " get each value each time" route as I worked my way down the first view. But 50k gets from one view to the next? Sure, I am going to tap them as View Entries, but come on...

Enter the List. As Rock and Bill explain (links above) and defend its purpose in life so well I will not try to improve on theirs. But I will say it is a thing of beauty. I built up my List from the viewEntries in the second view as the first order of business in my agent and was then able to reference this List in memory as a worked my way down via entry.GetNextEntry(). The skeleton is as follows:

Dim myList List As String
Dim vwOrgs As NotesView
Dim vwEntry As NotesViewEntry

Dim a As String
Dim b As String

Set vwOrgs = db.GetView("vwOrganizationProfilesByName")
Set vwAllEntries = vwOrgs.AllEntries
Set vwEntry = vwAllEntries.GetFirstEntry
While Not (vwEntry Is Nothing)
a = Cstr(vwEntry.ColumnValues(0))
b = Cstr(vwEntry.ColumnValues(4))
myList(a) = b
Set vwEntry = vwAllEntries.GetNextEntry(vwEntry)
Wend

Then as worked my way thru the view of 50, for each one I would make reference to the List as follows:

While Not (currentDoc Is Nothing)
lastModified = Ucase(Cstr(currentDoc.lastModifiedBy(0)))
leaNumber = leaList(lastModified)
...
Wend

Notes: the 'lastModifiedBy' field is where the 'name' part of the List is held. The 'UCase' was the key for my situation. When using a List remember that it is case sensitive!

when they said we could surf the web. (via Engadget)

Do you think they can get enough real-time info for a last minute adjustment?

I love this. Next thing you know we'll see people sipping the web.

Oh... you mean they already do?

sssstrrrrrech.... man that was a long nap!

So in our application at work we code all of the html on our forms between an open bracket '[' at the top and a close bracket ']' at the bottom. We started this with our latest and greatest version when we moved away from tables to css layouts. However, we have since stumbled across a couple of bugaboos that I thought I''d share here.

The first has to do with embedded views. You're building a form and all seems well. You embed your view and ... Hey, nothin' shows up! Damn... where did that thing go? You check the hide/when props and the thang should be there.

The second scenario involves a text field you wish to display as a textarea. You have set the properties to Multiple values, and to save and display said multiple values with a New Line. You have also set the html props to x # rows and x # columns. In edit mode all is well, but when you go back to read that item it has been collapsed, as if all the carriage returns have been trimmed out, though when you check the doc propeties you can see that there are still multiple values in the field.

In both cases what you need to do is place these elements (embedded view and 'textarea' field) into a Notes silo. Ick. Basically, right before your element close off the opening bracket with a close bracket ']' and place an open bracket '[' right after it, in essence seperating this element from the Notes passthrough mumbo jumbo.

Hope this helps someone.

(A couple of links I have interesting.)

Topographic Page layout (booklet)

SlayerOffice (more booklets, incredible)

I knew it would be something simple (or stupid as the case may be.) A while ago I mentioned I could not figure out why all my print settings (via css) were not working in Mozilla/Firefox as they were in Opera/IE. Turns out Firefox cares about the content type of the style sheet.

So I've set the Content Type on this page element to 'Other - text/css' and all is well.

I have also pitched the js rendered nav I've used faithfully for the last year. I am using the semantically correct (:ul:) list thang. I got my inspiration from some Frenchie named 'Bieler Batiste'. Nice work, for sure. Thanks...

I have also been giving xsl a whirl, you can check it out via the rss 2.0 html link on the left. It doesn't validate like the others, but it looks good. So much learning to do, so little time.

Lastly, congrats to to the Toohey family on the bambino. I hope they all got plenty of sleep beforehand, it may be a while before they get anymore.