Supply data to a database 1

[daber]

Hello,
I am new to Lotus notes. I wish to create a database that can be updated using web pages. I create two forms with fields and each with a hotspot button that says Submit. The idea is that people will open the web page, enter data, hit the Submit button and the database will be updated.

Two problems:
1) The hotspot button doesn't appear on the Web browser preview, although it does on the Notes preview.

2) Cannot seem to figure out how to add the data to the database. I created a View, added columns, but there seems no way to add data. I would like to add some pre-data to the data base so users can select stuff like State rather then having to type it in. So I guess I would like to make bound fields as well as unbound fields to my forms. I assume that I may need to know Java to add the data via the form. Is that correct?

I only know Access. So my reference point of how databases work comes from that.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

 

[lespaul]

First off, you need to forget everything you know about relational databases before working with notes. In Notes, you create a document. You view a specific document through a form. A view allows you to see a collection of documents. I would suggest that you go to 'The Sandbox' at

http://www.notes.net

and download some sample databases (there are even web specific databases) to get a better idea of how the pieces fit together.

HTH

leslie

 

[pmonett]

Leslie is right, forget Access, you'll be doing yourself a favor - at least until R7 is available and you use DB2-format databases.
Notes is document-centric tool. Documents, not records.
That means that you are going to have to relearn everything you think you know in a new way.

As for the Submit button, in addition to Leslie's excellent advice, try making a normal button, not a hotspot. From what I remember, if you make only one button and label it "Submit", the code should record the document by itself.

For simple data entry, you will most probably not need Java. Just specify the fields on your form, and let the Submit button do its job.

Adding pre-data to your database means you creating documents to populate it. A good idea, especially if these documents are destined to help users categorize their entry.

Pascal.

 

[daber]

Thank you both. Knowing one thing that something cannot do is more useful then knowing a hundred things it can. But now I haven't any clue as to what this product does. I thought I did.

You both use the word "document". In my mind I am thinking something like Word, Excel, tab delimited, etc. But no where in this program do I see where or how such documents are to be linked to the forms. I downloaded some files from the "Sandox", but they do not provide any "documents". They are only empty forms with a bunch of code and no data no documents. Pascal you said something about a normal button, but I only see on the Create menu of the Domino Designer a button called Hotspot. I don't see any other kind, nor could I even find the word "Button" in Help.

This is the most confusing program I've ever encountered. You both are almost right... you should of said I really need to forget everything I know about computer applications.

You mentioned to create documents to populate. I have plenty of Word and Excel files, so how do I get Notes to point to these? At this point I am led to believe that Notes is some sort of OLE/DDE application or an Index server of some sort, kind of like Google Desktop but rather then pointing to the entire file you get pieces of them viewed via a form, sort of like Paste-Link in all the Microsoft apps. Is that correct? Or do I need a Domino Server to make it all work?

If I am sounding like a complete idiot, I assure you I am not. This is the first program I've ever come across that has evaded me. Usually I get the workings pretty early on.

thanks

 

[lespaul]

Here's some information from a book that I found extremely helpful when I first started working in Notes (Notes & Domino R5 Developer's Guide to Buiding Applications - Matt Riggsby):
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Imagine a bus schedule, a few items torn from a glossy illustrated cataog and a pair of movie tickets. All three are documents, each of which you could fold up and put in your pocket. However, each has an entirely different internal structure. The bus schedule contains a table of times and places. The catalog page contains pictures, descriptive text, and accompanying prices and product numbers. The movie tickets contain a time, the movie title, the theater name, and perhaps a watermark, barcode, or other means of confirming the ticket's authenticity. You can modify the documents, adding or altering data as necessary. You might highlight important times on the bus schedule or draw a big red circle around the opal pendant you're planning to buy for your mother for her birthday.

This pocketful of paper is like a Notes database. Each document contains fields arranged by a designer (a graphic designer who laid out the catalog or bus schedule) and populated by a "user" (a committee in charge of planning bus schedules or the marketing staff in charge of writing copy for the catalog). Each document can be modified by later users, who can add data of types not accounted for by the original designer. Notes isn't a batch of records; it's a pocket (or filing cabinet) full of papers, each of which can have its own unique structure. However, Notes can take advantage of any common features that do happen to exist to categorize and process those documents.

Notes can keep track of relationships between documents far better than paper documents can. It's possible to construct a document so that it knows it is a response to an existing document. Documents can not only be linked togehter, but can also be easily arranged in a heirarchy. This is like exchanging correspondence with people and assigning each letter a series of idenifying numbers so that you can quickly and easily sort the correspondence into file folders by referring to those numbers rather than to the dates of the individual letter or to their content.

Unlike a paper document, a Notes document typically does not carry any information with it about how it should be displayed. If the user views a document, it is viewed through the lens of a form. A Notes form can generally be thought of as similar to a paper form, such as an income tax form or job application. It provides structure for information, with blanks to be filled in and labels and instructions on what to do.

All that information has to be organized somehow. For that purpose, Notes provides more design elements, views and [/i]folders[/i]. Both are essentially lists of documents, usually displaying summary information about each document.addition: think of the 'Inbox' of your Notes email, that is a "view" of all new documents in your mail database
***********************************************************

So when you look at the applications you found in the Sandbox, look to see if there are any 'Views', open one, this will show all the documents that meet the criteria of this view. A view can be designed to show all documents that have a specific form that is used to display them. If there are documents in the view, if you double click one and open it, it will be displayed through either the default form of the database or the specific form declared that it is to be viewed with.

For example, in your Notes Inbox, right click on a document. Open the document properties; the second tab in the box that opens displays all the fields in the email. If you select an email that was sent directly to you from another person, the form used to open it is 'Memo'. If you select one that someone replied to you (Re: Subject), the form is 'Reply'.

Hopefully this will help you understand a little more what you are dealing with.

Leslie