Domino Connection
To make sending mail easy and convenient for you, Domino Connection offers
two non-visual parts: The Mail part and the Address Book part. If
you run Notes Version 4.5 or later or Domino 4.5 or later, you
should also review the section named Domino Connection Using mail. It
contains information about how to create a mail applications that works in
conjunction with version 4.5 and later mail databases.
In principle, the mail part is a special kind of form part. The
difference is, that it is connected to two databases, the mail file and the
mail box. Depending on your system, you configure the mail part using
the settings pages to connect to local or remote databases using the
appropriate connection aliases. You also have to select a form
definition for your mail document. In addition to that you might
specify additional, user defined fields for the document to be created.
The address book part is a convenient tool to find out valid recipients for
your mail. It is not needed to have an address book part in every mail
application, because if you are sure about mail addresses you do not have to
double-check them with the address book contents. On the other hand it
is a good practice to offer address book support for less experienced
users.
Here is a step-by-step example showing how to create a simple mail
application. For this example it is assumed that you have a Notes
client workstation set up to server based mail (which is the common setting
for a LAN based installation).
If you are using Domino Version 4.5 or later or Notes Version
4.5 or later, you should consider building the mail sample according to
the description named Domino Connection Using Mail - additional version
specific featured are added to ensure proper execution of that mail
sample.
Depending on the settings in your Visual Organizer you will be prompted
with either the notebook style settings pages (like in the example) or with
the generic property list style window when you edit the part's
settings. You will achieve similar results with both methods of
configuring the part. If you cannot open the notebook style settings,
you have to load the AbtEditNotesSettingsPagesApp using the Application
Manager or the Visual Organizer.
- Create a application and a new visual part using the Visual
Organizer.
- Create a connection alias to your personal mail file and name it
ConToSampleMail. (If you do not know how to create a connection alias,
see Domino Connection specification of this
documentation). You will need a second connection alias to the mail
server's mail.box file. Set up this connection as well and
name it ServerMailBox.
- Select the mail part from the parts palette and drop it on the free from
surface. Now set up the mail part's properties. The first
notebook settings page sets up the connection to a mail database. The
mail database is needed not only to store a document as a reference when it is
sent, but also to retrieve form definitions for the mail. Open the mail
file's settings page. Select the newly created alias and set Memo
as the form to use.
- Now click the "Mail Settings" tab to continue configuring the mail
part. On the second settings page, the connection alias for the
mail.box file is specified. Use your newly created connection
alias and set the other option on the settings page to your desire. The
"Save in Mail File" option specifies whether a mail document produced with the
mail part will be saved in the user's mail file when it is sent.
Use the Add button to select those fields from the form which contain valid
recipient names. On a normal Memo form select: SendTo, CopyTo,
BlindCopyTo.
- If you want to add other fields to your mail, you can use the "User
Defined Fields" tab to do so.
- Select the OK button to update the part and return to the
Composition Editor.
- Now connect the openendWidget event of your application window
to the open action of the mail part. Also connect the
openendWidget event of your application window to the
newMail action of the mail part to create a new mail document each
time the window is opened.
- Now add two push buttons to your application window:
- A Cancel button to close the window. Connect the
button's clicked event with the closeWidget action of the
window.
- A Send button to send the mail document and close the
window. Connect the clicked event of the button with the
newMail action of the mail part and with the closeWidget
action of the window. To take care of the Domino memory allocated by
the mail part, connect the closedWidget event of the window to the
close action of the mail part.
- Then tear off the currentNote attribute from the mail part and
drop it on the free-form surface. The current note represents the
actual mail document to be processed. There is a quickform feature for
the current note. As an alternative to selecting the self attribute for
quick form, which would create entry fields for every field specified in the
Memo form, use some of the fields presented in the pop-up window:
- SendTo to set recipients
- Subject to specify the mails topic
- Body for the message text
Save the part and run the application. Send a mail to yourself an
look into your personal mail file using the Notes client. You may
notice that some of the elements of a regular memo are missing -- that is due
to the fact that you have set up the mail part with a limited set of
fields. When you use the mail part, you will also note that there is
default behavior for some fields. For example, the From
field is automatically set to the value returned from the class
AbtLnEnvironment when you send the message
currentUserName. You can override the default values.
Send a mail to yourself and check the result with your Notes client.
In the next step you will expand the mail application and supply a list of
valid recipients. To achieve this goal, you will add an address book
(AbtAddressBookPart) to the free form surface.
The address book part is a special kind of view part. It must be
connected to a names and address book database. Create a connection
alias to your names and address book (or to the sample name and address book
provided with the demo applications).
- Add an address book part to the free form surface for your
application.
- Select the address book part and open the settings pages. On the
General tab, you specify the connection for the address book and
the view which provides the list of valid names. If you want to use the
sample address book provided with Domino Connection, select the
ConToAddressBook connection and the view named
People.
- Note:
- Usually you can choose from a number of address books. You probably
have a local name and address book on your workstation and one or more address
databases on your mail server. Ask your system administrator which of
the address books suites your needs.
- Use the second tab named Address Book to select a column from
the Name and Address book view. If you use the sample database provided
with Domino Connection, select the $16 column. If you are not sure
which column to select, use the Notes client or Domino Designer to find out
about the column names or analyze the view structure with the Smalltalk
methods provided with the Domino Connection. Close the settings
pages.
- Add an additional window to the free form surface of the composition
editor. Drop a single list part into the new window and add a button
labeled Close. Connect the clicked event of the
button to the closeWidget action of the window and to the
close action of the address book part. Connect the
aboutToOpenWidget event of the window with the open action of the
address book part.
- Connect the names attribute of the address book part with the
items attribute of the list in the new window.
- Add a third button to the first window (which represents the memo form)
and label it Find address. Connect the clicked
event of that button with the openWidget action of the window
containing the list.
- Finally connect the selectedItem attribute of the list to the
object attribute of the memo forms entry field with the
SendTo label. Save the part.
When you test the part, you will be able to open up the second window using
the Find address button. It will display a list for
recipients you can select from. Double-click the selection and the
SendTo field of your memo is set to the selected value.
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