Lotus Notes/Domino 8.5.2 FP2

The Lotus Notes/Domino Fixpack 2 for 8.5.2 reached Gold Status and is about to be released in the next couple of days. Among many fixes there are some new functions coming with this releases. These are:

• SPR# VASR876SSW – Syntax validation was added to Recent Contacts. The following are considered invalid: (1) Any address ending in period, backslash, forwardslash, @, left angle bracket or single quote . (2) Any smtp address where address is surrounded by single quotes. (3) No spaces are allowed in 821 smtp address (the real address part) . (4) No sntp address can have a period after a top level ICCAN domain. Top level ICANN domains are .com, org, .edu, .gov, .int, .mil, .net. (5) On Notes addressing, we are not allowing a period in the organizational part. ie no tom/west.ford/ibm
• SPR# ATAI7WSABL – When a Delivery Failure report is processed, the failed address will be automatically deleted from Recent Contacts and put into Contacts Trash.
• SPR# DCHR89GT3Q – Added a policy option to enable administrators to enable or restrict the ability for Notes client users to choose “Save as eml” under “File..Save” options from within an email.
• SPR# GHAT8ATNCH – For 8.5.2 FP2, on conversion from local replica to Managed Mail Replica, we will now configure the existing entry with all default Managed Mail Replica settings (scheduled replication enabled, high priority enabled, send/receive full documents from the server). The Managed Mail Replica settings will be locked on the replication page, but will be editable in the “Replication Settings” dialog. We will also prevent the disabling or deletion of the Managed Mail entry from the replication page.

The complete preliminary fixlist is already online. To check the release date go to Upcoming Releases.

XPages – Taking Domino development to a higher level

Lotusphere’s top topics this year are mobile, social and web browser. One keyword is being peeped and posted these days that shows which technologies Lotus provides to support the main topics: XPages!

XPages are a technology integrated in Lotus Notes/Domino since version 8.0 that leverage development and user experience to a new level. Developers are given tools and technologies to develop application for the Lotus Notes Client, the web browser and mobile devices. Other than classic Lotus Notes development XPages base on Java Server Faces (JSF), Java and JavaScript. These technologies are popular to web developers all over the world outside of Lotus Notes/Domino. Domino developers can now use these technologies to build state of the art web and mobile applications AND those applications even run in the Lotus Notes client!

Did I catch your attention? Do you want to learn more about XPages and their capabilities? Then start digging deeper. The links provided below lead to valuable sources.

Wikipedia – What the heck are XPages anyway?

XPages.info – Get started, downloads and tutorials

OpenNTF – Open Source XPages projects which can be used out of the box

XPages.tv – Source for random XPages stuff

XPages reference guide – A javascript language specifiction

XPages Blog – XPages development and more

What does google say?

That should get you going. If you are one of those old fashioned lads who needs to hold a piece of paper in his hands. Here you go. IBM Press just released a book called “Mastering XPages: A Step-by-Step Guide to XPages Application Development and the XSP Language“.

Fatal Bug in Notes/Domino 8.x?

Since lotus notes 8.x we are facing strange behaviours when updating existing applications on customer’s servers.

1. The application has a default view. A couple of days after the update the client answers to certain actions that the database’s default view is missing and that the action will therefore be aborted.
2. After a server-side design update users work on a semi-updated application when using their clients to open the application 0n the server, meaning that some design changes have been applied and some haven’t. The problem can be solved by removing the database from the user’s desktop and get it back on.

We saw that bevaviour on either databases with hidden design or with open design. Has anyone of you experienced similar things and can provide a solution? Is it a known bug? Is there a recipe with steps to take during an update to avoid these problems? Might it be a client or server cache problem?

Any tips and help appreciated!