- Planning a traditional Notes application
If your application is only intended for use by Notes® clients, use the standard design elements provided by Domino® Designer. When programming, consider using the Notes® formula language and LotusScript®, both of which were designed for use with the Notes® client.
- Planning a traditional Notes and Web application
If you are planning an application that users will access via a Notes® client or via a Web browser, you will need to do some design work to tailor your application for each platform. For example, a navigation structure that is suited for a Notes® client application may not be the best choice for a Web application. When you design an application for both Notes® and Web, about 85% of your design will be suitable for both clients, and the remaining 15% will require some modification. Here are some issues to consider when planning an application for Notes® and Web users:
- Planning for integration with WebSphere and DB2
You can use Domino® Designer to build applications that exploit the collaborative features of the Domino® server as well as the transactional power of the WebSphere® server and the data storage capacity of a DB2® database, resulting in end-to-end business solutions for applications such as supply chain management, sales force automations, or customer relationship management.
- Planning a traditional Web application
Perhaps your widest range of design options is available when designing an application that will only be accessed via a Web browser. You can build a Web application using the full range of Domino® Designer features and tools, or you can build an application using the latest Web technologies. This range of tools and features, coupled with all of the benefits of a Domino® application -- such as the security model and replication -- give you the most control over the design and delivery of an application.
- Planning a composite application
A major new enhancement in Notes® Release 8 is the support for composite applications, a key element within IBM's service oriented architecture (SOA) and contextual collaboration strategy. Using Domino® Designer, developers can extend Notes® applications to be Notes® components in composite applications. A composite application can include any combination of Notes® components and Eclipse components. The ability to combine multiple technologies into a single application provides significant business value: It enables companies to protect and extend their existing assets with increasing degrees of flexibility, and to respond quickly and cost effectively to their emerging business requirements, with applications that are significantly easier to assemble than alternative application development environments.
- Planning an application for mobile users
You may want an application you design for Notes® or Web users to be available to mobile users. You can easily tailor an existing application for mobile users by excluding certain design elements from a mobile application to streamline it for better performance. For example, you may to exclude a large, complex view or a graphical navigator from the design elements that get served to mobile users to avoid performance problems.
- Hide-when options for all applications
- HTML tag attributes for a Domino server
The HTML tab appears on many properties boxes. If you are designing a Web application and are using HTML 4.0, the HTML tab lets you apply core attributes that are common to a number of objects, such as Cascading Style Sheet (CSS), easily. Domino® incorporates the values of these attributes in the HTML that it creates at runtime. When you are using the HTML tag attributes, remember:
- Domino applets
- Designing an application for maximum accessibility
When designing an application, there are things you can do to make your application accessible to people with physical disabilities. To meet federal accessibility guidelines, your application must be:
- Creating multilingual applications
- Table of Notes and Domino known limits
The following table summarizes the known maximum limits of various Notes® and Domino® features.