McGarelGramming

Earlier this week, I was looking for a JavaScript charting solution to display some simple charts on an intranet application's dashboard. This article led me to Bluff, which I was able to implement fairly easily and has a lot of flexibility.

I tried to use Dojo (since the app will soon be Xpages-enabled) and while the actual charts looked fine, I had trouble formatting and placing the text elements (e.g. legend, labels) the way I wanted to. I find the lack of documentation . . . disturbing.

We updated recently to 8.5.  While reviewing a change I made today to a form on an existing Web-based application, I noticed the two radio button fields were styled incorrectly.  No one  had touched the fields or the style sheets the app uses, so I was perplexed. My immediate reaction in cases like these is to view the HTML source to see what is being sent to the browser. That's where I noticed a new, Domino-generated label tag enclosing each element of the radio button fields.

It is a minor thing, but it's something I wanted to fix right away.  First,  I made sure I didn't accidentally check the box to enable enhanced HTML generation. I experimented with turning off  pass-thru HTML to see if it made any difference -- it didn't.

After that, I just modified the style sheet to fix the page layout, so that issue is taken are of.  Then I did another test and noticed the same thing happens with checkbox fields. So I ask the Yellowverse:  Has anyone else noticed this? Is this correct behavior for 8.5? Is there something I can do to turn this off?

Update: How fascinating! This morning, I was reminded to check the 8.5 forum and there was an exact description of my issue plus a response with the reason (accessiblity) and a workaround (creating a CFD field called $$HTMLOptions with the value  "FieldChoiceLabel=0" ).

Today I replaced Lotus fun with Disney fun and spent the day at the Magic Kingdom with the family.  As I try to catch up on emails and blog postings tonight, I realized I should send out some well-deserved thanks:

• To all the bloggers who gave Lotusphere advice beforehand -- thanks in particular for the suggestion to talk to strangers at the lunch and breakfast tables. I did it this year and acquired some insights into other environments, received some helpful advice, gained some companions at subsequent sessions and possibly started some new friendships.

• To the many bloggers I met and hung out with -- thank you for your warm reception at various formal and informal get-togethers.

• To Mitch Cohen, Warren Elsmore and Conxys -- thanks for all your hard work and support for Blogger Open. It was great fun and I hope it becomes a Lotusphere tradition.

• To anyone at IBM Lotus connected with bringing in Benjamin Zander as the closing speaker -- THANK YOU!  He made me laugh a lot, he made me cry a little bit, he made me think in brand new ways.
  

Finally, birthday greetings go out to Lotus Notes (20) and Eric (none of our business). Here's a toast to bright futures ahead for you both!

Microsoft, realizing the obvious superiority of Lotus products, keeps silent this year. Instead, they aim all the fans from the unused servers in their Live Services data centers toward Orlando, producing unseasonably low temperatures in the area.

It still won't spoil the fun. See you there!

I finally created some Xpages/Xfiles desktop images.  Here's the zip file, which includes my original image.

Happy New Year, everyone!
 

All of these movies get a "thumb drive up" from me:

1.  IIt's a Wonderful Database
In this holiday favorite, an executive realizes the wealth of information he has in his personal address book.

2.   8 1/2
A film within a film about the next major Notes release, from a director who prefers fractions to decimals.

3.  @Transform-ers
Two opposing sets of data modification agents cause conflicts throughout the system.

4.  Bodyfield
A monster-sized rich-text field consumes network traffic and defies attempts to export or display its data. (Visual warning: this movie was shot using a shaky Lotus Screen Cam).

5.  Old Yellow
This children's classic tells of a young admin who takes over an abandoned V3 group mail database. He slowly learns to appreciate it before it intercepts an email virus that could have infected the entire company.

6.  SharePoint Break
An FBI agent goes Web surfing to find a gang of bank robbers, who turn out to be a small IT department trying to get the money to pay for their "free" SharePoint technology. Starrng Patrick Swayedeasily.

7.  Lotus Reno 911
An irreverent look at what happens when a business partner "helps" a police department.

8.  Blog Day Afternoon
A Notes developer holds his users hostage as he spends his time reading blogs related to Yellow Day. (Reportedly based on a true story.)

 XPages . . . the code is out there.

One might say  Batman  has  issues.

In  fact, someone did.

To see them, go to The Ten Mental Illnesses Batman Indisputably Has.

In honor of George Carlin and his "Seven words you can never say on television," here's my take on seven words that's bound to cause grumbling and grimaces among the Loti:

• OOXML
• SearchDomino.com
• Sharepoint
• iPhone
• Lyons
• Radicati
• Workplace

(Special thanks to John Roling for inspiration.)

 I'm adding the term "purported" when referring  to Microsoft's Office Open XML because:

• As it written now, Office doesn't use it.
• It is filled with proprietary specifications so it is not really open.
• It is not very good XML.

Hence I will use the new acronym: POOXML.

(Childish, I know.)

I staked out a spot (I'm in the back) in the new round robin writing experiment, "Albino Butterfly," initiated by Ben Langhinrichs.

(OK. There are some rules. But I noticed there is nooooooooooooooo Rule 6.)

Start with Chapter 1 , which is great IMHO. You can get an RSS feed that Julian Robichaux so graciously hosts at http://www.andthentheboilerburst.com/AlbinoButterfly.rss.

I was saddened last week to hear of the death of Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons and someone who was instrumental in popularizing paper-and-pencil roleplaying games. Some of my favorite memories include times with friends spent around various kitchen/dining room/coffee tables, fighting nefarious creatures and hoping their treasure included some magical item which would help us smite the next, more dangerous, nefarious creature. Although to me, the best part of gaming was having a reason to get together regularly and share each other's company.

I am not alone in the Notes community in being a fan of the game, which got me to thinking: Microsoft has Exchange Rangers, a "ranger" being a type of warrior in D&D. Shouldn't Notes have "Paladins,"  who in the game were warriors for the side of good? Who among us hasn't fought for Lotus solutions at least once in our careers?

And I know some of my apps have "healed" business problems.

A new field in Notes 8 saved me much development time.

The issue: The day after Notes 8 was installed on our server, I finished a small intranet database which I'll call "DbX." DbX copied the look and feel from the main intranet database by referencing its style sheet. All was well when I compared the two databases in FireFox, but I saw major font differences in I.E.

The solution: After much searching and verifying that the styles matched everywhere, I finally noticed the cause. In DbX, Domino was generating the usual doctype of HTML 4.01 Transitional for the $$ViewTemplates. In contrast, the main database used WebQueryOpen agents to display views. A doctype of XHTML 1.0 Transitional was hard-coded in the agent. I mentioned this situation to my co-worker, Declan, and he suggested the $$HTMLFrontMatter field. I added the field, entered the XHTML doctype information above and my font issues were gone.

I better get going on my Notes 8 reading.

Before I post anything else, I should probably provide a little background:

• I have been a Notes/Domino developer since 1999, starting with Notes 4.5. It was a case of love at first sight.
• Like many other N/D developers, I come from a non-programming background. My degree is in broadcast communications.
  
• I live and work in the Chicago, Illinois area.
  
• I have the good fortune to work at the same company with both John Roling and Declan Lynch.
• I first started reading Lotus blogs right before Lotusphere 2006. Doing so re-invigorated my enthusiasm for the future of Notes.
  

I couldn't make it to Lotusphere this year and therefore missed the Jamfest. In that spirit of fun, though, here's . . .

Server Agent Man
(sung to the tune of "Secret Agent Man" by Johnny Rivers)

There's a man who writes agents with fervor
And all the code he writes runs on the server
With every function he calls
The agent queue might stall
Odds are you'll be outsourced again tomorrow

(Chorus)
Server agent man, server agent man
They've given you an ID -- don't save under your name

Beware of simple fixes that you find
A simple fix can hide some buggy lines
Be careful what you say
As you declare the array
Odds are you'll be outsourced again tomorrow

(Chorus)

[guitar solo I'm not good enough to play]

(Chorus)

Archiving the mailboxes every work day
Logging document changes triggered by QuerySave
You've let a deadline slip
While searching the blogs for tips
Odds are you'll be outsourced again tomorrow

(Chorus)

Server a-a-a agent man