I was contacted recently by a reader of this site asking if there was a product or utility that would allow them to create a rich text mass mailer, complete with file attachments, and allow for Dear <FirstName> Microsoft Word-like Mail Merge functionality from data in a Lotus Notes application. As luck would have it, I had Zephyr, my Configuration-based Rich Text Mail Merge and Emailing Utility!

So I thought I would create a simple screencast showing how you can - with a simple LotusScript Agent - create a configurable Mass Mailing engine from your Lotus Notes Client Personal Address Book.

(Click thru for the tutorial and the LotusScript Agent code...)

IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.1 from Packt Publishing, published in January 2010 by co-authors Barry Rosen, Bennie Gibson, Brad Schauf, David Byrd, Dick McCarrick, Joseph Anderson, and Tim Speed, covers topics including Lotus product portfolio, the Lotus Notes Domino 8.5.1 integration capabilities with other IBM products and services, and the platforms integration with Service-Oriented Architectures.

Notice I said platform and not product, as that's an important distinction with IBM Lotus Notes Domino 8.5.1 that I'm happy to see the authors make: Lotus Notes Domino has evolved into an application and services platform. But I'm getting ahead of myself here...

(Click thru for the complete review plus a new contest to win my review copy!)

Based on feedback today I received across Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, I've come to a decision with regard to Dauth -- my IBM Lotus Notes Domino Oauth-like Authentication Utility -- that I wanted to discuss with the community at large, and document as part of this Public Build. That decision is to develop Dauth with XPages versus traditional (read: pre-Lotus Notes Domino 8.5.1) Design Elements and techniques.

I could have gone either way with this to be honest, and the reason that I asked the community for advice on the approach to use for this application -- which I hope to eventually publish to OpenNTF.org -- was simple: I went back and forth with my want to develop at the front of the curve and the fact that doing so would potentially alienate those IT professionals in Notes Shops that haven't been able to upgrade to the latest versions of IBM Lotus Notes Domino.

In the end, it was words of wisdom from my wife combined with a jaw-dropping weigh-in from Chris Whisonant:

@christoohey if u don't make it xpages only, then make sure it works with only IE6 too... ;) #MakeEmUpgrade

Kinda put the whole thing in perspective...

So I will be diving into developing both the Lotus Notes Client UI and the Lotus Domino HTTP API for Dauth via XPages, SSJS, and Themes. I'll keep the build as public as possible via screencasts, quick audio clips, and of course posting updates to the site. For those interested, stay tuned!

I was asked via email the other day by a developer (and reader of the site) how they could improve the speed of one of their Lotus Notes Domino Applications. I run into this now and then: an application that's quick and responsive when deployed becomes slower and slower the more it's used. This is often attributed to a combination of transactions (ie., number of concurrent users hitting the application) and data (n number of NotesDocuments, etc.). In this case, it was indeed a combination of both - the function in question being an AJAX-based call to a Lotus Notes Domino Agent Design Element to return JSON data. The more users hitting the application looking for their particular data combined with the growing volume resulted in poor response times from the server.

You can imagine the rest of the story. Taxed application == poor UX == frustrated users == Why aren't we running our applications on Sharepoint|Google|Notepad?

It's a slippery slope, people - and I'm here to tell you how we can dig in with a slight application architecture modification. Now, this might not be applicable to all Lotus Notes Domino Applications, but there are certainly scenarios where this can be one of the most effective and efficient ways to deliver content and avoid scaling issues with Domino HTTP RPC Agents.

(Click thru for a LOT more...)

Earlier today I mentioned that exciting news was on the horizon, and I am stoked to officially announce that I'll be speaking at The VIEW Lotus Developer2010!

I'll be giving two sessions:

(Click thru for information on my sessions and the conference details!)

It worked fine in Firefox, which is equipped with both Firebug and the Web Developer Toolkit, so no help there. It even worked in Internet Explorer 6, but I couldn't get it to work in IE7! I spent far too long (more time than I'm willing to admit) trying to find out why the actionbar for a rather complicated XHTML Form (complete with content-sensitive hide-whens, JSON-driven UI data pickers, interactive field-level validation, etc.) would become deactivated if I selected one - and specifically one - of the Tabbed Table tabs.

(Click thru for more...)

Members of the dominoGuru.com Facebook Fan Page were treated to a special sneak peek of several upcoming projects soon to either hit a domain or be available for download.

Today, I officially announce Project Romulan, my Federated Social and Business Networking Dashboard for the IBM Lotus Notes Client.

This is my version of the much discussed Project Vulcan from IBM. Romulan will be an XPages Lotus Notes 8.5.1 Client Dashboard-style application that allows you to interact with your IBM Lotus Notes Messaging environment as well as various social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more!

(Click-thru for more information and previews of Romulan...)

I've mentioned my work recently with Oauth, and while working on SOTU -- my Remote Console Command Utility for IBM Lotus Notes Domino -- I found myself liking the token-based authentication architecture more and more. Now, understanding that most enterprises won't rush to adopt Oauth for fear (and quite frankly lack of understanding) would give them an idea that such an authentication architecture would allow any OpenID-like account access to their systems... I've decided to make an Oauth-like utility for the IBM Lotus Notes Domino Server.

(Click thru for more details...)

If you haven't already bookmarked the latest IBM Lotus Remote Residency product -- Redbooks Wiki: Building Domino Web Applications using Domino 8.5.1 -- well, then, there's something wrong with you and this post really won't help you that much (unless you didn't know about the awesome development resource and guide to XPages, Themes, and more -- I suppose you get a pass...).

If you're one of those Redbook fans that really prefers a printed version, the Remote Residency project leader -- John Bergland of IBM -- has put together a version of this highly recommended resource in PDF format.

Special thanks to John and the rest of the Remote Residency team for all of their hard work; the end result reflects your dedication and subject matter expertise!