Time Management experts will tell you an individual only has 24 hours in a single day; proper time management isn't finding time in your day, but rather discovering and dealing with inefficiencies in your day. The best way to discover those inefficiencies - at least as recommended to me as part of the AMA Time Management Strategies seminar which I recently attended - is to document how you spend your day.

With that, I introduce Time Tracker, an Open Source Efficiency Tracking Utility for the Lotus Notes Client.

The idea is simple. At the start of your day - upon completion of your first task - create an entry highlighting what you did and whether you feel it was an efficient or inefficient use of your time. Based on several requests, you can also select the priority, apply categories, or even align your time against a project.

For Lotus Notes Client v8.0 and above, you can use the Time Tracker Widget to make this process even easier!

Today I was asked for an example of a Smart Landing Page, to which I was more than happy to comply and send the requester the in-progress Understanding the Domino CRUD API Example Database.

Not wanting to leave anyone else out in the code that prefers a more hands-on approach to picking up some new techniques, I thought I'd publish the build as of this afternoon.

Those purists will realize a lot of room for improvement in the development and architecture of things - with a few things in mind being which particular Design Elements I'm using to serve their given purpose, the total lack of linked CSS or JavaScript libraries, etc. Let's just keep in mind that this NotesDatabase is being written as a simple example of the Domino CRUD API and thus I 1) wanted to keep as much on-screen/simple as possible and 2) am not recommending that this - the design of the Domino CRUD API Example NotesDatabase - is by any means the ideal architecture for Domino Web Applications... outside of it being an example for several base techniques that you can use to build some pretty advanced and feature-rich Domino Web Applications and Services.

Speaking of services, the more astute of you will notice a shuffle in the pages View Design Element and $$ViewTemplateDefault|$$NavigatorTemplate for index.html Form Design Element: I'm adding the first part of a mini-series on the READ state of the Domino CRUD API.

So grab this build release of the Domino CRUD API Example NotesDatabase, play around, and check back here for more on the READ state of the Domino CRUD API! Good times ;-)

It's been a while since I've updated the Event Calendar Public Build project... more due to me being extremely busy than not working on the build. Since my last video, I've put some considerable work into the application. It's still Notes Client-only at the moment... and for good reason: we're far from done! See, one of my goals with this particular project was to show you how to take a Notes-based application and ready it for the web... and I wanted to build a pretty feature-rich and configurable (which is key!) before I jump into the web-build of this particular project.

So what have I been doing?

Well, for starters I've added a facility that will allow you to assign Groups (from an Admin-defined list) as an additional level of categorization... and read-access restrictions - all configurable at the UI level to the Event Author via a Restrict to Group? flag.

You'll also notice the Reservations Embedded View - pretty self-explanatory there: user's will be able to click-and-subscribe to events!

I've also done some considerable work with the Preferences engine: specifically adding more keywords (which was simple enough, and a given really), and the Admin-defined Color-coding... with a twist. See, I'm allowing you to define the Color Profile Formula in a Formula field - using placeholders for the font and background colors - and I then apply the Runtime Formula (which is a Computed and evaluated version of the Admin-defined Formula).

If that wasn't enough, I've also allowed you to define the default action of the New Event button via the Preferences document's Default Action. Selecting Event Form will wire the button to launch the simple single-entry Entry|entry Form Design Element, while selecting Event Wizard will wire the same button to instead envoke the New Events Wizard. This wizard, which is lifted from my Lotus Notes Client Wizard components example download, will allow the user to create multi-day event entries in the Event Calendar as well as drive the creation of the standard single-day event.

All of this resulting in a very simple, but very functional Lotus Notes Client application that can handle basic Event and Reservation management!

The next step, prior to the web build, is the C&S (Calendaring and Scheduling) integration. The intended goal is simple: click on an event, and a new Meeting invitation is sent from a simple standard Mail Database Application, containing all of the Event information, and putting those individuals with reservations into the invite list - where we'll leverage the built-in C&S functionality in the standard Mail Application Template... which is something I certainly don't want to hack around in or attempt to re-write!

I'm on the fence as to whether to public this particular design release yet, which is admittedly incomplete. See, I don't want someone to take this application as a finished product and start using it... because the finished product will kick this one in the nards!

... but if I get enough "gimme-gimme-gimme!" feedback, I'll post what I have so far for download and dissection!

I was once asked why I would created a little application that would do nothing more than what could be done with a simple SmartIcon. When I created SOTU - my Remote Console Command utility, it's v0.1 release was a simple utility that - yes - was an extended version of what you could do with a simple SmartIcon. v0.2 gave you the option to configure a simple Sidebar Widget, and allow you to issue Remote Console Commands to your Domino servers with even greater ease. With SOTU v0.3, you won't even have to fire up your laptop!

Simply point your mobile device's WAP browser to sotu.nsf/mobile, and you will be presented with a simple WAP-enabled Form:

From here, you can select the Server and enter a console command. Click the Issue Command button, which submits the request via POST to a simple Domino Agent which uses the SOTU Script Library and issues the remote console command.

Once properly executed, the browser is redirected to sotu.nsf/mobile, and can quickly see the response (if any) from the Remote Console Command via a pseudo-embedded View at the bottom of the mobile Form.

Quick Tip: For you Blackberry users, you can use Showtime to create a simple Channel Push icon for your Admin team and quickly deploy this application just in time for Lotusphere!

Here's a quick icon set that I used for my team - both a standard and an updated icon, shown respectively:

See how I tie things in (eventually)?!

Also, v0.3 has no error handling in the mobile.engine which handles the request... and for good reason. If you get an Agent Done response form the Agent... then something's broken, and it's more than likely a permissions issue with the Remote Console security stuff (which can be changed on the Server Document). The Remote Console Command will be issued by the server, so make sure you have everything from a security side setup or you'll likely see something like this on the server console/log:

MixMaster, my Remote NotesItem Manager, will allow you to create and modify defined NotesItems in both NotesDocuments and Design Elements. Want to disable the "Prohibit Design Refresh or Replace to modify" flag on Design Elements in a Mail File or simply want to change the DateCompleted field on a defined set of documents in a Helpdesk application? MixMaster will allow you to do that and much more!

I'll put a demo video online soon showcasing the functionality and potential usefulness of this freeware/tip jar-ware Lotus Notes Client Utility Application.