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to be written like an advertisement. Please help improve it by rewriting promotional content from a neutral point of view and removing any inappropriate external links. (April 2011) Lotus Notes IBM Lotus Notes 8 default home screen Developer(s) IBM Initial release 1989 Stable release 8.5.3 (October 3, 2011; 4 months ago) [] Preview release 8.5.3 CD5 [] Development status Active Written in Java/Eclipse (8.x Standard) & C++ (8.x Basic and previous versio ns) Operating system Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and formerly OS/2 Available in 28 user-interface and mail template languages, 64 variants avail able for spelling dictionary Type Collaborative software, Personal information manager, Email client License Proprietary Website IBM Lotus Notes IBM Lotus Notes is the client of a collaborative client-server platform. IBM Lot us Domino is the application server. Lotus Notes provides integrated collaborati on functionality, including email, calendaring, contacts management, to do track ing, instant messaging, an office productivity suite (IBM Lotus Symphony), and a ccess to other Lotus Domino applications and databases. Lotus Notes can also be integrated with additional collaboration capabilities including voice and video conferencing, online meetings, discussions, forums, blogs, file sharing, microbl ogs, and user directories. In addition to these standard applications the organi zation may use the IBM Lotus Domino Designer development environment and other t ools to develop additional integrated applications such as request approval / wo rkflow and document management. Lotus Notes was originally created by Lotus Development Corp. in 1989. In 1995 L otus was acquired by IBM and became known as the Lotus Development division of I BM and is now part of the IBM Software and Systems Group. IBM describes the soft ware as "an easy-to-use, single point of access to everything you need to get yo ur work done quickly, including business applications, email, calendars, feeds, and more"[1] Prior to release 4.5, the term Lotus Notes referred to both the cli ent and server applications.[2]. As of October 4, 2011 Lotus Notes was in releas e 8.5.3. Whereas typical email applications are programmed to be an email client, Lotus N otes is an application that is part of an application development platform, wher e mail is just one of many possible applications. Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino h ave spawned a great deal of third-party software, including applications, add-in s, add-ons, widgets, plug-ins and more, such as document management systems[3], discussion forums[4], and numerous other business applications. IN 2008, IBM released XPages technology, allowing Lotus Notes data to be display ed to browser clients on any platform supporting standard web standards. Contents [hide] 1 Concept 2 Related software 2.1 Client/server 2.2 Data replication 2.3 Security 2.4 Database security 2.5 Programming 2.6 Database

2.7 Configuration 3 Use as an email client 3.1 Comparison with other email clients 4 Criticisms 5 Related software 5.1 Related IBM Lotus products 5.2 Related software from other vendors 6 History 7 Versions 8 Future 9 See also 9.1 Alternative software 10 References 11 External links 11.1 IBM resources 11.2 General resources [edit]Concept Lotus Notes is a multi-user client-server cross-platform application runtime env ironment, it is the primary user-interface or client of the Lotus Domino/Notes s uite. It can be used as an email client without a Lotus Domino server, though th is is unusual.[citation needed] Lotus Domino/Notes provides a broad range of integrated functionality including email, calendaring, instant messaging (with additional IBM software voice&video conferencing and/or web-collaboration), discussions/forums, blogs, an inbuilt pe rsonnel/user directory and IBM Lotus Symphony, a full office productivity suite. In addition to these standard applications the organization may use the IBM Lot us Domino Designer development environment and other tools to rapidly develop ad ditional integrated applications such as request approval / workflow and documen t management. Lotus Notes has no single direct competitor which offers a similar wide range of features. It competes with a suite of products from other vendors such as Micro soft. Because of the application development abilities, Lotus Notes is often compared to products like Microsoft Sharepoint.[5][6]. The database in Notes/Domino can b e replicated between servers and between server and client, thereby allowing cli ents offline capabilities. It is often classified as a NoSQL database, as it is document centric and not relational. The Lotus Notes product consists of several components: Lotus Notes client application (since version 8, this is based on Eclipse) Lotus Notes client (either as a rich client, a web client called Lotus iNotes, o r in mobile email clients via Lotus Notes Traveler) Lotus Domino server, a cross platform application server which supports data rep lication to other servers and clients for offline access. Lotus Domino Administration Client Lotus Domino Designer (Eclipse-based integrated development environment) for cre ating client-server applications that run within the Notes framework. Whereas typical email applications such as Microsoft Outlook are programmed to b e an email client, Lotus Notes is an application platform, where mail is just on e of many possible applications. Lotus Notes may be used to access a document ma nagement system, discussion forums, document libraries, and numerous other appli cations. Lotus Notes is similar to a web-browser in that it may run any compatib le application that the user has permission for. The Lotus Notes framework provides applications with functionality to access, st ore & present information through a user-interface, enforce security and replica te (that is, allow many different servers to contain the same information and ha ve many users work with that data). Lotus Notes standard storage mechanism is a document database format, the Notes Storage Format -- or NSF -- which may store both the application and associated data. Lotus Notes may also access relational databases, usually through an additional server called Lotus Enterprise Integra

tion for Domino. As Lotus Notes is an application runtime environment, email and calendering is a n application within Lotus Notes, albeit one that IBM provides with the product, but one that can be changed or completely replaced by a Domino application deve loper.[7] IBM have released the base templates as open source as well.[8] Applications for Lotus Notes are developed in a variety of development languages including the Java through Xpages, as well as with a Visual Basic-like language called LotusScript. Applications may be developed to run within the Lotus Notes application runtime environment and/or through a web server for use in a web br owser, although the application interface would need to be developed separately for each. IBM is attempting to resolve this with a new development solution call ed XPages, where the application is consistently displayed using web-technologie s. [edit]Related software Lotus Notes can be used for many applications as well as for internal communicat ion collaborative applications, including emails, calendaring, PIM, instant mess aging, Web browsing, and a variety of feature-rich custom applications. It can b e used to access both local- and server-based applications and data. The current version of Lotus Notes is 8.5.3. (See http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/prod ucts/notes/ for more details). In early days of the product, the most common applications were threaded discuss ions and simple contact management databases. Today, Notes also provide blogs, w ikis, RSS aggregators, CRM and Help Desk systems, and organizations can build a variety of custom applications for Notes using XPages and Lotus Domino Designer. Lotus Notes can be used as an IMAP and POP email client with non-Domino mail ser vers. Recipient addresses can be retrieved from any LDAP server, including Activ e Directory. The client also does web browsing, although it can be configured to launch the default browser instead. Features include group calendaring and scheduling, SMTP/MIME-based email, NNTP-b ased news support, and automatic HTML conversion of all documents by the Domino HTTP task. Lotus Notes integration with IBM Sametime instant messaging allows users to see other users online and chat with one or more of them at the same time. Beginning with Release 6.5 this functionality is built into Lotus Notes as a no-cost enti tlement, with presence awareness is available in email and other Notes applicati ons for users in organizations that use both Lotus Notes and IBM Sametime. Since version 7, Notes has provided a web services interface. Domino can be a we b server for HTML files too; authentication of access to Domino databases or HTM L files uses Domino's own user directory and external systems such as Microsoft' s Active Directory. A design client, Lotus Domino Developer, is available to allow rapid development of databases consisting of forms, which allow users to create documents; and vi ews, which display selected document fields in columns. In addition to being a groupware system (email, calendaring, shared documents an d discussions), Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino is also a platform for developing c ustomized client server and web applications. Its use of design constructs and cod e allows easier construction of "workflow"-type applications, which typically ha ve complex approval processes and routing of data. Since Release 5, Lotus server clustering has been able to provide geographic red undancy for servers. Later in its product lifecycle, Lotus Notes adopted leading design techniques an d prevailing user interface and navigation paradigms first popularized by Micros oft, Apple, Mozilla and others. Features Lotus Notes may have first included wer e GUI tabs for multiple pages, searches and functions, and squared-off workspace chiclets which are now used on the iPhone.[citation needed] As of Octber 4, 2011, Lotus Notes 8.5.3 is the newest release, providing more ad vancements in building custom software applications. [edit]Client/server Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino is a true client/server database environment and th

e servers themselves can be virtually independent of the hardware and software. The server software is called Lotus Domino and the client software is Lotus Note s. The Domino software can run on Windows, Unix, Linux, AIX, and even IBM midran ge systems such as the IBM Systemi (previously known as AS/400), and can scale t o tens of thousands of users per server. There are different supported versions of the Domino server that are supported on the various levels of server operatin g systems, mostly corresponding to the latest server operating systems only bein g officially supported by a version of Domino that is released at about the same time as that OS. Domino has security capabilities on a variety of levels. The authorizations can be granular, down to the field level in specific records all the way up to 10 di fferent parameters that can be set up at a database level, with intermediate opt ions in between. Users can also assign access for other users to their personal calendar and email on a more generic reader, editor, edit with delete and manage my calendar levels. All of the security in Domino/Notes is independent of the s erver OS or Active Directory, another flexibility not available with Exchange. O ptionally, the Notes client can be configured to have the user use their Active Directory identity, but after starting the client the standard records (called d ocuments in Notes) between databases (called Applications in Notes 8.0 and later .) This includes individual memos from a mail file. Databases/Applications can b e designed to handle virtually any kind of data with extremely flexible security parameters including workflow features within the standard Notes client applica tion environment without having to write actual code. Dozens of application temp lates are included at no charge with the software and there are numerous forums and other resources with custom databases available. [edit]Data replication The first release of Notes included a generalized replication facility. The gene ralized nature of this feature set it apart from predecessors like Usenet and co ntinues to differentiate Notes from many other systems that now offer some form of synchronization or replication. The facility in Notes and Domino is not limit ed to email, calendar, and contacts. It works for any data in any application th at uses Notes Storage Facility (.nsf) files, which are the standard container fo r data in the Notes architecture, for its storage. No special programming, taggi ng, or other configuration is required to enable replication. Domino servers and Notes clients identify NSF files by their Replica IDs, and ke ep replicate files synchronized by bidirectionally exchanging data, metadata, an d application logic and design. Replication between two servers, or between a cl ient and a server, can occur over a network or a point-to-point[disambiguation n eeded ] modem connection. Replication between servers may occur at intervals acc ording to a defined schedule, in near-real-time when triggered by data changes i n server clusters, or when triggered by an administrator or program. Creation of a local replica of an NSF file on the hard disk of a Notes client en ables the user to fully use Notes databases while working off-line; the client s ynchronizes any changes when client and server next connect. Local replicas are also sometimes maintained for use while connected to the network in order to red uce network latency. Replication between a Notes client and Domino server can ru n automatically according to a schedule, or manually in response to a user or pr ogrammatic request. Since Notes 6, local replicas maintain all security features programmed into the applications. Earlier releases of Notes did not always do s o. Early releases also did not offer a way to encrypt NSF files, raising concern s that local replicas might expose too much confidential data on laptops or inse cure home office computers. But more recent releases offer encryption, and as of the default setting for newly created local replicas. [edit]Security Notes was the first widely adopted software product to use public key cryptograp hy for client server and server server authentication and for encryption of data; it remains the product with the largest installed base of PKI users.[citation need ed] Until US laws regulating encryption were changed in 2000, Lotus was prohibit ed from exporting versions of Notes that supported symmetric encryption keys tha t were longer than 40 bits. In 1997, Lotus negotiated an agreement with the NSA

that allowed export of a version that supported stronger keys with 64 bits, but 24 of the bits were encrypted with a special key and included in the message to provide a "workload reduction factor" for the NSA. This strengthened the protect ion for users of Notes outside the US against private-sector industrial espionag e, but not against spying by the US government.[9] This implementation was widel y announced, but with some justification many people did consider it to be a bac kdoor. Some governments objected to being put at a disadvantage to the NSA, and as a result Lotus continued to support the 40-bit version for export to those co untries. Under current US export laws, Lotus Notes supports only one version of the Notes PKI with 128-bit symmetric keys, 1024-bit public keys, and no workload reductio n factor. The Domino server includes security tools support S/MIME, SSL 3.0 with industry standard key sizes for HTTP and other Internet protocols, X.509 client certificates, and an integrated certificate authority. Notes and Domino also uses a code-signature framework that controls the security context, runtime, and rights of custom code developed and introduced into the e nvironment. Notes 5 introduced execution control lists (ECLs) at the client leve l.[clarification needed] Notes/Domino 6 allowed ECLs to be managed centrally by server administrators through the implementation of Policies. Since release 4.5, the code signatures listed in properly configured ECLs prevent code from being executed by external sources, to avoid virus propagation through Notes/Domino en vironments. Administrators can centrally control whether each mailbox user can a dd exceptions to, and thus override, the ECL. [edit]Database security Every database has an access control list (ACL) that specifies the level of acce ss a user or a server can have to that database. A user's access level determine s what tasks he or she can perform in the database; A server's access level dete rmines what information the user can replicate. (The names of access levels are the same for users and servers.) Only a user or administrator with Manager acces s can create or modify the ACL. To set an ACL, the Manager selects the access le vel, user type, and access level privileges for each user or group in a database . Default entries in the ACL can be set when the Manager creates the database. T he manager can also assign roles if the database designer determines this level of access refinement is needed by the application. [edit]Programming Notes/Domino is a cross-platform, secure, distributed document-oriented database and messaging framework and rapid application development environment that incl udes pre-built applications like email, calendar, etc. This sets it apart from i ts major commercial competitors, such as Microsoft Exchange or Novell GroupWise, which are generally purpose-built applications for mail and calendaring that of fer APIs for extensibility. Lotus Domino databases are built using the Domino Designer client, available onl y for Microsoft Windows; standard user clients are available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.[10] A key feature of Notes is that many replicas of the same databa se can exist at the same time on different servers and clients, across dissimila r platforms; the same storage architecture is used for both client and server re plicas. Originally, replication in Notes happened at document (i.e. record) leve l. With release of Notes 4 in 1996, replication was changed so that it now occur s at field level. A database is a Notes Storage Facility (.nsf) file, containing basic units of st orage known as a "note". Every note has a UniqueID that is shared by all its rep licas. Every replica also has a UniqueID that uniquely identifies it within any cluster of servers, a domain of servers, or even across domains belonging to man y organizations that are all hosting replicas of the same database. Each note al so stores its creation and modification dates, and one or more Items. There are several classes of notes, including design notes and document notes. D esign notes are created and modified with the Domino Designer client, and repres ent programmable elements, such as the GUI layout of forms for displaying and ed iting data, or formulas and scripts for manipulating data. Document notes repres ent user data, and are created and modified with the Lotus Notes client, via a w

eb browser, via mail routing and delivery, or via programmed code. Document notes can have parent-child relationships, but Lotus Notes should not b e considered a hierarchical database in the classic sense of information managem ent systems. Notes databases are also not relational, although there is a SQL dr iver that can be used with Notes, and it does have some features that can be use d to develop applications that mimic relational features. Lotus Notes does not s upport atomic transactions, and its file locking is rudimentary. Lotus Notes is a document-oriented database (document-based, schema-less, loosely structured) w ith support for rich content and powerful indexing facilities. This structure cl osely mimics paper-based work flows that Lotus Notes is typically used to automa te. Items represent the content of a note. Every item has a name, a type, and may ha ve some flags set. A note can have more than one item with the same name. Item t ypes include Number, Number List, Text, Text List, Date-Time, Date-Time List, an d Rich Text. Flags are used for managing attributes associated with the item, su ch as read or write security. Items in design notes represent the programmed ele ments of a database. For example, the layout of an entry form is stored in the r ich text Body item within a form design note. This means that the design of the database can replicate to users' desktops just like the data itself, making it e xtremely easy to deploy updated applications. Items in document notes represent user-entered or computed data. An item named " Form" in a document note can be used to bind a document to a form design note, w hich directs the Lotus Notes client to merge the content of the document note it ems with the GUI information and code represented in the given form design note for display and editing purposes. The resulting loose binding of documents to de sign information is one of the cornerstones of the power of Lotus Notes. Traditi onal database developers used to working with rigidly enforced schemas, on the o ther hand, may consider the power of this feature to be a double-edged sword. Notes applications development uses several programming languages. Formula and L otusScript are the two main ones. LotusScript is similar to, and may even be con sidered a specialized implementation of, Visual Basic, but with the addition of many powerful native classes that model the Notes environment, whereas Formula i s similar to Lotus 1-2-3 formula language but is unique to Notes. Java was integrated into Lotus Notes beginning with Release 4.5. With Release 5, Java support was greatly enhanced and expanded, and JavaScript was added. Lotus Script is the primary tool in developing applications for the Lotus Notes client . For server-based processing, Java and JavaScript are the primary tools for dev eloping applications for browser access, allowing browsers to emulate the functi onality of the Lotus Notes client. With XPages, the Lotus Notes client can now n atively process Java and JavaScript code, although applications development usua lly requires at least some code specific to only Lotus Notes or only a browser. As of version 6, Lotus established an XML programming interface in addition to t he options already available. The Domino XML Language (DXL) provides XML represe ntations of all data and design resources in the Notes model, allowing any XML p rocessing tool to create and modify Notes/Domino data. Since Release 8.5, XPages were also integrated into Lotus Notes. External to the Lotus Notes application, IBM provides toolkits in C, C++, and Ja va to connect to the Domino database and perform a wide variety of tasks. The C toolkit is the most mature, and the C++ toolkit is an objectized version of the C toolkit, lacking many functions the C toolkit provides. The Java toolkit is th e least mature of the three and can be used for basic application needs. [edit]Database Lotus Notes includes a database management system but Lotus Notes files are diff erent from relational or object databases because they are document-centric. Doc ument-oriented databases such as Lotus Notes allow multiple values in items (fie lds), do not require a schema, come with built-in document-level access control, and store RichText data. Some object-relational features are being developed, a nd Domino 7 to 8.5.x supports the use of IBM DB2 database as an alternative stor e for Lotus Notes databases. (According to IBM, this NSFDB2 feature, however, is now in maintenance mode with no further development planned.) A Lotus Notes dat

abase can be mapped to a relational database using tools like DECS, [LEI], JDBCS ql for Domino or NotesSQL.[11] It could be argued that Lotus Notes is a multi-value database system like PICK, or that it is an object system like Zope, but it is in fact unique. Whereas the temptation for relational database programmers is to normalize databases, Notes databases must be denormalized. RDBMS developers often find it difficult to conc eptualize the difference. It may be useful to think of a Lotus Notes document (a 'note') as analogous to an XML document natively stored in a database (although with limitations on the data types and structures available). Since Lotus Notes 8.5 IBM started to change the term Database to Application, be cause of the reason that these files are not really object databases as mentione d above. The benefits of this data structure are: No need to define size of fields, or datatype; Attributes (Notes fields) that are null take up no space in a database; Built-in full text searching. [edit]Configuration The IBM Lotus Domino server or the IBM Lotus Notes client store their configurat ion in their own databases / application files (*.nsf). No relevant configuratio n settings are saved in the Windows Registry if the operation system is Windows. Some other configuration options (primary the start configuration) is stored in the notes.ini (there are currently over 2000 known options available [12]). [edit]Use as an email client Lotus Notes is commonly deployed as an end-user email client in larger organizat ions, with IBM claiming a cumulative 145 million[citation needed] licenses sold to date. (IBM does not release the number of licenses on current maintenance, no r does it track number of licenses in current use.)[citation needed] When an organization employs a Lotus Domino server, it usually also deploys the supplied Lotus Notes client for accessing the IBM supplied Lotus Notes applicati on for email and calendaring but also to use document management and workflow ap plications. As Lotus Notes is a runtime environment, and the email and calendari ng functions in Lotus Notes are simply an application provided by IBM the admini strators are free to develop alternate email and calendaring applications. It is also possible to alter, amend or extend the IBM supplied email and calendaring application. The Lotus Domino server also supports POP3 and IMAP mail clients, and through an extension product (Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook) supports native access for Microsoft Outlook clients (now with limited support).[13] IBM also provides Lotus iNotes (in Notes 6.5 renamed to "Domino Web Access" but in version 8.0 reverted back to iNotes), to allow the use of email and calendari ng features through web browsers on Windows, Mac and Linux, such as Internet Exp lorer and Firefox. There are several spam filtering programs available (includin g IBM Lotus Protector), and a rules engine allowing user-defined mail processing to be performed by the server. [edit]Comparison with other email clients The designers of Lotus Notes aimed to build a collaborative application platform where email was just one of numerous applications that ran in the Notes client software. Lotus lore has it that the first mail inbox application written by Lot us was a proof-of-concept for a sales presentation[citation needed]. The Notes c lient was also designed to run on multiple platforms including Windows, OS/2, Ma c, SCO Open Desktop UNIX, and Linux. These two factors have resulted in the user interface containing some differences from applications that only run on Window s. Furthermore these differences have often remained in the product to retain ba ckward compatibility with earlier releases, instead of conforming to updated Win dows UI standards. The following are some of these differences. Properties dialog boxes for formatting text, hyperlinks and other rich-text info rmation can remain open after a user makes changes to selected text. This provid es great flexibility to select new text and apply other formatting without closi ng the dialog box, selecting new text and opening a new format dialog box. Almos

t all other Windows applications require the user to close the dialog box, selec t new text, then open a new dialog box for formatting/changes. Properties dialog boxes also automatically recognize the type of text selected a nd display appropriate selections (for instance, a hyperlink properties box). Users can format tables as tabbed interfaces as part of form design (for applica tions) or within mail messages (or in rich-text fields in applications). This pr ovides users the ability to provide tab-style organization to documents, similar to popular tab navigation in most web portals, etc. End-users can readily insert links to Notes applications, Notes views or other N otes documents into Notes documents. Lotus Notes made near-instantaneous full-text searching available before other e mail applications, including Microsoft Outlook.[citation needed] Deleting a document (or email) will delete it from every folder in which it appe ars, since the folders simply contain links to the same back-end document. Some other email clients only delete the email from the current folder; if the email appears in other folders it is left alone, requiring the user to hunt through mu ltiple folders in order to completely delete a message. In Lotus Notes, clicking on "Remove from Folder" will remove the document only from that folder leaving all other instances intact. The All Documents and Sent "views" differ from other collections of documents kn own as "folders" and exhibit different behaviors. Specifically, mail cannot be d ragged out of them, and so removed from those views; the email can only be "copi ed" from them. This is because these are views, and their membership indexes are maintained according to characteristics of the documents contained in them, rat her than based on user actions interaction as is the case for a folder). This te chnical difference can be baffling to users, in environments where no training i s given. All Documents contain all of the documents in a mailbox, no matter whic h folder it is in. The only way to remove something from All Documents is to del ete it outright. Lotus Notes 7 and older versions had more differences, which were removed from s ubsequent releases: Users select a "New Memo" to send an email, rather than "New Mail" or "New Messa ge". (Notes 8 calls the command "New Message") To select multiple documents in a Notes view, one drags one's mouse next to the documents to select, rather than using ? Shift+single click. (Notes 8 uses keypr ess conventions.) The searching function offers a "phrase search", rather than the more common "or search", and Notes requires users to spell out boolean conditions in search-str ings. As a result, users must search for "delete AND folder" in order to find he lp text that contains the phrase "delete a folder". Searching for "delete folder " does not yield the desired result. (Notes 8 uses or-search conventions.) Notes 8.0 (released in 2007) became the first version to employ a dedicated user -experience team,[14] resulting in a greatly improved[citation needed] Lotus Not es client experience in the primary and new notes user interface. This new inter face runs in the open source Eclipse Framework, which is a project started by IB M, opening up more application development opportunities through the use of Ecli pse plug-ins. The new interface provides many new user interface features and th e ability to include user-selected applications/applets in small panes in the in terface. Lotus Notes 8.0 also included a new email interface / design to match t he new Lotus Notes 8.0 eclipse based interface. Eclipse is a Java framework and allows IBM to port Notes to other platforms rapidly. An issue with Eclipse and t herefore Notes 8.0 is the applications start-up and user-interaction speed. Lotu s Notes 8.5 sped up the application and the increase in general specification of PCs means this is less of an issue. For lower spec PCs a new version of the old interface is still provided albeit a s it is the old interface many of the new features are not available and the ema il user interface reverts to the Notes 7.x style. This new and improved user experience builds on Notes 6.5 (released in 2003), wh ich upgraded the email client, previously regarded by many as the product's Achi lles heel. Features added at that time included:

drag and drop of folders replication of unread marks between servers follow-up flags reply and forward indicators on emails ability to edit an attachment and save the changes back to an email [edit]Criticisms This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve th is article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be ch allenged and removed. (October 2011) Publications such as The Guardian in 2006 have criticized Lotus Notes for having an "unintuitive [user] interface" and cite widespread dissatisfaction with the usability of the client software. The Guardian indicated that Notes has not nece ssarily suffered as a result of this dissatisfaction due to the fact that "the p eople who choose [enterprise software] tend not to be the ones who use it."[15]. As previously described, numerous UI updates have been released by IBM since th is article was published, which have addressed many of the criticisms raised. Lotus Notes has also been criticized for violating an important usability best p ractice that suggests a consistent UI is often better than custom alternative. S oftware written for a particular operating system should follow that particular OS's user interface style guide. Not following those style guides can confuse us ers. A notable example is F5 keyboard shortcut, which is universally used to ref resh window contents. Pressing F5 in Lotus Notes causes it to lock screen. Old v ersions did not support proportional scrollbars (which give the user an idea of how much of the document he or she is viewing relatively to whole document)[16]; proportional scroll bars were only introduced in Notes 8[17]. In the past Lotus Notes also suffered from other poor user interaction choices. One corrected example: in earlier versions the Out-of-office agent needed to be manually enabled when leaving and disabled when coming back, even if start and e nd date have been set. This was corrected in Release 8.5, where the Out-of-Offic e notification now automatically shuts off without a need for a manual disable. When Lotus Notes crashes, some processes may continue running, and prevent the a pplication from being restarted until they are killed[18]. [edit]Related software This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve th is article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be ch allenged and removed. (June 2011) [edit]Related IBM Lotus products Over the 20-year history of Lotus Notes, Lotus Development Corporation and later IBM have developed many other software products that are based on or integrated with Lotus Notes. The most prominent of these is the IBM Lotus Domino server so ftware, which was originally known as the Lotus Notes Server and gained a separa te name with the release of version 4.5. The server platform also became the fou ndation for products such as IBM Lotus Quickr for Domino, for document managemen t, and IBM Sametime for instant messaging, audio and video communication, and we b conferencing, and with Release 8.5, IBM Connections. In early releases of Lotus Notes, there was considerable emphasis on client-side integration with the IBM Lotus SmartSuite environment. With Microsoft's increas ing predominance in office productivity software, the desktop integration focus switched for a time to Microsoft Office. With the release of version 8.0 in 2007 , based on the Eclipse framework, IBM again added integration with its own offic e-productivity suite, the OpenOffice.org-derived IBM Lotus Symphony. IBM Lotus E xpeditor is a framework for developing Eclipse-based applications. Other IBM products and technologies have also been built to integrate with Lotus Notes. For mobile-device synchronization, this previously included the client-s ide IBM Lotus Easysync Pro product (no longer in development) and IBM Lotus Note s Traveler, a newer no-charge server-side add-on for mail, calendar and contact

sync. A recent addition to IBM's portfolio are two IBM Lotus Protector products for mail security and encryption, which have been built to integrate with Lotus Notes. [edit]Related software from other vendors With a long market history and large installed base, Lotus Notes and Lotus Domin o have spawned a great deal of third-party software. Such products can be divide d into three broad, and somewhat overlapping classes: Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino applications are software programs written in the f orm of one or more Lotus Notes databases, and often supplied as NTF templates. T his type of software typically is focused on providing business benefit from Lot us Notes' core collaboration, workflow and messaging capabilities. Examples incl ude CRM, human resources and project tracking systems, such as Tracker Suite for Lotus Notes. Some applications of this sort may offer a browser interface in ad dition to Notes client access. The code within these programs typically uses the same languages available to an in-house Lotus Domino developer: Lotus Notes for mula language, LotusScript, Java and Javascript. Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino add-ons, tools and extensions are generally executa ble programs written in C, C++ or another compiled language that are designed sp ecifically to integrate with Notes and Domino. This class of software may includ e both client- and server-side executable components. In some cases, Lotus Notes databases may be used for configuration and reporting. Since the advent of the Eclipse-based Notes 8 Standard client, client-side add-ons may also include Ecli pse plug-ins and XML-based widgets. The typical role for this type of software i s to support or extend core Notes functionality. Examples include spam and antivirus products (e.g. Spam Sentinel), server administration and monitoring tools (e.g. GSX Monitor), messaging and storage management products (e.g. ReduceMail P ro Suite), policy-based tools (e.g. Crossware Mail Signature), data synchronizat ion tools (e.g. Integra For Notes) and developer tools (e.g. Teamstudio tools, Y tria Lotus Notes Tools, NotesTracker). Lotus Notes- and Lotus Domino-aware adds-ins and agents are also executable prog rams, but they are designed to extend the reach of a general networked software product to Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino data. This class includes server and cli ent backup software, anti-spam and anti-virus products, and e-discovery and arch iving systems. It also includes add-ins to integrate Notes with third-party offe rings such as Cisco's WebEx conferencing service or the Salesforce.com CRM platf orm. [edit]History Lotus Notes has a history spanning more than 20 years.[19] Its chief inspiration was PLATO Notes, created by David Woolley at the University of Illinois in 1973 . In today's terminology, PLATO Notes was a message board, and it was part of th e foundation for an online community which thrived for more than 20 years on the PLATO system. Ray Ozzie worked with PLATO while attending the University of Ill inois in the 1970s. When PC network technology began to emerge, Ozzie made a dea l with Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development Corporation, that resulted in the formation of Iris Associates in 1984 to develop products that would combi ne the capabilities of PCs with the collaborative tools pioneered in PLATO. The agreement put control of product development under Ozzie and Iris, and sales and marketing under Lotus. In 1994, after the release and marketplace success of No tes R3, Lotus purchased Iris. In 1995 IBM purchased Lotus. When Lotus Notes was initially released, the name "Notes" referred to both the c lient and server components. In 1996, Lotus released an HTTP server add-on for t he Notes 4 server called "Domino". This add-on allowed Notes documents to be ren dered as web pages in real time. Later that year, the Domino web server was inte grated into release 4.5 of the core Notes server and the entire server program w as re-branded, taking on the name "Domino". Only the client program officially r etained the "Lotus Notes" name. IN 2008, IBM released XPages technology, allowing Lotus Notes data to be display ed to browser clients on any platform supporting standard web standards. This in cludes PC web browsers, smartphones, tablet computers and more.

[edit]Versions Release Date Lotus Notes 1.0 1989 1.1 1990 2 1991 3 May 1993 Added support for hierarchical naming 4 January 1996 Removed support for Netware servers 4.1 4.5 December 1996 Server renamed to "Domino", added native HTTP server, PO P3 (POP) server, added Calendaring & Scheduling, and introduced Java support. Al so included SMTP MTA "in the box", but not installed by default. 4.6 Added IMAP support. OS/2 and Unix client support dropped. No Mac client for this particular release. 5 1999 Moved SMTP functionality from a separate MTA task to become a na tive ability of the mail routing task, improving performance and fidelity of int ernet email. Major improvements to HTTP server. Notes client had a major interfa ce overhaul. Java support greatly expanded and enhanced. 5.0.8 Added a new webmail interface, called iNotes (later changed to D omino Web Access in Release 6). 6.0 September 2002 Added Domino Web Access (formerly iNotes Web Access) sup port. Dropped OS/2 server support. 6.0.1 February 2003 6.0.2 (Japan Only) June 2003 6.5 / 6.0.3 September 2003 Added Lotus SameTime Instant Messaging integrati on to the Notes client (Windows only). 6.5.4 / 6.0.5 March 2005 5.x 30 September 2005 Support Ended for Lotus Notes 5.x IBM End of Sup port Reference 6.5.5 December 2005 6.5.6 March 2006 Release 6.5.6 is the last Maintenance Release for the 6. 5.x code stream 7.0 August 2005 Added DB2 support as database storage (see also IBM Supp ort Statement for NSFDB2) 7.0.1 July 2006 Added native Linux client, with initial release certifie d for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. 7.0.2 September 2006 Added blog template, rss feed support, iCal support, SAP integration and "Nomad" which allows you to take your Notes client with you on a USB device. 7.0.3 October 2007 Current server versions available: All Platforms Windows , Linux (Red Hat, SuSE x86 and zSeries), i5OS, z/OS, Solaris 9 & 10. Current client versions available: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux/x86 (Red Hat & SuSE initially). Various versions of the client have been run under Wine on Linux, but with varyi ng degrees of success and no official support. The Notes 7 client and Domino Des igner 7 are known to install and run well under version 0.9.19.[20] Domino serve rs can also translate most databases into HTML for browser based users. 7.0.4 April 2009 Support for the 7.0.x line ended 30 Apr 2011 IBM Softwar e Support product lifecycle dates 8.0 August 2007 Current server versions available: Windows, Linux, Solar is, AIX. Current client versions available: Linux and Windows XP/Vista English. The first version based on IBM Workplace technology (which is in turn based on t he Eclipse Rich Client Platform). 8.0.1 February 2008 IBM added support for Widgets and Google Gadgets. 8.0.2 August 2008 Integrated viewers for Microsoft Office 2007 documents ( Office Open XML). Number of performance improvements. 8.5 December 2008 ID Vault, New Roaming Features, xPages, DAOS (disk space savings range from 40% to 60%), ... Some performance improvements. Domino Desig

ner ported to Eclipse. Windows 2008 Support[21] 8.5.1 12 October 2009 Several Improvements to performance and UI. Significant improvements to functionality (including within the xPages application language, performance and stability of Eclipse-based Designer client) 8.5.1 FP1 12 December 2009 Added support for Windows 7 and Snow Leo pard (Mac OS X 10.6.2) 8.5.1 FP2 26 March 2010 This is mainly a fix release. 8.5.1 FP3 31 May 2010 This is mainly a fix release. 8.5.1 FP4 4 August 2010 9 reported keyview attachment viewer security vu lnerabilities and fixes to Dojo component 8.5.1 FP5 19 October 2010 8.5.2 24 August 2010 Focused on Reliability, further changes to xPages 8.5.2 FP1 17 December 2010 This is mainly a fix release. 8.5.2 FP2 25 March 2011 This is mainly a fix release. 8.5.2 FP3 18 July 2011 This is mainly a fix release. 8.5.3 4 October 2011 Focused on reliability and fixes. 8.5.4 Est Q3 2012 Lotus Notes Social Edition, and a scheduled maintenance release containing several bug fixes and new features. Lotus Notes donated parts of code to OpenOffice.org[22] on September 12, 2007 an d since 2008 has been regularly donating code to OpenNTF.org [23]. [edit]Future Since the IBM acquisition of Lotus in 1995, some industry analysts and mainstrea m business press writers, along with IBM competitors, have made repeated predict ions of the decline or impending demise of Lotus Notes. One noted example of thi s was an article published in Forbes magazine entitled "The decline and fall of Lotus", published in April 1998. Since then, IBM claims that the installed base of Lotus Notes has increased from an estimated 42 million seats in September 199 8[citation needed] to approximately 145 million cumulative licenses sold through 2008.[24] (IBM does not publish the number of licenses on current maintenance. Additionally, Lotus users who no longer pay maintenance are permitted to keep us ing the software they are simply not permitted to install subsequent releases.) Speculation about the decline of Lotus Notes was fueled by lingering market conf usion emanating from IBM placing marketing emphasis on Websphere and IBM Workpla ce in 2003 and 2004. IBM Workplace, however, has been discontinued,[25] thus thi s source of confusion about the future of Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino has been rendered moot. While the future of any product in the technology sector cannot b e predicted, IBM has made announcements that indicate that it continues to inves t heavily in research and development on the Lotus Notes product line. Notes 8, which was previously code-named "Hannover" (after the location of the 2 2nd Deutsche Notes User Group meeting, where it was first shown to the public) i ncorporates Notes into a larger Eclipse framework and includes support for produ ctivity editors based on the OpenDocument format.[26] (These editors have also b een released in a standalone package called IBM Lotus Symphony.) In addition, IB M executive Ken Bisconti has made public comments on several occasions asserting that there will be releases 9 and 10 of Notes and Domino.[27] In 2005, some analysts concluded that Lotus is losing market share to Microsoft Exchange.[28] There is no general agreement, however, about methods of accuratel y calculating share in the messaging and collaboration market.[29] Figures based on seat count may be skewed by the presence of unused seats that are counted as a result of "bundled CALs", and figures based on customer count may be skewed b y difference in typical customer organization sizes. IBM has asserted that growt h shown in the revenue figures for the Lotus brand, as published in their audite d annual financial report, purportedly show the continuing strength of the Lotus Notes product in the market. According to these figures, the Notes and Domino p roduct line has sustained double-digit growth since late 2004 and continuing thr ough 2006, including 30% year-to-year growth in Q4 of 2006. IBM contributed some of the code it had developed for the integration of the Ope nOffice.org suite into Notes 8 to the project.[30] IBM also packaged its version of OpenOffice.org for free distribution as IBM Lotus Symphony.[31]

Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino 8.0.1 shipped in February 2008,[32] and 8.0.2 came in the summer. Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino 8.5, which includes a MacOS client, support for Ubu ntu in addition to Red Hat Linux and SUSE Linux, as well as an Eclipse-based Dom ino Designer, shipped in December 2008. Version 8.5 also offers a new Ajax-enabl ed web programming paradigm called XPages.[33]. Since then, additional refreshes have been released including Lotus Notes 8.5.1[34], Lotus Notes 8.5.2[35], and Lotus Notes 8.5.3[36]. [edit]See also List of IBM products Comparison of email clients IBM Lotus Domino IBM Lotus Domino Web Access IBM Lotus Notes Traveler IBM Lotus Symphony XPages Comparison of feed aggregators List of applications with iCalendar support [edit]Alternative software OpenOffice.org Base (Linux/Windows/MacOS/FreeBSD/UNIX) Oracle Application Express (Linux/Windows) Microsoft Exchange[disambiguation needed ]/Microsoft Outlook (Windows) Wavemaker visual, drag and drop development, standard Java deployment, open sour ce (Windows/Linux/MacOS)