Agenda for Training

Session 1

Introduction of Lotus Notes

Author: PwC Lotus Notes Team

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Introduction to Lotus Notes

Lotus is well known for the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet program so Lotus Notes is often confused with this spreadsheet program. In fact, Lotus Notes a completely different kind of computer software. Lotus Notes is a platform for GroupWare applications. It was designed for people who work in teams and who need to share information with their team mates. According to Lotus, team work has three elements:
Communication Collaboration Coordination

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Introduction to Lotus Notes

The aim of GroupWare is to help organizations pull ahead of the competition by making better use of their intellectual resources. All GroupWare applications require computer networks, but not all network applications are GroupWare. For instance payroll and airline reservations require computer networks but they are definitely not GroupWare and cannot be implemented by Lotus Notes.

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Introduction to Lotus Notes

What makes Lotus Notes better than the competition ?
Lotus Notes is an ideal platform for all kinds of GroupWare applications. Here is why:
Rapid development:
Lotus Notes is the quickest platform for GroupWare application development. Lotus Notes applications take less time to develop than applications developed by alternative programming tools such as C++ and Visual Basic.

Tailor made to customer requirements:

Lotus Notes applications are more adaptable than ready-made packages. Lotus Notes caters for company specific needs while the others force everybody to work the same way.

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Introduction to Lotus Notes

One platform for all applications:
It will easier for the end users to use one platform for all applications as opposed to using different platforms. Above all, this will curb training costs.

Excellent Integration:
Lotus Notes has many functions including e-mail, workflow, database, web server and it integrates all of them so that very sophisticated applications can be developed. Additionally, Lotus Notes is compatible with all major architectures and standards.

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Introduction to Lotus Notes

User-friendly?
Lotus Notes provides a standard user interface for all applications ranging from e-mail to custom applications tailor-made for the company. Apart from the obvious advantages associated with standardization, Lotus Notes comes with several facilities that makes it easy to learn and use. For example: Field Help:
This helps people fill out forms. Depending on the field the cursor is located, the appropriate help text is displayed in a line at the bottom of the window.

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Introduction to Lotus Notes

Pop-up Help:
A word, sentence or a picture in the document is designated as a hotspot so that when the user clicks there, he will see explanatory notes or directives. The contents of the pop-up window can be calculated by a formula.

Help Menu:
When the user selects "About this database" or "Using this database" options in the Help menu, he will get application specific help which could be prepared in any language.

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Introduction to Lotus Notes

Hypertext:
A hypertext document is a document that has links to other documents so that the user can navigate through documents by clicking on words or sentences in them. Hypertext makes it easy to prepare and read help documentation.

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Introduction to Lotus Notes

What is a Notes Database?
A Notes database generally contains information in a single area of interest, such as a new product discussion, a set of industry news items, or all the processes, forms, and policy for a department such as customer service. A database can be used by an individual or shared. Most databases are shared. On the computer, a Notes database is a single file containing multiple documents.

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Introduction to Lotus Notes

Difference between Notes Database and other RDBMS database In Notes database the data is stored in the form of documents, unlike the RDMS where records are stored in the table. Notes database supports the use of RDBMS database but does not have any relational properties like referential integrity & data integrity. Notes databases are web-enabled.

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Introduction to Lotus Notes

Structure of a domino database
Domino Database containment model Domino Databases are the files that exist on the file system of a computer. Domino uses the path and filename to identify the database. Once the database is open, data can be accessed by opening notes. Domino identifies a note by a unique number generated when the note is created. This relationship is described as a containment model. The file system contains databases, databases contains notes, and note contains data.
File System Database notes

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Introduction to Lotus Notes

Structure of a Domino database
A Domino database contains two areas of functionality
Notes Storage Facility (NSF) maintains data and design elements of the application. Notes Indexing Facility (NIF) builds and maintains lists for locating data in the application.
NSF Application Data

Design Data ACL DB Header

NIF

Indexes

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Introduction to Lotus Notes

Types of notes
Some notes can be created by users and developers and other notes are maintained by Domino to track and control information in the database.
Data - Stores data values used in the application Design - Stores the data used to process or affect the presentation and functionality of the application.

There are other types of notes created and maintained, automatically, by Domino.
ACL - The ACL stores a list of names and options for controlling access permissions to the database. Database header - Domino stores information about the database in a database header note. This note contains information about the databases name and location.

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Introduction to Lotus Notes

Characteristics of notes
All notes in a database are essentially the same. They are peers to one another and do not share hierarchical or other relationships. Notes only differ in the data values they contain and how Domino uses them.

How a notes stores data

A note stores data in items. Each item is identified by a name and contains a list of values. The values in a single item must be the same data type. Items also store information about the data.

Types of data
Rich text - Stores complex information including text and paragraph formatting, file attachments, images and more. Text - Store alpha numeric strings Number - Stores value indicating a quantity or a range. Dates and times are stored as numbers.
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Domino Server
Lotus Domino Servers offer a wide range of services. The most important ones are Object Store
Documents in a Domino database can contain any number of objects and data types, including text, rich text, numerical data, structured data, images, graphics, sound, video, file attachments, embedded objects, and Java and ActiveX applets. A built-in Full text search engine makes it easy to index and search documents.

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Domino Server
Directory
A single directory manages all resource directory information for server and network configuration, application management, and security. Domino includes user account synchronization between NT and Domino and is Light Weight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) compliant. The directory is the foundation for easily managing and securing your Internet and intranet applications.

Security
The Domino security model provides user authentication, digital signatures, flexible access control, and encryption. Domino security enables you to extend your intranet applications to customers and business partners.

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Domino Server
Replication
Bi-directional replication automatically distributes and synchronizes information and applications across geographically dispersed sites. Replication makes your business applications available to users around your company or around the world, regardless of time or location.

Messaging
An advanced client/server messaging system with built-in calendaring and scheduling enables individuals and groups to send and share information easily. Message transfer agents (MTAs) seamlessly extend the system to Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME), x.400, and cc:Mail messaging environments.

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Domino Server
Workflow
A workflow engine distributes, routes, and tracks documents according to a process defined in your applications. Workflow enables you to coordinate and streamline critical business activities across an organization, and with customers, partners, and suppliers.

Agents
Agents enable you to automate frequently performed processes, eliminating tedious administration tasks, and speeding your business applications. Agents can be triggered by time or events in a business application. Agents can be run on Domino servers or Lotus Notes clients.

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Domino Server
Development Environment
Domino Designer is general-purpose client software featuring an integrated development environment (IDE) that provides easy access to all features of the Domino server.

Domino Object Model

Domino offers a unified model for accessing its objects through backend classes, whether you use LotusScript or Java. This allows programmers to switch programming languages without having to learn new ways to program for Domino.

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Domino Server
Live Integration with Enterprise Data
DECS (Domino Enterprise Connection Services) is part of the Domino Server. This allows developers to map fields in forms directly to fields in relational database tables, without storing any data within the Domino database.

Scalability and Reliability

Domino Enterprise Server enable you to cluster up to six Domino servers to provide both scalability and fail-over protection, to maximize the availability of your GroupWare and messaging applications. Realtime replication technology keeps the clustered servers synchronized.

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Security
Lotus Notes uses two different strategies to implement security:
Name lists RSA (Public Key/Private Key) algorithms A name list is typically the list of people authorized to see or edit a given document. When a user attempts to access a document, the computer checks to see if this user's name is in the list. If it is, then the user can go ahead, otherwise he will be stopped. Name lists are also used to determine which users can connect to a given server or access a given database.

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Security
The RSA algorithm itself has two different uses:
Digital signatures Encryption of documents and network communications Digital signatures are typically used in electronic forms or at the end of letters. The RSA algorithm comes with two keys, a public one and a private one. Only one person has the private key which he uses to sign his name. The others have access to the public key used to verify the authenticity of that signature. Another use of the RSA algorithm is encryption. Encryption can be used to protect sensitive documents and network communications (over LAN or phone lines) from unauthorized access.

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Security
North American licenses for Lotus Notes come with 64-bit encryption keys. Due to US export regulations, the rest of the world must contend with 32-bit keys. Even the 'short' key has been proven to be very difficult to break, to the order of several hundred thousand US dollars and several months of work. In Lotus Notes, encryption is the surest way to protect sensitive information. Even the computer administrators have no access to information encrypted in this way

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