Lotus Domino Designer 8 Help - Exploring Lotus Domino Designer

APPLICATION DESIGN

Exploring Lotus Domino Designer
Building a great application requires the right tools. You can think of IBM® Lotus® Domino(TM) Designer as your workshop -- it contains all the tools you need to build a powerful application. Before you start building, examine the work area.

Overview of Designer User Interface

Item Purpose

Design action buttons These convenient buttons trigger common tasks, such as creating new design elements.

Design list Displays a list of the design elements or resources that are stored in the current database. This list displays in the Work pane. When you click a list item, the Work pane changes to display the work area for the selected element or resource.

Design pane Displays the design elements and resource types that a database can contain. If you click an element, such as Pages for example, a list of the pages stored in the current database displays in a Design list on the Work pane. The Design action button at the top of the Design list for Pages enables you to create a new page.
For Domino Designer 8, a new Composite Applications folder has been added to the available elements to let you work with the applications and properties associated with your composite application.

Designer bookmarks Listed along the left side of the welcome page, bookmarks help you to quickly access and organize your databases. You can drag a database onto the bookmark pane to bookmark it or you can create a folder on the bookmark pane to which you can drag related databases. By default, Designer provides a Recent Databases folder. You can create additional bookmarks and folders.

Menu bar Presents context-sensitive menus of Designer commands.

Preview buttons Launch a browser to preview your work.

Properties box button Opens the Properties box for the active design element.

Window tabs Let you navigate among the open windows in your workspace.

Work pane When a design element or resource type is selected in the Design pane, displays the Design list. When an element or resource is selected from the Design list, displays two sections. The upper section contains the Work area for the element or resource. The lower section contains the Programmer's pane, which is shown in the illustration below.

Domino Designer Programmer's pane

Item Purpose

Info List Scrollable window that displays the objects and coding reference information for the design element currently displayed in the Work area.

Objects tab Lets you navigate between objects and events in the Programmer's pane. To work on an object, select it to expand its list of properties and events. If you select a property or event, the script area of the Programmer's pane changes to show the code that describes it. Events and properties that are already programmed appear in a darker color.

Reference tab The Reference tab of the Info List is language sensitive; the contents of the Reference tab change depending on the language selected. If you are editing in the Formula language, the window contains @commands, @functions and fields. If you are editing in LotusScript, the window contains LotusScript information. If you are editing in JavaScript, the window contains information about the Document Object Model. If you are editing in Java, the window contains Java-related information.

Script area Lets you enter formulas in the Script area. Formulas can be written in Formula language, LotusScript, JavaScript, or simple actions.
Note that you can print source code by selecting File - Print when you are in the Programmer's pane. You can print any code you can view in the Programmer's pane.

Properties boxes

Properties boxes are tools you use to select or modify settings for a design element. Properties boxes have tabs and each tab presents different attributes or options. If you hold the cursor over the icon on a tab, the name of the tab appears. In most windows, right clicking opens the Properties box for the active design element. You can also choose Design -- <element> Properties from the menu.

Database Properties box

Properties boxes are context-sensitive so you can leave them open on your workspace and they will change to reflect the element that you are working with. If you do not have the ability to change items in the Properties box, those items will be either grayed out or hidden.

Tip You can also collapse some Properties boxes into context-sensitive tool bars by double-clicking the top of the box.

See Also

Creating a database

Glossary

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All Help Contents

Glossary

Item	Purpose
Design action buttons	These convenient buttons trigger common tasks, such as creating new design elements.
Design list	Displays a list of the design elements or resources that are stored in the current database. This list displays in the Work pane. When you click a list item, the Work pane changes to display the work area for the selected element or resource.
Design pane	Displays the design elements and resource types that a database can contain. If you click an element, such as Pages for example, a list of the pages stored in the current database displays in a Design list on the Work pane. The Design action button at the top of the Design list for Pages enables you to create a new page. For Domino Designer 8, a new Composite Applications folder has been added to the available elements to let you work with the applications and properties associated with your composite application.
Designer bookmarks	Listed along the left side of the welcome page, bookmarks help you to quickly access and organize your databases. You can drag a database onto the bookmark pane to bookmark it or you can create a folder on the bookmark pane to which you can drag related databases. By default, Designer provides a Recent Databases folder. You can create additional bookmarks and folders.
Menu bar	Presents context-sensitive menus of Designer commands.
Preview buttons	Launch a browser to preview your work.
Properties box button	Opens the Properties box for the active design element.
Window tabs	Let you navigate among the open windows in your workspace.
Work pane	When a design element or resource type is selected in the Design pane, displays the Design list. When an element or resource is selected from the Design list, displays two sections. The upper section contains the Work area for the element or resource. The lower section contains the Programmer's pane, which is shown in the illustration below.

Item	Purpose
Info List	Scrollable window that displays the objects and coding reference information for the design element currently displayed in the Work area.
Objects tab	Lets you navigate between objects and events in the Programmer's pane. To work on an object, select it to expand its list of properties and events. If you select a property or event, the script area of the Programmer's pane changes to show the code that describes it. Events and properties that are already programmed appear in a darker color.
Reference tab	The Reference tab of the Info List is language sensitive; the contents of the Reference tab change depending on the language selected. If you are editing in the Formula language, the window contains @commands, @functions and fields. If you are editing in LotusScript, the window contains LotusScript information. If you are editing in JavaScript, the window contains information about the Document Object Model. If you are editing in Java, the window contains Java-related information.
Script area	Lets you enter formulas in the Script area. Formulas can be written in Formula language, LotusScript, JavaScript, or simple actions. Note that you can print source code by selecting File - Print when you are in the Programmer's pane. You can print any code you can view in the Programmer's pane.