APPLICATION DESIGN

Profile forms
Profile forms are useful for collecting user-specific or database-specific values. These values are stored in Profile documents. What sets profile documents from other documents is the way profile documents are displayed and the values in the fields passed back. Only one profile document per form can exist for each user of a database. Or, only one profile document can exist for a database if that form is available to all users.

Profile documents allow for quick data retrieval, because they are cached while the database that stores them is open. Profile documents are like other database documents except they are somewhat invisible -- they do not display in views and are not included in a document count for the database. Users create profile documents by using an action button or agent you design that uses LotusScript or the formula language.

A database can have a single profile document or multiple profile documents that match a key you specify -- for example, an @username key that creates one profile document for each user of a database, or a key that specifies a different profile document for each day of the week. Whether you use one profile document for a database or use multiple profile documents depends on your design needs. Use a single profile document to contain settings that all documents in the database need, such as environment variables. Use multiple profile documents for more customizable settings, such as user preferences. A user must have at least Author access in the ACL of a database to create a profile document that is available to all users.

You can use any form to create a profile document. After creating the form, you create a button, action, or agent for the application that uses either @CommandEditProfile in a formula or UIWorkspace.EditProfile or NotesDatabase GetProfileDocument in a LotusScript program to create or retrieve a document. In each case, IBM® Lotus® Notes® looks for a profile document with the form name you specify, and creates a profile document if one does not already exist. For an example of a profile document, see the Interest Profile form in the Discussion - Notes & Web template.

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