Shared Actions and Refresh Design

I had an interesting issue with Shared Actions in Notes Views today.

I had built a new application (or more accurately a group of features) for a customer, but due to the customer's requirements I had to retro-fit my new code into and existing .NSF. The existing code was to be retained, with a front page for the user's to choose the new features or the existing features (not my choice in implementation, but beyond my control).

The existing application had over 300 views. It was not part of my brief to do anything about this. A template was delivered to the customer with the combinded code. After testing and implementation the customer discovered that a small sub-set of the old views had the wrong action buttons.

The customer sent me back a copy of the database, taken from the production database. What appeared to have happened was this:

Before the new template was applied:

Shared Actions (as they appeared in the Actions list)
  - Action A
  - Action B
  - Action C

View Actions
  - Action A (shared action)
  - Action B (shared action)
  - Action D (standard action)
  - Action E (standard action(

After the changes were applied (the database was set to inherit from the new template, and 'Refresh Design' was used to update the database)

Shared Actions (as they appear in the list
  - Action 1
  - Action 2
  - Action 3
  - Action A
  - Action B
  - Action C

View Actions
  - Action 1 (shared action)
  - Action 2 (shared action)
  - Action D (standard action)
  - Action E (standard action(

So what seems to have happened is that the view points to the action's offset in the shared actions list, not the action name or some unique identifier.

A further complication was that fixing the views in the template then refreshing the design did NOT fix the production database.

The only solution was to fix the views in the template, then delete the views from the production database then copy and paste them back in directly from the template.

I am not at all comfortable about a solution that involves directly modifying the production database. I also have no idea why this only affected a small group of views, other than these were the only ones that used the shared action that was previously the first action in the list.

Syncing the iPod Touch calendar

I have an iPod Touch. I was given this as a Christmas present, and at first I wasn't sure how much I would use it as I am not a big music fan. I quickly found myself addicted though - by the apps, video for the kids to watch while travelling, etc. I still don't like iTunes very much, and jail-broke the iPod after about 3 months.

I use Lotus Notes at work and have a Blackberry, and the company runs a BES for Domino. For the last two years I have just taken full sync for granted. I have to say I don't miss the old days of connecting pda / phone to the pc, syncing with the pc, pushing to the server & missing updates to my calendar made by my manager between cycles. The Blackberry has been a fantastic solution for that.

However I use Google for personal mail and calendar. I have been able to sync the mail app on the iPod with Google via WiFi from the start but have not used the Calendar because I couldn't work out how to get the data transferred. iTunes only supports syncing the calendar with Outlook on a PC or iCal on the Mac. I don't use either of these.

So today I installed NemusSync on my iPod touch. link. This is a third-party app (available through Cydia and Installer.app) which allows you to sync your iPod / iPhone calendar directly with your Google Calendar without the need to pull the data down to your desktop.

I had trouble at first. I downloaded the app and set up the Google calendar details. I hit the sync button and went to my calendar - the calendar opened for a few seconds then closed. And again. And Again.

I went back into the NemusSync settings and cleared all the data from the calendar (no loss, I had not entered anything there). Back into the calendar app - same result

Then I cleared all data from NemusSync. The calendar app would then work correctly.

I searched but could not find any reason for this.

So I went back into Nemussync and tried again. This time, I made only one change at a time then tested the Calendar app. I set up the link to the calendar. Tested OK. Set up import only. Tested OK. Synced both ways. Tested OK. Set up default calendar. Tested OK.

So now it is up and running well. Full bi-directional sync. I haven't tried repeating appointments, or meetings with invitations but for my personal calendar I don't need those.

A nice little utility

A new job is in the wind

I have found a new job.

I have been casually looking for a new job for a couple of months now. I have been in my current job for nearly 10 years, and my employers are wonderful people, but I am finding that the amount of travel and the hours involved are just getting too much for me.

I live in Melbourne, Australia, quite close to the CBD and have been driving out to the suburbs for work for many years. And almost all our customers are waaaaaaaay out.

My new job is in town - just 15 minutes from home by public transport. It means that my husband will also have to do all the morning drop-off, but as he is semi-retired now this should work out OK. The work day is slightly shorter - 7.5 hrs instead of 8. So all up I will gain at least an hour a day. This may not sound like much but to a busy working mum it currently sound like luxury.

In addition, my current role has recently involved a much higher proportion of admin support work than ever in the past. The job used to be about 90/10 between dev and admin but has recently been more like 60/40. And the admin work has been support / fix type work rather than infrastructure / planning / upgrade projects. And a lot of the development has been just building something that someone else has spec'ed.

In contrast the new job is all development. I will also be in control of my projects from start to finish - requirements, through to implementation. It is with a very small consulting arm of a mid-sized accounting firm so I will be interested to find out how much interaction my group has with the larger organisation.

Now the hard part is working out my notice for the current employer. I am so ready to move on

Playing with Domino 8.5 server

So, a lazy Saturday night in front of the TV, watching the Olympics. What is a geek girl to do? Why set up and test a new server of course.

I've been wanting to have a play with X-pages, so tonight I installed a Domino 8.5 server on my laptop. I had previously had an 8.0.1 server installed for some application testing I did a couple of months ago, so this was an upgrade rather than a full install.

I am running Windows XP and installed the server directly onto the laptop. I know I should find out how to use VMWare and set that up, but I really don't have the time. Also, as I just want to play a bit, not really test out the server it seems too much effort at the moment.

The install went well (although it took an inordinate amount of time I thought). I did have some trouble getting the HTTP server to load (could not open port 80). I found I had to disable my AV software temporarily to get the HTTP server to load. Restarted AV & it all ran happily together.

Although I did this to play with X-Pages, I got distracted by the new iNotes. It looks good, seems pretty fast, and a big improvement. My company is still running 7.0.3 on our edge-facing web server (it is Red-Hat and needs an OS upgrade to go to 8). So then of course I had to check out the iNotes interface on my iPod touch.

After fighting with Windows for some time, I managed to get the iPod to connect wirelessly to my PC, and connect to my Domino server. I think the new interface is nice. Only mail is implemented for now (no calendar or contacts), but I did test attachments - Word, Excel and PDF files all load and display well. I know this is a feature of Safari, not iNotes but it does mean iNotes Ultralight will be a viable means of accessing corporate data. If your CEO has an iPhone, does it really matter if access is on-line or stored on the device? Will he even know the difference?

Just watched the final of the Women's basketball. USA defeated Australia (again). I thought maybe this time the Opals would succeed. Silver is still good.

Not sure if this means anything - my Blog requires high-school reading level

TV Reviews

Reactivating this blog

So..

Originally I started this blog just to put up a summary of our trip for family and friends.

I've decided to try and make it an on-going thing.

I am a Lotus Notes developer and admin, so some of the content may be technical, some will be personal, and some just random stuff.

Today was a very mixed day for me. I played in a tennis tournament, did very well (made the semi-finals). But it was also a hellish day as this morning someone vandalized my car in the street: brick-shaped dents in the bonnet, multiple cracks in the windscreen. All day on the phone trying to arrange repairs.

On the sort-of technical front, I joined GONAD.



When I received the email from Rob, with phrases like 'Greetings Sister', gmail chose the following adds:


So now Google thinks I'm a mason. Am I paranoid, or do we trust Google with way to much personal information about us and our web habits?

Trip Summary

A brief description of our trip can be found in the first post on this blog, here

On the whole, this trip was fun. It was challenging to travel in China with no ability to speak Chinese, and to arrange our hotels and transport as we went. However for the kids, I would could in future break the trip up a little more with additional day activities that allowed for running and climbing.

The scenery in China everywhere we went was spectacular, and although I found almost all of China grimy, with thick, grey air and dust everywhere, it was much cleaner than on our last trip 14 years ago. There is very little rubbish in the streets, and most of the public toilets we used were clean. The Chinese do not seem to seem to care about clearing away rubble from building sites and there is so much demolition and re-building going on that this also contributes to the feeling of chaos.

We ate in the streets often, and only experienced a couple of mild doses of upset tummies. General hygiene practices do seem to have improved.

There were far fewer police and army evident as we traveled around than I remember from last time.

The people were mostly friendly: a 'thank you' in Chinese makes them happy you have tried their language. Prices are almost always written or entered onto a calculator. If you look lost, someone with a little English will often volunteer to help but you do need to be prepared to get by by pantomiming, jesturing, and pointing to phrases in a book.

Tom was fussed over everywhere. If the Chinese thought he was under-dressed for the weather they scolded him and me. They patted his head and gave him food and pinched his cheek. If he said hello or thank you in Chinese they laughed delightedly. In general he took everything in his stride. He happily raced off through crowds without fear and did not treat anything or anywhere as strange or unusual.

I think Jack appreciated the trip but was disappointed we didn't manage to pick up many cheap games for him. He is old enough to appreciate travel in a foreign country, spectacular scenery and new experiences, but young enough to get bored by the constant travel and lack of play time. He is turning out to have an exceptional sense of direction, and whenever we stopped to get our bearings he was always right about which way we should head.

The next trip - I would just like to add a few 'wind-down' days at the end, and maybe a couple in the middle. We were on the go so much that one day blurred into the next after a while (part of the reason I started this diary).

I've now uploaded my photos to Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12575&id=703192551