InViewEdit functionality, introduced in R6, was a cool addition to Notes features. It was designed to enhance features available for Notes client. With most of the recent Domino applications being developed for the Web, it would be useful to mimic this functionality for Web applications.
By using a few age old techniques of Domino development, we can easily bring this concept into Web applications.
For example, lets take a small Web-based call management application that has a form for logging calls. It has a status field, which depicts the status of call. Now the helpdesk agent who accesses this application from the Web should be able to change the status from Web view.
- Create a view that will have HTML code put in their column formulas.
Have the first column hold the UNID of the document.
Col1 –
"<tr><td width='30'>
<input type='hidden' name='Docunid_"
+ @Text(@DocNumber) + "' value='" +
@Text(@DocumentUniqueID) + "'></td>"
Col2 – Will display the name
of person to whom the call is assigned.
"<td>"+ EnggName +"</td>"
Col3 – Will hold the problem description
"<td>"+problem + "</td>"
Col4 – Will hold the HTML
for editable Status field
Rem {
StatusOptions – is a fieid in the
form which will hold the various
options available for status field
Onchange event of status field we are
calling a function which should
be declared in the view template we will use for this form
};
newList := @Transform(StatusOptions;"var";
@If(var = Status ; "<option selected>" + var
+ "</option>";"<option>" + var+ "</option>"));
"<td><select name='Status_"
+@DocNumber+"' onchange='saveRecord
(""+@DocNumber+"");' >"
+ @Implode(newList) + "</select></td></tr>"
- Create a view template for the previous view (Form named $$ViewTemplate
for YourviewName).
- Add server_name cgi hidden field and a hidden field (webDB) with formula as @WebDbName.
Add a table tag
<table width="450" border=1>
<!-- $$ViewBody field here goes here
</table>
Create Iframe
<iframe ID="agentOutput" height="50"
width="800" frameborder="0"
scrolling="no" src=""></iframe>
In the JS header define the saveRecord function
function saveRecord(docNumber) {
var server = document.forms[0].Server_Name.value ;
var dbpath = document.forms[0].webDB.value ;
var docID = eval('document.forms[0].Docunid_' +
docNumber + '.value');
var Status = eval('document.forms[0].Status_' +
docNumber +
'.options[document.forms[0].Status_' + docNumber
+' .selectedIndex].text');
var agentPath = "//" + server +"/" + dbpath + "/saveDoc?
openagent&unid=" +
docID + "& Status=" + Status;
document.getElementById("agentOutput").src =
agentPath ;
}
- Create an agent "saveDoc" to save the document specified by UNID in the agent URL.
Sub Initialize
On Error Goto errHandler
Dim session As New notessession
Dim db As NotesDatabase
Dim contextDoc As NotesDocument
Dim doc As NotesDocument
Dim tmp As String
Dim strUnID As Variant , strStatus As Variant
Set db = session.CurrentDatabase
Set contextDoc = session.DocumentContext
tmp = contextDoc.Query_String_Decoded(0)
strUnID = Evaluate
(|@Right(@Word("|+tmp+|";"&";2);"=")|)
strStatus = Evaluate
(|@Right(@Word("|+tmp+|";"&";3);"=")|)
Set doc = db.GetDocumentByUNID(strUnid(0))
If Not doc Is Nothing Then
doc.Status = strStatus
Call doc.Save(False,False)
Print "<b>" + doc.EnggName(0) + "'s call Saved
Successfully</b>"
End If
Exit Sub
errHandler:
Print "<b>Save failure: Error while saving the
document.</b>"
End Sub
When the view is opened in the Web, Domino displays the view using the View Template we created. Now, when the user changes the status, saveRecord function is called, which calls the agent "Savedoc" and passes the UNID of the current doc and new status value as URL parameters. The agent gets these values and saves the changes in the corresponding document.
If you need to edit more than one field, then just append those values to the agent URL, access those values in the saveDoc agent and save those values in the backend document.
If you don't want the user to see the saveDoc agent output, reduce the width and height of Iframe to "0". Instead of using Iframe, you also make use of the popup window (create a new window and make its URL to agent URL).
Instead of using HTML in the view column, you can create a simple view and then create a form with a rich text field. In the Webqueryopen agent of that form, access the View, generate the required HTML and put this HTML string into the rich text field.
You will then need to add the JavaScript function to call the agent to save the changes in document and Iframe to display the agent output.
Do you have comments on this tip? Let us know.
This tip was submitted to the SearchDomino.com tip exchange by member Amar Deep Bhupathy. Please let others know how useful it is via the rating scale at the end of the tip. Do you have a useful Notes/Domino tip or code to share? Submit it to our monthly tip contest and you could win a prize and a spot in our Hall of Fame.
