How to validate Lotus Notes forms on a Domino server without losing entered data

The most popular way of avoiding this is to retrieve the values to be validated through hidden form fields, as well as client-side validations using JavaScript. But when there is a lot of data, this can cause generated HTML pages to be very heavy. Additionally, it's almost impossible when several fields need to be validated against different conditions.

A simpler solution is available through the use of conventional coding.

Normal practice for validation on a Lotus Domino server is to call an agent on the WebQuerySave event of the form. This agent does all of the validations and redirects users to an error page or prints alerts and returns to a blank form.

Generally, the WebQuerySave event is called using the JavaScript submit command or using the more direct "@command([FileSave])." In order to maintain data entered by a user, we will modi

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fy this process a bit:

Our agent will be called on the Save button. Since the form is not submitted yet, this is where we will have the document context live.

We don't have any print statements, so it won't overwrite the document context. If validations have failed, we have messages set in our "ErrMsg" field.

After the agent finishes page refreshes and causes alerts to fire from the "Onload" event and all user entered data is there, there is no loss at all. If no error shows, then the next formula agent call, which checks for the "SaveOptions" value, will save the form that submits the form for saving.

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