Multiple embedded views in Notes R5 forms

View expert and member feedback to this tip.

R5 only allows you to use one embedded view per form or page. But you can edit the form with a R6 Designer and embed several of them. Then you can continue editing the form in R5 without any problems.

EXPERT FEEDBACK TO THIS TIP

This is something I could not honestly recommend. It's generally not a good idea to use a forward Designer for older applications. We are serious and test carefully for backwards compatibility, but should the user also add a new feature to the form (like layers) while they were in the 6 Designer, that would not work in 5. It's best to stay with the Designer intended for the client you are running.


MEMBER FEEDBACK TO THIS TIP

You can do the same thing without the R6 client.

  1. Place embedded views in subforms.
  2. Add one subform into your subform.
  3. Add a computed subform to your form with a value defined by an environment variable (@formula(....)).
  4. Set environment and open a doc created with this form.
--Rob H.

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What "gotchas" are there in doing this?

--Don C.

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On the face of it, this appears to be an easy approach. It may be best, though, to be sure that all your development moving forward will be done using Domino 6 Designer and hosted on Domino 6 servers. There are too many clinkers when using a Domino 6 feature in Domino R5. Thanks.

-- SearchDomino.com member

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Have you tried this? If you add multiple embedded views using R6 and they try to use the database in question, the embedded views will not show using an R5 client. Thus, your solution is misleading.

-- Carlos G.

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I agree wholeheartedly that being mindful of compatibility issues is crucial to successful development; during most of my career as a Notes developer I've had to maintain several versions of Notes side by side for that very reason. That having been said, my experience with this particular feature demonstrated that the "one view per form" limitation was server-based, not client-based. We upgraded our servers months before upgrading our users, and when an R5 client accessed a form with multiple embedded views, the form displayed correctly if the database was on an ND6 server, but did not if the server was still running R5.

-- Tim T.

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I have used this solution before to add two embedded views to an R5 application and it works. There have been no problems with editing the form again in the R5 Designer or with the application.

-- Tony C.

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Each view must be embedded in a form (e.g., form1, form2, etc.). In the mask in which you want all the views ("mainform"), you can use HTML frames to include as many views as you want in your page. Moreover, you can put JavaScript code (with variables) into your views and access those variables from your mainform. To access variables, use the document.frames["frameX"].name_of_the_variable or parent.document.frames["frameX"].name_of_the_variable. In your mainform, write this code: 

  Code: [<IFRAME name="frame1" height="0" width="0" SRC="Vue1">
</IFRAME>]

[<IFRAME name="frame2" height="0" width="0"  SRC="Vue2">
</IFRAME>]
-- SearchDomino.com member

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This was first published in August 2003

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