creating fields in lotus notes document? - vba

Question

I am trying to export items from my access database into lotus notes. The document I am trying to export to is a stationary, and has all the data written into it, I just need to somehow mark placeholders and then update the values. I have read the documentation and it appears I will need to address fields and then call a method to replace the text like so:
'where body is the field and the following string is what to replace field with
Call doc.ReplaceItemValue("body", "REPLACE BODY")
To be clear, my entire code looks like:
Set session = CreateObject("Notes.NotesSession")
Set maildb = session.GetDatabase("server", "mail\box.nsf")
Set View = maildb.GetView("Stationery")
Set entries = View.AllEntries
Set entry = entries.GetFirstEntry
Set doc = entry.Document
Call doc.ReplaceItemValue("Subject", "Report - " & Date)
'add code here
Call doc.send(False, "person.to.receive#thisemail.com")
End Sub
I have noticed that while perusing documentation, there seems to be an ability to create fields, and then address those fields to update values. So for example, if I have a field named $COST, then one could do:
Call doc.ReplaceItemValue("$COST", "The cost is $3000")
And that field should be updated to reflect the value I passed through the method. My big problem is, even looking through documentation, I cannot figure out where I need to go to add in my custom fields. It seems that the documentation assumes that you know how to create these fields and just address them. Or am I only supposed to create these fields programatically and then fill in the data? My client is Lotus Notes 8. Thanks!

Answer 1

Yes, that is the cool thing about IBM Lotus Notes databases: you can put items (=fields) in a Notes document without a prior definition of fields.
If you create items in a document with doc.ReplaceItemValue() and save or send the document then the items are just there. You can check the items when you open the property box for a selected document. All items are listed on document properties' second tab.
Another question is of course to define fields in a form so that the created items are visible to user without looking at document properties box. Open database in Designer and put the fields in right position and size to form.
Your question and comments telling that you want to create a document, fill it with data and send it to users.
If all users have access to your Notes server then you can create that document in your existing database and send just a link mail to users. This way you can create a good looking form and position all your data fields. Users will access the document in database through link.
An alternative is to create an nice looking HTML file, attach it to the mail and send it.
In this case you would add this code to your example at 'add code here:
Call doc.RemoveItem("Body")
Set rtitem = doc.CreateRichTextItem( "Body" )
Call rtitem.AppendText("your mail text")
Call rtitem.EmbedObject(EMBED_ATTACHMENT, "", "report.html")

Answer 2

Based on the comment thread on #Knut Herrmann's answer, I believe that the solution you really want involves using "stored form". The first argument to the NotesDocument.Send() method is a boolean that specifies whether you want to store the form or not.
Normally, you would use Domino Designer to create a stored form. You would not need Designer rights to anyone's mailbox. You would just need to create an empty database of your own, and put a form into it. You woould change your code to open that database and create the document in there instead of in a mailbox database as you are doing now. (One of the other cool things about Notes is that you don't actually have to be working in a mailbox database in order to mail a document. You can mail any document from any database, as long as you put the approporiate fields into it.)
There is also a way to do this without Domino Designer, and you could even dynamically generate the form with truly custom fields that your code only discovers as it runs. You could do this with DXL, which is an XML format for describing Lotus Notes objects, including forms. You would just need some sample DXL to work from. Preferably that should be of an empty database that contains a simple form that is set up more or less in the layout that you would want, though again you would need Domino Designer for that. You could just use the same mailbox database that your code is currently using, but that will leave you with a lot of extra stuff in the DXL that doesn't need to be there; and given that you're not all that familiar with Notes, it would likely be difficult for you to navigate through it all to find what you need.
Either way, though, you could use the NotesDXLExporter class to generate the DXL file. Your code could manipulate the DXL, adding/changing elements as needed (following the pattern that you see in sample, of course), and they you could use NotesDXLImporter to create the database that your code will actually use to create the document in and mail the message with the stored form.