Lotus iNotes : How to add simple widgets outline entries

Lotus iNotes 8.5 includes the support for Lotus Notes widgets. This article gives you a couple of quick and easy examples, that show how to use the inotes_config.xml.template that is included in Domino 8.5 and how to create a simple widget link to your team discussion database. You also can find more information in the developerWorks article , "New features in IBM Lotus iNotes 8.5: Full mode"

This feature is controlled by a Domino Mail policy setting. You can find more details about Domino policies in the Domino Policies or Domino Policy Precedence Explained articles.

Here are the steps to enable the Widgets folder:
1.        In the Mail policy settings document, click the Lotus iNotes - Configuration tab. Under Widget Settings, set the "Show the Widgets folder in the Mail outline" and "Allow users to create widgets from XML" fields  to Enable.  

2.        Make a copy of inotes_config.xml.template under C:\Domino\data\domino\html and rename to inotes_config.xml.
3.        In the Lotus iNotes client, open Mail and click Widgets to view the two example entries:
Figure1: The example widgets outline entries


The first example shows how you can open a external URL in another tab within the Lotus iNotes UI just by specifying the title and URL attributes.

<webcontextConfiguration version="1.1"> 
 <palleteItem contributeToSideshelfOnStartup="false" 
       id="228705218" 
       imageUrl="http://www.ibm.com/favicon.ico" 
       modified="false" 
       providerId="com.ibm.rcp.toolbox.web.provider.WebServicesPalleteProvider" 
         title="IBM United States" 
         url="http://www.ibm.com/sandbox/homepage/version-b/"> 
     <preferences/> 
     <data> 
             <authForm/> 
     </data> 
 </palleteItem> 
 </webcontextConfiguration>

The second example, Search IBM launches a custom dialog to get the search query string as shown in Figure 2. When the search is performed, the search result page displays in its own tab within the Lotus iNotes UI.

<webcontextConfiguration version="1.1"> 
 <palleteItem contributeToSideshelfOnStartup="false" 
      id="674163034" 
      imageUrl="http://www.ibm.com/favicon.ico" 
      modified="false" 
      providerId="com.ibm.rcp.toolbox.web.provider.WebServicesPalleteProvider" 
        title="Search IBM" 
        url="http://www.ibm.com/sandbox/homepage/version-b/"> 
     <preferences> 
             <preference name="q"> 
                     <value></value> 
                     <displayName>Search string</displayName> 
                     <enumValues/> 
                     <enumDisplayValues/> 
                     <datatype></datatype> 
                     <isEnum>false</isEnum> 
                     <isRequired>true</isRequired> 
                     <isHidden>false</isHidden> 
             </preference> 
     </preferences> 
     <data> 
             <formMethodType>form</formMethodType> 
             <url>http://www.ibm.com/sandbox/homepage/version-b/</url> 
             <formAction>http://www.ibm.com/Search/</formAction> 
             <formNumber>0</formNumber> 
             <authForm/> 
     </data> 
 </palleteItem> 
 </webcontextConfiguration>

Figure 2: The custom dialog for search queries defined by the widget xml shown above


Figure 3: The search results page displays in its own tab



Also, note that there is right-mouse click menu available to open to a new window instead of a new tab or to view the configuration XML for the widget.

Figure 4: Right-click menu for widgets


If the "Allow users to create widgets from XML" policy is enabled, you can use the right-click menu to either browse the Widgets Catalog to add a widget to your Widgets folder, or create a new one.

   Figure 5: Right-click menu for Widgets folder
       

To create a new widget, click Create. In the "Enter widget XML" dialog, enter the valid XML as shown in the following example:

<?xml version="1.0"?> 
 <webcontextConfiguration version="1.1"> 
      <palleteItem id="767502487" url="http://yourserver.company.com/8525684900529C26/" 
                        title="Team Discussion" 
                        imageUrl="http://yourserver.company.com/favicon.ico" modified="false" 
                        providerId="com.ibm.rcp.toolbox.web.provider.WebServicesPalleteProvider" 
                        contributeToSideshelfOnStartup="false"> 
              <preferences/> 
              <data> 
                      <authForm/> 
              </data> 
      </palleteItem> 
 </webcontextConfiguration>

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