How to make external data source workable when loading a MS Word Form Letter in Lotus Symphony Documents 

Problem Description:
As we know,the Mail Merge of MS Word provides to support external data source, such as kinds of databases, except rich local data source files. Once MS Word form letters are created based on the data sources, and when they are launched into Lotus Symphony Documents, these data sources will be lost because Lotus Symphony Documents only supports limited local data source files, moreover, not support external data source.

In this article, a work-around is provided. According to the guide, end users can make such kind of MS Word documents work well in Lotus Symphony Documents. In the guide, Derby database will be taken as an example. Other kinds of databases should be the same.

1. First, end users need to import the remote data to local.

• Access http://www.ibm.com/software/lotus/symphony/plugin.nsf/web_DisPlayPlugin?open&unid=6D1E4B9BEEABB600852578190019FDF4&form=home&category=Database to download and install "IBM Lotus Symphony Database Connection Plugin"
• Download Derby and unzip to local disk, such as E:\Datasource\Derby,configure the environment variable DERBY_HOME, and create derby database under a director, such as E:\Datasource\DerbySrv,an example db name is "myderbydb",the related sample commands are for reference
E:\Datasource\DerbySrv>ij
ij version 10.7
ij> connect 'jdbc:derby:myderbydb;create=true';
ij> connect 'jdbc:derby:myderbydb';
ij(CONNECTION1)> create table employee(id char(18) primary key,name char(8),Sex
char(6),MBS int,address char(60));
0 rows inserted/updated/deleted
ij(CONNECTION1)> insert into employee values('422204199610206411','John','Male',
50000,'Orlando');
1 row inserted/updated/deleted
ij(CONNECTION1)> insert into employee values('425504199710206411','Mike','Male',
46000,'Orlando');
1 row inserted/updated/deleted
ij(CONNECTION1)> ij(CONNECTION1)> select * from employee;
ID |NAME |SEX |MBS |ADDRESS



---




---


422204199610206411|John |Male |50000 |Orlando

425504199710206411|Mike |Male |46000 |Orlando


2 rows selected
ij(CONNECTION1)>

• Import the data from the remote derby database into local supported data source files.
  Configure the DB Drivers and Data Sources, please refer to Fig 1 and Fig 2 in "IBM Lotus Symphony Database Connection Plugin"


Fig 1 gives the sample to create a derby driver. Here the derby database server locates in local machine..And the remove is the same...

Fig 2 gives the data source configuration example. Here, to the user name and password, end users can input as what they like,,but they should not be empty

• Run derby database server with a bat file, such as:

@echo on
cd E:\Datasource\DerbySrv
java -jar %DERBY_HOME%\lib\derbyrun.jar server start
• Create a spreadsheet file and Click "Import" button to import the data from the derby database to spreadsheet and save to "E:\Datasource\local\derbydata.ods"


• Load the MS Word form letter created based on the data of the derby database into Lotus Symphony Documents.
• Access Tools->Mail Merge and click Browser to re-set the data source manually...


• Save the MS Word form letter, thus, it will work well..
• If the MS Word Letter use local data source files,but Mail Merge of Lotus Symphony Documents doesn't support. End users can access http://www.ibm.com/software/lotus/symphony/plugin.nsf/web_DisPlayPlugin?open&unid=0EF53865C68659B28525781F0025A2BB&form=home&category=Utilities to download and install "Extending more data source types for Symphony mail merge" plugin, and then follow the previous two steps..that will be also ok..