Multiple embedded views on a form for Lotus Notes 7

What if the person who updates the response document does not have access to edit the parent document. Can this be taken care of? Also when another user has the parent document open , he will not be able to see the updates to the responses unless he closes and opens it again. If they are embedded views then the updates are visible immediately. Updating the rich text field in the parent queryopen that i was using is simple. Collecting the responses and writing a table to the rich text field with field values from the responses But this slows down the opening of the parent document. My woryy is using multiple embedded views

Do you always write the document tree to the RTFs or you first check whether something changed?

As far as modifying the doc to which an user doesn't have access to, it is done by using background agent (which has rights of the signer) to do it...

You can embed multiple views on a form, that may well be your best solution.
If you want to link those views to one another, in the "Single Click" target field on the Embedded View Properties box for the second view, enter the name of the first embedded view.

"If you want to link those views to one another, in the "Single Click" target field on the Embedded View Properties box for the second view, enter the name of the first embedded view"

I did not understand this. Actually I have two sets of response documents. 2 embedded views need to lookup one type of response documents They need different columns to be displayed. As far as the other two embedded views are concerned they look up different response documents. If you can explain your comments i will see if it can help me. Has anybody tried using 4 embedded views?

To display a discussion thread in an embedded view from another embedded view, follow these steps:
 - Create an embedded view with threads on a page or form and assign it a name in the Embedded View Properties box.
 - Check the "Show only current threads" option on the Embedded View Properties box.
 - Create another embedded view on the page, form, or document.
 - In the "Single Click" target field on the Embedded View Properties box for the second view, enter the name of the first embedded view.

When a user opens the page or document, both views launch, displaying the current document and the associated thread. For an example of this, see the Notes 6.5 mail template.

is it possible to show different columns of the same view in the two embedded views?

I don't think so, hide column formula would evaluate to the same result in both embedded views and, AFAIK, there's no way to get embedded view's name (assign in the embedded view's properties) from that formula.

Thanks a lot for your inputs but i think i have found a good solution. I am planning to have a programmable table and when each tab is opened i am planning to populate a table in rich text field with the help of a cool database done by Andre Guirard where he is populating the rich text in ui. So when a tab opens I will be able to populate the rich text with the latest information and it seems to be pretty fast. You can check the Order forms  action Add Items action. I plan to run the code automatically for all rich text field Check out the article and give me your comments

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/bpmpblog.nsf/dx/dynamic-table-1?opendocument&comments

I tried copy and paste in UI and it will flicker the form and user will see the cursor switching fields and filling them.

Here's how to create and fill a table in background.
http://searchdomino.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid4_gci1254682,00.html?track=NL-348&ad=593344&asrc=EM_NLT_1617329&uid=2188072

I still don't understand why it's so slow when you fill RTFs on parent's PO.
It should be pretty fast.

You should post your code, I'm sure we'll find something that would speed the things up...

here is the cdoe

Dim ws As New NotesUIWorkspace
	Dim session As New NotesSession
	Dim db As NotesDatabase
	Dim uidoc As NotesUIDocument
	
	Dim AdDoc As NotesDocument 'original"base" document
	Dim ResDoc As NotesDocument 
	
'all the response documents
	Dim collCount As Integer
	Dim rowCount As Integer
	Dim columnCount As Integer
	Dim iRow As Integer
	Dim i As Integer
	Dim item As NotesItem
	Dim richStyle As NotesRichTextStyle
	
	Set db = session.CurrentDatabase
	Set uidoc = ws.CurrentDocument
	Set AdDoc = uidoc.Document 
	
	
	Dim body As New NotesRichTextItem(Addoc,"EUSAdders")
	
	Set richStyle = session.CreateRichTextStyle 
	
	
 'Now, we are going to get the collection of the response docs 
	Dim Collection As NotesDocumentCollection
	Set Collection = AdDoc.Responses
	
	collCount = Collection.Count
	rowCount = collCount 
	columnCount = 5 
	richStyle.FontSize = 8
	
	
	'
	
	Dim tableColStyles(1 To 5) As NotesRichTextParagraphStyle 'loop through this once for each column
	Dim styles As NotesRichTextParagraphStyle
	
	For i = 1 To columnCount Step 1
		Set tableColStyles(i) = session.CreateRichTextParagraphStyle 
' Create the rt paragraph style for this column
		tableColStyles(i).FirstLineLeftMargin = 0 
' Set left margin for the first line of each cell in column
		tableColStyles(i).LeftMargin = 0 
' Set left margin for all but the first line of each cell in column
		tableColStyles(i).RightMargin = RULER_ONE_INCH * 1
		tableColStyles(i).Alignment = ALIGN_CENTER 
' Centre the 2nd column. This is just to show that you can :
		Set styles = session.CreateRichTextParagraphStyle
		styles.Alignment = ALIGN_CENTER
	Next
	Call body.AppendTable( 1, columnCount%,,, tableColStyles) 
	
'1 row to start, rest will be added as needed.
'Now populate the table 
	Dim rtnav As NotesRichTextNavigator
	Set rtnav = body.CreateNavigator
	rtnav.FindFirstElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLE)
	Dim rtt As NotesRichTextTable
	Set rtt = rtnav.GetElement
	Call rtnav.FindFirstElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL)  '1
	Call body.AppendParagraphStyle(styles)  
 'The first row is the headers
	richStyle.Bold=True
	Call body.AppendStyle(richStyle)
	'richStyle.NotesColor = COLOR_RED
	richStyle.NotesColor = COLOR_DARK_BLUE
	Call body.AppendStyle(richStyle)
	
	Call body.BeginInsert(rtnav)
	Call body.AppendText("Competency")
	Call body.EndInsert
	
	Call rtnav.FindNextElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL) '2 
	Call body.BeginInsert(rtnav)
	Call body.AppendText("ServiceLine")
	Call body.EndInsert
	
	Call rtnav.FindNextElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL) '3 
	Call body.BeginInsert(rtnav)
	Call body.AppendText("ServiceLineComponent")
	Call body.EndInsert
	
	Call rtnav.FindNextElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL) '4
	Call body.BeginInsert(rtnav)
	Call body.AppendText("Activities / Process ")
	Call body.EndInsert
	
	Call rtnav.FindNextElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL) '5
	Call body.BeginInsert(rtnav)
	Call body.AppendText("India Approved EUS FTE")
	Call body.EndInsert
	
	Call rtnav.FindNextElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL)
 'next row
 'Now add in data from the response documents selected
	richStyle.Bold=False
	Call body.AppendStyle(richStyle)
	'richStyle.NotesColor = COLOR_RED
	richStyle.NotesColor = COLOR_Black
	Call body.AppendStyle(richStyle)
	For iRow = 1 To rowCount Step 1
		Msgbox iRow
		Set ResDoc = Collection.GetNthDocument(Cint(iRow))
		
		Call rtt.AddRow(1) 
		
		Call rtnav.FindNextElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL) 		
		Call body.BeginInsert(rtnav)	
		'Call body.AppendText(ResDoc.Competency(0))	
		Call body.AppendText(ResDoc.Competency(0))	
		Call body.EndInsert
		
		Call rtnav.FindNextElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL) 
		Call body.BeginInsert(rtnav)	
		Call body.AppendText(ResDoc.ServiceLine(0))
		Call body.EndInsert
		
		Call rtnav.FindNextElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL) 
		Call body.BeginInsert(rtnav)	
		Call body.AppendText(ResDoc.ServiceLineCompetency(0))
		Call body.EndInsert
		
		Call rtnav.FindNextElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL) 
		Call body.BeginInsert(rtnav)	
		Call body.AppendText(ResDoc.ActProcess(0))
		Call body.EndInsert
		
		Call rtnav.FindNextElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL) 
		Call body.BeginInsert(rtnav)	
		Call body.AppendText(ResDoc.IndiaAppFTE(0))
		Call body.EndInsert
		
		Call rtnav.FindNextElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL) 
		
	Next 
	
	
	Call Addoc.Save(True,False)
	Call uidoc.Close
	Call ws.EditDocument(True,Addoc)

                                              

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A few tips to speed things up:

 - to avoid closing and opening the doc transfer the code from PostOpen event to QueryOpen (you'll needs minimal corrections)
 - collection.getFirstDocument and getNextDocument are way faster then collection.GetNthDocument
 - don't do the whole thing every time you open the doc:
        - use e.g. environment var or (profile) doc to store a flag (with parent ID) whether you need to update the table as a whole
        - you can store the list of document IDs (unid, noteID, your id) that are changed in an environment var
        - then in parent's QO event, get the list of response IDs and check whether they are in your list

 - do everything you can before opening the parent doc:
        - transfer the code to Script Library (and just call it from the doc) so you can initialize your styles (declared as lib's global vars) in lib's Initialize event
        - use separate style for each component to avoid changing style properties (prepare all different styles you'll need in your lib and then just apply them in QO)

 - you don't need collCount and rowCount if collCount = rowCount (this, by itself, is so minute period of time that it cannot even be counted as a waste, but still...)
 - instead of creating table every time, try to alter existing one, to avoid loosing time on styles, etc...

For the last advice, I'm not sure whether it's faster to do the whole thing or to search through table using rtNav.
But in combination with not processing all responses (only the flagged ones) and with not creating a header each time, I'm sure it's faster.

You can test whether searching and altering the table is faster then creating one from scratch on a simple example using Timer() function to measure duration of each code.

I will implement all the changes that you suggested but how do we track if the response document has been modified or not ?

Also if you have a sample of doing this , it will be very helpful. I am troubling you a lot but I have a deadline for this that is fast approaching

If it's modified manually, just append its noteID to environment var in QueryClose (if doc is <changed> and if noteID isn't already in environment var).
If it's modified by background process you'll have to alter the processes to do the same thing.

I don't know what are your criteria of <changed> doc, in other words, when you need to alter the parent.

I don't have a sample, sorry.

Start and ask when you get stuck...

And make it 500, instead of 125.
I've already invested much more here :)

Thanks will have to check how to store the modified responses

What do you mean "how to store modified responses"?
To store in parent or you want to flag modified ones?

Maybe you can explain when do you say your response doc is modified (isSaved or you check some fields).

This is what i have thought about this
As you know I have a parent and many response documents.
There are about 5 tables that I have to generate when any user user opens the parent and all this information has to come from the responses. This information has to be the latest.

Everybody who has access to write to the response may not have write access to the parent and so this update wil have to be done by an agent. If in case the parent is being edited by someone else and the the agent tries to update the parent there s a conflict

I thought about the 5 embedded views that will show the latest response information  but I am not very comfortable with having 5 embedded views in the form since the embedded views will be slow to load once the database grows in size

If i think about updating the parent in the queryopen event like we discussed before ,(fetching information from response and populating the 5 rich text fields) opening the parent will be slow which i am not very happy about

I thought of having programmable table and when the user clicks the tab i can fetch the latest details into the rich text field using an agent. But for this to work the user needs to have write access to the parent which may not always be the case

So finally I am thinking of a soluiton where in there is one separate response document to the parent which is not visible to anybody (and so will not be edited) and this has the 5 tables in 5 rich text fields. These 5 rich text fields are updated with information everytime a response is saved. This save is done using an agent and so if there are two responses being saved at the same time the two instances of the agent will run one after the other and the updates from both the responses will be pushed to the rich text fields. When the parent is opened, a agent is run to append the 5 rich text fields from the response (which has the 5 rich text field and is hidden from all users ) to the parent and this will be quick because there is not much to be done . The rich text fields  from the response will just have to be appended to the ones on the parent document

Please let me know if this is a good solution. The only drawback is that the information in the parent will be  the latest that is  available from the responses at the time the parent was opened. If there was any change done to the response after the parent was opened , it will not be visible. To get the latest information the parent will have to be reopened

That's not a bad idea at all :)
Still, I'd suggest that you implement changes we talked about into your existing code.
Then, we'll see how fast/slow it is. Maybe you wont have to use your "hidden response" approach, after all.
If it turns out the you need to use HR approach, you'll use the same, optimized code.

One thing with the agent.
In order for agent to have signer's access rights it has to be scheduled.

If an user runs the agent (e.g. from forms QC event), the agent will inherit that user's access rights, so it wont work. It has to be scheduled and I think the minimum period is 5 minutes.

I use the agent approach for the same reason in my application.
I created a folder to which I add documents (that contain field names and field values to be changed).
Agent runs every 5 minutes, gets the folder, processes documents and removes them from the folder (or deletes them if you don't need change history).

One question, how do you change the parent doc now, if a user has only read access to it?

One more thing,
it doesn't matter how many documents a db has if your embedded views are restricted by "show single category" option.

In order to always have all your views built so that users (and your embedded views) don't have to wait, no matter which view they decide to open, you should create a Program document:

Open names.nsf > Configurations > Servers > Programs > Add Program

Program name:
     updall
Command line:
     "SubfolderOfData\Production\db.nsf" -C

Set other fields similar to this:
Enabled/disabled:
     Enabled
Run at times:      
     02:00 each day
Repeat interval of:      
     0 minutes
Days of week:      
     Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat


-C option means that Update (indexer) task will update indexes of all unused views (that means that all other view indexes are built because they are used).

There's no more waiting for my users since I added this to production server. This means your form wont have to wait for your embedded views are built.

I felt much better after you approved my design. I have been thinking about all this for the past two days.

To update a parent when the user has only read access can i not have a queryopen agent that will do the job of appending the richtext fields? I am not sure.Please advice
Also html tables will look neater than embedded views Right? I will be giving a button next to each row to open the response document in a dialog box (Any sample that you think is nice?) If i choose to have a couple of embedded views I will take your advice on the updall.
Thanks for your support. You deserve every of the 500 points! I am going to start work on the new design right away!

Correction, if agent is called like this:
     agent.runonserver

then it has signer access rights.

This is the only way to trigger an agent so that it runs with signer's (last saver) access rights.

Thanks  Let me start with my code . Will I be able to still contact you if I close this using 'Accept as Solution" or do I have to wait for a couple of days?

No need for closing it right now...
You'll close it when you finish your code and preferably post it here, to help the others.

I am stuck with initializing the rich text style as you said. Have not been able to achieve adding a stylesheet for richtext. Please help

In Script Library:
Options:
      Option Public
      Option Declare

Declarations:
      Dim s As NotesSession
      Dim richStyleNormal As NotesRichTextStyle
      Dim richStyleBold As NotesRichTextStyle
      
      
Initialize:
      Set s = New NotesSession
      Set richStyleNormal = s.CreateRichTextStyle
      Set richStyleBold = s.CreateRichTextStyle
      

In Form's QueryOpen:
      ...
      Call body.AppendStyle(richStyleBold)
      ...

Is there a problem if i use the Notes Stream Class to write the content to the rich text field as HTML?

Hello mbonaci
Thanks a ton for all the help that you gave me for this issue. The project is not yet over but I thought it was high time to close this.