How to Create Lotus Notes NDL File?

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Notes Document Link used by IBM Notes is a link file which aids in the sharing of links to documents in email and webpages. The posts describe the importance and steps to create a Lotus Notes NDL file in brief.
An NDL file is a plain text document supported in IBM Notes.  It contains an XML statement to refer a certain associated document.  If the user has Lotus Notes on their system, then he/she can open the document referred to it, immediately by-clicking on the NDL file.  NDL stands for Notes Document Link and it can link to any notes documents, including views, databases, etc.  This helps the users to navigate through different documents in single clicks. In one way we can say NDL files are the text files with extension .ndl.

Importance of NDL files
In order to start an IBM Notes client from any Web browser the user need to have an NDL file.  The other scenario where NDF file is required is to send Notes DocLinks to non-Notes users. To open the link you need to associate the Lotus Notes client with browser MIME file type. You need to add NDL as a MIME type to a server's httpd.cnf file.  The corresponding file can be located from data directory at the server.  Let’s see how to create an NDF file.

Simple Steps to Create an NDL files
The creation of a NDL files is very simple. The steps are listed below

1. Open an IBM Notes database.
2. Browse Edit option from menu
3. Select Copy As Link option and opt for the type of link you want to create

1.jpg4. Open any text editors like Notepad and Paste the link from IBM Notes.

2.png
5. Save the document in .ndl extension

3.pngHow Does The Text File Looks Like?
The below given script is an example to create a simple NDL file.  The entire content is enclosed in <NDL></NDL> tag.  <HINT> tag includes the link to the web page or document.  <REM> tag contains the database name.  Here the database used in sampleDB.

<NDL>
<REPLICA 852565A7:005100C7>
<VIEW OFAAC7D56C:A8FC874B-ON852563BE:00619639>
<HINT>CN=required link</HINT>
<REM>sampleDB</REM>
</NDL>

How to access an NDL?
NDL can be accessed by double clicking on it so that the operating system redirects you to the destination pointed by the link. An NDL file can be attached to any Web page.  This enables the user to Notes mail message to a non-Notes user. To launch IBM Notes client and to open the View link, Double click on the file.  If this does not perform the required action you need to configure the Internet Explorer to navigate through the link.

Steps to configure internet Explorer to access NDL

1. Click View then select Options from given list
2. Then Navigate through program tab
3. Select NDL file type from there

Conclusion
The NDL files enables to support Doc Links in IBM notes. Moreover, it allows users to access IBM clients on a web browser. Sometime the beginners may find little difficulty in deploying an NDF file. However, the creation of an NDL file can be made simple by performing the above described procedure.




 
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