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Update Lotus Note 8 Distribution Lists using VBA?

Is it possible to perform maintenance on LN 8 Distribution Lists using VBA?  

Any leads, links, suggestions on this (including why not possible) would be appreciated.

Thanks!
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Steve Knight
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Of course.  What are you trying to do?  I have various scripts and excel spreadsheets for manipluating data in Notes , e.g. to pull data out from the NAB, amend and reimport it.

Have to be careful naturally not to cause conflicts with people manually changing groups etc.

I have a spreadsheet on my scripts site http://scripts.dragonit.co.uk/ that does manipulation from excel.

If you can elaborate a little we can suggest more how to do it or warn you off!

Steve
e.g. Here are some of my VBA / Notes interactions:

Reads NAB for fields you ask for, in this case also including archive details for users, then updates back into archive profile:
http://scripts.dragon-it.co.uk/links/lotus-notes-retrieve-mail-archive-settings

Export people from NAB including client versions
http://scripts.dragon-it.co.uk/links/lotus-notes-list-of-client-versions

Generic export.  By default set to to get people from NAB but can easily be groups instead
http://scripts.dragon-it.co.uk/links/lotus-notes-export-to-excel

The routines in there and similar can be used to pull out the group details, which you can manipulate and push back in, or add people to the groups etc.  Virtually anything that you can do in Notes through LotusScript can be done through VBA too.

Steve
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codequest

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Steve, thanks for your input.   I have an associate who has to maintain two 1000+ person distribution list, and right now she has to do it manually.  So, based on you answer, I'm going to let her know that it seems possible to build an MS Access application that can serve as a GUI for this activity, that is, distribution lists are accessible LN objects through VBA.   Is that a fair statement?  

Mostly I would like to let her know that it's possible;  she will have to get the resources to do it elsewhere.  I've written some VBA/LN email generation routines, so the code isn't that difficult, once you know the interfaces.
Exactly.  As to specifically WHY you would do that I am not sure as it would naturallly be a lot easier to write a simple app in Notes bit if you want to then it can be done.

Once the criteria etc. Is known you could have the database pull out a table of all the person documents to use for choices, and pull out the group members.

A group is just another document in the NAN to Notes with a multi value field for its members (an array effectively)
Hmm sorry mobile ee decided to ht submit there... bit of a flaw with the window and layout of 'ok'the button next to another button on this little keyboard!

For NAN it should read NAB of course - the server's names.nsf db.
Thanks for your note.  The reason I can't use Lotus Script is because I'm in an enterprise environment where I can't get those privileges.   Plus I'm already competent with VBA.  

Is there a good link to a directory of LN "objects" (such as Distribution List)?  I've only been able to learn such from code samples, so far.
Have a look at the VBA code in my sheets there will give you some ideas.

I fyou open the server name and address book "names.nsf" from a client, go to the "Groups" view.  those are your "distribution lists"... at least some will be, others will be access control etc.

Press Alt Enter, make sure it says "document" at the top, not database.   On the second tab it shows all the fields of that document.

The field "Form" is what signifies that it is a group.
The other fields make it do what it does.

Now... if you don't have access uing LotusScript / designer I suspect the domino admins migth not like it too much if programming their address book so would get their ok at least!

Do you have rights to edit/amend the address book in general, or just specific groups as their "owner"?

Steve
So what I mean is IF you have the rights to do this etc.. and depending upon what you want to do you would:

Open the database "names.nsf" from the server
Find the relevant group document, generally:
Open the Groups view    
Search the view for relevant document using it's name  v
Now you have a handle on the document
Extract the field of group members, amend them as needed
Update the field
Save the document.
Job done.



Jo
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Steve Knight
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Huge help.  I'm going grant points and review this with the people who may write it.  Thanks!
Very helpful, way more than I could have expected.  Grazie!
Well you can find my email address in my profile (click dragon-it link above) if you get stuck and want it writing for you....

Logically you would extract each relevant group into an access table, or sheet in excel and maintain them there.

Steve