In The Next Version

Would you like to send people links to Notes databases that look more like "web URLs" (see the email below) instead of the book icon  which Notes uses?



Well you're in luck, Reinhard Schoeller from IBM in Ireland contacted me about a simple Toolbar button he wrote that would allow you to do just that.  With a database open, you simply click on the Toolbar button



and you are presented with a dialog box where you can copy the link information.



You then paste the text into an email message, docuemnt in a TeamRoom, or even into the integrated Sametime chat that is part of the Notes client, since it supports "notes://" links.



In the screen shot above, you can see there are two links provided to the database.  The first (notes://servername/databasename) is always created.  The second is provided if you have a connection document in your Personal Address Book to the server the database resides on, and the server's address is used instead of the server's name.

I hope this little bit of code will help make it easier for you to share Notes applications will all of your colleges.


----- Install Instructions -----

1. Detach this file to your computer link.gif
, it will be used as the icon in your toolbar.
2. From the Notes menu choose: File - Preferences - Toolbar Preferences...
3. Customize - New - Button...
4. Button Captioned Text: Create DB Link
5. Popup Help Text: Create link information to the current database
6. Formula, copy and paste the exact text below:
ServerName := @Name([Abbreviate];@Subset(@DbName;1));
DNSName := @DbLookup("":"";"":"names.nsf";"Connections";Servername;"OptionalNetworkAddress";[FailSilent]);
URLNotesName := @LowerCase("notes://"+ @Name([CN];@Subset(@DbName;1)) + "/" + @WebDbName);
URLDNSName := @LowerCase("notes://"+ DNSName + "/" + @WebDbName);
Link := @DbTitle + " on " + URLNotesName;
@If(DNSName!="";Link := Link + " [ " + URLDNSName + " ]";"");
@Prompt([OkCancelEdit];"Database URL";"URL of current Database is";Link ;"")

UPDATE - Reader Brian Green has submitted some more advanced code in the comments section.

5. Click Change Icon - New.  Select the link.gif fike you detached in step #1, press OK
6. Press OK to close the Edit Toolbar screen.
7. Use the Left and Right buttons to move the new button to where you want it on your Toolbar, click Save Toolbar, click ok.

If you would like to see screen shots to help you with the steps above, please follow the similar instructions for customizing your toolbar provided in this post.

Acknowledgement: The icon I created for this Toolbar button was modified from one I discover on Mark James' FamFamFam site.

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