What LEI activity should I use? Direct Transfer or Replication? - lotus-notes

What is difference between LEI Direct Transfer and Replication activities?
I'm trying to copy/sync data from DB2 to Notes just one way. Any updates in DB2 should go into Notes.
So what activity should I use.
BTW, Direct Transfer creates duplicate views in Notes db. What could cause that?
Thank you

Either option would work, though if you're looking to "sync" data between the two I'd probably lean to the replication. I have a client that uses the Direct Transfer to move data from Domino to DB2 and it works fine for them.
Regarding the duplicate issue, it sounds like you're saying duplicate entries (docs) are created in the NSF and not actual Views in the NSF? On the Target Data Options tab for the activity, do you have the Try Update before Insert option checked? That should prevent that if the Target Key Field has a field selected that does not have a value that changes after the entry is created in DB2.

Related

How to add computed field to LEI Replication Activity?

I'm trying to build LEI Replication Activity to pull new/updates from DB2 to Notes (one way only).
Everything seems clear when I create connection and activity documents and map fields. But I want to compute all other hidden fields on Notes document when it's created. E.g. Readers field. How can I make sure it's added to new created Notes document when replicated from DB2? Or it's automatically computed?
Where do I define this field in LEI then?

IBM Maximo: Start Center and Multiple Tables

I am trying to help a colleague out. I created a query in IBM Maximo 7.6, it is in the work orders table but I added a sub query that pulls from the workflow table and filters for anything in Work Flow.
My question is: On the start center, is there anyway to modify the results set so that we can pull fields from work order and work flow? I have work number, status, and vehicle. Basically, is it possible to bring in what inbox the work order is in, on the results set, in graphical form. So, put together a bar graph based on the inbox?
Any direction would be great, thank you!
First, you need to make sure there is a Relationship on the WORKORDER object in Database Configuration that will find the workflow record you want to see info from for a given work order. Once you've done that, these instructions show you, step by step, how to create Report Object Structure (ROS) (an Object Structure "Consumed By" Reporting), how to grant access to the ROS, and then how to use the ROS in a Result Set portlet to access data in related objects.

Update CRM data using Excel sheet and custom identifier

I have to import data from a foreign system into a CRM instance. The foreign system has an ID for either a contact or account (which is also present in CRM, the common identifier).
I'm wondering if it would be possible to extract that data simply through SQL Management Studio, paste this in an Excel file, upload that file through Data Management and have CRM recognize a certain column (the common identifier) as the key, and update all the other fields that would present in that Excel file I plan to upload.
For example, in said foreign system I have:
ClientID ValueNotPresentInCrm
344555 Bleh
And currently, in CRM, I have
accountid xmr_clientid xmr_ValueNotPresentInCrm
24436EDB-9CFA-E511-80C0-00155D7B5806 344555
Obviously, I want to update the xmr_ValueNotPresentInCrm column.
Is this even possible ?
There are two distinct flavours of Excel upload in CRM.
Create new records.
Update existing records.
You will need to use option 2, this involves downloading an Excel file (actually XML) which contains the existing records, making changes in Excel, uploading the file again.
Its a little long winded but is the simplest solution. PowerObjects has a nice tutorial here.
I would also take a look at the Configuration Migration tool from the SDK. It allows you to specify a uniqueness condition on import (see step 12), which would be particularly useful to your scenario.
There is also an open source, custom tool called the Dynamics CRM Configuration Data Mover which you also may find useful. It's less relevant to your scenario because it doesn't seem to have an equivalent uniqueness condition feature, but it's still worth noting.

Invalid UniversalID when document has been copied

I have a strange problem: I want to access documents in a different database (same server). My approach is very close to this one discussed here: http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/nd85forum.nsf/DateAllFlatWeb/517ef6249d5b9fa6852575cc00503786?OpenDocument
I have only 3 docs in the source database. 2 are created directly, one is copied from another database (these are just test document). We have a generic view that lists thos entries from a view, calcs the links in a form like this:
http://localhost/database.nsf/xpMBK.xsp?action=openDocument&db=dominotest%2Ftest%2Fulcbs%21%21projects%2FFKIE%2FEinsMuB.nsf&view=AMBKEinsAll&documentId=781F14A98A699548C1257C3200316BAC
As you can see we are using an Xpage in the current database and place parameters that point the Xpage to open the document to the source database (notation is server!!database here), a view (this is the one to which I want to return) and finally the unid of the source document.
Now the strange one:
I cannot open the copied document, receiving the
NotesException: Invalid universal id
lotus.domino.local.Database.getDocumentByUNID(Unknown Source)
error.
Even better: if I copy a document that works within the same database (the current one) this document can also not opened anymore!
What's this and can you give me a hint to solve this?
Thanks in advance!
If, by "copied", you mean either manually copied and pasted into the target database or programmatically duplicated via copyToDatabase(), the new copy of the document will be assigned a new UNID; it is not guaranteed to have the same UNID as the original did (and, in my experience, it's rare that it preserves the original). If you're duplicating the document programmatically, be sure to check its new UNID afterward and use that ID in your URL calculation instead.
I've had a problem very similar to this in the past, and the answer turned out to be that I wasn't opening the NSF file that I thought I was opening. I was using NotesDatabase.OpenByReplicaID, and there were two replicas of the database on the server, with different sets of documents. In that situation, Notes gets to pick one of the two replicas -- you have no control over it. The replica that was actually opening contained some of documents corresponding the the UNIDs that I was trying to access, but some of them really were not there and therefore the getDocumentByUNID() method was correct in throwing the "Invalid universal id" error. This was really, really hard to debug.
After I figured it out and removed the second replica from my server, the first thing I did (after testing and confirming the problem went away) was to write an agent that scans a server for duplicate replica IDs.
The UNID:S in a Domino database when it's copied to the database thru copyToDatabase is done like this.
One part of the UNID comes from the database one part is document unique. So if you copy a document from one database to another the document could get the same unid each time. If the unique combination doesn't have a valid document with that combination in the database, the document will get the same UNID everytime. In other cases the document will get a new Id.
More information can be found here
UNID and copytodatabase
Thank you guys for your ideas!
But I was completely wrong #facepalm
The problem was: a colleague coded a bean to access the other database and I didn't noticed that the config document pointed to a replica on another server, so when I copied the document within my database on my local server it was fairly clear that the xpage could not find the copied one - as it resided on the other machine.
Thank you anyway :)

creating many to many relationship between documents in different lotus notes databases

I am doing "traditional" lotus notes programming (same since R5) and need to implement linking between 2 document types (forms) residing in different databases.
Document of type (A) in database (A) can reference several documents of type (B) in database (B).
And document (B) should also display its relationships with document (A), as document (B) can be related to different documents (A).
We have Many to Many relationship.
At the moment it is implemented on one side only (one to many):
Form of Document (A) contains embedded view of special
"link" documents residing in database A. This link documents are created by lotusScript when user selects documents from database (B). When user clicks on an item in this embedded view, it opens document (B).
Client wants to be able to edit this relationship on any side, so that if he edits it in form (A), form (B) is updated.
Form (B) is supposed to have the same kind of embedded view or a list of associated documents of type (A)
What is the best way to implement it?
Client's infrastracture is Lotus Domino 8.5.2 + Lotus Notes 8.5.2, so theoretically, composite applications approach may be an option.
The reason why I ask this question is that as far as I understand there is no good way in Notes to embed a view from another database.
The requirement is that the database should be present on workspace to be displayed in some sort of dodgy list.
It would be great to be able to specify target database for embedded view by server and replicaID, but instead we have a weird list of random workspace databases.
The main problem is that Notes wasn't designed to handle relationships like that between databases (nor anything besides parent child relationships for that matter). So the solution will have to be a creative one.
A couple of (off-the wall, potentially awful) ideas come to mind. One is to store the references in the documents themselves, and update them whenever the document is saved. That could all be done in LotusScript, and would require searching through the other database's documents to update their references.
Upside is that the performance when reading the documents would be excellent. There'd be no issues while reading Database A if Database B was unavailable. It keeps data local to each database. The downsides include the likelihood of save conflicts and the danger that references could get out of sync if documents aren't "saved" but instead are updated via agents, etc.
Another thought is to use agents to manage the links on a scheduled basis. If you don't need real-time up-to-date references, you could run an agent that scans Database B and updates the references in Database A. With this method you could choose either to update the Database A documents themselves - or - as it sounds like you've already done, create a set of link documents that show up in an embedded view. The latter eliminates the save conflict problem.
One more idea is to hide any references when you open a document in Database A, but provide a button to "show" or "update" references. When you click that button, it fires off LotusScript to search Database B and build a list on the fly. This would probably work quickly with less than 10,000 documents. That function could update the link documents you store on the same database which feed the embedded view.
Hope this helps!
What is the best way to implement it?
As you mention creating a composite application may allow you to do this, but would be restricted to windows rather then design level in the form.
eg.
[Window A] --- trigger ---> [Window B]
If you are not familiar with this system I did a tutorial which explains the basics.
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/compappwiki.nsf/dx/ibm-my-first-wire
Although the tutorial calls back to the same database, it is easy enough to point to a different one.
Personally I'd do it through XPages. I personally find it much easier to implement then through classic style notes design/comp apps. It will also allow you to display design elements within the same screen area.
As you've already heard, Lotus Notes has no referential integrity constraints built-in, you have to do it yourself.
I wouldn't be relying on document links as they're geared around UNID's which can change if you cut and paste the same document, thus losing the link. Try this,
1/ Create an "ID" field on each document. You can populate it by using #Unique in a computed field to generate an ID, and save that to the documents in both databases. You can create an agent to do this in lotusScript (LS), or formula. (Consider using the evaluate statement if doing in LS)
2/ Create a lookup view in each database that lists the documents by the new ID (don't forget to set the "sort order" of the ID column.
3/ Using an action button that can be configured for both databases, you can create a LS function that will open the the opposing databases view and return the ID field. (NotesUIWorkspace.pickliststrings would be the simplest way to pick the documents, otherwise you could build a dialogbox. Store the list of results in a field called "linkedID" as multi-value list.
4/ There may be more info that you want to store like document title or author, so you'll need to then get a handle to those documents using getdocumentbykey and then interrogating the fields you'll need to display information on screen.
5/ You can then also add a new field on the target documents you're referring to, call it "referrerID", which is a list of documents that reference the current document. This will maintain the two-way relationship.
The field that stores links must be a multi-valued field, otherwise it gets quite cumbersome to loop through list of linked document ID's and manage them.
This approach uses a static key so you can copy databases around without losing the relationships between documents the user has invested time in producing. You can (and probably will) lose those relationships if you rely on document universal ID's (described well in the #documentUniqueID documentation), if you cut and paste the document, or copy the database somewhere else they become new documents despite copying the same fields, and will be assigned a new universal ID, any document links for the old document will be invalid.
If the information you're displaying from the other database changes, you'll need to be able to refresh that data regularly, so consider writing a scheduled agent that can do the look up and refresh the relevant fields.
If the user intends to un-link or change the relationships between documents, then you'll need to add functions that loop through the key fields and keep the lists consistent with what the user is doing. So, like I said, Lotus Notes' flat data structure requires you manage all integrity constraints yourself.
If you want to get a little fancy you can use embedded views as they do support references from another database on the same server. Some tips about handling it in LotusScript here. And use an additional view that categorises your data by the referring ID. Embedded views are ok, as long as the view they're based on is not too big, otherwise it may affect the performance of the form that it is embedded into.

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