Design Enhancements Using Formula Language

Chapter Overview

This chapter provides a number of Formula Language customizations that can be incorporated into most Lotus Notes databases. Each customization module is self-contained and designed to run independently. This enables you to copy the code into any existing application and implement it with little to no modification.

The intent of this chapter is to provide common customizations that can be added to any database. Each customization includes a functional summary, an explanation of how the code works, and detailed instructions for installing the code. Each code section will run with no additional code logic required. Customizations include the following:

• Compare two lists
• Create Expand and Collapse buttons
• Get the current day of the week
• Get the current month of the year
• Create a formatted date string
• Create an Attach File button
• Display the Microsoft Windows File Finder dialog
• Create a new document
• Create a "Last Updated By" field
• Create a "Last Modified On" date field
• Format a user's name
• Hide design elements based on a user's role
• Use @DBColumn to set field values
• Use @DBLookup to set field values
• Parse a text string
• Format field values using Input Translation
• Add field validation
• Display an "Are you sure?" warning message
• Generate an email
• Sort a list of values