Some 8.5.1 Designer features I'm really liking

Dec's Dom Blog

Friday, August 28, 2009 9:54 AM

Now that we are allowed talk about 8.5.1 a bit more publically I wanted to show off a few Designer features that I really like...

Line Numbers

This feature did exist in 8.5.0 but it was not everywhere. Now in 8.5.1 when you enable lines numbers they will show up in nearly all contexts. You can enable/disable it very quickly by simply right clicking in the left side gutter in any code window to bring up the context menu. In 8.5.1 the line numbers work for the new java and lotusscript editors as well as inside any context boxes where you edit code. The only place you won't find it is when your doing lotusscript inside a traditional form as that does not use the new Lotusscript editor.

Folding

When looking at the source code for a XPage or custom control you can turn on folding. This will allow you to expand/collapse sections of code. You can turn enable/disable this feature quickly by using the lft gutter in your code view. Just right click and look for the folding options.

Code Templates And Comment Templates

Most GOOD developers liked it when the ability to add 'Option Declare' automatically to all scripts was introduced in a previous version of designer. It was a tiny time saver and lead to better code because all code should use 'Option Declare'. In designer 8.5.1 this has been taken a step further with code templates and comment templates.

Have a look at the preferences for Domino Designer. You'll find a section for the LotusScript editor and under it you'll see the code and comments templates.

In here you can enter your pre-written code and comments that will automatically appear in the different types of element that you'll find in LotusScript.

Beyond the simple 'Option Declare' you could use this to implement good error trapping, for example, lets say you use OpenLog in all your applications. You could then use the code templates to automatically add the USE statement into any new Lotusscript code you create and then use automatically add the 'on error' code to any new sub or function that is created. This is going to be a BIG time saver.

Comment templates work pretty much the same way except that you have the ability to add in some special variables to make the comments actually say something useful..

QuickDiff

The QuickDiff feature is another one that was partially implemented in 8.5.0 but in 8.5.1 it is much better and it is also a feature that I don't remember seeing highlighted anywhere. Like some of the other options you can enable it quickly using the rightclick method in the left side code gutter. When it is enabled it will show the changes your making to your code in the gutter.

In the screenshot above the black line under the '51' means that a line was removed. the yellow highlighted '53' means that something on that line was changed and the green highlighted '55' means that there was a new line added.

Now here is the good bit. You can right click on any of the 'difference' indicators and in the context menu you'll see options to restore deleted lines, delete added lines and revert back changes. The only issue I have with this new features is that as soon as you save the page it forgets all the differences and the highlights disappear. It would be nice if it would only forget when you close the design element. That way you could make a change, save and test page and if needed quickly revert the changes.

There are a lot more small changes to the 8.5.1 designer that other bloggers are covering but so far I have to say that this release of 8.5.1 designer is really shaping up to be a designer client that developers will be clamoring to upgrade to.

IBM Lotus Notes/Domino and Lotus Notes Traveler 8.5.1 is prerelease software and there are no guarantees from IBM that the functionality presented will be in the final shipping product.

Declan Sciolla-Lynch |

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