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Requirements
- Active Desktop Calendar 5.0 or later
- Lotus Notes 6.5 with Domino Designer
Beta solution disclaimer
Please note that we tested this solution using stand alone Lotus Notes 6.5 without a server. While the same should work in a real Lotus Notes environment we can not support that assumption with our own experience.
You have to assume full responsibility for trying the solution on your system as it is offered here on bona fide basis without any guarantees.
How it works
Solution for synchronizing Active Desktop Calendar with Lotus Notes as presented here is based on two facts:
- Active Desktop Calendar can connect to and read any correctly formatted data layer file regardless of how that file is created.
- Lotus Notes can be programmed through an agent to create the necessary data layer file and fill it with information from its calendar.
When both programs are configured properly you will have a new option under Actions menu in your Lotus Notes to use whenever you want to synchronize calendars. You should be aware that the synchronization is one way only, calendar entries from Lotus Notes are copied to Active Desktop Calendar as read-only information and nothing goes in the other direction.
Configuring Lotus Notes
Before you go into this process please pay attention to the following:
- you have to have at least one entry in your Lotus Notes's Calendar (if you intend to try this on a new database first then don't start with an empty calendar)
- make a backup of your Lotus Notes database
- closely follow instructions given below as every detail is important
- what you will actually do here is create a view and an agent in your Lotus Notes; the view will get your calendar entries as necessary for Active Desktop Calendar and the agent will export them to an XML data file readable by Active Desktop Calendar.
Creating a view
- open your database in Domino Designer.
- click Views.
- click New View.
- type in XCviewADC in the View name box.
- click Copy From...
- select Calendar and click Ok.
- In the Select conditions box change the formula to:
- click Save and Customize.
- click on X to close View Properties dialog.
- now pay attention to columns available in the view, we will use first six of them with modifications and delete the rest.
- double-click on the first column title's box to open its properties dialog, type in NoteDate for its Title and click X to close Column Properties dialog
- in the programmer's pane make sure the Formula radio button is selected and replace the existing formula code with this one:
- double-click on the second column's title box, type in CalendarDateTime and click X.
- in the programmer's pane select the Field radio button (accept the loss of action data if warned about) and in the large list of fields select CalendarDateTime field.
- double-click on the third column's title box, type in Start and click X.
- in the programmer's pane select the Formula radio button and replace the existing formula code with this one:
- double-click on the fourth column's title box, type in End, uncheck Use value as color option and click X.
- in the programmer's pane select the Formula radio button and replace the existing formula code with this one:
- double-click on the fifth column's title box, type in Subject, uncheck Use value as color option and click X.
- in the programmer's pane select the Field radio button (accept the loss of action data if warned about) and in the large list of fields select Subject field.
- double-click on the sixth column's title box, type in AppointmentType, uncheck Display values as icons option and click X.
- in the programmer's pane select the Field radio button (accept the loss of action data if warned about) and in the large list of fields select AppointmentType field.
- now delete all remaining columns (right click on the column's title box and choose Delete)
- here is how this view you just made should look like:
- choose Save option from the File menu to save the view then choose Close.
Creating an agent
- still in Domino Designer click Shared Code and click Agents.
- click New Agent.
- type in XCexportADC as agent's name, choose None in the Target drop-list and click X.
- in the programmer's pane drop list select Lotus Script.
- in Objects browser select Initialize and paste this code there:
- choose Save option from the File menu to save the agent then choose Close.
- now you can close Domino Designer, go back to Lotus Notes, open the Calendar and in the Actions menu you should see XCexportADC, the agent you just created.
- whenever you want to synchronize Active Desktop Calendar with your Lotus Notes simply call this agent (make sure you do this at least once before you move on in this process to configure Active Desktop Calendar).
Configuring Active Desktop Calendar
This is an easy part as you only have to add Lotus Notes layer to the program. As the layer file is created and maintained by Lotus Notes you will simply establish a connection to the file like it was shared by some other user on the network. With this trick you get Active Desktop Calendar to check the file every 60 seconds so that will be the longest possible lag between firing off the agent in Lotus Notes and updated calendar data showing on your desktop.
To add Lotus Notes layer:
- right click on Active Desktop Calendar's date icon in the taskbar and choose Layers.
- click Connect new layer.
- navigate to the root of your C:\ drive.
- select Lotus Notes.adx file and click Open.
- your Lotus Notes calendar events are now visible in Active Desktop Calendar
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