ebf.migration toolkit
Complexity of Lotus Notes/Domino application development and administration
Long before the introduction of the ADMINP process Notes API programmers concentrated on developing tools for streamlining processes in Lotus Notes Administration. They developed utilities to monitor and configure IBM Lotus Notes/Domino environments, reducing administration time and at the same time ensuring the highest level of security.
To rename a user in Lotus Notes version 3 the administrator had to first manually modify the Author and Reader fields in the name and address book and study the entire documentation. As a result, tools were specially developed for these environments, which were a great help to administrators, but entailed considerable costs. There were many tools created for administering user IDs in order to solve this problem.
The ADMINP process was created during the continued development of individual Lotus Notes versions and a large number of APIs were implemented in LotusScript. This laid the cornerstone for the automated administration and configuration of IBM Lotus Notes/Domino environments. The more complex a Lotus Notes/Domino infrastructure is, the more tasks there are that have to automated for administering the system. For this reason, IBM Business Partners offer you efficient solutions for reducing the costly administration of currently complex Lotus Domino installations with many thousands of users.
Complexity of application development and system updates
The expanded range of features of IBM Lotus Notes/Domino version 6.x enables your company to more quickly create robust applications for your workflows. However, this also entails a higher level of complexity when migrating your application to the current Lotus Domino release.
Fundamental considerations
When developing your company's Lotus Notes/Domino applications in the past was the number of digits set in Lotus Notes Design (source code) in which a LotusScript, a formula or a Java or JavaScript code appears?
Has a member of your company ever defined, counted or documented the number of attributes a programmer had to set up for all views in a database to look the same?
The answers to these questions are very important and very complex, considering the general changes made to Lotus Notes applications in a migration project. A migration in any case represents a considerable challenge to a company working productively with Lotus Notes/Domino technologies and can be associated in the end with the risk of the product no longer working.
Using the ebf.migration toolkit to reduce risks and costs
ebf would like to provide you with the support of experienced IBM Lotus Notes/Dominos administrators and developers to enable you to carry out your analysis work with the greatest efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
If you are planning to carry out a migration from Lotus Notes R4.x/R5.x to version 6.x, you should be concerned with the following questions:
- Are you already able to assess the risks posed by the incompatibility of Lotus Notes applications leading to production downtime?
- Does your company have the time and money to search through every application and test them for compatibility?
ebf delivers an evidence-based solution for this challenge that can reduce both risks and costs.
The ebf.migration toolkit
The ebf.migration toolkit was conceived as an analysis solution based on the extraction of code. The aim is to provide a function enabling administrators and developers to analyze Notes/Domino R5 applications and databases and identify potential incompatibilities before the migration takes place. Necessary program modifications can be carried out as a precautionary measure and reliable application performance in a Notes/Domino V6.x infrastructure can be ensured.
The ebf.migration toolkit is stand-alone tool. Two main features are provided by more recently developed versions:
The first main feature is an easy to use tool that allows a Notes/Domino developer to extract the source code from an application and place it in a source code database for analysis. All source code is stored in ASCII format and can be used as the basis for Lotus Notes full-text search queries or other analysis methods.
Developers are able to carry out tests of all kinds on the databases from legacy versions of IBM Notes/Domino.
The ebf.migration toolkit requires the Lotus Notes/Domino 6.x IDE.
In a simple step developers can use a complex scanning process to extract the source code from individual applications or from all applications on a Domino server.
The ebf.migration toolkit is more than just a tool for analyzing databases. Efficient preparation for R5 to V6.x migration is provided by the wide range of included filters. With the ebf.migration toolkit developers are able to introduce a comprehensive quality review process.
In "Server Scan Mode", the second main feature, the tool can analyze an IBM Lotus Domino server in a single batch job. The report generated by the ebf.migration toolkit Server Scanner is stored in a Lotus Notes database for further processing.
The ebf.migration toolkit for Lotus Domino applications has three basic components:
- A set of migration rules
- The Server Scanner for migration
- Documentation of incompatibilities
A set of migration rules
The set of rules for migration is a library of rules for analyzing IBM Lotus Notes/Domino applications. Many code classes, functions, keywords and parameters in version 6.x have different and in part incompatible meanings in version 5. The set of rules allows these incompatibilities to be documented.
The Server Scanner for migration
The Server Scanner is the central database used to examine the server system. The Server Scanner reads the database catalog of a Domino server and carries out an analysis of all databases and applications on the server system.
Documentation of incompatibilities
The documentation of the ebf.migration toolkit for Lotus Domino applications gives your developers an overview of all important aspects associated with application migration.
Are you currently aware of the problems associated with migrating Lotus Notes/Domino applications?
One of the most frequently asked questions by IT managers is: "Are you aware of the major problems associated with application migration?" ebf's answer to this questions is "yes".
To explain this clearly we would like to use an analysis example to present an ebf.migration toolkit filter function.
Analysis example
If in Lotus Designer Release 5 a keyword was used as a field name that by chance happens to be one of the new reserved keywords for LotusScript in Lotus Notes 6.x, the compatibility of applications under Lotus Notes 6.x can no longer be taken for granted.
Starting from the new properties and methods for the NotesDocument class in LotusScript you must ensure that none of the existing fields is named as follows: If the name "Lock" is given to a field for example, the application will display an error message if used on a Lotus Notes V6.x system.
We have set up an example database with only one document. This document contains a field named "Lock".
Then we create an action button in a view with the following code:
Dim Session As New NotesSession
Dim DB As NotesDatabase
Dim DocCol As NotesDocumentCollection
Dim Doc As NotesDocument
Dim MyValue As Variant
Set DB = Session.CurrentDatabase
Set DocCol = DB.AllDocuments
Set Doc = DocCol.GetFirstDocument
MyValue = Doc.Lock(0)
The correct value of the "MyValue" variable in the document is correctly returned to you when running the code in version 5.
In version 6.x this operation triggers the following error message:
Conclusion
The ebf.migration toolkit can do the following for your company:
- Simplify the planning of a Lotus Notes/Domino R5 to V6.x migration of applications by identifying potential problems before migration begins.
- Reduce costs by decreasing the time required for planning and carrying out a migration.
- Support provided by the developers for precise planning and scheduling of the application migration.
- Ensure the ability of your Notes/Domino-based business application to run even after migration.
If your company is planning to migrate to Lotus Notes/Domino 6.x or to do another source code analysis the ebf.migration toolkit is a highly efficient tool that supports the developer in carrying out such critical analysis work through automated processes.
