Link to a Lotus Notes email from a web app

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Link to a Lotus Notes email from a web app

I have a web app that can bring up a series of cases. Sometimes, a user may want to connect a case with a particular email in Lotus Notes. I use the term 'connect' loosely -- I'm not sure exactly what I want because I don't know all of my options, but I'm looking for some way to say "this case right here goes with that email over there."

I need a way to create that relationship, even if it's as simple as providing a hyperlink in the web app which opens the email in Lotus Notes. Is it possible to create such a link? How about if I wanted the web app to be able to pull up the content (message body, sender, recipients) of that email?

If you just want to create a link, and your users are all using Windows, you can take advantage of the URL protocol association that gets installed that makes notes:// URLs open the Notes client.

To get the URL, go to the email and click File > Document Properties. Go to the < + > tab and then copy the Notes URL listed in the Identifier section.

I believe this feature came about in version 6 and is turned on by default for all Notes clients after that on Windows.

If that won't work for you, your next best option is to create fields in your Web app where people can copy the message body, sender, recipients, etc.

Lastly, you can connect to Notes using Notes APIs to pull content from databases, but it is much more work, and it doesn't sound like you're looking to make this project that complicated.

Ken Pespisa 2010-08-04 21:32:26

Thanks. Unfortunately those URLs seem to be relative to the user's mailbox. Another user cannot open the email even if they were also a recipient and have the email sitting in their inbox ("You are not authorized to perform that operation"). Also, once the email is deleted it is no longer accessible for anyone via that link.I will see if the fields for copying the email contents is a viable option before taking a stab at the API.

Ellsass 2010-08-05 13:43:38

Right, it links directly to the specific user's mailbox, which other users must not have access to view.You make a good point about deleted email. Even via the API, you would run into that problem. The best solution is to make a copy of the information in your web app. Or have people forward the emails into another central Notes database to which everyone has access. Then the Notes URL link would work.

Ken Pespisa 2010-08-05 13:46:42

ansaurus

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Link to a Lotus Notes email from a web app

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