How do you add a button to the email message window toolbar in Lotus Notes 8.5+ ?

Question

A coworker has been struggling with this problem.

The desired result is an installable plugin for Notes that will add a button emails with attachments that will let users save the attachment to a document management system.

Finding documentation on doing this for Notes has been an uphill battle to say the least.

Writing the actual java to do the work isn't a problem, but figuring out how to extend Notes is.

So, is there a way to add a button/icon to the toolbar, or is it just a matter of adding a new toolbar? If we add a new toolbar then can we make it only visible (or just grey it out otherwise) when no email is open?

Answer 1

Both Lotus Notes 8+ and Lotus Symphony use the IBM Lotus Expeditor Toolkit.

If you get the Lotus Symphony SDK here.

Their are one or two examples dealing with adding button's to the symphony toolbar.

They should translate almost identically to Notes.

Good Luck,

Brian Gianforcaro

Answer 2

I had to do this once in Notes for a plugin I was developing. What I ended up doing was editing the Notes template in the designer, and then writing some LotusScript behind it that called a .NET class via a DLL. So when you clicked the button, it triggered the event in the LotusScript, and then called the DLL, and passed the item information to it.

I should also note that it was a freakin' bear to figure out because Notes documentation is terrible.

Answer 3

Depending on what access you have to the system the task can be fairly easy. Typically you customize your mail template to include a button in the inbox folder and the all documents view (for safety precautions see this entry). You customize ($Inbox) ($All) if you want to have the buttons only on the view level or additionaly the forms (there is a shared header subform you can use.
Give the button a meaningful label and add this code:

@Command([ToolsRunMacro];"(ExportDocumentsTo[yourSystemNameHere])")

The round brackets are actually important. Your code (Java I presume) the goes into an agent. You select "Create Agent" and Java as language. You specify "selected documents" to run against and agent list selection as trigger (this puts the () around your name). You can can get them from the Session class. If your users are ok using a menu instead of a button you can simply select Action list as trigger and the agent will be listed in the action menu.

Answer 4

From your question I gather you want this for the Eclipse client. Please peruse Mikkel Heisterberg's site LekkimWorld.com

It contains tons of material. Start by reading his presentations and search the site. It has a lot of useful material.