Re: App. development in Lotus Notes / Domino

Ask a dozen people, and you'll a dozen different opinions.  Here's my 
experience:

Notes is good, and can be very good provided the application developer is 
very well trained, and has plenty of practice.  Someone coming from a 
VisualBasic background definitely has a head start.  If you install it on a 
400 the back-end access (thru LotusScript) is good; otherwise you've got 
ODBC issues to deal with.
Domino is basically the web server portion of Notes; we've had good success 
with it (at version 4.6.3).  Release 5.0.2 is supposed to be better, I 
can't say because I've not used it.  The Notes forum (http://notes.net) is 
filled with questions from very frustrated programmers, and administrators. 
 We have a site that is hosted by a Notes/Domino server: 
http://www.simas.com

I went to a class for Net.Commerce (another IBM offering).  It's basically 
a high-end cataloging application and server.  How high-end? LL Bean, JC 
Penney, Sears, etc use it. You can categorize your products any way you 
like, and the customer has various ways to search your product database. 
After you import your data from your back-end database (!), I'm not sure 
what interaction there is with the back-end.  Setting it up isn't too bad, 
lots of wizards and all that.  A plus is that Net.Commerce will let you 
define a "staging" server, where you can make changes to your mall and/or 
store and play with it before ever replicating the changes to your live 
server. However, if you want to go customizing it a high degree of training 
and practice will definitely come in handy.  Current version (as of a 
couple of months ago) used Net.Data commands for data access.  The next 
version will not, and will instead use Java (according to our class 
instructor). A nice plus is that it uses 'wallet' concepts.

Net.Data (another IBM offering) is a simple, but powerful, scripting 
language which runs natively on the 400 (and NT and others).  It has the 
EASIET access to 400 databases that we've used, and is the easiest for us 
because of our deep AS400 talent pool.  It will definitely require much 
more programming to set up a full e-commerce system.  We have a web server 
using a blend of CL, RPGIV, and Net.Data: http://idocket.com.

Tom
tomh@simas.com





"Vijosh.A" <vijosh@systsoft.com> on 01/18/2000 04:37:45 AM
To:     domino400@midrange.com
cc: 

Subject:        App. development in Lotus Notes / Domino



Hi all,

We are at the initial stages of a project in e-commerce. The project 
involves developing an inventory application which also needs access from 
anywhere in the world. Security and speed  is a prime concern. Also later 
the client wants net based  ordering etc. etc.. Apart from this they also 
want an intranet and a messaging system to be set up.  The intranet will 
also have access to the main application.

IBM is strongly recommending DOMINO + Lotus Notes for this purpose.

Can anybody suggest as to what all things we should consider before 
deciding upon the tool and the web server for this project?  And is 
Domino/Notes a really good combination? Are there any known issues that 
have come up while using this combination ? What is the rating of  Domino / 

Notes with respect to other web server / tool combinations like ASP/Java 
.. ?

Thanks in Advance

Vijosh


>From the Desk of :

Vijosh A.
Senior Consultant
Systems & Software
SEEPZ, Mumbai, India.

Tel  : (91-22) 829 0803 / 0075
Fax : (91-22) 829 2578 / 1389

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