Issues In Previewing A Lotus Notes Application In Local On Web

Initially when I started to learn about web development in lotus notes, I started with the usual way by which I learned the application development in Notes Client.

So I created a database, created a form in it, Typed in "Hello Lotus Domino Web World" and previewed it on the browser.

That was how it all started for me.... A series of problems

1. The very first error that I received is
-----------------
Error 404
HTTP Web Server: Lotus Notes Exception - File does not exist
-----------------

The issue was that, I previewed it first on Fire Fox in Windows XP platform

Inorder to preview a lotus notes database on web, you ought to have nhttp task running on your machine. By default when a server starts it will automaticaly get loaded and if in case its not running u can pass a console command saying "load http" and the task will be loaded if its not running currently.

Where as in case of a database present on your local machine you have to initiate it manually.

And the simplest and only way i know to do that is to preview a form or a page present in a database in local on IE first.This will start the nhttp task on your local machine.

Then you can preview any thing on Fire Fox or other browsers directly.

2. Still my application failed to open as a result of some authentication errors.
Server Authentication happens as you load a page from the server. It will ask you for your Username and Password that it can recognize. But in case of local databases, there is no such phenomenon.

So the solution to fix this issue is Add a user named as Anonymous and give it at least Editor access.

This will help you in skipping the authentication part, but with a serious Security risk. Any one and every one will be able to access your database on the web if the use your machine.So I personally feel this is ok for learning purposes only

3. After a while, I happened to login into Skype for some official reason and left it as such. And then I switched back to my learning mode and started my work.
This time again, I had the very first issue, mentioned in this topic

Now the issue is the nhttp task on local uses your local port 80( may be 8080 ). Softwares like Skype also uses the same port. So your nhttp gets blocked.

So the solution is to exit any thing that uses this port to let your local databases be previewed on the web.
You may have to speak with your system administrators to sort out what is running on that specific port

Hope this helps :)