Create a windows folder (in Java)

public void createFolder(String FolderPath)
    { 
        try{
            /* By default the folders will be created in your workspace directory
             * Hence it is advisable to provide a proper path where you can find these directories easily
             */
            (new java.io.File(FolderPath)).mkdirs();
               
        }catch (Exception e){//Catch exception if any
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }//END OF createFolder

Check whether a directory exists or not (in java)

public boolean isDirectory(String folder)
    {
        java.io.File directoryName = new java.io.File(folder);
        return directoryName.isDirectory();
    }  //END OF isDirectory

Convert image file Attachment into a image resource

The following functions will help you convert image files attached in documents into image resources in the same database. Probable you may have to remove fragments that you dont want to use.

'**************************************************************
'@Purpose     :      To process file attachments and
'                        convert the same into image resources in the current database
'**************************************************************
Private Function ProcessAttachments(imageName As String,flag As String,imagePath As String) As Boolean
   
    'mark the flow of control getting inside the current function
    ProcessAttachments=False
   
    'declare variables and objects necessary for further manipulations
    Dim session As New notessession
    Dim tempFolderPath As String
    Dim directory As String
    Dim db As NotesDatabase
    Dim tempDoc As NotesDocument
    Dim entity As NotesMimeEntity
    Dim imageSize As Long
   
    'handle errors in case of abrupt termination
    On Error Goto processAttErrHandler
   
   
    'set the handle of the current database
    Set db = session.CurrentDatabase
    directory = tempFolderPath
   
    'create a temporary document to contain the mime entity of the images
    Set tempDoc = db.CreateDocument
    If Not( CreateMIMEEntity(imagePath, tempDoc, entity, imageSize)) Then
        Exit Function
    End If
   
    'create a dxl file of the created mime type
    If Not  CreateDXLFile( imagePath, entity, imageSize) Then
        Exit Function
    End If
   
    'import the created dxl file as image resource
    If Not  ImportDXLFile( imagePath, db) Then
        Exit Function
    End If
    'destroy the file created in the temporary folder
    Kill imagePath

    'mark the flow of control getting out of the current function
    ProcessAttachments=True
    Exit Function
    'log the errors that resulted in abrupt termination
processAttErrHandler:
    Print "Error ***" & Error & "*** occured on line ***" & Cstr(Erl) & "*** with error number ***"   _
    & Cstr(Err) & "*** in Method ""ProcessAttachments"" in script Library ""lsLookAndFeel"""
  
    Exit Function
End Function   

'****************************************************************
'@Created      :      2008/09/12
'@Purpose     :      To create a dxl file that resembles the dxl of design elements in Image resources
'                        provided the mime type of an image file   
'****************************************************************
Private Function CreateDXLFile( imagePath As String, entity As NotesMimeEntity, imageSize As Long)
   
    'mark the flow of control getting inside the current function
    CreateDXLFile=False
   
    'declare all variables and objects necessary for furhter manipulation
    Dim session As New notessession
    Dim stream As NotesStream
    Dim directory As String
    Dim imageName As String
   
    'initiation
    'handle errors in case of abrupt termination
    On Error Goto errHandler
   
    If Instr(imagePath, "\") <> 0 Then
        directory = Strleftback(imagePath, "\") & "\"
        imageName = Strrightback(imagePath, "\")
    Else
        directory = Strleftback(imagePath, "/") & "/"
        imageName = Strrightback(imagePath, "/")
    End If
   
    'create a stream
    Set stream = session.CreateStream
    If Not stream.Open(directory & Strleftback(imageName, ".") & ".dxl", "ISO-8859-1") Then
        Error 1405, "Cannot create file " & directory & Strleftback(imageName, ".") & ".dxl on the server."
    End If
    Call stream.WriteText({})
   
    Call stream.WriteText({
    Call stream.WriteText({ noreplace='true' publicaccess='false' designerversion='7'>})
    If Right(Lcase(imageName), 4) = ".gif" Then
        Call stream.WriteText({})
        Call stream.WriteText(entity.ContentAsText)
        Call stream.WriteText({})
    Else
        Call stream.WriteText({})
        Call stream.WriteText(entity.ContentAsText)
        Call stream.WriteText({})
    End If
    Call stream.WriteText({})
    Call stream.WriteText(Cstr(imageSize) & {})
    Call stream.WriteText({})
    If Right(Lcase(imageName), 4) = ".gif" Then
        Call stream.WriteText({image/gif})
    Else
        Call stream.WriteText({image/jpeg})
    End If
    Call stream.WriteText({})
    Call stream.WriteText({})
    Call stream.WriteText(Format$(Now, "YYYYMMDD") & "T" & Format$(Now, "HHMMSS") & ",00-00")
    Call stream.WriteText({})
    Call stream.WriteText({})
    Call stream.Close

    'mark the flow of control movingout of the current function
    CreateDXLFile=True
   
    Exit Function
    'log the error that resulted in abrupt termination
errHandler:
    Print "Error ***" & Error & "*** occured on line ***" & Cstr(Erl) & "*** with error number ***"   _
    & Cstr(Err) & "*** in Method ""CreateDXLFile"" in script Library ""lsLookAndFeel"""

    Exit Function
End Function

'****************************************************************
'@Created      :      2008/09/12
'@Purpose     :      To create mime content of an image file
'****************************************************************
Function  CreateMIMEEntity( imagePath As String, tempDoc As  NotesDocument, entity As  NotesMimeEntity, imageSize As Long)As Boolean
   
    'mark the flow of control getting inside the current function
    CreateMIMEEntity=False
   
    'declare variables and objects necessary for further manipulation
    Dim session As New notessession
    Dim stream As NotesStream
   
    'initiation
    'handler errors in case of abrupt termination
    On Error Goto mimeErrHandler
   
    'create a stream object
    Set stream = session.CreateStream
    If Not stream.Open(imagePath) Then
        Error 1404, "Cannot open file " & imagePath & " for processing."
        Exit Function
    End If
   
    imageSize = stream.Bytes
   
    Call tempDoc.ReplaceItemValue("Form", "Temporary Document")
    Set entity = tempDoc.CreateMIMEEntity
    If Right(Lcase(imagePath), 4) = ".gif" Then
        Call entity.SetContentFromBytes(stream, "image/gif", ENC_NONE)
    Else
        Call entity.SetContentFromBytes(stream, "image/jpeg", ENC_NONE)
    End If
    Call entity.EncodeContent(ENC_BASE64)
    Call stream.Close
    'mark the flow of control moving out of the current function
    CreateMIMEEntity=True
    Exit Function
mimeErrHandler:
    Print "Error ***" & Error & "*** occured on line ***" & Cstr(Erl) & "*** with error number ***"   _
    & Cstr(Err) & "*** in Method ""CreateMIMEEntity"" in script Library ""lsLookAndFeel"""   
    Exit Function
End Function

'****************************************************************
'@Created      :      2008/09/12
'@Purpose     :      To import a dxl file in to the current database
'****************************************************************
Private Function ImportDXLFile( imagePath As String, db As NotesDatabase) As Boolean
   
    'mark the flow of control getting inside the current function
    ImportDXLFile=False
   
    'declaring variables and objects necessary for further manipulation
    Dim session As New notessession
    Dim stream As NotesStream
    Dim importer As NotesDXLImporter
    Dim dxlPath As String
   
    'initiation
    'handle errors in case of abrupt termination
    On Error Goto errHandler
   
    dxlPath = Strleftback(imagePath, ".") & ".dxl"
   
    Set stream = session.CreateStream
    If Not stream.Open(dxlPath, "ISO-8859-1") Then
        Error 1406, "Cannot open file " & dxlPath & " after it was created."
    End If
   
    Set importer = session.CreateDXLImporter(stream, db)
    importer.ReplaceDBProperties = False
    importer.ReplicaRequiredForReplaceOrUpdate = False
    importer.DesignImportOption = DXLIMPORTOPTION_REPLACE_ELSE_CREATE
    Call importer.Process
    Call stream.Close

    'mark the flow of control movingout of the current function
    ImportDXLFile=True
   
    Exit Function
    'log the errors that resulted in abrupt termination
errHandler:
    Print "Error ***" & Error & "*** occured on line ***" & Cstr(Erl) & "*** with error number ***"   _
    & Cstr(Err) & "*** in Method ""ImportDXLFile"" in script Library ""lsLookAndFeel"""


    Exit Function
End Function

Function to Enable or Disable a scheduled agent (#2) - Added param

Function scheduledAgentSetEnabled(enable As Boolean, targetDB As NotesDatabase,scheduledAgentName As String) As Boolean
'***************************************************************
'@Purpose    :    To enable or disable a scheduled agent in target database
'@Param       :     enable - boolean, true if agent is to be enabled and false otherwise
'@Param       :     targetDB - NotesDatabase, database in which the agents have to be processed
'@Param       :     scheduledAgentName - String, name of the agent on which the operation has to made
'@Name        :    scheduledAgentSetEnabled
'@Author        :    Karthikeyan A
'@Return        :    Boolean. True if the operation completes successfully and false other wise
'***************************************************************
   
    'mark the flow of control getting inside the current function
    scheduledAgentSetEnabled=False
   
    'constants used in this function
    Const TITLE_ITEM="$Title"
    Const ASSIST_FLAG_ITEM="$AssistFlags"
   
    'declare variables and objects necessary for further manipulation
    Dim nc As notesnotecollection
    Dim desDoc As NotesDocument
    Dim noteID As String
    Dim assistFlags As String
   
    'handle errors in case of abrupt termination
    On Error Goto errHandler
    If Not targetDB.IsOpen Then
        Exit Function
    End If
   
    'get the notes collection of all the agents in the current database
    Set nc=targetDB.CreateNoteCollection(False)
    nc.SelectAgents=True
    Call nc.BuildCollection()
    'get the first noteid from the notes design document collection
    noteID=nc.GetFirstNoteId
    'loop through the design document collection using the noteIDs and enable or diable the agent whose title matches
    'input parameter- agent name
    Set desDoc=targetDB.GetDocumentByID(noteID)
    While Not desDoc Is Nothing       
        If Ucase(desDoc.GetItemValue(TITLE_ITEM)(0))=Ucase(scheduledAgentName) Then
            assistFlags=desDoc.GetItemValue(ASSIST_FLAG_ITEM)(0)
           
            If enable Then
                If Not Instr(Ucase(assistFlags),"E") Then
                    assistFlags=assistFlags & "E"
                End If
            Else
                While Instr(Ucase(assistFlags),"E")
                    assistFlags=Replace(Ucase(assistFlags),"E","")               
                Wend
            End If   
            Call desDoc.ReplaceItemValue(ASSIST_FLAG_ITEM,assistFlags)       
            Call desDoc.Save(True,False)
           
        End If
        noteID=nc.GetNextNoteId(noteID)
        Set desDoc=targetDB.GetDocumentByID(noteID)
    Wend
   
        'mark the flow of control moving out of the current function
    scheduledAgentSetEnabled=True
   
    Exit Function
    'inform the user regarding the errors that resulted in abrupt termination
errHandler:
    If Err=4270 Then Exit Function   
    Msgbox "Error ***" & Error & "*** occured in line ***" & Cstr(Erl) & "*** with error number ***" & Cstr(Err) & "*** in agent scheduledAgentSetEnabled(enable As Boolean, agentName As String)"
    Print "Error ***" & Error & "*** occured in line ***" & Cstr(Erl) & "*** with error number ***" & Cstr(Err) & "*** in agent scheduledAgentSetEnabled(enable As Boolean, agentName As String)"
    Exit Function
End Function

Query String in XPages

Assuming that you pass parameters to xpages as indicated in the following link....

http://xyz.com/abc.xsp?solo="polo"

To retrieve or extract parameters.

var externalContext=facesContext.getExternalContext();
var servletRequest=externalContext.getRequest();
var queryString=servletRequest.getQueryString();
return queryString

it will return solo=polo.

You can also perform the following operation.

var exCon = facesContext.getExternalContext();
var request = exCon.getRequest(); // This is the actual HTTP servlet request...
var paramValue = request.getParameter("paramName");
return paramValue;

it will return polo.

Function to Enable or Disable a scheduled agent

Function scheduledAgentSetEnabled(enable As Boolean, scheduledAgentName As String) As Boolean
'***************************************************************

'@Purpose    :    To enable or disable a scheduled agent
'@Name        :    scheduledAgentSetEnabled
'@Author        :    Karthikeyan A
'@Return        :    Boolean. True if the operation completes successfully and false other wise
'***************************************************************
   
    'mark the flow of control getting inside the current function
    scheduledAgentSetEnabled=False
   
    'constants used in this function
    Const TITLE_ITEM="$Title"
    Const ASSIST_FLAG_ITEM="$AssistFlags"
   
    'declare variables and objects necessary for further manipulation
    Dim session As New NotesSession
    Dim currDB As notesdatabase
    Dim nc As notesnotecollection
    Dim desDoc As NotesDocument
    Dim noteID As String
    Dim assistFlags As String
   
    'handle errors in case of abrupt termination
    On Error Goto errHandler
    'set the handle for the current database
    Set currDB=session.CurrentDatabase
    'get the notes collection of all the agents in the current database
    Set nc=currDB.CreateNoteCollection(False)
    nc.SelectAgents=True
    Call nc.BuildCollection()
    'get the first noteid from the notes design document collection
    noteID=nc.GetFirstNoteId
    'loop through the design document collection using the noteIDs and enable or diable the agent whose title matches
    'input parameter- agent name
    Set desDoc=currDB.GetDocumentByID(noteID)
    While Not desDoc Is Nothing       
        If Ucase(desDoc.GetItemValue(TITLE_ITEM)(0))=Ucase(scheduledAgentName) Then
            assistFlags=desDoc.GetItemValue(ASSIST_FLAG_ITEM)(0)
           
            If enable Then
                If Not Instr(Ucase(assistFlags),"E") Then
                    assistFlags=assistFlags & "E"
                End If
            Else
                While Instr(Ucase(assistFlags),"E")
                    assistFlags=Replace(Ucase(assistFlags),"E","")               
                Wend
            End If   
            Call desDoc.ReplaceItemValue(ASSIST_FLAG_ITEM,assistFlags)       
            Call desDoc.Save(True,False)
           
        End If
        noteID=nc.GetNextNoteId(noteID)
        Set desDoc=currDB.GetDocumentByID(noteID)
    Wend
   
        'mark the flow of control moving out of the current function
    scheduledAgentSetEnabled=True
   
    Exit Function
    'inform the user regarding the errors that resulted in abrupt termination
errHandler:
    If Err=4270 Then Exit Function   
    Msgbox "Error ***" & Error & "*** occured in line ***" & Cstr(Erl) & "*** with error number ***" & Cstr(Err) & "*** in agent scheduledAgentSetEnabled(enable As Boolean, agentName As String)"
    Print "Error ***" & Error & "*** occured in line ***" & Cstr(Erl) & "*** with error number ***" & Cstr(Err) & "*** in agent scheduledAgentSetEnabled(enable As Boolean, agentName As String)"
    Exit Function
End Function

My Unanswered questions in XPages

 Assume that you have a Edit box control named "MyXSPField" on a XPage.
Now If I want to retrieve the value of the same on a button click, I can do it in the following ways,
 i,
   var fieldValue=document.getElementById("#{id:MyXSPField}").value

 ii,
   var computedId= "#{id:MyXSPField}";
   var fieldValue=document.getElementById(computedId).value

But when I attempt to split the parameter as follows, no matter what ever way that I try, which makes sense to me, the attempt fails to give me the field value
 i,
   var editControlName="MyXSPField";
   var computedId= "#{id:"+editControlName+"}";
   var fieldValue=document.getElementById(computedId).value


 ii,
   var editControlName="MyXSPField";
   var fieldValue=document.getElementById("# 
   {id:"+editControlName+"}").value

 iii,
   var editControlName="MyXSPField";
   eval ('var fieldValue=document.getElementById("#
   {id:"+editControlName+"}").value');

 iv,
   var editControlName="MyXSPField";
   eval ('var fieldValue=document.getElementById("# 
   {id:"'+editControlName+'"}").value');

 v,
   I have tried replacing # by $ in all of the above mentioned attempts

Yes.. All of these attempts fail. I understand that I am breaking the EL (expression language) and that might be the issue....

But is there a way to instruct the XPage compiler to complile the dynamically created EL, 'cos this is a real worrying issue

Getting an xpage component's id programatically when the same is clicked

Create an XPage.

Drag and Drop a button Control on to it and give the button a name and a label

Now on the events tab of the button, in the onclick event, select client side and type in the following code

var currId = thisEvent.target.id;
alert(currId);

Now and preview your XPage and click the button.

The result would be an alert box with the id of the button control that you have mentioned in the XPage. Again it will not be exactly the same but will be along with a pattern generated by the XPage and the same will be consistent.

"onload" Event in XPages

Developers who are experienced in traditional web applications in Lotus Notes it becomes a nightmare when they start to work with XPages.

One of the initial issues that I faced is - the struggle to gain control of the onload event in the XPages as the available events in the XPages like the afterPageLoad etc... only allows Serverside script and it becomes expensive to hit the server every time in terms of application's performance.

The following code fragment shall help people who face this issue, and will help them gain access to the XPage's onload event.

<script language="Javascript">
XSP.addOnLoad(alert('I am in XPage onload'));
</script></b>

Add this snippet of code in the Source panel and ensure that it is not nested inside any other existing tags.An ideal place would beneath the lines which say (sort of),

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xp:view xmlns:xp="http://www.ibm.com/xsp/core">
 
Now after performing the above step, preview your XPage and voila, you will get the alert saying "I am in XPage onload"

Remote Desktop from command prompt

Open up the command prompt and type in the following command.

"mstsc" and press enter. This will bring up the remote desktop connection wizrd asking for the ip of the machine to which you want to remote to.

This is an alternate way for doing the following
Start-> All Programs-> Accessories-> Remote Desktop Connection

Also you can type the same in Run Dialog
Start-> Run-> mstsc and hit enter