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Tools Preview - The Element Library tool
Starting Element Library
From version 6.0.0, Element Library is the only NotesHound tool that exists as a stand-alone Notes Client database.
No Win32 version exists.
Starting the application
This can be done in two ways:
- Select 'Element Library' from the drop-down field in the top frame of the main NotesHound database.
This will open Element Library in the lower frame and all functionality is available.
- Start the database titled 'NotesHound Element Library' as a stand-alone database.
It works exactly the same as if started from within the main NotesHound database.
How does it work
The NotesHound Element Library tool uses specific terminology such as 'Get' and 'Put'. 'Get', for getting design elements from any Notes database, and 'Put', for putting design elements into any Notes database. When you first open the application you will see a screen similar to the screenshot below:
The initial default view is the one shown above. It lists all design elements that have been retrieved from other Notes database. Each retrieved element is stored as a standard Notes document with fields storing values such as: the source database server, filepath and name, design element type (form, view, agent etc.), design element name, design element comments, the design element DXL code is attached as a text file, and a list of template group names if this element has been added as part of a template build or builds.
You will also notice in the above screenshot, action buttons in the action bar such as 'Get design elements' for retrieving design elements from other Notes databases. 'Put selected elements' for putting selected design element documents into other Notes databases. Finally, you will notice the 'Assign to template' action button for adding selected design element documents to a template that you create. Within the view, as you expand and collapse categories, you will notice that each design document stub has a corresponding familiar icon and title, all familiar and recognizable within the standard Notes 6 Designer.
In order to retrieve design elements from another Notes database, simply click the 'Get design elements' action button. Within this application, Notes design elements you can 'Get' comprise of all the following:
- ACL
- Agents
- Database Icon
- Database Scripts
- Data Connections
- File Resources
- Folders
- Forms
- Framesets
- Help About document
- Help Using document
- Image Resources
- Java Resources
- Navigators
- Outlines
- Pages
- Script Libraries
- Shared Actions
- Shared Columns
- Shared Fields
- Stylesheet Resources
- Subforms
- Replication Formulas
- Views
- Web Services
Retrieving design elements from a database/template
Once you have clicked the 'Get design elements' action, a dialog box will be displayed as shown in the screenshot below:
Click the 'Select database' button (or use the 'Select a previously selected database' section) to get a handle to a source database we wish to retrieve design elements from. Once we select a database, the listbox for 'Available types' will be populated with a list of all design element types available for the selected source database. If you click on one of these design element types in the listbox, all design elements for this type that exist in the source database will be displayed in the right-hand multi-valued listbox.
The next step is to either, select specific design elements displayed in the right hand list box and click the 'Add selected to "get" list', or click the 'Add all to "get" list' button to add all the design elements to the bottom "get"' listbox. You can continue to do this for every design element type until you have built up all the design elements you wish to get in the bottom "get" listbox. This bottom "get" listbox is your list of desired design elements to retrieve.
If you want to add all design elements of all types to the "get" listbox, click the 'Add all to "get" list' button located under the 'Types' listbox. For a large database, this may take several seconds.
You use the 'Remove all' and 'Remove selected' buttons to remove design elements from the "get" list.
Once you are satified with your selections, click the 'Store in Element Library' button and the selected design elements will be inserted into the Element Library database.
Adding retrieved design elements to a template
Adding retrieved design elements to a template, or various templates, is an optional step in the NotesHound tool. However, it's a useful one, as many times you will want to 'Put' a whole host of common design elements into another database without having to select each and everyone of them every time. You'll just want to 'Put' and entire template, such as all images into another database at once. Template groups are also a good idea if you wish to maintain standards or control common code re-use within existing applications. Templates provide a very simple, yet powerful way to leverage these ideals.
You can select any number of design elements and group them into templates by clicking on the 'Assign to template' action button - see the following screenshot.
Once clicked, the 'Assign to Template' dialog will display as shown. If templates already exist in the NotesHound database they will be displayed in the list box of the dialog. You can select one or many of these template names to assign your selected design element stubs to or create a new one altogether.
Putting design elements into another database
So now we have retrieved all our desired design elements from various Notes databases, we may or may not have assigned our elements into various template groups, and now we want to put them into new or other Notes databases. The process once again is a simple one.
Select the elements you wish to 'Put' into a new or other database and click the 'Put selected elements' action button in the default view.
Once you have selected a few elements in the default view and clicked the 'Put selected elements' action button, the 'Put design Elements' dialog box appears, as in the following screenshot:
You first decide whether the target database is a new or existing one. If you click 'Use existing database' the button 'Select database' will appear (as in the screenshot above) enabling you to use the familiar File -> Database -> Open dialog.
Once you have selected your existing or specified a new database, click the 'OK' button in the dialog and the NotesHound database will begin putting your selected design elements into the specified database. Once complete, a message box will appear stating that the 'Put operation completed', then the dialog box will close. Now, try opening the database you put the design elements into, to see if your new elements arrived safely.
To 'Put' an entire template, click the 'Switch to templates view' button in the default view. Next, click the 'Put an entire template' action button. The 'Select Template' dialog will appear listing all the templates you have defined in the NotesHound database. Simply select the one you wany and click the 'OK' button. Next, the familiar 'Put Design Elements' dialog box (see above) will appear. Simply select or the database where the templates design elements are to go, or select the 'Create new database' radio button if you wish to create a new database. Click 'OK' to put the entire contents of the template into your specified target database. Once complete, a message box will appear stating that the 'Put operation completed', then the dialog box will close.
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