by Gregory Mazarakis
23. April 2009 02:03
It didn’t take much time to find out that approaching your Lotus Notes client using .NET technology can be done by using an interop assembly, name Interop.Domino.dll. After I found this piece of information I got so excited because there seemed to be a standardized way to approach the Lotus Notes client. And indeed, the assembly is filled with objects, interfaces, variables and methods that all reassemble around the functionality used within the client.
In a second stage into my research I thought I would “quickly” gather some documentation in regards to the interop assembly so I can understand the structure of the objects, the relation they have as also to locate the exact location of the data I need, to synchronize both collaboration platforms. It turned out that finding documentation on the interop assembly for the Domino directory is a challenge on its own. All I was able to find was maybe a dozen articles presenting some examples on how to use the assembly, but I failed to find even the smallest piece of information in regards to object structure, relations and contained data.
I did some reverse engineering by examining the assembly, assisted by useful information I found on www-12.lotus.com. The information provided here describes the properties and methods of an object, as also the hierarchy but its examples are limited to Lotus Notes Script. The syntax is similar to a Visual Basic syntax, but for iteration through collections they make use of commands that are not available in VB.NET. A bit of casting and converting will be necessary to get to the final data. As a result of this reverse engineering I think the following can be stated:
We have several physical files we need to access (I prefer to sync with local repository, instead of syncing with the server).
These files contain views; it is a matter of finding the correct one in order to synchronize contacts.
We have a Lotus Notes Session, which contains several databases represented by their physical names.
Both views and databases contain documents. Documents are the essence of the platform as they contain the actual information. The way they are presented on the screen seems to depend on which view they are outputted through.
Documents contain items; an item is an individual piece of data.
Off course I was able to gather much more information in regards to the assembly but I don’t think it is applicable to post it in this entry. It is to late... I need some sleep! If somebody needs additional information feel free to contact me... I will start building some prototypes now to see how I can reach the data.
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