lekkimworld.com - LotusScript.doc category

LotusScript.doc v2 - an update on the progress

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:53:17 GMT

Besides working way too much I have spent a good part of my Holidays working on LotusScript.doc version 2 and I'm happy to say that it is very close to completion. I have spent a great deal of time finalizing the logging framework and building the Notes/Java bridge to allow you to run LotusScript.doc from a Notes database instead of as a command line program. I also needed to weed out some issues in this regard which is why I have been blogging issues such as configuring the java.policy file and the maximum Java heap size.

To clarify...

LotusScript.doc v2 is out in a very, very limited prebeta 1 with one person besides me to try and weed out the most serious issues before releasing a beta. Again a beta, at least the first, will only go out to a select number of people to try and keep track of who has what release.

The goals for the functionality of LotusScript.doc v2 are very big but for starters I'm going for feature parity with LotusScript v1. Then once the new technology is out there I'm going to start enabling the new and advanced features.

Thank you for your patience.

LotusScript.doc v2 - required Java heap changes

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:53:04 GMT

Strong: Just to clarify - LotusScript.doc v2 isn't out yet. It is out in a very, very limited prebeta 1 (one person besides me) in preparation for a more general beta process hopefully in the very near future. See this post for a clarification on the progress.

As you might know LotusScript.doc v2 is written in Java instead of LotusScript. This means that you have to make some minor changes to your Notes client to make it work. One of the settings you need to change is the size of the Java heap that is the amount of memory allocated to Java objects.

To change that you need to set the JavaMaxHeapSize notes.ini parameter as described in the Lotus Notes and Domino wiki. Although the wiki describes the setting as only being applicable to Domino servers it works just as fine for my test Notes client (8.0.2 Standard in this case). To change the setting add the following to your notes.ini (do check whether it is already set):

JavaMaxHeapSize=384MB

LotusScript.doc v2 - java.policy changes required

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:51:30 GMT

LotusScript.doc v2 uses java.util.logging as its underlying logging framework. To spice things up a little it also uses some internal magic to ease troubleshooting and provide easy debugging. One of these tricks is to print out the XPath expression of the element being processed in the log. More on this another time.

In order to use java.util.logging and set custom Handlers and Formatters you need to tweek the java.policy a little bit. It's quite easy as the only thing you have to add to your <Notes binary directory</jvm/lib/security/java.policy file is the following in the first "grant" section:

permission java.util.logging.LoggingPermission "control";

Here is a link to a default java.policy file and a changed java.policy file.

Question on LotusScript.doc HTML output

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:56:41 GMT

I have been hard at work on version 2 of LotusScript.doc and I'm getting very close to a beta candidate. My main issue is that I keep adding features instead of finishing the core product as I now have a framework that is far more extensible than the version 1 code.

I'm currently finishing the framed HTML output that also shipped with version 1 and in that regard I have a question for LotusScript.doc users. Which parts of the HTML output do you actually use? In version 1 you could select to include the follow design element types and have output about these output to the documentation:

Script libraries
Agents
Database script
Forms
Views
Pages
Shared actions

Which parts do you actually use? Is there a better way to do it? Any parts that should highlighted differently?

Please donate

Based on prior and recent recommendations I have set up a Paypal account to accept donations to finance the development of the free version of LotusScript.doc version 2. All donations will be very much appreciated and help me justify the time I put into this.

LotusScript.doc - HTML interface progressing nicely

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:41:48 GMT

Please donate

Just a quick update on the progress on LotusScript.doc v.2 which is progressing nicely. As you can see from the below screenshot work is well underway on the "default" HTML interface. The HTML files are rendered using Velocity templates. While making it easier for me to do the output it also makes it possible to create many other formats should need arise. Maybe even custom formats... :-)

LotusScript.doc - an update...

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:55:55 GMT

Please donate

As of today the (new) XML output format of LotusScript.doc is done and I'm starting on the HTML output format on Saturday. Maybe Friday night.

LotusScript.doc - an update...

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 20:27:52 GMT

Please donate

As promised earlier in the week I have been spending the weekend behind the keyboard working on LotusScript.doc version 2. While the weekend started with a lot of grief and unraveling Subversion merge conflicts I am now quite a lot further. The reason the my grief was that I started working on the LotusScript.doc codebase in my Eclipse 3.2 workspace whereas the latest code was in my Eclipse 3.3 workspace. So after resolving conflicts after an update, I moved the code into Eclipse 3.3 where I'm working now. The plan was to go to Eclipse 3.4 but that has to wait.

God thing I'm using Subversion for my code!

As of now (Sunday night) I'm happy to say that the major parsing is done and the engine looks very sound. I have to spend a little more time on tags (e.g. @param, @return) that span multiple lines in comments. The good news is that inline tags is done (e.g. {@link db.form PersonForm}). I also have the XML output almost done and I have started on the HTML output using Jakarta Velocity templates to allow you to change these if need be.

If you're interested you can see the XML output I just generated here (around 1 MB).

Performance using Java is in stark contrast to parsing LotusScript. A full parse of the LotusScript.doc v.1 documentation center database (incl. the entire LotusScript.doc v.1 codebase in LotusScript) takes around 3 seconds on my laptop running the code from Eclipse. I can't remember how long it took to parse the database with LotusScript.doc v.1 but I seem to remember it was much longer. Very nice... :-)

LotusScript.doc - development has begun (again)

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:32:00 GMT

So, inspired by many kind e-mails of encouragement, I'm restarting the development of LotusScript.doc v.2 (once again). The main difference is that this time I have actually set aside some time for the development during the weeekend and sent my girl friend off to Barcelona to avoid being disturbed... :-)

Based on prior and recent recommendations I have also set up a place to donate money to finance my development of the free version of LotusScript.doc version 2. Any donations will be very much appreciated to justify the time I put into this.

Look forward to an update during the weekend.