Common addressing views
Regardless of which Notes client your users have, there are two views which you'll want to include in your database if it's going to be cascaded. The two views are called ($PeopleGroupsFlat), shown in Figure A, and ($PeopleGroupsHier). Found in the StdR4PublicAddressBook template (PUBNAMES.NTF), these are the views that are presented to users when they click the Address button in a Notes mail message.

FIGURE A

Including the ($PeopleGroupsFlat) view in your database allows this dialog box to be displayed Click picture for a larger image.

The key word to keep in mind when looking at this view is "flat". By flat, understand that the view is presented to the user in alphabetic order by last name only with no other sorting criteria.

If your cascaded address book contains people from multiple organizational units, then you'll need the other view mentioned above: ($PeopleGroupsHier). This view, shown in use in Figure B, is responsible for sorting the names into organizational units, then, within the organizational unit, sorting by last name and first name.

FIGURE B

When the View by organization option is selected, this is the dialog box presented to the user. Click picture for a larger image.

With these two views in your design, your users will be able to address email messages from a cascaded database but you still won't have type-ahead addressing. For type-ahead to work correctly you'll need one additional view. Which view this is will depend on what version of the Notes client your users employ to access their Domino servers.

Notes 4.0 or 4.1 users
If you're using a Notes client version of 4.0x or 4.1x, then there's a single view that your application will need for type-ahead and addressing to work: ($NamesFieldLookup). Ideally this view should be copied from the Public Address Book template for your version of Notes and pasted into your application with the future design inheritance option turned on.

Notes 4.5 or greater
If you're using the latest and greatest release from Lotus, you won't need the NamesFieldLooup view. Instead, you'll need to have a view called ($Users) present in your database. This view, like all of the others mentioned so far, can be copied from the Public Address Book and pasted into your application exactly as-is.

What about mixed version environments?
Which views are required if your Notes users have a combination of 4.1, 4.5 and possibly 4.6 clients? That one's easy. Just be sure to include the views necessary for your target platforms. Other versions of the client software will ignore the views that they don't use. Table A shows a helpful summary.

Which fields are necessary for these views?
Now that you know what views are required for the applications, what fields are necessary to have those views work correctly? Why just your normal, everyday address-type field, of course, with a couple of significant additions.