Domino.Doc integrates directly with Notes mail, MS Office suite, SmartSuite, and many others. If a standard interface doesn't exist, it won't take much to develop one for yourself.

All the interfaces use Notes and Domino's authentication. They also use usernames and passwords from the NAB (names.nsf). As you probably know, this can be synchronized with NT users, and/or you can use the LDAP integration to authenticate SSL and other mail clients.

Together with the actual document, Domino.Doc uses customizable metadata to help you organize the document. The metadata is basically just a set of fields that you have defined on a Notes subform.

The fields that you define here will help you find the document again. They're also a way to force the user to decide on predefined categorization items.

Usage
How do we access data stored in Domino.Doc? Is it necessary to use the Notes client?

Domino.Doc consists of 3 clients:

Notes
The client here looks very much like any Notes database. It's not as fancy as it could be, but it provides you with all the standard features of Domino.Doc. However, it could use a brush up, as it looks more like something inherited from Notes R3.

The Notes front end, showing the Binders, is shown in Figure C.

FIGURE C


You can see the Binders in the Notes front end. Roll over picture for a larger image.

The views that are used in the Notes client are either Notes Folders or a special OCX view. When using OCX (ActiveX control) views, you get extra features and actions when you right-click on the documents. An OCX view with the properties for a document is shown in Figure D.

FIGURE D


Here is the OCX view with the properties for a document. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Open Document Management API
The ODMA was developed due to the fact that no standard method was available for a client to integrate with a DMS (Document Management System). A full specification can be found at http://www.infonuovo.com/odma/downloads/odma20-3.htm.

Vendors like Novell, Microsoft, and IBM were amongst the companies that were front-runners in developing the ODMA and supporting the standard.

The ODMA is a separate optional installation for a product like Domino.Doc. It will, however, give you some very nice features and close integration to third party applications. It also gives you a separate "drive" in Windows Explorer called "Domino.Doc neighborhood." This acts almost like a separate archiving drive.

There are two ways to archive documents by using the ODMA or desktop enabler. You can either use drag and drop in Windows Explorer, or you can use the custom interfaces built into applications like MS Office.

Browser
The browser is a nice alternative to the Notes client, as it gives you a nice up-to-date interface. However, there is a difference here as well if you have the ODMA installed. If you don't, you need to save and locate files in Windows Explorer when using check-in/check-out. If it is installed, it's a slick "Open" and "Save As" dialog box.

The browser supports both Netscape Communicator and Internet Explorer. The front-end for the browser client is shown in Figure E.