For the ODMA32.DLL description, visit http://www.infonuovo.com/odma/downloads/odma20L.htm#ODMA32.lib-FileFormat.

However just to give you an example of how to declare and refer to the DLL in Visual Basic:

Again, the Infonuovo site listed above will be of great help in connecting and calling methods and functions from the DLL.

You can find an entire ODMA wrapper at http://odma.info/downloads/ODMA-OCX-200-0.zip.

This will give you examples of how to call the ODMA32 via Visual Basic.

If you choose to use HTTP calls, you'll have to build everything from scratch. If you use the ODMA32.dll, you will rely on Microsoft to continue including this DLL in future versions of their OS. However, it will provide you with a full programming interface to i.e. Domino.Doc.

ODMA and Domino.Doc API
When the ODMA has been installed, you can connect to the Domino.Doc server in a much more correct way, or rather, a more Domino.Doc specific way.

By opening the object browser in your Notes designer client, you will see many Domino.Doc related type libraries, but two of the most interesting type libraries (public methods and properties in a DLL) are Lotus Domino.Doc (DominoDoc.Api) and DominoDocUI (ddocodma.odmaui).

The object browser and the Lotus Domino.Doc (DominoDoc.Api) are shown in Figure B.

FIGURE B


Here is the object browser and the Lotus Domino.Doc (DominoDoc.Api). Roll over picture for a larger image.

The object browser and the DominoDocUI (ddocodma.odmaui) are shown in Figure C.

FIGURE C


Here is the object browser and the DominoDocUI (ddocodma.odmaui). Roll over picture for a larger image.

These are the two objects that you will typically use when programming Domino.Doc. The first one is the common API model, where you work with Domino.Doc in the "background," like when manipulating "notesdatatabase" and "notesdocument" objects in common LotusScript. The second is the entry point, when writing your own ODMA integrations to Domino.Doc. This is the ODMA interface that you use to navigate documents to and from Domino.Doc.

Let's briefly look at a few of the methods in the ODMA type library.

To get you started you can use:

This will let you get a handle to the ODMA interface. From here there are several options.

DoModalOpen() will present the ODMA open document interface. DoModalSave() will present the save interface. When you have called one of these methods, you will have to use either the property "openeddocument" or "saveddocument" to get to the document that you have chosen in the DoModalOpen/DoModalSave UI.

OK, lets try to use DoModalOpen():

Now we've got a handle to the document that we have just chosen from the ODMA UI. From here we can use the "DominoDoc.Api" the same way as we used "ddocodma.odmaui" in the createobject line.