DB2 will still loop the access through Domino to ensure that database ACLs, reader fields and so on are properly honoured, and on inserts and updates Domino checks to ensure that such things as replication conflicts and Domino document locks are properly handled, so a Domino authentication will still be required.

Secondly, there are SQL Query Views in Domino Designer. These are regular (well, nearly) Domino views, but instead of a Notes selection formula, they use an SQL statement to define the documents to be included in the view. Because DB2 is so fast, such queries will always be executed on demand, and the view won't be persistent.

What this means is that views can be parameterised (select something with my name in it, where 'my name' is that of the current user), something that developers have been wanting for a while, but which .NSF database with persistent views can't support. SQL Query views can also join with other Notes and non-notes data, and I guess, speculatively, maybe such a query can be done on all non-Notes data. What doesn't seem to be yet defined is what happens if you click in a view derived from such hybrid data.

Also new in Domino 7 are some significant extensions to Domino event monitoring and handling, like the ability to run an agent as a response to a specific trigger, enabling custom responses and actions to be developed by proactive admin teams. This is all single-server stuff, dealing with issues and events on each server individually.

The bigger news in monitoring on Domino 7 is Domino Domain Monitoring (DDM), a set of tools and functions aimed at monitoring parts of or the entire domain as a whole and dealing with multi-server and domain-wide issues. It will operate with sets of probes, both scheduled and event driven, and a collection/rollup mechanism. That collects reports for single servers or groups of servers, and can also roll them up further to higher levels.

This would enable, for example, a company with two sites to roll up at the site level, and operate with that data, and then further roll up to a single picture. The intention then is that actions can be recommended and acted upon across the whole domain or across affected servers, say to rebalance disk space or to deal with mail routing bottlenecks.

It's not complete yet, but the demos were quite cool. This will be a valuable addition to the armoury for many Admins.

Future Notes/Domino versions
Notes/Domino 8? Apart from the fact that Lotus' Ambuj Goyal mentioned it more than once in the opening session, not much else is known about features and functions in Notes 8, apart from the fact that it will happen.

But I did ask Heidi Votaw, Senior Manager of Product Development in Lotus's Messaging and Wireless Group whether there would be a Notes 9, a Notes 10, and she said that there would. However, what I think we can be fairly sure about is that the Notes 7 client will probably be the last 'traditional' Notes client.

And that takes us towards the W and J words: WebSphere, Workplace and Java.