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Lotusphere and social computing: taking action (continued)
Technicians can select the required product line from a cascading menu and can browse through a tree model of the parts list. Having found what they need, they directly connect with the ordering department to request the required spare parts. The big challenge when developing this application was to meet the statement pronounced in the opening session of Lotusphere 2007 by Mike Rhodin: go for the user, make applications as convenient to use as possible. It is the employees that earn the dollar for the company, so give them the tools they need and want to get their work done.
For this reason, a Web 2.0 JavaScript framework was developed not only for the product catalog itself, but also for the editing area of the product catalog. Editors are provided the complete list of spare parts and they have to decide what spare parts will go online and assign them to a product hierarchy.
With this Web 2.0 JavaScript framework, they now click a spare part in the list and just drag & drop it into the product hierarchy. No rich client is needed, everything takes place in the web browser. Catalog editing couldn't be any easier, as shown in Figure A.
FIGURE A
 
The drag & drop feature provides rich client feeling. Roll over picture for a larger image.
There are a lot of free JavaScript frameworks out on the Internet which you can use to enhance your own applications. They contain lots of helpful tools for DOM processing, visual effects, drag & drop, widgets and more.
AJAX
Some of these JavaScript frameworks support AJAX functionality which can extremly leverage the usability of Web applications. In the Fresenius project, we used AJAX to store data of image hotspots in Domino. Catalog editors draw clickable hotspot areas on product pictures (leading to detail pictures) and AJAX sends the information back to Domino, placing the hotspot information into the Notes documents as DXL.
Even though data is transfered from the frontend to the backend, the user interface does not change or reload, so rich client feeling can be provided to the user. There are alread some pages on the Internet, where you can find AJAX code snippets for Domino operations like DBLookup or DBColumn.
Next week, Marcus continues his discussion with an even more fascinating look at the new Web 2.0 technology.
Marcus Foerster works as a Senior Consultant for Pentos AG. One of his main fields is the Web 2.0 enablement of Domino applications.
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