Now, Teamstudio (of Ciao! fame) has stepped into the breach with their LotusScript browser. It doesn't quite do all the work you might want a Script browser to do, but it comes pretty close. And, thanks guys, it's free. You do need to register in order to be able to download it, which I suspect means that as they get your phone and email address, you might get the odd call or email. But I think you'll find it's a fair exchange.

The downloads include a PDF file describing what it will do, and a zipped Notes database containing the installer. You actually install it from inside Notes. They also tell you that while it works with Notes 5, you need Designer 6 or above to get the most from it. For this article I used Notes 7 beta 3 and had just one issue, as you will see.

The install was easy; just open the Notes database and follow the prompts. I got a couple of Cross-Certification requests to /Teamstudio and to /Teamstudio Inc, then a veritable flurry of ECL (Execution Control List) violations for both Teamstudio Template Development and Craig Shulmann/Teamstudio. Figure A shows what you give away by accepting these.

FIGURE A

Shown here are the ECL violations I encountered. Click picture for a larger image.

I guess you could instead sign the database before you start. You then need to restart Notes to get access to the Toolbar icon that starts the Script Browser. When I started to shut Notes down to restart it, I got a Redbox error. Now, I know that my Notes is a beta, and that beta stands for broken, so that RedBox may not be the installers fault. But be warned and play it safe; don't do the install without saving everything you need to save.

On starting up Notes, I found the Smarticon as a floating window with an icon-less icon on my workspace, see figure B.

FIGURE B

The icon-less Teamstudio Script Browser icon. Click picture for a larger image.

I moved the floater back to the toolbar area, and it snapped into place, still without a Toolbar icon. As the Toolbar seems to be slightly challenged in Notes 7 beta 3, I didn't fiddle with it too much. I did do a bit of digging in the Installer database to see if I could find it; I found a bitmap version of the icon, but not the GIF that Notes 6 and 7 require for a toolbar icon. By the way, the Teamstudio installer database isn't design-protected and is worth digging around a little to see how they've done stuff with the Notes API and so on.