Customer Reviews

Lotus Notes and Domino R5 Development Unleashed

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This books gives a head start development in R5 for already notes developers. I liked the casual language of authors. The book covers all the development aspects of R5 including Formula Language, Lotus Script, Java and JavaScript(it teaches you how to use JavaScript in Notes R5. You need to be familiar with it already). It also covers Lotus Components, Net Objects Bean Builder and Domino Global workbench. Not to forget the chapter on Project Design & Management aspects of Domino Applications. It is worth buying. The only problem is, the book is heavy and should have been hard cover bound. I am not sure i can have this book for too long. By the time i finish reading, the pages maybe separated from the book. Lots of useful trial software in CD. I liked the NetObjects Fusion.

As another reviewer states, don't buy this book to learn Java or JavaScript. But do buy the book. The authors continually look at all Domino programming/developing from an Object Oriented Point of view, which I found fascinating, and educational. Its caused me to rethink even the simplest Notes task from an OOP point of view, and I had not done that before.

What is nice about the book is that not only do the authors give you the "how to" of forms, subforms, outlines, pages, @comands/formulas, LotusScript, Java, e.t.c in Notes, they give you tons of tips/advice that are definitely on track with Best Practices for Notes. Plain how to's don't cut it anymore, and these authors know that--they give you the "why" and the "where" that is missing from so many instructional manuals.

A really complete, and well written book that I can honestly recommend. With such a lack of good Notes Development books out there (yet tons of Notes Developers), this is a refreshing change.

The book provides a great overview of R5 development techniques. Unfortunately, it is deficient in its coverage of Javascript. This is due soley to the fact that the publisher left out two chapters submitted by the author (I recently spoke with her personally). The missing chapters are supposed to be available at the publisher's site, but the download link was broken when I last checked yesterday. Their customer service did not return emails about that either. It's really a shame, as the author is very experienced in using Javascript in Domino, and teaches the Lotus Education course on that subject. If you need an overall development in R5 book, I would still recommend this one, but if you are specifically interested in Javascript, it would be best to wait for a reprint, or at least for the publisher to get the missing chapters available for download.

Despite the obvious error on the part of the printer or publisher (missing javascript chapters can be downloaded at mcp.com, search for the books ISBN) this book was well worth the price! I found real insider developer info here I was never able to find anywhere else. I've purchased other Notes books by S. Kern in the past and have always been happy and Debbie Lynd is a real "who's who" in the world of Lotus, I've been to her seminars and I would recommend anything she writes! If you are an experienced Notes/Domino developer, this book is a must have. Great tutorial, good reference, solid information that you can't afford to be without!

The first thing that came to me as I read the book was that if I had little or no knowledge of programming this would not be the boook for me. This book was written for programmers period. As a beginner you could not look at the sections on Java or HTML and learn it from what is written there. There is a lot of information about Lotus Development. The step-by-step examples makes each task clear and understandable. Screen shots of menus, message boxes and programming scripts assist the reader in explaining each task. For those interested in Lotus Developement this book would be a valuable reference that would be used time and time again.

I really can't add much to the positive reviews already given. I was also disappointed by the lack of JavaScript, but was glad to find that the additional chapters were available online (the link is working at the moment). There's definitely a tremendous amount of information here -- it might be slow going for a novice, but I think it would be valuable for anyone getting into R5 development. That said, I have to add that you need to read it carefully -- Sams' crew is not the most thorough of editors, from past experience, and this book is not an exception. The errors are not often and they are typically obvious (at least the ones I found!), but they are there. Still, a wholehearted recommendation.

This is the ideal companion volume to Rob Kirkland's excellent system admin manual. In this hefty book you'll find all you really need to know about formula language, LotusScript, JavaScript and Java to get cracking with R5 development. Granted, it doesn't go into as much detail on each of the "programming" languages as a book dedicated to each of them would but it tells you what you need to know and serves as a perfect launchpad for learning other languages at a later date.

Whereas my reference shelf holds about six R4 books which kind of cover everything between them, for R5 I own this and the Kirkland book and so far they haven't let me down.

Unreservedly recommended.

This book is supposed to be at a user level of Intermediate - Advanced. Quite the contrary. As a reference for experienced developers I found this book to be very disappointing. If you are relatively new to Notes this book could be of value, otherwise I believe your money can be better spent elsewhere.

I've had this book at my desk at work for over a year now. I still have not found one pratical use for this book. Every time I ran into a question developing a Notes application this book has been no help. A lot of the applications used in my business rely on LotusScript which is very weakly covered in this book. My advice, go to lotus.com and get their manuals. You'll be better off.

This book provides the info that Lotus SHOULD have included in Domino Designer's online help. I feel like Lotus ripped me off, and this book adequately fills the void. However, I was hoping for more in-depth developer's info. Instead, it's more suited to the novice developer or advanced user, and is definitely not a comprehensive reference. If you're a beginner, you'll find this useful. If you're a more advanced developer, or an administrator, then look elsewhere.