Customer Reviews

Lotus Notes and Domino 6 Programming Bible

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Executive Summary: Needs a special hardcover edition with a gem-encrusted leather cover so that I can stroke it with one hand while typing with the other and cackle, "My Precious, My Precious". It *is* that good.

Let me hasten to provide detailed reasons for this highly enthusiastic summation.

This is the best single book compilation of Notes development information that I've ever seen. It's slanted toward detailing the new features of Notes/Domino 6 (new features are flagged in the text), but is hardly limited to ND 6 features. Even experienced developers are likely to pick up useful information from the ND6 Bible. While this might not be the only book you'd need as a beginning Notes/Domino developer, it will serve as much more than a starting point. It's got lots of wise advice on Notes database design. You could learn all this though bitter experience instead, but why do that when you can just skip over many pitfalls with the aid of this book? The early chapters give all the detail a beginner or novice will need to get going. More advanced chapters skip the basic details, but whatever the level, this book is very good at giving you the why along with the how.

Many of the code examples not only demonstrate the topic under discussion, but show how to do useful things besides. If you're tired of books with "toy" code examples, the ND6 Bible is for you. In particular, Advanced Formula Techniques and Advanced LotusScript Techniques are two chapters that will be of interest to all but the most experienced of Notes developers.

Particularly providential for me were Chapters 43-45 on relational database integration. I'm working on a project that will need to do something along these lines. Various data integration options are described. Capsule histories are given when relevant. Most important are the tips on when to use and when not to use each of these technologies. These chapters saved me hours of research.

Often, we techies are too busy to read a huge book from cover to cover, so a good index is a key feature. The book has a good index. One feature I hadn't encountered before is that the LotusScript classes are listed in the index in a separate font and each class's methods are listed with it, indented slightly. If you haven't been exposed to OO programming, that won't make much sense so just trust me that this style of indexing is a big plus. You'll find what you want faster. There are good cross-references in the text too, a detail that is far too often neglected in other technical books. I'll have to pay more attention to the publisher's (Wiley) technical books in the future. These details matter a lot.

Technical books need code, but not too much. I've seen all too many books shoveled full of code that does nothing but increase the page count. The ND6 Bible has a good mix of code to text. It's there when it needs to be; it hasn't been dumped in indiscriminantly. The book does not come with a CD, but you can download the files from the publisher's web site. This can be done all at once or chapter by chapter if your download speed is limited.

Good as this book is, it's not perfect. I would have liked to see a bibliography and an appendix of web resources. There are links in the text though. Maybe they'll make these things available in the second edition or on their web site. The section on web applications is only an introduction to the topic (though quite a good one). I'd guess that the authors preferred to devote the space to more advanced topics. As there are whole books on the subject of Domino Web Apps, I can see why they'd make that choice. And finally, I have to throw in a technical nitpick. I couldn't find a caution against using the @now or @today functions in view selection formulas. Notes allows this, but it can bog down a server amazingly. Given all the other sage advice, I'm surprised this wasn't included.

In conclusion; if you're doing Notes and Domino development, buy this book! You won't regret it.

This is an excellent book. I have been developing in Notes/Domino since R3, and still managed to find quite a bit of information in here that was new. Brian, Rocky, and Richard present their information in a clear and easy-to-understand conversational style. Instead of the "I am the master; bow down in my presence" feeling that comes across in other programming guides, reading this book is like having a conversation with a more experienced mentor / co-worker. I highly recommend this book to both novice and experienced developers.

As with any book, it's only useful if it has what you want. Like many of the Bible series, it is rated for "Beginning", but it is really for experienced techs to add Lotus Notes to their skill set. The book assumes that you are familiar with scripting languages. If you aren't, don't expect this book to help you much. There are no reference materials for any of the functions or commands, no syntax helps, and no tutorials for the programming at all. Yet most of the chapters rely on programming extensively.

By far and away the best (and almost the only) book around for Lotus Notes and Domino 6 application development. A lot of technical books (especially for Lotus Notes) seem to re-hash the same old stuff, often glossing over or completely ignoring complex topics. However this book has it all and it an absolute must for Lotus Notes and Domino developers.

This is a great book for any Notes aficionado to own. Rocky Oliver writes with authority and clarity. If you want to add value to your ND6 investment then this is the book to buy. There is also a section by Richard Schwartz that is worth reading.

This book is not only the best book for Notes and Domino 6, including the IBM redbooks, but may be the best book every written for Notes/Domino technologies. The reason for that is it covers everythiing you need. Very comprehensive. The only downside is that its too heavy to ready in bed or carry with you on the train!

I bought this for myself and have bought copies for my team members. Get this now!

I'm surprised at the rave reviews that everyone is giving this book. I have this book and I've been reading through it and it starts off fine as it has you build a simple application in the beginning. I found that promising because I've never used Lotus Notes before so I thought this would be an excellent book. The only problem is that once you're finished with that chapter, it goes from good to really bad. The book then becomes a reference manual for the different aspects of Lotus Notes. It provides no tutorials whatsoever as one astute reviewer on here points out. If I wanted this kind of reference I could have read the help documentation for Lotus Notes. This book is only useful for people who have mastered many aspects of Lotus Notes and even then its explanations of aspects like commands are dry and not put into context.

Before I go any further, I have to disclose up front that I personally and professionally know all three authors who contributed to Lotus Notes and Domino 6 Programming Bible (Brian Benz and Rocky Oliver, 2003, John Wiley And Sons, 1032 Pages, ISBN 0764526111). And Rocky, Brian and Richard will all tell you that I would still be the first one to call it like I see it, regardless of relationships. So with that in mind, to every person who works with Lotus Notes and Domino, regardless of version, and to every person who has ever posted to the Lotus developerWorks forum asking about good reference material for development: buy this book and put it on your bookshelf. I may approach coding somewhat differently than the authors, but that is the nature of all application developers. But this book does something often overlooked in too many technical books: it not only talks about how things work in Notes/Domino, it also puts out best practices and explanations for these best practices based on the authors vast depth and breadth of experience.

Make no mistake about it, this book is a tome. You are not going to read it like a novel. You are going to pick and choose the pieces you need based on your experience levels and problems you are trying to solve. The publisher wisely categorizes this book as a "beginner to advanced" level, a point I think one early reviewer of this book missed. In a systematic format, the authors walk the reader from the very beginning of Lotus Notes as a product to the point where even the most advanced developers can benefit from the content.

Lotus Notes and Domino is all about design items and objects, stored as 'notes'. So the authors make no assumption of the reader's experience level. They start at the very beginning by laying the framework for a simple application. They then explain the notes storage model, which is often a hard concept for may people to grasp, especially outside auditors and non-Notes people. As a reader you are then given a detailed thorough explanation of the Notes//Domino integrated development environment, and then even more detail on each design element that makes up an application. For the advanced readers, there is detail coverage of data integration with Lotus Enterprise Integrator (LEI), Java and XML.

As I said earlier in this review, this book will be of value regardless of what version of Notes/Domino you are running because of the coverage of the underlying concepts surrounding development on this platform. Sure it will not help you with the introduction of DB2 as an optional back-end data store, but that is not fundamental to the platform (yet).

There is one, to me, glaring weakness in the book and I discussed this with Rocky. The book is huge and is packed full of great content. But the layout of the book by the publisher makes it hard for tips, notes, and new feature highlights to really jump out of the page and grab you. This is not the fault of the author's, but is something the publisher should look at down the road.

A Tip for Readers of this Book

This is a book that will get used a lot and as such, will fall out of the binding because of its size. The first thing I like to do with a book like this is beat the binding to the punch. I will remove the pages from the binding and put them in a three ring binder or binders. This will make it much easier to handle and give it a much longer shelf life.

Who Should Own and Read This Book?

This book should be on the desk of every Lotus Notes and Domino developer that cares about their work. It should also be in the possession of every internal and/or external auditor charged with auditing Lotus Notes and Domino applications, so that they understand what they are auditing.

The Scorecard

Double Eagle on a long par 5 playing into the wind.

This is the book I've been waiting for. It has a wealth of information organized in a way that meshes nicely with the Notes/Domino application development process. It more than paid for itself in the first day!

As stated in the beginning of the book, it's not a reference guide. It's intended to explain useful (new) features in Notes 6.
Also the downloadable example databases are helpful.
I recommend this book to all Domino Notes/Web developers.