By Brian Arnold
If you are a user of Teamstudio Export (of if you have seen a demo of it), you will know about the HTML archives that it can create. This is a great way to retain the data that is contained in your HCL Domino databases in a read only, web browser accessible format. These HTML archives can be kept indefinitely for accessing the data in your old HCL Domino databases.
For our clients that have been creating these HTML archives it can become a challenge when the time comes to provide access to the many hundreds or thousands of HCL Domino databases that have been archived to this format. The current process, albeit very straight forward (create the archives, upload them to the platform of your choice, provide the URL Link to your users) can become difficult to manage if you have a large number of URL links to provide. Your end users can become overwhelmed with all of the URL links that are being sent to them and remembering which HTML archives are which.
That is why we here at Teamstudio have created a new utility to make the distribution of the URL links more manageable for both the person who is in charge of distribution of the links and the end users who must use them.
First, let’s talk about what will be needed in order to use the new utility. Below is a list of the prerequisites to using the new utility:
Access to HTML archives. The user of the utility will need access to the directory where all of the HTML archives have been created. This is needed in order for the utility to scan that directory and ensure that the HTML archives were created successfully.
Online HTML archives. The new utility is designed to work with HTML archives that have been uploaded to an environment where they can be accessed from a web browser. This can be any web server in your infrastructure, from HCL Domino to SharePoint to a simple Apache Tomcat web server. We have written about how to use these environments before and have also written in detail about how to import the HTML Archives into SharePoint.
The new utility itself. Of course, in order to use this new utility, you will need to download it onto your computer. Here is a link to download the latest version of the utility.
Once you have the new utility on your computer you can open it within your HCL Notes client. As it is contained within a HCL Domino database we recommend also re-signing the design of the HCL Domino database so that you are not burdened by all of the annoying execution control list warnings.
The HCL Domino database that contains the new utility is not new. It is in fact a redesign of our existing TS Export Config.js Generator that we have also written about in the past. The new utility is now included in the same HCL Domino database as the previous utility, as they both create altered output for the Teamstudio Export HTML archives.
When you first open the utility, you will be presented with a fairly standard looking Notes application. On the left there are views of documents, in the views is a “New File” menu. When you click on the “New File” menu you will see these options:
To use the utility featured in this blog post, we will be selecting “HTML Lander”. Once you have selected that option you will be taken to the “HTML Lander Page Generator” utility. The utility has 4 steps to perform. Once you have completed each step you will be immediately taken to the next step. At any time during this process, if you need to change the previous step, simply click on the tab at the top of the steps to navigate to a specific step.
On “Step 1” you will select the folder in your environment where the Teamstudio Export HTML archives have been stored. This can be your local hard drive or a shared folder on your file system:
On “Step 2” you will see a list of all existing Teamstudio Export HTML archives. From the list provided, select the HTML archives you want to use on the Lander Page and then click on the “Add” hotspot:
On “Step 3” you will see the list of HTML archives you chose. For each HTML archive you will now need to provide the URL to the HTML archive index file (“index.html” for Domino or generic web servers, “indexsp.aspx” for a SharePoint environment):
On “Step 4” you will have the opportunity to change the title that will be displayed on the HTML lander file when opened in a web browser. The default value (if left blank) is “HTML Archives”. Once you have provided the title value (optional) you are ready to create the Lander Page files. Simply click on the “Create HTML Archive Lander Page Files” button to generate these files.
Once they are created you will be provided the opportunity to open the Notes document where the Lander Files were saved. These documents are also accessible via the main interface for this utility.
When you open the document containing the Lander Files you will see the details of what the Lander Files include. A list of each HTML archive listed on the Lander Page will be displayed, along with the alternate title value (if provided). You can now detach these files and upload them to your system where the actual HTML archives reside (Domino, generic web server or SharePoint). You will only need to detach the file that is specific for your environment (“lander.aspx” for SharePoint, “lander.html” for all others).
Once the file has been uploaded to your environment you can now provide a link to that file to your end users. When they open the link, they will be presented with a list of all the HTML archives that have been configured for that Lander Page. You can make as many of these Lander Page files as you need, but make sure that if you need to upload them to the same directory that you make each of their names unique, else you will be overwriting any existing files!
When the end user opens the link, they will see the Lander Page with a list of HTML archives like you see below:
Now you can update the Lander Pages when you upload more HTML archives instead of distributing individual URL Links. This is a nice, clean way to provide all of the new HTML archives to your users!
If you just want to get on with it, there’s a handy button below to download the utility. Or, if you have questions or comments, let us know what you think by clicking the other button below to contact us. We love to chat!