By Brian Arnold
For most people, upgrading to the latest version of an application is painless. You run the installer, wait for it to do its job, restart the program and voila! All of the new features are available.
For a programmer, it can be a bit scarier though. When your organization plans a rollout of the latest version of a platform that you create applications for, there’s always the fear that your existing applications won’t work anymore. Most times nothing happens, but depending on the complexity of your existing applications the chances something will go wrong can increase dramatically.
The same goes for upgrading to the latest versions of HCL Notes and Domino. When new versions come out there are always enhancements to the programming languages that you build your Notes database applications with. Inevitably your end users start calling you to “fix” the new problems in your code, when there weren’t problems with the app when it was running on the previous version of the platform. Then you start struggling trying to review your code to determine what the problem is, only to review your code and see no problems.
So, what is causing the problems when the new versions of HCL Notes and Domino are released? Why was it working before the upgrade? What have I done wrong? Many hours can be lost to investigation and remediation of your code that used to work perfectly.
Most of the problems will arise due to new Objects, Properties and Methods being added to the LotusScript or JAVA implementations in your new HCL Notes client. If you have used their names in your existing code then when your Notes database applications are opened in the new version of HCL Notes the user will get a plethora of error messages and the existing functionality does not work, or worse damages your data.
Or if your organization has made modifications to the standard set of Notes database applications that come with the HCL Notes and Domino platform, the upgrade will wipe those out faster than you can say “Yellowverse”. So how can you stop this from happening?
This is where our Notes Developer Tools can assist you in making sure that your Notes database applications do not run into these issues.
We have three main applications that can help you through your HCL Notes and Domino upgrades to ensure there is no downtime while you identify what is or will potentially cause problems when your end users also upgrade.
The first of the applications is Teamstudio Analyzer. Analyzer works by reading the design of your Notes database or template. It then creates a separate Notes database that represents the design. The resulting “analysis output” database contains a separate document for each design element (such as a form, view, subform, or field) with fields that represent each property or attribute of that design element. This database can be searched, or views and reports can be created to highlight potential issues before the application is deployed.
With Analyzer you can also perform an Audit of your design. We offer a set of Upgrade Filters that can be used within the Analyzer Audit system to quickly and accurately identify areas of your code that may be in conflict with the new functionality that is now available in the latest versions of HCL Notes and Domino. With Analyzer and the Upgrade Filters, you can quickly identify many potential issues prior to an HCL Notes and Domino upgrade deployment. Using the pre-defined set of filters, you can automatically identify problem areas such as obsolete functions, modified views in the Domino Directory, and identify areas in your code that use the same naming conventions as new LotusScript objects, methods and parameters.
Once you are aware of the areas that need to have design changes applied, you can use Teamstudio Configurator to very rapidly locate and replace the areas of your design that are in conflict with the new LotusScript objects, methods and properties. The Analyzer Audit Report will provide you with information about the areas of your code that are in conflict. Using the Audit Report, you can quickly perform the Configurator “Search and Replace” function to change your code so it is no longer in conflict.
If you have made design changes to one of the standard HCL Domino databases that are provided with the platform, you can determine what design changes have occurred by using Teamstudio Delta. With Delta, you can quickly see which design elements you have modified and how they compare to the design changes performed in the standard HCL Domino databases. This can help you determine if you should be updating the design of these standard HCL Domino databases or if design remediation needs to occur.
And with all of the above applications we also include an API where you can create your own automation scripts which can assist you in performing bulk analysis, audits, Delta reports and even perform the “Search & Replace” functions form Configurator on any number of HCL Domino databases in a single process!
The Teamstudio Upgrade Filters are available now to assist you through this process. To find out how to obtain these filters to help you through your organization’s HCL Notes and Domino upgrade projects, click below to start a conversation. We love to talk!