Teamstudio Configurator is one of our oldest, and most popular tools. It was launched in August 1998, making it more than 22 years old, as of the date of writing this. We’ve sold tens of thousands of licenses of this tool, to Domino developers in more than 90 countries. What Configurator actually does sounds pretty humble, but is actually quite difficult to accomplish in a safe, reliable and user-friendly way. Which probably explains why what seems like a core feature of any self respecting IDE, search and replace, was never really implemented into Domino Designer. At least not for what you might call the traditional design elements (forms, views, etc).
Anyhow, the purpose of this post is not to wax lyrical about what Configurator does or how great it is. The point is that, in the course of the past 22 years of supporting this product, there have been one or two questions that have cropped up about it. So we thought it might be useful to pick out a handful of the most frequently asked, frequently asked questions, and publish them here. (Together with their answers, of course.)
So, here are the top five most frequently asked questions about Configurator.
1. Can I reverse a Replace?
Well, yes and no. If you’re using Teamstudio CIAO!, which is a full blown, centralized source code control system for Domino, or Teamstudio Undo, which is a lightweight rollback editing tool, then it’s easy. Configurator plays nicely with both of these solutions to allow you to undo a set of changes you’ve made to your database design. If not, then it’s a bit trickier. Your best bet is to repeat the search with the original “replace” string in the “Find” field and the original “find” string in the “Replace” field. That will locate all the changes made originally, but of course Configurator will not be able to distinguish between the original search's changes and any additional instances of the Find string that existed before the original Replaces.
2. Can Configurator search/replace properties of fields or elements?
No. Configurator finds and replaces strings only. Properties are not stored by Domino as strings. This includes fonts, which are considered a property and therefore not stored with the font name as a string. If you need to locate all instances of a property within a database design (such as a font you want to replace, for example), then you can use Teamstudio Analyzer to do this. Analyzer will create a Domino database containing all the properties of all the design elements in your database, which can then be full text searched to find all the instances.
3. Can I run Configurator against multiple databases?
Yes, there is a LotusScript batch mode that can be used instead of the UI which allows Configurator to be run against multiple databases. For more information, consult the Configurator User Guide.
4. Are there any parts of a database or design that Configurator can’t replace in?
Yes. Configurator can find and replace virtually any string in any database, but there are some areas where a replace is not allowed, for either technical or ethical reasons. These are:
Access Control Lists
Java code
$Readers/$Authors
File attachments
Outlines
To be clear, Configurator will search these items, it’s just string replacement that won’t work.
5. Configurator prompts for a database even though I have one open in Domino Designer. What gives?
Configurator will operate on the database that is the subject of the focus in Domino Designer - most of the time. In Designer, the focus of what the current database is may be lost by a number of actions (using the XPages perspective, for example). Using a right click in the Application panel on the database or a specific element, then selecting Configurator from the context menu may force Designer to regain focus on the database. Alternatively, opening an element before clicking the Configurator icon may also force Designer to regain focus on the database and pass it to the icon.
And that’s it. If there is some other little wrinkle that you have experienced, or something else you want to ask about Configurator, click below to start a conversation. We love to chat!