Here at Teamstudio, we do our best to make Teamstudio Export as easy to configure as possible and we attempt to support as many Lotus Notes application design aspects that we come across, but there will be times things just don't seem to want to work.

The vast majority of issues that clients report while using Export can be grouped into five areas:

Errors in Export configuration/setup;
Performance-related concerns;
Notes/Domino security features;
Unexpected results experienced within PDF/HTML exports;
Export reports errors during archiving or the export process.

We thought it would be helpful to highlight some common problems and things to keep in mind when running Export against your Lotus Notes applications.

1. Help, It’s Not Working: Verifying Configuration Settings

Quite frequently, we find that users may rush through an install and configuration, either missing or misunderstanding a few settings' implications. There are a few critical configurations required to ensure Export is able to use the Notes client on your workstation to function correctly and a couple of not-very-well-known caveats to be aware of.

Export Target and Temp Folders:

Use separate folders for the three Export targets. Users may assign the same folder to all three, causing Export to overwrite some components of differing archive formats. This will result in archives that simply don’t work!
Use local paths when possible to help improve performance.
If network-based paths are required, use mapped drives vs. UNC paths as these are unsupported and may generate errors. Note: Symbolic links may also be used.
Do not use system-based paths for target folders and ensure adequate security rights on the folders for the user account whose ID you are using to create the archives.
Verify you have sufficient space on the volumes hosting the Temp folder to perform successful exports. Typically 2 to 2.5 times the size of your largest database is required. Usually this will be your System folder but you may also customize the location within the configuration.

You may customize the Temp folder location if your system drive is short on resources.

Notes Client Setup:
In order for Export to use your Notes client to create your archives, we need to know where to find it. This setting is quite often overlooked and many people simply set it to their Notes data directory or believe the path is based on using their Notes data folder as the root/source of the path.

Example setting based on Notes client install to C:\HCL\Notes

We attempt to detect this automatically but under a few scenarios, it may be incorrectly set. For example, in the case of multiple Notes client versions being installed on the same workstation, it can be hard for us to figure out which one to use.
The above is also true for the Notes.ini path setting
When set incorrectly, Export will fail and present the following error.
Please see our configuration documentation for detailed field-level configuration instructions.

See this? There is a good chance you have set the incorrect Notes client path in Export.

Full Access Administration and Notes ID:

Many users mistakenly set the “Request Full Access Admin” check-box believing it will give the configured User ID used within Export on-demand Full Access admin rights. Be aware that this is not the case. You still need the ID file to have Full access Admin rights on the security tab of the server document either as member of an assigned group or an explicit entry.

Does your Export Notes ID really have “Full Access Administration” rights assigned?

You may also see “you are not authorized” errors in your logs if you have set Export to request “Full Access Admin” but do not have the assigned rights.

2. Will My Export Complete Before I Retire?

For those of us who have been around as long as Notes, improving archiving performance is a valid concern. Large databases will take time, but there may be a few things you can do to help things along.

Use a dedicated Export workstation local to application hosting servers when possible.
Make use of the Process Queue. Export will handle up to 3 applications at a time, placing additionally assigned apps within a queue. This will ensure that there is always something for it to do.
Properly scope the size and time required to perform your exports and use additional Export workstations to break up workloads as needed.
Ensure that any network latency, connection, DNS or routing issues are eliminated or minimized.
Leave VPNs for remote working, not for creating archives of 150GB applications with millions of data notes.
Use local replicas or copies of applications to create archives.
Set Export to use local file paths for its archive, pdf and HTML folders.

Performing some general maintenance against applications targeted for Export will also help turnaround times. In the case of elderly applications that have not been used for a while you may find that their view indexes have been discarded. When using Export it will access all views and documents within your application, causing time-intensive view rebuilds in applications with large numbers of views and data notes. In these situations, implement the Domino Admin’s three amigos: Fixup, Compact, and Updall prior to creating the archive.

3. Data Note Peek-a-Boo: Export and Readers Fields

By far, the most common security-related issue our clients report is obtaining numerous “You are not authorized” errors when attempting to archive an application.

“But we have Manager level access on the ACL!”, they say. Which is perfectly acceptable for an application that does not use Reader fields within the Notes security model. When Readers fields are present, things can become complicated, and even more so when roles are used within the Readers fields.

The “You are not authorized” error is returned by Notes when we attempt to open documents within the application where Roles or Full Access Admin are needed but not currently granted, resulting in the error. Export uses specific Notes API functions to find out what documents are contained within the application (including those that can’t be accessed) so that we may issue such warnings.

There are a few different ways in which Readers fields and ACL Roles will affect Export.

It is also important to note when using the “Request Full Access Admin” check-box setting within Export to help with Readers fields that if the request fails, the Domino server will not provide any feedback to that effect and will silently grant regular-level access. Be sure to check that the Export ID file has been given Full Access Admin rights on the hosting server document as per our earlier Export configuration points.

If you receive only a small number of these “not authorized” errors, the chances are that the notes that are failing are actually design elements, for example, views or agents with “who can use” settings applied. In this case, there’s a “Find by Note ID” function in the Admin client that can help locate the elements triggering the event.

There are situations where setting “Request Full Admin Access” will also trigger authorization errors. If you create local replicas of databases to improve performance and they happen to have the “Enforce Consistent ACL” property assigned, the errors may also appear. You may attempt to resolve this last scenario by un-checking the request feature under these circumstances.

4. Unmet Expectations: Why Does It Look This Way?

Once an archive is created, the next logical step is to Export it to either HTML or PDF.

This is the point where you may visually compare rendered representations of your Notes applications and notice slight differences or issues when compared to the original application.

First, be sure to review the current limitations of Teamstudio Export and plan any possible workarounds accordingly if you come across any unsupported code or designs. For example, we have put a lot of effort into supporting a significant amount of @Formula code, but it would take decades to implement every single @Command to perfection. However, we continue to work to improve rendering based on customer feedback and requests.

Next, ensure you run the latest version of Export. Support for new enhancements happens frequently; you may have missed recent updates. And importantly, if you report these occurrences to us when they happen, we will know what areas to focus on improving support for next. Simply drop us an email to techsupport@teamstudio.com.

Above all else, remember to hang onto your archive as it is the "golden" copy of the point-in-time snapshot of your Notes application design and data. As we release patches and features to continue to make improvements to the rendering, then you can take advantage of any new Export version by rerunning your PDF or HTML export against the existing archive. You don’t need Domino servers to recreate the HTML or PDF exports, just a copy of Export and the XML archive.

5. Reporting Export Errors and Bugs

There will be times when you may experience an actual Export error that needs to be documented and reported to Teamstudio so that we can patch and resolve this issue for you as quickly as possible. Typically, we will want to see the log file and associated DXL file from your archive that represents the troublesome data note.

When Teamstudio Export reports an error with one of your application HTML/PDF archives it will generally capture the Note/DocID involved with the issue and generate a log detailing the error event. The header of the log file will detail the version of Export and Document responsible for the error. Similar to the log file below.

Export Version: 4.3.1-dd13573DxlExporter Version: 3.10.0.0

Exporting document 00061BD2

So in this case you would want to send in the DXL file for Data Note 00061B2 along with the log obtained by “Clicking” the appropriate link in the error report to view the additional details. Simply forward this to us at techsupport@teamstudio.com as we usually request this early on in the support process and it will help speed things along.

If you are unfamiliar with the design of the archive and how to extract the DXL file related to the Document captured within the error, please follow our KB article documenting the process in more detail: Sending Export Archive .DXL Files for Analysis.

We are always happy to receive customer feedback and feature requests to help improve Export. Reach out and let us know!