Lotus Notes and Domino Server 4.6
ISBN : 0672311429
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Sample Chapter From Lotus Notes and Domino Server 4.6
Copyright © Randall A. Tamura
What Are Lotus Notes and Domino?
Since the first release of Lotus Notes, any document, magazine article, or book that has discussed it first had to ask and answer the following question: What is Lotus Notes? Now, one additional question must be asked: What is Lotus Domino? I\'m sure that in the early 1980s--when electronic spreadsheets were first implemented--people used to ask what Lotus 1-2-3 was. People no longer ask about the nature of spreadsheets, and in the future, a question about the nature of Notes will seem just as superfluous. For now, though, it\'s an honest question, and one that must still be answered.People still ask what Lotus Notes is, because the product combines many technologies and does not fit easily into other categories for software, such as databases, word processors, or e-mail. In a sense, Notes is really all of these things, and more. Notes has created a new category called groupware, and Notes is the product that typifies the category. Although several other products are now implementing some of Notes\'s capabilities, none of the other products can yet match the broad coverage of Lotus Notes. With both client and server support of the Internet, Notes and Domino are providing unique capabilities in making groups more productive.
Notes itself is also in transition. Beginning with Release 4.5, Lotus split Notes into two pieces--the client, which is still called Notes, and the server, which is now called Domino. For all practical purposes, you can think of Domino as just a new name for the Notes server, but as we\'ll see in Part V, "Domino Server, the Internet, and Intranets," there is much more to Domino.
Notes as Groupware Infrastructure
As Chapter 1, "What Is Groupware and Why Is It Important?" introduced, a groupware infrastructure must be able to support (at least) three types of information management: communication, collaboration, and coordination. You will see throughout this book that Notes provides an excellent platform for these information management models. With these models, it is possible to create a rich set of applications to support business well into the next decade.This chapter discusses the three types of information management and how they appear to users in Notes. As I take you through a tour of the models, I will point out various items about the Notes user interface and their functions.
Following the description of the user aspects of Notes, some of the features available to developers are described. Developing applications for Notes and Domino can be a simple task completed by experienced users, or it can be very complex, enterprise-wide development efforts accomplished by professional programmers.
The last part of this chapter is a brief overview of some of the administrative aspects of Notes and Domino, including security and replication. The overview provided here introduces you to some of the important concepts so that you can quickly understand the rich details provided in later chapters.
This chapter, then, is a quick tour of the vast landscape of Notes. It uses the same approach as the entire book, providing you with user information, developer information, and administrative information. After you have taken this tour, you can explore the depths, the heights, and the nooks and crannies of Notes with the rest of this book.