What kind of applications do you run on the Notes client stand-alone?

June 25 2009

Having some interesting discussions these days about the Notes client as an end-user tool all by itself.  In most organizations, the value of Notes is tied directly to the Domino server deployment -- in other words, everyone is running apps that are served by Domino or integrated with Domino.  The personal address book, journal, plug-ins/widgets, and Symphony are components of Notes 8, though, that deliver value in the end-user's own desktop environment, not related to a connection to Domino.

Are there other Notes applications that you and/or your organization use widely that run stand-alone on your Notes clients, not connected to Domino?  Is this a big portion of Notes usage in the market today?

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Notes and Domino 8.5  Add/View Comments [90]

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  1. 1  Martin http://martinhumpolec.cz | 6/25/2009 11:39:34 AM

    In company environment there is none - doesn't make sense at least from backup point of view.

    For my personal usage I run one - kind of "money diary". And that probably is.

    Well of course - you can count email from POP3 or IMAP but otherwise?

  1. 2  tom oneil http://www.codepress.net/b | 6/25/2009 11:40:26 AM

    I think RightFax applies here... yes? That's the only application I can think of that we use.

  1. 3  Karsten Lehmann http://www.mindoo.com | 6/25/2009 11:45:11 AM

    There is a demand from a business partner perspective to leverage the Notes API features like the secure data storage and the replication for customers that do not have a Domino infrastructure in their organisation.

    We develop the mindmapping and project management application MindPlan for Haus Weilgut, one of our partners, and they are interested in extending their target audience to non-Notes companies without the need to rewrite the MindPlan product.

    MindPlan stores its mindmap nodes in NSF data stores, but as a standalone application does not use much of the rest of Lotus Notes.

    So it would be interesting to have the pure Notes runtime engine without the UI in this case.

  1. 4  Dave Harris http://www.wavysworld.com | 6/25/2009 11:49:27 AM

    I month or so back, I spent a couple of hours in Lotuscript writing an agent that will parse an LDIF export from a customer's AD (sigh, they went to the Dark Side) into Notes documents.

    Saves me about an hour a day. Once I get more work done on it, it'll probably save each of my team an hour a day as well.

    I know this has probably been done many times before, and better, but for an Exchange admin, as I am now, as well as Domino, to have this sort of information available in a view, or views, rather than the damn useless property boxes of MS, is priceless.

    The same customer's UK arm uses our R5 era timesheets system for its billing and planning still, two years after mail was migrated, and a web based R5 app for its HR.

    We use the same timesheet and HR systems internally, plus our own CRM system (inherited from a partner company, along with a couple of support contracts). The problem is convincing our management team that these apps need to be brought into the 21st century, because they really look like R5 apps.

  1. 5  Joseph Hoetzl http://www.josephhoetzl.com | 6/25/2009 11:55:01 AM

    Wow, I can't think of much more than my own personal stuff that the average user would use on their desktop, and even then, if it is an NSF, I'd replicate it to have a backup, which stops it from being truly stand alone. I guess you could have some nifty sidebar widgets, but they usually read/write data from somewhere outside the desktop. I just can't see how this would be a widely seen situation in the wild. I don't know of anyone who runs a Notes client just for hosting something else on their home pc.

    Looking forward to seeing if someone comes up with something here...

  1. 6  Eric Mack http://www.EricMackOnline.com | 6/25/2009 12:13:01 PM

    Ed, are you asking if people think there is a market for Notes as a stand-alone personal communications and information management tool for end-users? (e.g. personal use, SMBS, etc, as a replacement for stand-alone Outlook or Entourage, etc)?

    It seems that people are responding from a variety of contexts. Given the audience, I would expect that some people may not have considered the value of Notes apart from Domino.

    I want to get clear on the question you are asking.

  1. 7  David Leedy http://www.lotusnotebook.com | 6/25/2009 12:15:33 PM

    We don't use anything today that doesn't connect to the server. But I believe there's a market for stand-alone apps.

    Look at Eric Mack's eProductivity? People are asking to use that against an IMAP mail server. They want the program to manage their email because it's that good by itself.

    I've personally had recent discussions with several people who use e-mail (of course) but also have personal data tracking needs that Notes applications could solve very nicely. But they're not going to run their own server and Domino application hosting doesn't seem to be a good fit. They just want to have these additional programs on their laptops.

    I think that if the Notes Client had a little improved IMAP connectivity to solve some of the e-mail pain, we would see a growth of stand alone applications being used.

  1. 8  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 6/25/2009 12:20:38 PM

    @6/7 I was actually trying to ask *aside from the email function*, what else do people do with the Notes client that is unrelated to the Domino server. I'd like to leave the e-mail client use case out of the discussion. I know that eProductivity is a great client-only app, but is tied into IMAP/Notes mail. Thinking about other things that people might be using the Notes client for.

  1. 9  Tripp Black http://www.mindwatering.com | 6/25/2009 12:58:50 PM

    In short, that would violate our "collaborative" paradigm we bought into.

    We view the local workstation as expendible/replacable. Our widgets come from a central store. With Notes roaming, nothing is truly a permanent standalone application. Our contacts, local LDAP connections, bookmarks, journal, desktop.ndk, etc, all replicate. Well, except feeds -- they don't replicate and are unfortunately, stand-alone.

    (see: { Link })

    We do a lot of local replicas but everything is collaboration and leveraging the system. We have as much as possible loaded into our Domino infrastructure so that when we go offline, we have that 90% of "everything we need". Client services application databases, support databases, web site databases, documents database, mileage database, etc.

    I also have one client that has one user on POP/IMAP where he still uses Notes as his POP client. However, he still accesses a web site database/application off a Domino server.

    Most of my corporate clients either use Notes for apps and mail or apps only. More than half of them have the web browser as the standard "app client" so there is only one client to troubleshoot, as well.

  1. 10  Bart Severein http://www.eniac.nl | 6/25/2009 1:00:33 PM

    It is not 'widely used', but I've seen Notes being used to collect information from websites (like sea vessel positions, financial information, etc etc) in standalone situation, some telephone call logs and local bookmark db's that act like small company portals. And that's about it, since replication is used most of the time (as #5 points out).

  1. 11  Kurt B  | 6/25/2009 1:02:30 PM

    We've got a lot of stand-alone apps.. but they all sit on th server.

  1. 12  John Rowland http://enterprisingnotes.blogspot.com | 6/25/2009 1:08:36 PM

    Journal is a very easy to configure datastore for all kinds of stuff from text to binary files. In the hands of someone who can use Designer well, it could do lots of things AND interact with SMTP/POP servers.

  1. 13  Eric Mack http://www.EricMackOnline.com | 6/25/2009 1:17:54 PM

    Lotus Notes is more than what can be done with a Domino server. Or is it. personally, I think many people today still see Notes as an e-mail client and never consider the powerful communication and information management capability it contains - regardless of whether it is used with a Domino server or not. This has me asking the question: "Just what is Lotus Notes good for, anyway?" { Link }

  1. 14  Eric Mack http://www.EricMackOnline.com | 6/25/2009 1:21:05 PM

    @12, one of my clients, David Allen, loves to show end-users and senior company execs the Notes Journal - something most have no idea exists. If you have ever attended his GTD seminars, you know that he often mentions and shows how he uses Lotus Notes and then he talks about the power of the journal and the ability to customize. 10 years ago (it maybe more) David stumbled on the Notes Designer client and created his own quote application - an app then he still uses and shows off today.

    The key here is that Notes became personal to him. Once a tool becomes personal, people can't help but tel and show their friends. Think of the iPhone.

  1. 15  Keith Brooks http://www.vanessabrooks.com | 6/25/2009 2:28:10 PM

    A better question could be, why use a Notes client at all for an application? A reason is because you can't do everything from a browser.

    I used a Notes client for many years as a stand alone client and it handles various dbs which I have accumulated through the years, some of which I use regularly, others rarely.

    Most of these are apps which can and do sit on a server but that's more for backup than true usage.

    Some nice travel dbs, a billing system/mileage reporting sheet, expense reports, various demo's I created for POC's, Ben's Lotusphere DB's, a podcast db(not updated as I stopped listening to them), Chris Toohey's tools for when i connect to some clients machines, dircat's and nabs.

    But as a stand alone client I could do more and do sometimes when traveling like now. But unless you made the client a simple dumb downed version I don't see many people picking it up and using.

    That said, Designer as always, with a client does go far as people do want customizations. They want to see attachments first not last in their email inbox, they want to change the unread color to THEIR choice, you get the idea.

    So open it up and let others play and be surprised at what they do, find and return with.

    It will not be your same looking client.

  1. 16  Edwin Kanis http://www.eniac.nl/essentials | 6/25/2009 3:09:09 PM

    * using a small Notes app to generate meeting reports, making Notes in a Notes form and some script creates a Word document that can be send out. Nothing spectacular but easy.

    * Using a similar app for resumes

    * Using a similar app for gathering all sorts of management information, like yearly reviews etc.

    * Using my own personal knowledge base with experiences and articles. Rather old fashioned, but used to it.

    * Using the help databases local only :-)

    * Bringing in other private email (pop3)

    All are also on my server @home but that is just for back-up purposes.

    Could also think of using my calendar with overlays for Google iCal to share family agenda onto my business agenda.

  1. 17  Chema http://chemalosada.com | 6/25/2009 3:16:22 PM

    I sell, develop, install and maintain projects Lotus Notes based for Management Applications (like ERP but don't say this name).

    I have customers using CRMs, Invoicing, Time reporting, Project Management, Money Management, Maintenance, Quality Management, Buy Process... in different sectors since 12 years ago.

    I never (yes, never) change their email client to lotus notes.

    I work in Bilbao, Spain.

    I only develop in @Formulas and Notes cliente. Never for web.

    My biggest problems selling projects is when the customers has "IT Department". They never understand Lotus Notes. They say "Notes is dead" (10 years ago, I say).

  1. 18  Deborah Domenico  | 6/25/2009 3:25:00 PM

    I've created an app that I can use to create my own online cookbook. Probably not the most creative; however, it helps in organizing my "hobby."

  1. 19  Eric Mack http://www.EricMackOnline.com | 6/25/2009 3:27:50 PM

    I was just listening to the latest GTD Times podcast with David Allen and Kelly Forrister.

    Kelly said something great about Lotus Notes and her journal.

    Cool timing!

    { Link }

  1. 20  Steven Kennett  | 6/25/2009 3:29:30 PM

    I wrote an application for my wife a few years ago when she was selling beauty products, it would hold all the customer info, what products they bought, how much they had paid and still owed etc etc. It was very useful and just sat at home on my pc. I know someone else who had done a similar thing for her Husband's scaffolding business.

    I suppose I chat via Sametime through the client, I also like the feeds and widget features. Apps at work are on a server of course but 90% of my time is spent in my inbox.

  1. 21  Mike VandeVelde  | 6/25/2009 3:45:01 PM

    I started a database to record my CD collection a while back, with the intent to have it import data from my local CDDB (created as I ripped them), and maybe someday expand into a sort of generic collections db (cards, stamps, coins, whatnot), or maybe home inventory for insurance purposes. That would have been stand-alone, if I ever went anywhere with it. But I would have put it on a Domino server just to make it available over the web from other places than my desktop. I also have my own custom contacts db, but that is already on a server, also so I can get to it from other places.

    I can think of a lot of single user applications that would only make use of Domino for web serving. Didn't Opera just come up with "Unite"? What would it take to allow a Notes client to include it's own local web server? Locally previewing work in Designer could be nice.

    { Link }

  1. 22  Alan Hamilton http://www.sysnet.co.uk | 6/25/2009 3:53:49 PM

    We still use "Time Manager for Lotus Notes" which was a notes-ification of the paper Time Manager product - similar to Filofax but nearer in concept to the current FranklinCovey planners. We still have customers working with the application on Notes 4.6 (when calendaring views were added) because "it just works".

  1. 23  christian  | 6/25/2009 3:55:26 PM

    I wrote an application for Holiday-Planing with Gant-Chart.

    Lotus-organizer ist the best example for you!

  1. 24  Darren http://www.dadams.co.uk | 6/25/2009 4:05:19 PM

    Personal journal of course. Even if we didn't have the Agenda creator database on a server I'd have a personal copy just because I use it so often.

    I also created an application to store scans and images of family tree documents, person details and linkages to other members of the family... although to be honest I never really finished it.

  1. 25  John Rowland http://enterprisingnotes.blogspot.com | 6/25/2009 4:21:43 PM

    @14 ... and where else can you get a forms/view/db development tool so easy to use for such a bargain price?

  1. 26  Peter Presnell  | 6/25/2009 5:33:01 PM

    I have a client that is using Lotus Notes to run basically two applications.... Mail and a Phone Log. The Phone Log was an application I developed for them to replace a Filemaker version that leaked into the company but was not licensed. It is a stand-alone application that allows peopel and/or their assistant to track all the incoming/outgoing phones calls to ensure the calls are resolved (e.g unanswered calls are followed up at a later stage).

  1. 27  Abraham V  | 6/25/2009 7:07:18 PM

    Its hard to imagine a Notes client installed where there are no Domino servers, those are Outlook's territories..

  1. 28  David Hablewitz - Notes guy in Seattle  | 6/25/2009 7:15:06 PM

    As an age-old Notes guy from the R3 days, I have some personal apps that I have used since 1996. They include a log of whitewater kayaking trips, a log for tracking cycling and running training, an address book to be shared with all my notes clients that is independent of the names.nsf that comes and goes with each client installation and is independent of software versions installed, a journal for notes (in modern terminology a blog), a photo library (before switching to Lightroom software), a document library, and more. The biggest obstacle I see for most people is that without a server, these apps are only available on the computer running Notes. There is no way to reach those databases from the office or on holiday or even from another computer in your house.

    I am toying with creating a game to mimic the board game Diplomacy that can be replicated and taken offline to plan and submit moves. (I submitted a topic on this in IdeaJam).

    Keep in mind most of these are custom apps that only the privileged few of us developers/admins have the software to create. Since the designer client is not provided to end users, they couldn't create their own apps even if they have the desire to do so. And in the new age of young adults, they are quite capable of doing so, given the means. Which leads back to my point I have been making to you for years, Ed: Make it a consumer product and give the designer client to college students and you will see the marvels this software can do that we never imagined. And we'll probably start to see Notes viruses too.

  1. 29  Ian Randall  | 6/25/2009 7:46:54 PM

    Personally, the most valuable resource I own is the information contained in my Personal Journal database on my Laptop. It currently contains in excess of 3GB of reference material on a whole range of business, technical and personal interest topics that I have accumulated over the last 16 years. I reference it almost every day as my personal knowledgebase and I would be unable to function normally if it was lost. (NOTE TO SELF: reminder to back up my Personal Journal again today).

  1. 30  John Head http://www.johndavidhead.com | 6/25/2009 7:54:57 PM

    Many of these applications would be amazing projects for OpenNTF.org folks! Just saying ....

  1. 31  Rishi  | 6/25/2009 7:58:44 PM

    I'm developing Notes client application to push LN documents to Oracle using JDBC.However it's horrible to develop Java application without type ahead features in Java agent.Also, I found errors are not as descriptive/clear as Eclipse provides.I hope in R8.5.1 developing java based applications in domino will be easier.

  1. 32  Mike Robinson http://www.invcs.com | 6/25/2009 7:58:56 PM

    I had to think hard about this one. An app that doesn't do anything against a Domino server? I have a document application, home grown but I've used it for well over 10 years. Basically I scan important stuff and it automagically store it as a pdf in a rich text field. I can then categorize, ftsearch, add comments and all the good stuff. It's been useful for years.

    This sorta violates the premise, but I've often needed to get stuff via a browser and having it on a domino server w/ http is extremely useful, and not having to code up html was a huge time gainer for me...

    It seems like this space is more on the personal end and not so much in the corporate end.

  1. 33  Eric Mack http://www.EricMackOnline.com | 6/25/2009 8:08:19 PM

    @29, Ian, please get in touch with me. I'd like to talk with you about how you use the journal. Visit my web site and click contact.

    Eric

  1. 34  Dave Leigh http://www.cratchit.org | 6/25/2009 9:03:24 PM

    My VIC CRM works very nicely as a single-user app, unconnected to Domino. Yes, a good portion of it is email (which in this configuration would be POP or IMAP), but a lot of it isn't. For instance, I use it for invoicing, contract management, a general knowledge base, and project management as well as for the Journal and email.

    I use a number of databases for document management and cataloging of things such as e-books and videos. Notes provides the capability to include an unlimited amount of metadata... much better than just using your file system.

    I think one of my best Notes tricks, though, was using the addressbook as the datasource for an implementation of the corporate orgchart using OrgPlus. One user publishes the HTML orgchart. All of the relationships are maintained inside the NAB itself... OrgPlus provides the graphics. What makes this a "non-Domino" solution is that a tweaked version of this same idea is turning out to be a really great solution for geneologies. Notes documents don't have the limitations that traditional geneological programs "enjoy".

    The Notes client simply rocks for standalone use. One of the best things is that for simple applications the program and the data are all wrapped up in one neat little NSF that's a piece of cake to move or share.

  1. 35  Rob Brown  | 6/25/2009 9:08:27 PM

    End users hanker for simple database tools that allow them to create a basic form and a simple view - without getting approval from IT - it's in their nature. Too often you find them building DB solutions with Access & Excel - and we don't what that, do we?. What could be useful is to provide users with a very simple form builder application that maybe has peer to peer networking - and a means of archiving the data to a sandboxed area on a server for backup. Maybe call it Lotus Groove :) Anyhow - it's important that not just Devs & Admins love Notes - sometimes you've got to give end users simple (& safe) DB tools

  1. 36  Don Mottolo  | 6/25/2009 10:38:08 PM

    These responses reminded me of several things... A friend of mine helped me get a job in Lotus Tech Support back in 1990, to do phone support for the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet. To prepare for the job interview, I did some research and read an article that credited 1-2-3 for the widespread sales of the PC in business, because up until then non-techies had never seen a software that could be instantly useful AND easily customized AND people LOVED IT.

    When I started the job, it surprised me when people would call with their problems and refer to 1-2-3 as "My Lotus" - they really identified with the product because they could make it do what they wanted and it made their work easier. It made them feel smart. (Too bad Lotus wasn't able to hold on to all that loyalty.)

    Those of us who develop Notes apps have that same feeling for Notes because we know how to make it do useful things, fast.

    Unfortunately Notes app dev is too complicated for a typical user to create useful things, however it is conceivable that IBM could create a simplified Developer U.I. as part of the regular Notes client, say with some drag 'n drop controls to create some forms, views, and searching (without needing to expose the whole array of design elements). Make it nice-looking, simple, fun, and useful, (hide the complexity and Notes terminology as much as possible) and people would love it. Who knows, maybe they'd start telling their coworkers about "My Notes".

    And yes, getting back to the actual question, I have several local databases that I rely on daily. Many are simple variations of the journal that do what Notes dbs are great for -- being flexible, searchable repositories where I store info about projects I'm working on, libraries of code snippets that I use, technical info that I'm trying to keep abreast of, or whatever - like stuff copied from web pages, file attachments, quotes I want to remember, or new ideas that are intriguing.

  1. 37  Richard Schwartz http://www.poweroftheschwartz.com | 6/25/2009 10:39:38 PM

    I don't use the Personal Journal. Instead, I use a modified version of the Document Library template as my personal information store. The modification that makes this valuable is the addition of optional field encryption. I can keep all my logins and passwords, financial info, and other personal stuff in my doclib, secure in the knowledge that I'm the only one who can get to it - and trust me, I slept a lot better the night my laptop was stolen on account of this!

    But the truth is, the doclib is also on my server, and I replicate it to an additional desktop and an additional laptop. I hardly ever open it on the server, though, and if my server died and never came back I would keep right on using the app.

  1. 38  Eric Mack http://www.EricMackOnline.com | 6/25/2009 10:54:44 PM

    @36. I don't think simple Notes dev is out of the reach of casual users. What's out of reach is the Designer client...

    Bring that back into Notes and let people innovate and you make Notes what 1-2-3 or Excel are - tools that can be personalized.

  1. 39  Dave Leigh http://www.cratchit.org | 6/25/2009 11:15:51 PM

    @38. Eric, I agree entirely. Nobody thinks that it's over the users' heads to include the ability to make forms and views, etc. with MS Access. Users tend to self-select their use of this feature (as evidenced by the people who ask me to maintain their Access dbs for them. I'd love to see the Notes Designer included with the client. ACLs maintain consistency for shared apps already; why not empower some people?

  1. 40  Rebecca Dorman  | 6/26/2009 12:16:28 AM

    The only stand alone Notes client application I use is a personal expenses tracker I created for myself. Other than that, all the applications I use are work related and so need to be on a server to be accessed by multiple employees.

  1. 41  Eric Mack http://www.EricMackOnline.com | 6/26/2009 12:36:06 AM

    I think that to get more value out of Notes people need a) sample apps that will do useful thinks (e.g. Nifty Fifty) or add-on products. Or, people have to have a designer client so that they can create their own.

  1. 42  Mikkel Heisterberg http://lekkimworld.com | 6/26/2009 1:02:48 AM

    Well IMO applications that are not tied to the Domino server is one of the biggest things to happen for the Notes platform in a long, long time and came with the Notes 8 release. It will however take time for these applications to appear as it require a skillset not available among "traditional" Notes developers today. We do run a couple of SWT only applications that read and write data to web services but the vast majority is still Notes/Domino apps.

  1. 43  Ben Rose http://www.jaffacake.net | 6/26/2009 2:22:48 AM

    Local apps...the notes.net Notes/Domino forums...as they've never let anybody replicate them to a server.

  1. 44  Martin Davies http://www.italik.co.uk | 6/26/2009 3:38:27 AM

    Journal - offline on pda via Easysync is very useful to me.

  1. 45  Pejman  | 6/26/2009 3:55:40 AM

    project team rooms (replicated when at office)

    personal knowledge database (used for 10 years)

    personal encrypted journal with all my sensitive datas

  1. 46  Hal Ninth  | 6/26/2009 4:25:03 AM

    Deleted

  1. 47  Palmi  | 6/26/2009 6:24:43 AM

    Idea ! Create a LN DB that you can add blog,Twitter,appointments , calender entry , birthdays, reminder - then setup connection to Google , twitter, face book , my space , ect. Then this little app can be on local driver and never have to see a domino server. Make the interface look HOT with Xpages for Client.

    ED Can you create a Small footprint Client that is a Lite version of basic version and make it FREE Does not connect to any domino server but runs locally on PC MAC Linux.

    Ayone up for the task ? anyone see opportunity here ?

  1. 48  Charles Robinson http://www.cubert.net | 6/26/2009 7:42:35 AM

    Ed, this is an awesome question, and one I'd love to see IBM address in a meaningful way. After seeing Lotus911's Bones demonstration it really opened my eyes to what is possible. Then the reality set in that it's not really Notes development, that was Eclipse and SWT and other technologies that aren't even marginally related to Notes development.

    To start with, stand-alone applications are dead. Everything is connected these days, even if it's for nothing more than going online to check for updates, but most applications include more collaboration features than that. The idea that people are using anything in a vacuum is a false one and needs to be buried. The power of any application is in how it can connect you to information, services and people. Notes and its companion back-end products do that extremely well.

    I really don't see why Notes couldn't be someone's everything-in-one client. E-mail, PIM, personal financial manager, taxes, web browser (at least it looks that way to the end user), file manager, photo manager, music manager, instant messaging, microblogging... Notes could be everything Google promises Chrome will eventually become, and can do it now.

    So, to answer the question, what do I use Notes for *today*? Absolutely nothing because Notes doesn't meet any of my needs. Or, to be more precise, it comes with a list of compromises I'm unwilling to accept.

    Let me be clear: I like the general direction. It holds tremendous promise and I'm excited by the possibilities. It's not there yet for me, but I am hopefull that eventually it will be. Time will tell whether IBM/Lotus achieves that vision. :-)

  1. 49  tom http://www.codepress.net/b | 6/26/2009 7:53:21 AM

    @38, @41 I concur with everything Eric has said. It was tragic when they split the designer client from Lotus Notes.

    As I said in the FUD article. Microsoft catered to the developers. IBM/Lotus decided to cripple its developer base by creating a separate license/download.

  1. 50  Chris Reckling http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/insidelotusblog.nsf/ | 6/26/2009 8:09:55 AM

    For my own use I have:

    Personal Journal - holds personal stuff, like bills, travel accounts, yearly results, etc.

    Product Journal - holds meeting notes and other drafts of info before it goes someplace official.

    Employee Info - I wrote this for mgrs to use to keep track of weekly one on one meetings, kudos, etc for each employee they manage. (on cattail for ibmers)

    Lyrics db - personal journal template where I dump song lyrics and chords I've collected.

    Another journal version I've used to certain projects to keep everything together.

    Chris

  1. 51  Howard Greenberg http://www.tlcc.com | 6/26/2009 9:45:58 AM

    We (TLCC) deliver all our admin and developer courses for Notes and Domino via local databases. They only replicate the course discussions, everything else stays local.

    End user courses can be local or server based, that is up to the customer's situation. If the end users have a slow connection, than local replicas work fine. we have had customers put the course files on CD and send them out to the salesforce to install on their laptops, but, that was quite a few years ago when bandwidth really mattered...

    Howard

  1. 52  Carl Tyler http://www.iminstant.com | 6/26/2009 10:02:53 AM

    Like Richard Schwartz and Chris Reckling, I use notes to store basically all the shit I need to put somewhere. Scanned Docs, passwords for accounts, online receipts printed as pdfs, code snippets, product ideas, notes from meetings, notes from telephone calls and conversations. Links to interesting articles on websites, redbook PDFs, Lotusphere slides, you name it, if it can be kept electronically I probably have it in a notes db.

    This is also replicated to the server and to any machine I have a notes client on. Knowing that this is backed up, available when the home network connection goes down, all priceless.

    The thing that makes notes useful for me in this regard is full text search. Without that I wouldn't use Notes for this capability I think.

    To the people that think Designer should be in every notes client I disagree, the days of your typical spreadsheet user being able to build a Notes database are long gone. Domino Designer is way too complicated for them. I like the idea of a really really simple designer client though for the most basic notes app. Would love to see IBM take some of the easy wizards that were in products like Lotus Approach and apply them to Lotus Notes.

    But why would any use in their right mind who isn't a real developer, use a product like Notes to build a database when they could build one in many of the online web apps, that have simple wizard driven UIs, are immediately available online from any browser, don't need to install anything, often don't need to license anything, don't need to create and configure a server etc?

  1. 53  tom http://www.codepress.net/b | 6/26/2009 10:13:42 AM

    @52 Carl, I work in a corporation... I am not a consultant. I see spreadsheets/access databases every week developed by end users. I'm amazed what the end-user creates when we give them the designer client.

    We also use the R8 Basic client. I can assure you... Lotus Notes development hasn't changed much since R4.

    Yes... user's will never be great at developing web apps using xPages or Dojo frameworks... but that's why we exist.

  1. 54  Henning Heinz  | 6/26/2009 10:37:42 AM

    I have a very special application for a client that generates a complete DVD project out of a file system folder (with flv and mov files). You are asked a few questions (mostly selecting files and folder), then import agents create the navigation, htmlpages, download area, legal information aso.

    You then fill out 2 or 3 forms (subject, chapter titles, select the trainer aso) and create your ready to burn DVD folder. All this was a manual process before and it was very flaky (e.g. spelling errors). Now the process is fast and reliable because the system does most of the work for you (it also does stuff like making the file names lower case, convert umlauts and remove spaces and special characters). The result (a learning DVD for self-studying) that is accessible with any browser (hopefully) and does not require a Domino server.

  1. 55  Richard Schwartz http://www.poweroftheschwartz.com | 6/26/2009 11:10:19 AM

    I also like the idea of an entry-level designer client, with the ability to do forms, views, simple action agents, and maybe some sort of skinning capability that generates some stuff behind the scenes. Include it with the client, or make it separate -- but free!

    One problem with this, though, is that you couldn't use it for the traditional 'take the discussion template' and modify it paradigm through which so many end-user-cum-developers used in the past. Of course, that problem could be solved by providing 50 or so really basic templates that could serve that purpose. Now, where have I heard that idea before? ;-)

  1. 56  David Hablewitz - Notes guy in Seattle  | 6/26/2009 11:37:03 AM

    Anyone who thinks most users can't create Notes apps is, well..WRONG! I already have power users creating Sharepoint applications. My 9-year-old daughter is already proficient at productivity software like Powerpoint (I'm working on her teachers to start using Symphony) and she has started creating her own Notes database. Not sure what it will be used for, but she watched me and wanted to do one herself.

    BTW, the founders of Notes originally asked the question "Should we build applications in the product or should we allow it to be flexible and let users do it because we don't know what they will want?" (taken from the article "The History of Notes and Domino" which sadly, is no longer on IBM's website, but has been cached in the Google search)

    The original concept was to give USERS this power. The concept of Notes developers didn't even exist back then. I think when users lost that power, Notes lost it's following.

  1. 57  Don Mottolo  | 6/26/2009 11:55:16 AM

    My point isn't that "most users can't create Notes apps", but that most people will never be motivated enough to want to learn how. Bottom line: Reduce the barriers to creating useful stuff.

  1. 58  David Hablewitz - Notes guy in Seattle  | 6/26/2009 11:56:51 AM

    OK, it was just my browser. See the History of Notes at { Link }

  1. 59  Steven  | 6/26/2009 12:24:09 PM

    With the improvements in iNotes in R5.0.3, we decided to eliminate our DMZ passthru servers that were used to replicate apps & mail to our Notes 4.6 clients running on agency-provided laptops. All 10,000 users (the vast majority of which only used Notes in the office) were granted internet access to iNotes in July 2001 and at the same time we stopped installing the Notes clients on laptops. That pretty much eliminated any possiblity of local apps or even replciated apps making more headway back in 2001. We've not had any requirments to return to offline or standalone application access since that time and all our apps run from Domino servers. The only things the comes close now are the DBs that sync via the BES to our BBs - local address book, journal, todos, little no brainer stuff, some of which folks use on the BB but don't know it came down to their Notes client!

  1. 60  Christopher Byrne http://www.controlscaddy.com/ | 6/26/2009 12:37:47 PM

    @Eric Mack (#38)- Every user that has the Lotus Notes client installed on their desktop also has Designer installed (just no templates). They just do not know how to get it to launch by itself.

  1. 61  Ken Howell  | 6/26/2009 12:38:00 PM

    Since I currently am not working I can't talk about business applications. However I am the Race Director for a 5K/10K race and fun walk. I use Lotus Notes on my home computer for race registration, printing labels for the bibs, posting results, etc.

  1. 62  Keith Nolen http://www.knproductions.com | 6/26/2009 2:18:58 PM

    Great question. I can't say I have any apps that I use exclusively on the client, as I run a Domino server in my home office and replicate everything to that server.

    However, every app I use is designed to run in standalone mode. As a consultant (Notes, general IT, and management), I'll often be at a client site where I don't have access to my servers.

    That said, I've made apps for:

    * Knowledge managament - the "where I keep everything" kind of app

    * Project tracking -- specifically a management consulting project with over 100 interviews. Scheduled the interviews, tracked who had been interviewed, their organizations, and their results. Notes rich-text and attachment storage made the consolidation of results easy.

    * Time tracking - every client has different time tracking requirements so I create one for every client.

    I also use a personal encrypted journal for all my personal information.

  1. 63  Keith Nolen http://www.knproductions.com | 6/26/2009 2:20:28 PM

    @32 Mike Robinson - Please get in touch with me. FYI, your web server seems to be blocking connections...

  1. 64  David Hablewitz - Notes guy in Seattle  | 6/26/2009 2:33:28 PM

    @62 and many others: Perhaps a more revealing question would be:

    How many of us reading here have personal Domino servers?

    Ever wish you could replicate client-to-client?

  1. 65  Mike Gonzalez  | 6/26/2009 3:32:51 PM

    I'm a consultant for Notes development since 3.3. I've developed a lot of applications for my own use. Here are some of them....

    Order/Invoice/Contact mgmt/Quote/dealer/mail list/expenses/other DB for an MLM business I've been running for 7 years (am webifying this now)

    Lead tracking DB

    Equipment service tracking DB

    Team calendar w/ training/discussion/etc.

    Sports league/team/tournament tracking w/ automatic scheduling games/locations

    Recipe tracking for my wife

    Budget tracking for our home budgets

    Client billing/invoicing/expense DB

    Party/picnic invitations tracking

    Probably a few others if I search harder.

  1. 66  Chris Miller http://www.IdoNotes.com | 6/26/2009 3:34:04 PM

    I read most of the the above through scanning. It sounds to me like the start of a "User" Nifty 50 to be published

  1. 67  GarryL  | 6/26/2009 6:23:35 PM

    Always wondered why Lotus Organizer wasn't continually developed - as it just mimic their filofax people could take to it very quickly. Maybe a resurection as an NSF application is in order?

  1. 68  Kevin Larsen  | 6/26/2009 6:41:40 PM

    I've developed a few stand alone apps for my company, ones that basically organize, sort, and transform simple relational data - like customer engagement information or web site traffic. Apps that help me show management interesting trends, etc from bulk raw data - and they were quick and easy to build.

  1. 69  John Smart http://www.greyduck.com | 6/26/2009 8:59:39 PM

    @37, @52: Check out OpenNTF's Open Secure Password Repository. We've passed out a shared encryption key to the partners, and slightly modified the app, and now we can keep all of our passwords in a shared place that's still safe, and allows us to share passwords and IDs while keeping them out of email.

  1. 70  John Smart http://www.greyduck.com | 6/26/2009 9:20:35 PM

    Ed, I think you'll find the answers aren't all that compelling, and the reason is because any local-grown Notes app that multiple people could and should use have been discovered and moved to servers. Instead, ask us to instead provide examples of Notes apps originally developed for personal use that mushroomed to departmental applications.

    Back in 1994, my first Notes app (task management for a very specific project) was personal... at first... but my boss liked it and my coworkers grumbled because I was able to make great reports "accidentally", so it grew to the entire department, and then larger.

    I know of one manufacturer who's VP of sales used Notes to keep track of deals so that he could report on them... then it was extended to his region managers... then the district managers.. and THEN in 1996 it suddenly mushroomed into a dial-up extranet where each of the independent dealers had this app and entered their deals they were working on and would request discounts to get the deal which would be escalated internally until someone with enough authority would approve it.

    The big play here is to use stories like this to unseat MS Access. MS Access is an inverse indicator of how well IT answers end users needs. At your next customer meeting, ask the CIOs and IT managers: "How many local-grown MS Access databases and shared spreadsheets do you have running around?" If you don't a nonverbal "pain" indicator like a groan, sigh, or wince before they use any words, I'll cut off my dreds. (* damn... too late :-) *)

  1. 71  David Bailey  | 6/26/2009 11:17:02 PM

    I created small Directory for our Home Owner's Association keeps track of residents and supports printing a Directory by Name and by Addition; e.g. Addition 3, Block 1, Lot 18.

    I run a small Duplicate Bridge Club. I have a database for Bridge Players and Bridge Games. It simplifies keeping up with who's playing, who needs a partner, etc.

    I have a simple ToDo application -- sort of a GTD light. My favorite feature of this application is the small Quick Entry window that's stays open on my desktop. I can enter criptic short notes and have them posted on my ToDo List; e.g., mon 11:30 f4 @b w/Terry (play bridge with terry on monday at 11:30 for 4 hours). I also use it for project time tracking. It sure beats opening a form tabbing and entering.

  1. 72  Florien Jansen http://www.idor.biz | 6/27/2009 6:02:34 AM

    I use a fairly simple but effective notes db in a child daycare, to log the amount of hours a child is in the daycare and a short log of the activities and other info. Since it records the hours, making invoices every month is a matter of simply running an agent, making nice Word docs from a template. All locally, although a replica is on a server for backup.

  1. 73  Christian Tillmanns http://www.informica.ch | 6/27/2009 9:26:45 AM

    I used a lot of personal apps until lately. Project management, billing, reporting, all for my personal needs only. I can manage my all my office tasks with Notes. The Domino Server was more of a backup for all the stuff I use localy.

    I had a customer once, who bought designer clients for his company. Two guys, not fulltime developers, made a lot of usefull stuff in their spare time. I only had to do the hard stuff in LS. Amazing what you can do with formula language, when you really are into it.

    Yes, I would vote for a free or resonable priced designer client. That would enable a lot more people and help companies to use their environement more efficently.

  1. 74  John Rowland http://enterprisingnotes.blogspot.com | 6/27/2009 9:07:36 PM

    @48 - Imagine if these things all coalesced... IBM ad campaign: My corporate email? Lotus Notes! My internet mail client, why, Lotus Notes, of course. My personalized content store? No, not OneNote, not EverNote. Lotus Notes, of course! My quick and dirty database tool? Not Access, not FileMaker. No. I get all that for free with My Lotus Notes!

    You get the idea.

  1. 75  John Rowland http://enterprisingnotes.blogspot.com | 6/27/2009 9:11:35 PM

    @48 - ... and the "can do it now," as you say, is an important item that continues to be undersold.

  1. 76  Tony Hollingsworth http://twitter.com/LotusEnergizers | 6/28/2009 6:11:19 AM

    Ed,

    We run a variety of applications on the Notes client stand-alone. One of our businesses, Steplight ({ Link } ) provides comprehensive energy and water assessments for a variety of community, government and commercial sites. These assessments are conducted in the field with netbooks running the Notes client.

    Our consulting business, Task Exchange, sells the time of experienced people. Our time-recording system runs on the Notes client and is often used stand-alone. We also keep track of our contacts/community via the Notes client, and use various knowledge-base custom applications.

    When can we expect to see you in Sydney again Ed? The ex head-chef of Tetsuyas Martin Benn received rave-reviews recently for his new restaurant Sepia. See { Link }

    Cheers,

    Tony (@Hollingsworth)

  1. 77  Ian Randall  | 6/28/2009 7:28:39 PM

    Ed,

    Most of the Lotus Notes Client applications mentioned in this thread are stand-alone or personal applications. However, there is another class of local Lotus Notes Client applications that some organisations need to run every day, for example:

    a) Staff working on deep sea survey vessels which only have access to an extremely low speed (100kbs) uplink connections via satellite during good weather and suffer from intermittent periods of disconnection during extreme weather conditions (90M + waves & 120kph + gale force winds).

    b) Mobile Auditors and Compliance Assessors who mostly work while disconnected from the network due poor network coverage from some remote desert or offshore oil and gas rig locations.

    c) Mobile Risk Assessors who work in hazardous workplaces such as gas processing plants and can only carry intrinsically safe or non-incendive devices into the workplace and cannot connect to the network for safety reasons.

    d) Staff who work in landfill operations on the urban fringe and don't have high speed network access or reliable network coverage.

    e) Timber workers who need to have access to compliance information and log incidents while working in remote locations in the forest that have poor network coverage.

    f) Exploration and Mine workers who operate in extremely remote mining areas and don't have access to high speed uplinks to satellites.

    g) Construction workers who operate in extremely remote windfarm or hydro power generation projects in the Andes or remote locations in Pategonia.

    Ian Randall

  1. 78  Martin Meijer  | 6/29/2009 2:58:36 AM

    Years ago, I created an application for my dad's car business. It's a small business (my dad and two employees) and they use only one pc. The application is for CRM, Car & Service information and Billing. I created it in R5 and it still runs today without any problems.

  1. 79  Michael de Haas  | 6/29/2009 5:29:57 AM

    Why not at least a Designer Express? I have a personal Notes Collaboration Express client, use the login for software downloads (won't admit that I abuse this licence as a "Designer Express") would certainly purchase such a licence.

    @ED, why not include the designer licence rights with all collaboration express licences?

  1. 80  Harry van der Nol http://www.avantconsulting.net | 6/29/2009 6:35:19 AM

    I have a client that has a truck tyre business. I wrote an application that he uses for Truck/Bus Fleet Tyre Management.

    He manages the full tyre maintenance of large truck and bus fleets on his laptop running this Notes application stand alone.

    The system records services done, when services are due and tyre history and alerts. It produces reports like listings for what vehicles are due for service this week for each of his clients.

    He replicates to my Domino server as a backup and so that I can maintain the application for him as we are based in different states.

  1. 81  Roger Rowan  | 6/29/2009 9:28:26 AM

    We use a CRM/SFA application that at this point is only usable with the Notes client even though is resides on the Domino server. While the team can use the application from the server it's extremely slow so experience has shown that given the mobile nature of our salesforce it's better to operate off local replicas. Much better performance and it saves time for the team as they are not having to establish a secure connection to our network.

    I'm not sure if this is getting to the point of the question. Are you trying to understand who is still using the Notes client, how and why, as opposed to a web interface for access Domino applications.

  1. 82  Neil Wainwright http://www.nexonia.com | 6/29/2009 9:37:17 AM

    I like the posts about giving away Designer licenses. I would think the upside in terms of grassroots development would far outweigh the license revenue. Oh yes...and Eric commenting about making Notes easy for end-users to develop for would be nice. Here's also something else to chew on...have a "Sandbox" option for a Domino server whereby end-users can deploy and share their apps to a certain directory without being able to break the server (limits on script performance, etc.). That would be cool. It'd really give the "grassroots" nature of Notes a big boost.

    ...Neil

  1. 83  Emido Giuseppetti http://www.ankongroup.it | 7/1/2009 2:10:44 AM

    Most of the applications that we developed run also in lotus notes client through replication.

    I don't know if this is itended stand alone.

    Please about client application,we need view with joined data. We must replicate many document field to use in view.

    Good Job with lotus notes....

  1. 84  John Rowland http://enterprisingnotes.blogspot.com | 7/1/2009 4:25:37 PM

    As I commented on Volker's blog, and Ed would probably know the revenue numbers, wouldn't a designer client drive "trade-ups" to server (paid license) installations?

  1. 85  Pascal St-Cyr  | 7/6/2009 9:47:54 AM

    I use IntelliPrint for report generating and PDF creations

    A time sheet app I developped

    A budget / expenses app

    An IM (Sametime) chat archiver

  1. 86  Pascal St-Cyr  | 7/6/2009 10:00:22 AM

    ooops, forgot EasySync Pro to sync Lotus Notes with my phone

  1. 87  Bill Malchisky Jr. http://www.EffectiveSoftware.com | 7/7/2009 3:17:11 PM

    I typically write my own software which I use locally, but will have a server replica. The apps are stand-alone and designed as such for portability, as I can travel frequently.

    Notes Applications viewed as highly regarded include: CD/DVD catalog (will find its way to OpenNTF at somepoint), client billing application, tech tips DB, several journals, project DB (I make one DB from the journal.ntf for each client which has the docs, etc included for easy reference), tech support ticket log, and the following 3rd-party tools: dev tools, document manipulation tools, CRM, mindmap software.

    Given a browser app and a Notes client app, the Notes client wins every time. Increased features, productivity, and efficiency win-out, plus portability for mobile users. No question, it's a better medium.

  1. 88  Th.Hampel  | 7/29/2009 7:41:32 AM

    these are the tools I'm running locally/without any server replica:

    Personal Travel Expense Organizer (storing documents for approvals/expenses/reimbursement)

    Personal Journal

    Source Code Snippet DB

    ChatLog DB

  1. 89  Boel Nermark http://www.hippogrammet.se | 8/24/2009 3:22:47 AM

    Joining the discussion real late, I only heard of it last week, I would like to add my comment. We developed a horse management application, the Hippogram, that even rendered us a Lotus award back in 2006. Since many of our customers only have one computer we had to make it stand-alone. This is really one of the beauties of Notes - the same application functioning as well in a large nework as in one single computer. The only problem we had to fight was to build an automatic installation since many of our customers don't know aything about computers and would get completely confused by questions about servers, id files and so on. I would like IBM to recognize the large market for small applications that could be used stand alone, privetly or in small companies. A Notes run time would be a great idea!