Genii Weblog

Are layers becoming the Notes Swiss Army Knife?

Thu 6 Dec 2007, 10:16 PM



by Ben Langhinrichs
In a recent IdeaJam comment responding to Don MNally's idea, Layers Not Bound by Frames, Slawek Rogulski asks this question:
Are layers becoming the Notes Swiss Army Knife?
I'd say the answer should be, "I hope so!", although there are a lot of constraints that could be removed.  Layers are amazingly flexible, render very, very quickly, and can be used to build interface components you wouldn't believe could exist in the Notes client, but they are also incredibly frustrating to manipulate without a tool like our Midas Rich Text LSX, and work differently in the Notes client than on the web in ways that make combined applications difficult. 

I'd like to collect a set of links to the cool things people have done or are doing with layers.  I have a few of my own, such as Not your parent's form design, which I highly recommend for anyone who wants to see some of the diversity of what you can do with layers, and a much earlier post from 2005, Ogres have layers, and now the Sessions db does as well, but there are some excellent examples out there by Chris Blatnick and Nathan Freeman and others.

And for myself, I am signed up to do a sequel to last year's EntwicklerCamp session on layers (where I showed 13 different UI techniques with layers, and then gave a sample db with all of them in it to the attendees).  In my session abstract, I promise:
A sequel to last year's session on layers, this session will show a whole new array of techniques using layers, including techniques for building layers in DXL in Notes 8, and for using layers in any Notes version from Notes 6 onward. Discover tricks to create interactive layer techniques that will empower your applications in ways you didn't think possible.
So, that should make at least 23 UI techniques with layers, as I intend to create at least ten new techniques for that session.  Surely that qualifies as a swiss army knife!

And if there is any chance you might be able to come to the EntwicklerCamp 2008, I'd be happy to see you there and discuss techniques that I don't show because they are too far out there for ordinary developers.

Copyright © 2007 Genii Software Ltd.

What has been said:


642.1. Richard Shergold
(12/07/2007 12:48 AM)

Ben, I'm just really pleased that my original Room Bookings requirement was at least partly responsible for kicking off this layers thing with you (and if I never thanked you enough at the time, I thank you again now!) The system is still in daily use at my client's site. I remember that weekend well and although I've made plenty of tweaks to that original code you came up with, it's still pretty much the same as it was then (which I guess was more than 2 years ago now.


642.2. Ben Langhinrichs
(12/07/2007 04:12 AM)

Richard - It was kind of fun and eye opening to come up with that solution then. I'm certainly glad it still works for you. - Ben


642.3. Charles Robinson
(12/07/2007 07:00 AM)

Ben, I'll be making use of that technique for creating a table that breaks apart into sections I e-mailed you about. I plan to blog about it this weekend and provide a sample db. It also makes use of Anchor Links, which I learned about after doing a Google search and finding your post from 2003. :-)


642.4. Nathan T. Freeman
(12/07/2007 07:39 AM)

I'm sad I'm not going to be able to make it to Rudi's event. I really wanted to find a way, but it looks like February is going to be INSANE for me. I just wouldn't be able to give the event the attention it deserves.

But Ben, I'll try to hook you up with some cool layers-based toys from my 'sphere presentation, too.