Become a Master of Events: The Developer’s Guide to the Notes Form Event Model

Ethann Castell, Senior Consultant, Caliton Innovations


April, 2010

Learn the ins and outs of IBM Lotus Notes form events so you can create applications that perform efficiently and work the way you want them to. Know when your code will execute through tables and diagrams that reveal the events triggered by particular actions on a form and the sequence in which the events are triggered. Get recommendations for coding events based on this information and a methodology for discovering similar information about other less-standard form events - even non-form events such as database and view events.

IBM Lotus Notes forms are the cornerstone of Lotus Notes and Domino applications. Virtually every Notes or Domino application uses forms to allow users to enter data into a Notes or Domino database and to edit the data in those databases. For developers, a deep knowledge of form events aids debugging and performance tuning, and it is also the key to creating powerful application.
The form event model refers to events that are triggered when an action happens. For example, when a user opens a form, Lotus Notes triggers several events in a particular sequence — the QueryOpen event, the PostOpen event, and so on. Any code that the developer assigns to these events is executed when the particular event is triggered. Most items on the form, such as fields, subforms, and embedded views, have their own events. For example, an editable field on the form will have several programmable events, including Input Translation, Default Value, and so on.
Lotus Notes forms originally had a fairly simple event model that could be programmed using only Formula language. As Lotus Notes has evolved, so has the form event model. There are now many form events that can be programmed in Formula language, JavaScript and LotusScript. This increased complexity has resulted in more powerful applications but also applications that are more difficult for a developer to understand.
Today’s Lotus Notes forms can be a complex mixture of events programmed in LotusScript, @Formula, and JavaScript.
Join me on an exploration of the Lotus Notes form event model that will make you a master of events and enhance your ability to program, debug, and performance-tune your applications. We’ll look at the events that are triggered by different user actions, when these events are triggered, and the sequence in which the events are triggered. The Form Events database accompanies this article and is a critical component in discovering the secret life of form events. I invite you to download the database now so that you can have it available throughout this discussion.

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