A blog by and for productive people who get things done with IBM Lotus Notes
Here's a preview of just two of several new Sidebar widgets for eProductivity that you will soon be able to use: the Today view and the All by Context views.
These widgets are now available in eProductivity 1.81. These sidebar views are persistent - it does not matter what Notes application you have open - you can always review your Today list and your actions by contexts.
If you would like to try this on your own system, here are the steps I am currently using to accomplish this in Notes 8.5.1
Note: This is an experimental process. There are still a few bugs in the Lotus Notes implementation of widgets. (It won't hurt anything, it just may not work the way you would expect.)
Prerequisites:
1. You need to be running Notes 8x. I'm using 8.5.1, but this should work with some previous versions
2. You need to have the eProductivity 1.81 mail template applied
Let's get started:
First, if you have not already done so, enable widgets in your Notes preferences:
If you have not already done so, enable 'My Widgets' to appear in the sidebar:
Expand your Notes sidebar before you continue. OK, let's go...
Step 1. Open the eProductivity Sidebar View from eProductivity Preferences
Step 2. With the view open, configure a widget from the current context
Configure your new widget to open this view
(Here is one of the Notes 8 Bugs I warned you about. Even though you will give this widget a name, that name will disappear when the widget launches. Hopefully they will get that fixed in a future release of Notes 8.5x)
Name widget and display as sidebar panel
Step 3. Test and publish your new widget
That's it. You can repeat the process for the other view.
Once the widget has been created, you can even have it open in a floating window on your computer desktop. Here's how to do that:
From the 'My Widgets' sidebar widget select the widget you want to have open in a new windows and right click. Then, select "open in new window."
The widget will now open in a floating window on your desktop, like this:
Now, you can access your 'Today' view or 'All by Context' view regardless of what you are doing in Notes. As part of our unified task management strategy, we are working on ways to allow you to drag and drop anything onto a context and manage it in Notes, GTD-Style, with eProductivity. (This includes web and mobile resources as well - a true unified view.) If you have a feature you'd like to see, please let us know.
Discussion/Comments (13):
Man, this is cool stuff!!
Jens Brunt (http://www.jens.brunt.dk): 10/22/2009 10:15:51 AM
I've got both widgets running now. This is great stuff. Not just cool, but actually with a real business value.
Stephan H. Wissel (http://www.wissel.net/): 10/22/2009 9:06:22 PM
Neat stuff. Could you play with the setting. I usually have the sidebar a little wider than your view size. Since it is a single column eventually the setting "extend column width to available size" would fix it....
And using a Java view would allow to have fields below each other.
Eric Mack (www.ica.com): 10/22/2009 10:37:59 PM
Thanks, Jens,
More to come. We are working on giving you the ability to drag and drop things into these widgets to take action.
Meanwhile, please share your feedback and wish lists - always looking for good ideas.
Eric
Eric Mack (www.ica.com): 10/22/2009 10:39:05 PM
Hi Stephan, we are looking at Java views and I personally appreciate your help and public encouragement in this area. Right now, I'm dealing with the inconsistencies of Notes 8..02, 8.5 and 8.51 and how these versions each handle widgets differently. Once we get that sorted out, we'll tweak the views. Comments and suggestions welcome. If We can't work on something short-term, we'll queue it for a future design meeting. - Eric
Jens Brunt (http://www.jens.brunt.dk): 10/22/2009 11:04:55 PM
I had a look at the way you suggest that the end user implements the two widgets.
There is an easier way.
Some background information:
When using a Notes:// URL, use this replicaID: 0000000000000E00
It will point to the current user's mail database.
Have a look here:
{ Link }
And then have a look at this from a sample extension.xml file:
--- start ---
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<webcontextConfiguration version="1.1">
<palleteItem contributeToSideshelfOnStartup="true" id="76987949" imageUrl="" modified="false" providerId="com.ibm.notes.toolbox.provider.NotesViewPalleteProvider" title="eP Today" url="Notes:///0000000000000E00/TodoEprodSidebarToday?OpenView&hidenavigator">
<preferences/>
<data TYPE="DEFAULT"/>
</palleteItem>
</webcontextConfiguration>
--- end ---
If you put this in a file called extension.xml and then drag that in to the "My Widgets" sidebar box, it will get you the eProductivity Today view.
You will see that xml above does not contain references to the replicaID of the mail database or the noteid of the ToDay view design note.
In other words - it is ready to distribute.
Ryan Heathers (www.eProductivity.com): 10/22/2009 11:14:50 PM
Wow, thanks Jens! The xml is a little beyond me, but I'll make sure our development team sees it.
Rich Greaves (): 10/24/2009 7:03:01 AM
I'm really liking the Today view in the sidebar. Having that open all the time is great! I was in the habit of leaving the Day-At-A-Glance open but that's now replaced with the Today view. Thanks!
Dave Walczak (): 10/24/2009 1:09:06 PM
I agree that the Today view in the sidebar is great. I've just installed it and already see the benefit.
Jens Brunt (http://www.jens.brunt.dk): 10/25/2009 11:46:38 PM
The Today view in the sidebar does not work very well with repeating events. It displays numerous start+end times and no subject.
Eric Mack (www.ica.com): 10/25/2009 11:52:02 PM
Thanks, Jens. We caught that this weekend. It's now included in the next build. If you have any wish list items send them into the support queue and we'll see what we can do! - Eric
skip (): 3/2/2010 5:38:45 AM
Very helpful. My only problem is that my option to activate widgets in the File/Preference box is not there - I have ...Toolbar, Web Browser, Windows and Themes. The Widgets option does not show up at all. Could this be disabled at the Admin level?
Ryan Heathers (inside.eproductivity.com): 3/2/2010 3:50:25 PM
Hi Skip,
It is possible that your admin has disabled users from adding widgets. First, I would recommend making sure that you have Advanced Menus enabled in your Lotus Notes. You can find them in Notes under View > Advanced Menus,
If that doens't work, then I'd recommend checking with your Notes admins.