I have a Lotus Notes database design that I'm working on in which a user will request a data change that requires manager approval.
My concept is to automatically email the relevant manager with the details of the request using the NotesDocument.Send(True) to attach the form. This form displays the relevant information and has two buttons, to either approve or refuse the request without having to open the original document in the front-end. This is all fine and doesn't present any problems.
However, I've recently been told that the users will soon be switching to Outlook. Is there a way of doing the same. The users will still be using Notes for all our bespoke systems, just not for mail or calendar, so I can potentially add links to the document.
One thought I had was to supply two links to the document, with different parent views, and then have the QueryOpen code use NotesDocument.ParentView to ascertain what action to take. The downside to this is that the UI focus will switch to Notes.
Any other suggestions, such as links/buttons that will email back to a mail-in database with a subject like "REF 0012345 APPROVE" or "REF 0012345 REFUSE"? Can that be written in a Notes email doc to go to outlook?
I'd go with the approach of two links going to an agent, with one link ending in ?OpenAgent&Approve&Ref=xxxxxxxx and the other ending in ?OpenAgent&Refuse&Ref=yyyyyyy.
Here's why...
I'm not saying this will happen in your organization, but in a lot of organizations the move to Outlook for email has been the prelude to reducing the number of Notes clients that are installed. The Domino servers live on for years, but there are fewer and fewer clients. It gets to the point where it is only installed for users who need the client for business-critical applications. As time goes on, fewer and fewer people have Notes clients and eventually, the question will come up about why all managers need to have the Notes client. Since you're designing this now, you might as well take that into consideration and provide for the day when most managers will not necessarily need a Notes client.