RNUG Lotus User Group (www.vlaad.lv)

    Branding and customizing Discover page in Domino 9.0.1

    Vladislav Tatarincev  20 February 2015 12:21:46
    Branding Welcome screen in Notes was always interesting task. In Notes 9 it is a bit easier to do.

    The easies what can and need to be done, is to select QuickLinks tab to be default, and also add some corporate databases used by users.

    Desktop Settings, Basic tab has a new sections that allow to do things remotely for all users.
    Why to do this? Because this version will be used for 2-4 years, and you dont want default tab "Whats new in Lotus Notes" appear to user 4 years in a row." it adds value during first 2-3 month after migration.

    Syntax of adding corporate db to policy is the following.
    TITLE_OF_THE_DATABASE,  notes:///ReplicaID_Of_The_Database
    Image:Branding and customizing Discover page in Domino 9.0.1

    If you want to go deeper, you can even translate or localize and and branding logo to page.
    How to do it?

    Inside DATA directory of the client there are two files PopulatedTemplate.txt which is used by Lotus Notes client to generate PopulatedHTML.html
    Changes need to be done only in .txt file. When Notes is started


    Image:Branding and customizing Discover page in Domino 9.0.1

    You can also remove existing 2nd level tabs in your Discovery page and add some information about your systems. Kind of Workspace but corporate.
    Image:Branding and customizing Discover page in Domino 9.0.1

    When customized PopulatedTemplate.txt is saved, and IBM Notes client is restarted you see your changes.


    The only challenge that has left, how to deploy it centrally to all users. So far need to write agent (in mailfile?) and pull file from server and copy to DATA directory, or use Windows Login scripts.
    Anyway, Customizing Discovery page is very promising.  

    There are some functions used in PopulatedTemplate.txt like @Recent_apps@ and there is no desciption of this function. May be there are other @@ functions as well... :)



    Comments

    1Mathieu  20/02/2015 15:16:53  Branding and customizing Discover page in Domino 9.0.1

    Hi Vadislav,

    very interesting post, thank you for that! Any chance you post a sample TXT? Or where to find documentation on this?

    Best regards,

    Mathieu

    2Mathieu  20/02/2015 15:45:39  Branding and customizing Discover page in Domino 9.0.1

    Vladislav,

    changes are not happening in the client when I restart it (9.0.1). Any hint?

    Thx,

    Mathieu

    3Vladislav  20/02/2015 16:47:50  Branding and customizing Discover page in Domino 9.0.1

    Try restart several times, and wait 20 seconds between restarts... HTML file is generated with slight delay of client

    4Mathieu  20/02/2015 17:13:36  Branding and customizing Discover page in Domino 9.0.1

    Indeed, you're right. Played a lot with it in the meantime and got it working. Thanks for your response.

    5Rainer  20/02/2015 17:59:13  Branding and customizing Discover page in Domino 9.0.1

    Hi Vladislav,

    great post !!! Thx a lot for sharing your knowledge !!

    Rainer

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