NotesDXLImporter: Pushing DXL Back into Domino — Separate Strategies for Design, Documents, and ACL

After you export design or documents to DXL (Domino XML) with NotesDXLExporter, how do you push it back into a database? NotesDXLImporter is the reverse half. This article covers creating it, the three key import strategies (DesignImportOption / DocumentImportOption / ACLImportOption and their create / ignore / replace / update choices), the Import method and retrieving imported notes, and how it pairs with DXLExporter into a full DXL round-trip.

NotesViewEntry × NotesViewEntryCollection: Reading Every Row of a View Fast, Without Opening Documents

To read a few field values from every document in a view, many people loop the documents and GetItemValue each one — but that opens every document, and a few thousand rows is painfully slow. NotesViewEntry reads the view's already-computed ColumnValues without opening a document at all; NotesViewEntryCollection is the collection of those rows, skips category/total rows, and supports set operations and StampAll batch updates. This article covers the 'read the view fast' pair, why ColumnValues is the performance key, and an entry's identity and hierarchy properties.

The ODS Developers Rarely Notice: Domino's Database Format Versions, and What Actually Triggers an Upgrade

You write LotusScript / XPages all day and probably never think about a database's ODS (on-disk structure) version — until a feature like LargeSummary needs a certain ODS, or you move an old database between servers and aren't sure whether its ODS follows. This article covers the ODS-to-release mapping from a developer's angle, the most counterintuitive point (upgrading the server version does not upgrade the ODS), and exactly what triggers an ODS change and what governs it — then answers a concrete case: an R9 ODS51 database, new-copied from an R12 client to an R12 server, does its ODS change automatically?

'Field is too large (32K)' Is Lying to You: The Real Wall Is Usually the 64K Summary Buffer

An XPages save failure: the message says '32K', but every field checks out under 32K (the biggest is 26K) and it still won't save. Because the number the error names is usually not your problem — the wall you actually hit is 'a document's combined summary data is capped at 64K'. This article builds the summary / non-summary mental model and the two size limits first, then explains why ODS and LargeSummary are two different things, then forks the fixes on one question: should this data be summary at all?

LotusScript's Evaluate: Running @Formula Straight from Code

Sometimes the perfect tool in your head is an @function — @Name, @Unique, @Explode, @DbLookup — but you're in LotusScript. Evaluate is the bridge: pass an @formula as a string, run it at runtime, get the result back. This article covers the two call forms (with and without a document context), the trap everyone hits (the return value is always an array), and which @functions aren't supported (the UI ones — @Command, @Prompt, @PickList, and friends).

NotesRichTextStyle: Setting Bold, Font Size, and Colour in Code (and STYLE_NO_CHANGE)

You're building rich text in code with NotesRichTextItem and want a span to be bold, larger, a different colour — that 'style' is NotesRichTextStyle. This article covers creating it, the Bold / Italic / FontSize / NotesColor properties, applying it with AppendStyle and SetStyle, and one crucial design point: a freshly created style has every property set to STYLE_NO_CHANGE, so you set only the ones you want to change and leave the rest alone.

NotesNewsletter: Turning a Pile of Documents into One Doclink Digest Email

You want a 'daily digest' or 'search-results notification' — take a set of documents matching some criteria, roll them into one email, and let each entry link back to its source document. That's exactly NotesNewsletter's job: it takes a NotesDocumentCollection and produces a doclink digest with FormatMsgWithDoclinks, or renders documents one by one with FormatDocument. This article covers creating it, the DoScore / DoSubject / SubjectItemName properties, the difference between the two Format methods, and the classic FTSearch-to-email example.

NotesForm: Reading a Database's Forms, Fields, and Who Can Use Them in Code

You inherit an undocumented NSF and want to figure out which forms it has, what fields each defines, and who's allowed to create documents — without opening Designer. NotesForm reads that design information from code. This article covers getting forms from db.Forms / db.GetForm, the Name / Aliases / Fields / FormUsers / Readers properties, GetFieldType and Remove, and how ProtectReaders / ProtectUsers relate to replication.

Looking Back at HCL Volt MX v10 'Darwin': Figma-to-App, AIAD, CarPlay

HCL released v10 of its low-code platform Volt MX, codenamed 'Darwin', back in August 2025. This isn't breaking news — it's a catch-up explainer that lays out the release for Domino developers: turning Figma designs straight into apps with GenAI, AIAD (AI Assisted Dev) where a RAG-powered Volt IQ helps generate code and retrieve docs, CarPlay / Android Auto support, Passkeys, iOS Live Activities, and more. It also explains the Domino connection: Volt MX Go is the Domino-bundled edition, and Volt IQ's RAG approach shares DNA with Domino IQ.