Anatomy of a Java Agent: Triggers, Rights, Output, Debugging

The first three pieces assume the agent is already running — you can recycle, you have a Session, you run DQL. But how does a Java agent get triggered, whose rights does it run with, where does System.out go, and how do you debug it? This fills in the step before NotesMain(): the AgentBase skeleton, Trigger and unprocessedDocuments, the signer that decides an agent's rights, restricted vs unrestricted, and the System.out-to-log.nsf debugging path.

Running DQL from Java: DominoQuery and QueryResultsProcessor

The site's DQL trilogy teaches the query language, but it runs DQL from LotusScript or the console. In Java, DQL goes through two classes: DominoQuery compiles, tunes, and runs; QueryResultsProcessor sorts, aggregates, joins across databases, and outputs JSON. And a common first-time trip-up: you get both from the Database, not the Session. A field report on how DQL actually runs from Java.

Getting a Session in Java: NotesFactory, Local, and Remote

LotusScript's session is a global you never create; Java has no such thing. Before you touch a single document you have to obtain a Session yourself — and how you get one depends on whether your code runs as an agent, a standalone program, or remotely. A field report on NotesFactory's three paths, local (JNI) vs remote (DIIOP), the who-creates-recycles rule, and the two traps: JVM bitness and one session per thread.

Rewrote LotusScript in Java and Memory Blew Up? You Forgot recycle()

The same logic runs forever in LotusScript, then blows up the agent's memory the first time you loop it over tens of thousands of documents in Java. The reason is that every Java Domino object is backed by a native handle the garbage collector can't see. A field report on the mechanism, the four official rules, the loop leak pattern and its fix, NotesThread's role, and how local vs remote sessions change the cost.

Why Does the Same Notes User Fail a Comparison? Understanding NotesName's Three Name Formats

You compare a name to session.EffectiveUserName and it's never equal, even though it's obviously the same person. Or you write a user into a Readers field and they still can't see the document. Same root cause: a Notes name has three text forms — canonical, abbreviated, common — and you compared two different ones. A field report on NotesName: what each format is, which one Notes stores internally, and why every name comparison should normalise through NotesName first.

Stop Hand-Rolling Parallel Arrays: LotusScript's List Is the Built-In HashMap for Counting, Dedup, and Lookups

You need to count documents by category, dedup a set of names, or build a code-to-label lookup. The Domino reflex is two parallel arrays and a linear scan, or a throwaway view. But LotusScript has had a native keyed collection all along and almost nobody reaches for it: the List. A field report on the built-in associative array — its keyed access, ForAll + ListTag iteration, Erase, and the two gotchas (guarding reads with IsElement, and tag case sensitivity following Option Compare).

Field Notes from OpenNTF's Domino IQ RAG Webinar: the 30-Char Gotcha, Vectorization in 3 Steps, and the FP1 Readers Fix

OpenNTF hosted HCL's Brian Arnold for a deep session on Domino IQ RAG. We've already covered how the pipeline works under the hood; this is the field-report layer — the 30-character limit for RAG-enabling short fields and the concat-field way around it, vectorization in three steps, the three knobs to tune, the fact that Readers/Authors-field security only really started working in Domino 2026 FP1, and the citations, side panel, and MCP still under development.

@DbLookup and @DbColumn: the Cache Keyword You're Not Passing, and the 64K Wall

You update a keyword document, reload the form, and the dropdown still shows the old value. Or a keyword list quietly stops growing at a few thousand entries. Both are @DbLookup / @DbColumn behaviours hiding in the argument most formulas leave empty: the cache keyword. A field report on the three cache options (default / NoCache / ReCache) and the hard 64KB limit on what these functions can return — with the classic-web cases where each one bites.

Who Does Your Agent Run As? Signer, Effective User, and the Error 201 / Readers-Field Traps

Your agent works perfectly when you run it — because you're the admin who signed it. Deploy it as a web agent, or schedule it signed by a service ID, and it fails with Error 201 or silently sees no documents. The cause is identity: a Domino agent runs as someone, and that someone isn't always you. A field report on the signer vs the effective user, how session.EffectiveUserName flips on 'run as web user', the runtime security level behind Error 201, and the Readers-field trap that makes documents vanish.