APPLICATION DESIGN

Exchanging data using Notes/FX
Notes/FX is supported only for Notes applications. Using Notes/FX, you can design forms so that field contents in an OLE server application file automatically appear in corresponding fields in a IBM® Lotus® Notes® document, and vice-versa. Depending on the type of field, you can update the contents from Notes or from the other OLE application.

To exchange data, there must be a one-to-one correspondence between the shared fields. Both the OLE server application file and the Notes form must contain the same shared fields. A Notes/FX field can be:


One-way fields

One-way fields provide information for exchange in only one direction. These fields supply information about a file -- for example, file size and creation date. One-way fields exist by default in the OLE server application; you must create the corresponding fields in your Notes form.

For example, Word Pro documents have a field called SizeInK, which contains the size of the Word Pro document in kilobytes. To exchange the data in this field with a field in a Notes form, create a field named "SizeInK" in the Notes form. After you set up field exchange, changes to the Word Pro field appear in the Notes field; however, changes made to the Notes field do not affect the Word Pro field.

Two-way fields

Two-way fields provide information for exchange in two directions -- that is, from Notes to the OLE application and from the OLE application to Notes. When you change the contents of the field in either application, both fields update. Fields defined as two-way exist by default in many OLE server application files; therefore you must create corresponding fields in your Notes form.

For example, the Document Description field in a Word Pro document corresponds to the Subject field in a Notes document. After you set up field exchange, changes to one field automatically appear in the other field. The fields must have the same name.

User-defined fields

These fields exchange data in two directions, but you must create these pairs of fields, since they do not exist by default in the OLE server application file or in Notes. User-defined fields usually exchange working data, such as text or numbers.

For more information about fields in OLE server applications that exchange data with Notes, see the documentation for the OLE server application.

See Also