fun with DECS and DCRs...

so for the past couple of months we have been working toward integrating a custom Notes database with our payroll system so that Notes can have access to non-privileged employee data, like employee numbers, names, job titles, etc. late last week i was finally able to get our employee numbers and my users Notes names and e-mail addresses to synchronize using a combination of DECS and the Lotus Connectors LSX.

given the density of the documentation and many fruitless searches in the Notes.net forums I think this is an area that a lot of Notes developers haven't bothered to get into. i don't know how some of the Notes developers I respect in the community got into doing Notes development, but my background before working in notes was in general tech support and Windows NT administration. I literally knew nothing about the Notes framework when I started working as a developer back in 2000. and given my progression as a Notes developer and a programmer over the last 7 years, i can see why Notes developers might shy away from it, especially seeing how many of the forum posts from newer Notes developers have that same sort of background i do (ie. thrown into it by the employer, etc.)

that said, i find working with DECS, DCRS and the LC LSX to be pretty easy to work with once you are able to take your Notes document concepts and map them to a relational database framework. my experience with RDBMS has been limited to this point, but i can see some real value in porting data from a relational database into Notes.

i'll probably have more to say on this topic as i continue working on the project that spawned it.

what non notes tools do you use to get your job done?

this never seems to make the rounds in the Notes community, but i was wondering if any Notes developers out there have tools that they find absolutely necessary for doing their job? i was thinking just how screwed i would be if i didn't have a copy of Visio on my computer. i find that drawing up process flows is ESSENTIAL to my development efforts. if i don't diagram my process flows, i can't program. as simple as that.

anyone else find this to be the case?

don't know if i have much to add to the Notes community dialog...

...but what the hell eh? if anything, maybe it will be a good site to list my favorite Notes resources if anyone is interested...