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.