Collecting data for HTTP hang or performance issues on a Lotus Domino server

We're currently having problems with one of our old Domino servers. The HTTP task randomly hangs.

In the process of looking for help to track down the reason, I found this document from IBM.

Collecting data for HTTP hang or performance issues on a Lotus Domino server

Indicator for all partial refreshes

Sometimes partial updates take a while. To make users aware of updates happening, I made a small JS object that automatically shows a dojox.widget.Standby over the area being updated. Initially I thought that it would be too much, showing the mask over every refreshed area. So far, I quite like the effect.

The app isn't in production yet, so I don't know how users will react, but hopefully they will appreciate being made aware of that things are happening.

To load the object, put this in a JavaScript library (client side)

dojo.addOnLoad(function(){ new StandbyWidget(); });

The default background color is bright yellow. To override, simply put a hex string in the "constructor" call.

dojo.addOnLoad(function(){ new StandbyWidget( '#555'); }); // Dark grey

To use the code snippet below, you also need the partial event hijacker

var StandbyWidget = function( backgroundColor ){
 dojo.require( 'dojox.widget.Standby' );
 this.widget = new dojox.widget.Standby();
 this.widget.attr( 'color', backgroundColor || '#ffe' );
 
 document.body.appendChild( this.widget.domNode );
 this.widget.startup();
 
 dojo.subscribe( 'partialrefresh-init', this, function( method, form, targetId ){
  if( targetId && targetId !== '@none' ){ this.show( targetId ); }
 });
 
 dojo.subscribe( 'partialrefresh-complete', this, function( method, form, targetId ){
  if( targetId && targetId !== '@none' ){ this.hide(); }
 });
 
 dojo.subscribe( 'partialrefresh-error', this, function( method, form, targetId ){
  if( targetId && targetId !== '@none' ){ this.hide(); }
 });
}

StandbyWidget.prototype = {
 show: function( targetId ){
  this.widget.attr( 'target', targetId );
  this.widget.show();  
 },
 hide: function(){  
  this.widget.hide();
 }
}

Using themeId for maintainability

In an application I'm currently working on, there are several categorized views with number-/totals columns. As the number of views/columns increased, I looked for a way to make styling of the columns more maintainable.

The solution I found was using themeId on the columns and calling a SSJS function in the theme, that generates the style classes.

I chose numberColumn as the name for the themeId.

In theme

<control>
 <name>numberColumn</name>
 <property>
  <name>styleClass</name>
  <value>#{javascript:return StyleHelper.getNumberColumnStyleClass( this );}</value>
 </property>
</control>

this refers to the column object.

SSJS code

var StyleHelper = {
 // Used to calculate styleClass for a number column
 getNumberColumnStyleClass: function( column ){
  try {
   var entry = column.getViewRowData();
   var styleClass = 'numberCell';
   if( entry.isCategory() ){ styleClass += ' categoryCell'; }
   if( entry.isTotal() ){ styleClass += ' totalsCell'; }
   return styleClass;
  } catch( e ){ /* Exception handling */ }
 }
}

Regular column cells will get class="numberCell".
Totals column cells will get class="numberCell totalsCell".
Category column cells will get class="numberCell categoryCell".

All I have to do to add dynamic styling to future columns is to set themeId on the column to numberCell.