Notes URLs

The launching of Notes URLs is the mechanism the client uses to create bookmarks and launch components. This document describes various configurations of that URL and the results of launching them.

Format: notes://server/db/view/document?Command&params=values

Server

Examples: NPD1, CAMDB04%2FLotus, myserver.ibm.com, 9.123.9.122.245

The server component is used as a hint to determine which server it should try first to look for the db component. If it is not found, it fails over to other replicas if the db component is a replica id.

The server component is optional. If no server component exists, it will use the current (most recent) replica of the specified db. One implication of this model is that there is no way to force it to open a local database. This will likely be addressed in a future release.

db

Examples: , .nsf ,

The db component describes which db we are talking about. The most common form is the Replica ID by itself. In any Replica ID case, while launching, it will try it on the server that was given as a hint if there is one, otherwise Notes will use the most current replica (top of the Workspace stack).

In all cases the Replica ID can be a special one that represents a known item in the user’s environment.

Represented	Special Replica ID
Current Mailfile	0000000000000E00
Current Address Book	0000000000000E01
Current Subscription DB	0000000000000E02
Current Bookmarks DB	0000000000000E03

Additionally, each Replica ID can be followed by a :

This allows those who are looking for it, to choose the database more specifically.

Examples: e.g. Notes://dixie/mail/Fbrianleo.nsf

If a Replica ID is not given, the value is assumed to be a filename.

This has the interesting (and troubling) ability to actually have multiple slashes when the database is in a subdirectory. The parsing code is looking for the .nsf to know it has found a filename and every term before that is part of the path.

The recommended approach would the use %2F (url encoding) instead of the slashes. In the above example: Notes://dixie/mail%2Fbrianleo.nsf

When using a path, Notes will look only on the given server (and local if no server is given). If the file is not found, it will prompt the user to select a server.

view

Examples: ,

e.g. Notes://Garth/86256EDF005310E2/A4D87D90E1B19842852564FF006DED4E/

The view parameter says what view to navigate to or a view the document is known to be within.

At this location, there can also be other database elements. See the section ‘db elements’ below for other items, but this section will just cover the most common case: views.

This component is usually the UNID of the view, but it can also be the Note ID of that view within the specified database on the specified server. Of course, if giving a Noted ID it is best practice to use the database path because the Note ID is only accurate on a specific database.

For better or worse, it is also possible to open a view by specifying these same values (UNID or Notes ID) as the ‘document’ component and leaving this component blank.

If there is no ‘view’ component (and no ‘document’ component), the last opened view of the database will be opened on launch.

If there is a ‘document’ component, but no ‘view’ component, several things will not work correctly on the opened document – notably the ‘Go up to parent view’ command’ and the ‘next document’ and similar navigation commands.

Example: e.g. Notes://Garth/86256EDF005310E2/($Inbox)

Navigate to the view with the given name

Example: $defaultView e.g. Notes://Garth/86256EDF005310E2/$defaultView

This is a special name that allows the Notes URL to launch to the default view in the database.

document

If there is a fourth element to the Notes URLs is assumed to be a document.

Examples: ,

e.g. Notes://Garth/86256EDF005310E2/A4D87D90E1B19842852564FF006DED4E/63FD4A74E2092D368525741A000E51B4

If there is a ‘document’ component, but no ‘view’ component, several things will not work correctly on the opened document – notably the ‘Go up to parent view’ command’ and the ‘next document’ and similar navigation commands.

OpenFrameset

The OpenFrameset command allows a frameset to opened by name, UNID, or Note ID.

Notes://Garth/86256EDF005310E2/CalendarFS?OpenFramset

Starting with the Notes 8.01 release, an additional parameter can be added to the OpenFrameset commands to specify the view to be displayed within the frameset. This parameter should contain the UNID of the view.

Notes://Garth/86256EDF005310E2/CalendarFS?OpenFramset&view= A4D87D90E1B19842852564FF006DED4E

OpenPage

The OpenPage command allows a page to opened by name, UNID, or Note ID

Notes://Garth/86256EDF005310E2/PageName?OpenPage

OpenForm

The Open form command allows a new document to be created with the given form name, UNID, or Note ID. For instance, if the URL below pointed to a mail database, a new email message would be launched in the client.

Notes://Garth/86256EDF005310E2/Memo?OpenForm

OpenAgent

The OpenAgent command runs the agent with the given name, UNID, or Note ID.

Notes://Garth/86256EDF005310E2/AgentName?OpenAgent

OpenView

The OpenView command is available but doesn’t really add much as it is the default when a a view (but not a document) parameter is specified in the URL. This does make the intentions more explicit, however.

Notes://Garth/86256EDF005310E2/A4D87D90E1B19842852564FF006DED4E?OpenView

SearchView

By using the SearchView Command, the URL can open a view and cause it to perform a full test search. Notes 8.0 introduced this feature.The view name or UNID should be specified.

Notes://Garth/86256EDF005310E2/($Inbox)?SearchView&query=search%20for%20this

Notes://Garth/86256EDF005310E2/A4D87D90E1B19842852564FF006DED4E?SearchView&query=search%20for%20this

OpenDocument

The OpenDocument command is available but doesn’t really add much as it is the default when a document parameter is specified in the URL. This does make the intentions more explicit, however.

Notes://Garth/86256EDF005310E2/A4D87D90E1B19842852564FF006DED4E/63FD4A74E2092D368525741A000E51B4?OpenDocument

OpenDocumentByKey

The OpenDocumentByKey command was added in Notes 8.5 to support the ability to open a document by specifying a view and a key within that view. The client preferred to be more explicit by creating a new command to prevent conflicts that could occur with certain keys and document identifiers. This command is not supported in Notes versions after 8.5.x.

notes://acme/register.nsf/Registered+Users/Jay+Street?OpenDocumentByKey

EditDocument

The EditDocument command was adding in the Notes 8.5 release to support launching a document, but placing it in edit mode when opened. If the user does not have the access necessary to edit the document, it will open in read-only mode as if the OpenDocument command was given.

Notes://Garth/86256EDF005310E2/A4D87D90E1B19842852564FF006DED4E/63FD4A74E2092D368525741A000E51B4?EditDocument