Tip of the Iceberg

Category domino
Found this by accident, thought I'd pass it along. I imagine all y'all already know this, but it was a fun little discovery for me: relative URL's included in pass-thru HTML not only function correctly from a browser, but also from the Notes client.

Most of us are, by now, long since familiar with the option to render pass-thru HTML in Notes. Well, those of us still tied to the Notes client are, anyway. Recently, while developing what was originally intended to be a browser-only application, I opened one of the documents in Notes assuming that an IMG would be broken, but it wasn't. The SRC location is computed as a relative URL to a folder of images stored within the HTML subfolder structure, which naturally will display correctly from a browser. But apparently the Notes client is now smart enough to send an HTTP request to the server on which the database resides to pull the specified content. I assumed this was something that was added in 7, but tried it from 6.5, and the IMG still displayed correctly. So I don't know how far back support for this behavior was added, but it changes my perspective a bit.

You see, for years I've wanted to abandon the client altogether. It has its advantages, but so does being browser-only; for example:

• When it comes time to upgrade, I'll upgrade the server(s) and I'm done. No messing around with SmartUpgrade kits, praying every user has enough access to their own PC and sufficient disk space to run the install.
• Through CSS (and various other forms of standardization), my Domino apps can look and behave consistently with other applications, regardless of who wrote them or what the back end system is. That way, applications that should never have been put into Notes in the first place can be replaced with a more appropriate solution (and vice versa), and the users won't even know the difference.

The bottom line is that, since deciding I'd like to move in that direction, I've consciously chosen to continue developing Notes applications, but trying to avoid approaches that do not transfer easily to a browser. But the more I discover about what web technologies the Notes client now supports - not just pass-thru, but CSS and JavaScript (I actually have a few applications now that are using AJAX from within the client) - the more I suspect that I should take the opposite approach: develop Domino applications, trying to avoid approaches that do not work well in the client. It's a subtle shift, but something tells me that it's enough to make a significant impact over time.