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The big test: CoexEdit enabling standard Discussion Database

Mon 7 Nov 2005, 11:11 PM



by Ben Langhinrichs
A while back, I went through the exercise of CoexEdit enabling the Partner Forum.  While technically interesting, it was not terribly useful to most people, since the Partner Forum is not really web enabled.  It seems like a much more useful project would be to CoexEdit enable the standard Discussion Database template, so that is what we are going to do here.

Here were the steps as I recorded them:

CoexEdit-enabling the Discussion Database template

  1. Made sure that CoexEdit was set up on my server, with FCKEditor installed per the directions in the CoexEdit User manual.
  2. Copied the Discussion - Notes & Web (6) template, discsw6.ntf, to a new Discussion - Notes & Web with CoexEdit (6)  template, discsw6CXE.ntf.
  3. The Main TopicResponse and Response to Response forms all use the Body field as the main rich text field.  Since the FCKEditor with CoexEdit sample database on our website also uses this field, I simply copied the FCKEditorSubform and NotesClientSubform from the FCKEditor with CoexEdit sample into the new discussion template..
  4. I replaced the Body field in the Main TopicResponse and Response to Response forms with a computed subform exactly like that in the Example Form from the CoexEdit sample (I actually just copied it and pasted it in).  The formula is simply: @If(@ClientType = "Notes"; "NotesClientSubform"; "FCKEditorSubform").  Before I removed the Body field, I checked its attributes, and noted that it set the width to 625 and the height to 300 on each form.
  5. In the Main TopicResponse and Response to Response forms, there was no current value for the HTML Head Content formula, so I added the word HTMLBodyContent, which is the computed field on the subform which references FCKEditor.
  6. I edited the FCKEditorSubform and in the JS Header, I changed the oFCKeditor1.Height = '500' to oFCKeditor1.Height = '300', and the oFCKeditor1.Width = '600' to oFCKeditor1.Width = '625'.
  7. I went back to the FCKEditor with CoexEdit sample database and copied all the image resources, then pasted them into the new discussion template.
  8. Finally, in a somewhat unnecessary, but pleasant, step, I edited both the Main Topic form and the Shared Response Header subform and deleted the last row of the header table, which is the row with Attach a file: in the first column and a file upload control in the second column.  One of the cool things about CoexEdit is that it will let you add files the way the Notes client does, without a file upload on your form, anywhere you like in the rich text, and as many as you like.

That was about all I could remember to do, so I stopped and created a brand new database using the new discussion template.  From the Notes client, I added some content, including colored text, an animated gif and a simple table, then saved and switched over to Internet Explorer and went to the same database.  I edited the content and it looked fine.  I added some different colors and a colored background on a table cell, and saved again.  I switch to Firefox, edited again and made some more changes, then switched back to Notes and checked, and all changes were made and looked good.  I'd show some graphics, but I think I'll save my energy and make a mini-movie of the whole process.  I will show just one image, to give a feel for what is happening.

Wasn't that easy?  How hard would it be to do the same for YOUR databases?

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