Genii Weblog

New Sessions db planned for Thursday

Wed 4 Jan 2006, 11:55 PM



by Ben Langhinrichs
There have been over 1300 downloads of the Lotusphere 2006 Sessions DB in its first version, but I would strongly advise people to download again as soon as version 2 is out.  There are some cool new features, lots of additional information, and some extra fun stuff as well.  Here is a short list of some of the changes planned for Version 2, plus a few images to whet your appetite:
  • Labs, ISV Theater, Product Showcase, etc. are now listed on the graphical calendars as well as in session views
  • Additional session updates (notably BP403 and BDD401)
  • BeginTime and EndTime values for all sessions in NotesDateTime format, allowing better customized apps for those who want to use this database for your own purposes
  • Improved Add to My Calendar button using BeginTime and EndTime, thus making valid calendar entries with time zones
  • Frappr photos accessible for some people in the Lotusphere2006 group (more later)
  • Pedestals now exposed to menu, although most pedestal data is not available yet
  • Updated people from actual speakers, people who have been mentioned to me, partial Frappr list, etc.
  • Two new graphical views in each session db.  These are the "Big Picture" of all activities at once, either from the Dolphin or Swan perspective.

Here is a sneak preview of the two new graphical calendars.  Very cool, and all done with layers (yup, layers).  This is the "Big Picture" view including the Dolphin and Y&B sessions on Tuesday all together in one display.  Note cool additions such as the labs (hard to read in this image, I'm afraid) and Product Showcase, so all your scheduling needs can be seen at once.
Dolphin graphical calendar for Tuesday

And here is the Swan "Big Picture" for Monday:
Swan graphical calendar for Monday

But, of course, there is still more to be added, if we have time before Lotusphere.  Enjoy!

Copyright © 2006 Genii Software Ltd.

What has been said:


417.1. Charles Robinson (01/05/2006 02:03 PM)

Thanks for doing this, it's been a tremendous help for me. The calendar is pretty nifty, I always wondered what anyone would use layers for. I'll have to pull that apart and see how you did it.

I do have one suggestion, and that is to include the session location when you print the calendar from your session database. It is added to my personal calendar, but I want to take a printout of the entire schedule with me and having the locations would be handy. Now I just need to figure out where in the world all these places are.


417.2. Ben Langhinrichs (01/05/2006 02:12 PM)

Good idea about the location. As for wondering where things are, Version 3 has a nifty way to do that if we get it done in time.

As for the layers, I should warn you that I make it seem easy by using our Midas Rich Text LSX, but it would be kind of messy without that tool. Look at the "Create location subforms" agent and the "Create location subforms for Dolphin" to see the ways this is done. The really fancy stuff with hide-whens and interactive layers I am leaving out, but might put in version 3 if I have time.


417.3. Tim Latta (01/06/2006 08:57 AM)

Don't you love those little learn-while-you-go and whip-up-cool-technical-features-for-those-who-appreciate-them projects? ;-)