Imaginary design elements

Imagine if you decided to access a design element, and the design element didn't really exist, but you could make it exist at will.  Not create it on the fly, just have it exist at the moment you need it, without actually altering the design (in any release back to ND6).  This is more possible to do then you might think, thanks to the wonders of C API development.  I am playing with the concept for an unusual, but powerful, CoexEdit demonstration.  

Imagine showing BigCharts09012009IBM.gif, and having it display today's chart for IBM.

Imagine accessing a form that isn't in this database, but works anyway, on demand.

Imagine a dynamic subform that is self-extending (e.g., CustomerTableSubform23x7).

I can't say more now, but I thought I'd give you API folks something to think about it.  Depending on how things work out, I might even be able to make a cool OpenNTF utility using this.

What has been said:

866.1. Richard Schwartz (09/02/2009 12:01 AM)

Sounds like DECS for design elements. Intriguing.

866.2. Ben Langhinrichs (09/02/2009 12:07 AM)

That is pretty much the idea. No idea how it will be useful besides what I want, but I'm looking forward to playing. Fortunately, it only needs to be read access, not write.

866.3. Nathan T. Freeman (09/02/2009 05:37 AM)

OpenNTF would obviously be delighted to feature such a product.

For what it's worth, I know Rocky did some hacking of the cache.ndk at some point in the past, and I've done some proof-of-concept stuff in that direction, too. I don't know if that's where you're heading.

866.4. Ben Langhinrichs (09/02/2009 01:01 PM)

@Nathan - No, I take a different approach, although playing with the cache.ndk is an interesting idea. Rocky is not an API developer, but is a very clever Notes developer, so that sounds more like his way of doing things. I'll send you an email with a few more details, but I'd prefer not to describe too much publicly until I have something working better.