This article will describe how to create a basic application and then show you how to launch it from your web browser. It assumes that you have already created a Project 'Web Store' as per the previous article.

The DXFramework Web Store can hold a multitude of different web application/site/intranet etc types.

However the main purpose of the Framework is for the development of complex Web 'Applications' - Domino on its own, in my opinion, does not provide a very good way of developing these (for many reasons I have discussed before) nor does it provide good methods for using the latest web technologies or even use existing ones very well. After all lets be honest we are talking legacy type applications here - Lotus Notes has been around for a while and is restricted by its original design.

The Framework does provide more advanced Web Site/Intranet site 'Content Management' functionality via an add on to the main software - which I will discuss in another article.

Ok we have created a new Project - opened it and we have a blank/empty workspace.

In this article we are going to create just a Web page, do a bit of configuration and view it in the browser.

We can create a web page using any of the components discussed before - Navigator, Form, Component - as this will be our 'default' (I will mention it again, but the system always launches the design element that has been entitled Default.htm' first) page we shall use a Navigator - and then when we come to do additional things in future articles we shall have pre-built navigation features available to us.

Before we create our Navigator, we first need to create a Project structure - if needed - now this feature is really for large Projects to help organise work. In future releases of the software there will be many advanced 'Project Management' features added.

To create a Project Category you need to go to the Project menu and select 'Add Project Category'.   A dialog will then appear and you enter your Category name and click OK. The Project Category view will then be shown and you will see your new Category in that view (if not click the refresh button at the top right of your Notes Client).   For now I am going to use one category - Main. Obviously more can be added later.

With the category created, we can now create our Navigator. To do this go to the 'Create' menu and select 'Navigator'.   A blank Navigator screen will then open. Fill the name field as 'Default.htm' so the application knows which design element to open first. Then add a title such as 'MY DX Application'. This will appear as the title in your browser window.

Next select a Project Category - ie 'Main':

You should then have a screen that looks like:

Next we will add some HTML to the page - click the HTML tab and add something like the old classic:

<b>Hello World!</b>

Then we need to save the document - using the 'save close' button.

The 'Project Browser' will then appear and we will see our new Navigator - under the Main/Navigator Category.

When a DX Application loads it can take a couple of seconds (depending on your internet connection) for the application to come up. This is because essential files are loaded and cached upfront so that user interaction is then quicker once it has loaded. The loading will be quicker shortly as I will put in enhancements so that parts of the API are not loaded if they are not required (ie for web content only applications).

To have a loading message for your application, go to the Project menu and select 'Properties'. A properties dialog will appear, at the bottom there is an 'Application Loading Message' field - enter a loading message. You can use html tags as well if you wish:

Creating a project build is where the advanced JavaScript code control comes in. At the time of writing, this has not yet been fully implemented into version 2 - however it will be shortly.

At this stage though it is still important to do a Project Build when you have created a new Project, or added/edited a Database Link or Constant.

To do a project build, select 'Build Release' from the Action menu. You will get a confirmation message when done.

We are now ready to run the application. Open your browser and enter the url for your database ie:

http://127.0.0.1/MYDX/MyProje.nsf

If you are unsure of the path and database name, you can find out from the Project Properties dialog which can be accessed from the Project Menu.

If everything has gone to plan your browser should now look like this:

You will notice the application has auto-launched the 'Default.htm' Navigator, and also the browser window has your title.

Thats all for this article, however many more to follow which will cover the advanced features one by one.