Lotus Notes/Domino agents must extend AgentBase and use NotesMain() as the entry point for their functional code. Use getSession() to create a Session object. For output to browsers as well as Notes clients (the Java debug console), create a PrintWriter object with getAgentOutput().

Skeleton for Java agents

Lotus Domino Designer generates the following skeleton code when you create a Java agent. If you import the agent, you must supply similar code yourself. Minimally you must create a class that extends AgentBase, provide a function called NotesMain(), and call AgentBase.getSession() to create a Session object. The code in NotesMain() executes when the agent is launched.

import lotus.domino.*;

public class JavaAgent extends AgentBase {

 public void NotesMain() {

   try {
     Session session = getSession();
     AgentContext agentContext = session.getAgentContext();

     // (Your code goes here)

   } catch(Exception e) {
     e.printStackTrace();
   }
 }
}

You may wish to modify the skeleton to deal specifically with NotesException exceptions. For example:

    } catch(NotesException ne) {
     System.out.println(ne.id + " " + ne.text);
   } catch(Exception e) {
     E.printStackTrace();

Instead of:

    } catch(Exception e) {
     E.printStackTrace();

Print output

For Notes clients, System.out and System.err output from foreground agents goes to the Java debug console, which you can access as a separate task through File - Tools - Show Java Debug Console. Background agents print to the Domino log.

To print to a browser from an agent started by the OpenAgent URL command, you must call AgentBase.getAgentOutput() to get a java.io.PrintWriter object. Print output from this object goes to browsers as well as the Notes client.

The following code fragment shows how to open a view in the current database by printing the URL command to a browser. (The code replaces backslashes with forward slashes and spaces with plus signs, and encloses the URL command in brackets.)

import java.io.PrintWriter;

PrintWriter pw = getAgentOutput();
Database db = agentContext.getCurrentDatabase();
String n = db.getFileName();
n = n.replace('\\', '/').replace(' ', '+');
pw.println("[/" + n + "/Main+View?OpenView]");

Specification of AgentBase

The specification (public methods) of the AgentBase class is as follows:

public class AgentBase extends NotesThread {
   protected Session m_session;
   public AgentBase();
   public final void startup(AgentInfo info);
   public final void runNotes() throws NotesException;
   public void NotesMain();
   public Session getSession();
   public boolean isRestricted();
   public PrintWriter getAgentOutput();
   public void setDebug(boolean debug);
   public void setTrace(boolean trace);
   public void dbgMsg(String msg, PrintStream ps);
   public void dbgMsg(String msg, PrintWriter pw);
   public void dbgMsg(String msg);
   
}

Example
See Also

Supporting components
Running a Java program

Glossary