Hi

I have run in to a problem.

My ViP application runs agains Notes data (views). The user can choose wich domino server and database he/she would like to run against. I then pass a variable around an use this method to tell all data objects wich connection to use.

Data_Object.Connection=Conn$

On different servers I have one or more identical databases (regarding design) with different data in them.

I have ported this application from ViP 1.0. There everything worked fine.

The problem appears in these two different ways..

1.

When I open up the Connections dialog in design mode for a data object I can select databases on other servers. By this I mean that I can select wich notes server I would like to have and browse the notes servers different catalogs and databases. (this must mean that ViP gets a connecion to the notes server, right ?) The problem comes when I have selected the database I want. When I press the "OK" button ViP "hangs". I have tried to wait for something to happen, but it's totally dead and I have to end ViP "the hard way" to get out. This problem only occures when I choose a data base on another server than my "home" server in Lotus Notes. When I select a database on my home server it works fine.

2.

As I have ported this application from ViP 1.0 I already have some connections defined for databases on other servers. When I run the application I have tried to select one of these connections. ViP then hangs like in design mode. Nothing happens. I have also tried to wait here but it doesn't work.

Some additonal information.

I think it's very strange that this happens as ViP is obviously getting a connection when I'm browsing the databases on the different servers. I also know that this hasen't got to do with the ACL lists on the Notes databases as I can open up the databases in notes.

Operating systems: I have tried it on Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 3.1X.

ViP version: 2.2

Lotus Notes version: 4.5

Network protocol: TCP/IP

Best regards

Anders

Is someone looking into this ???

I still can't get it to work and I'm running out of time…….

Reg.

Anders

Anders,

Let's address this in its simplest form, which is your observation on creating a connection from design mode.

1) The first thing to try is to run Notes itself from the same client workstation that ViP runs on. Select "Database/Open", the server you desire, and the database that you are having trouble with. If Notes will not open the database for some reason, then ViP will also fail. The hang is mysterious, but if it occurs in Notes, the problem is probably in either network or in access security. If you can cannot through Notes, then it's something in ViP.

2) When you use the connection dialog, the underlying code does the following (in C-API code to Notes):

a) Gets a list of servers from the Notes session. For this, the list of "Ports" in the NOTES.INI file is used in the interogation. If you are getting a list of servers OK, then this step is working.

b) Opens the "server", and interrogates it for a list of databases and directories. If this is returning a correct list, then this step is working.

c) When the user selects a database and clicks OK, then the database is opened.

c1)If this fails, then NO ERROR MESSAGE IS RETURNED, and although the connection is "defined", there may be no such database. However, if you try to use the connection in a data object, an error will occur, and a message should be returned.

c2) If the database is opened, then some additional information is obtained about the database, namely its default form and view. This is done by querying through a special API setting for design documents in the database. It is possible that this step may fail if the user does not have access rights to designs. I believe that there should just skip this step if it can't get default designs.

So in summary, I don't know why there should be a hang, unless Notes itself or the network is having problems.

Hi John

I have tested to open the databas in notes and everything works perfectly OK so thats not the problem. I also have Administrator rights to all involved databases so that's not the problem either.

When using the connection dialog I get a list of servers (2a) and a list of databases and directorys (2b). When I press OK everything hangs. I don't think it could depend on (2c2) since I have administrator rights to the databases. This only leaves us with (2c1) wich must mean that ViP can't open the database. I found out yesterday when pressing the OK button and then leaving the office for the night that when I came back this morning the connection is defined but I can't use it. So this is probably it.

The question now is of course. What can I do to fix this ? I would think that the problem is with the network. Could it have something to do with timouts in the traffic. Maybe I could set that time to a longer one ?

Best regards

Anders

Hi John

Rapid reponses here…

I actually got it to work now. When I managed to make the connection this night (don't know how long it took) I though that maybe it worked but REALLY slow. Thats what it does. If I wait long enough it brings up the charts that uses the data objects.

In notes the opening times for the databases are:

db on my home server (Stockholm, Sweden) - 2 sec

db on server in Brussels, Belgium - 5 sec

If I use ViP the time for connecting is:

db on home server - 6 sec

db on Belgium server - 11 minutes

The PING time against the different servers are:

Home server - <10 ms

Belgium server - between 200 and 500 ms

It can't be a 1:1 relation ship between the answering times of ViP and Notes. It must be an exponential function of the time or something. Do you have any idea of why it works like this ?

Best Regards

Anders

It looks to me like what is happening is (as I detailed in 2c) that the db is opened OK, and that the search among all design documents for the default form and view is what is taking the time. This could involve a lot of network traffic, and indeed could be a fairly strong function of Ping time, since there would be a lot of data moving into the local machine.

I'm afraid that there is no workaround for this problem. Once the initial connection is made, and the database connection is cached, subsequent operations could proceed much more quickly. Run-time apps will see this hit the first time through only. Design-time connections could be very slow, particularly when enumerating forms and views in the Add Columns dialog box.

For this reason it would be advantageous to let Notes replicate the databases, and work off of a nearer server, if you can.

Hi

This is exactly what I have done. (design against a local database) Today I have also installed the ViP application in belgium. There the application worked fine against the Belgium server.

By that I'm very relifed.

Thanks for your thoughts

Best regards

Anders

View this thread on the forum...