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Link Messages and Applications

If you have not checked out Alan Lepofsky's IBM Lotus Notes/Domino Hints and Tips, you should. He has tips and tricks for all types of people that work with Notes/Domino. His most recent post Notes Links Part 2: Document Links has a section on using Link Messages to easily send a document link. There is more information that can be displayed in the link message that could make your application more appealing.

Here is an example of what the Link Message could look like:

Implementation:
The Link Message inherits values from the selected document.

Because this property is checked any field that has a default value will be populated just like it normally does when it is created, but any field from selected document is also available to be used, if it exists. The next step is to find out what the fields are inheriting from. These are the fields on the Link Message form.

Database, Workflow status, and Due date inherit from a single field.

Here are the field names that they inherit from (they happen to be the same as the field name):
Database: InheritedDBTitle
Workflow status: FlowStatus
Due date: DueDateTime

Because the Link Message can be created from anywhere (as described by Alan), I would recommend adding Link Message information to every form. Not every field needs to be populated by your application, so only choose the ones that apply. I recommend that the fields be computed so the information is available when creating a Link Message in a view. The fields should look like the following:

The Document/Subject follows the same logic but has more options. As shown, if there is a Subject field it will use that, otherwise it will use Topic, then Title and finally BriefDescription.
Document:

 @If(
     @IsAvailable(Subject); Subject;
     @IsAvailable(Topic); Topic;
     @IsAvailable(Title); Title;
     @IsAvailable(BriefDescription); BriefDescription;
"")

The subject field uses the information that is after Document but prepends "Link Message: ".
Subject:

 "Link Message"+ @If(@IsAvailable(InheritedSubject);":  "+InheritedSubject;"")

Now that the application is setup to use Link Messages lets make the creation of the Link Message easier by creating an action button with the following code:

 @Command([Compose]; @MailDbName; "Bookmark")

Bookmark was the old name for Link Message, so it has now become an alias for the Link Message form.