IBM Lotus Notes
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HCL Notes (formerly IBM Notes and Lotus Notes; see
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below) and HCL Domino (formerly IBM Domino and Lotus Domino) are the
client Client(s) or The Client may refer to: * Client (business) * Client (computing), hardware or software that accesses a remote service on another computer * Customer or client, a recipient of goods or services in return for monetary or other valuable ...
and
server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called clients Role * Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers and su ...
, respectively, of a
collaborative Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most ...
client-server
software platform A computing platform or digital platform is an environment in which a piece of software is executed. It may be the hardware or the operating system (OS), even a web browser and associated application programming interfaces, or other underlying ...
formerly sold by IBM, now by
HCL Technologies HCLTech (formerly Hindustan Computers Limited or HCL Technologies) is an Indian multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company headquartered in Noida.It emerged as an independent company in 1991 when HCL entered into ...
. HCL Notes provides business collaboration functions, such as
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, calendars,
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s, contact management, discussion forums, file sharing, websites, instant messaging, blogs, document libraries, user directories, and custom applications. It can also be used with other HCL Domino applications and databases. IBM Notes 9 Social Edition removed integration with the office software package
IBM Lotus Symphony IBM Lotus Symphony is a discontinued suite of applications for creating, editing, and sharing text, spreadsheet, presentations, and other documents and browsing the World Wide Web. It was first distributed as commercial proprietary software, t ...
, which had been integrated with the Lotus Notes client in versions 8.x.
Lotus Development Corporation Lotus Software (called Lotus Development Corporation before its acquisition by IBM) was an American software company based in Massachusetts; it was "offloaded" to India's HCL Technologies in 2018. Lotus is most commonly known for the Lotus 1-2- ...
originally developed "Lotus Notes" in 1989. IBM bought Lotus in 1995 and it became known as the Lotus Development division of IBM. On December 6, 2018, IBM announced that it was selling a number of software products to
HCL Technologies HCLTech (formerly Hindustan Computers Limited or HCL Technologies) is an Indian multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company headquartered in Noida.It emerged as an independent company in 1991 when HCL entered into ...
for $1.8bn, including Notes and Domino. This acquisition was completed in July 2019.


Design

HCL Domino is a client-server
cross-platform In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software r ...
application
runtime environment In computer programming, a runtime system or runtime environment is a sub-system that exists both in the computer where a program is created, as well as in the computers where the program is intended to be run. The name comes from the compile t ...
. Domino provides email, calendars,
instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...
(with additional HCL software voice- and video-conferencing and web-collaboration), discussions/forums,
blogs A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
, and an inbuilt personnel/user
directory Directory may refer to: * Directory (computing), or folder, a file system structure in which to store computer files * Directory (OpenVMS command) * Directory service, a software application for organizing information about a computer network's u ...
. In addition to these standard applications, an organization may use the Domino Designer development environment and other tools to develop additional integrated applications such as request approval /
workflow A workflow consists of an orchestrated and repeatable pattern of activity, enabled by the systematic organization of resources into processes that transform materials, provide services, or process information. It can be depicted as a sequence of ...
and
document management A document management system (DMS) is usually a computerized system used to store, share, track and manage files or documents. Some systems include history tracking where a log of the various versions created and modified by different users is r ...
. The Domino product consists of several components: * HCL Notes client application (since version 8, this is based on
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) * HCL Notes client, either: ** a rich client ** a web client, HCL
iNotes HCL iNotes (formerly IBM Lotus iNotes and IBM iNotes) offers a full-featured web-based version of HCL Technologies's HCL Notes client. Formerly known as IBM Lotus Domino Web Access, HCL iNotes provides HCL Notes users with browser-based access to t ...
** a mobile email client, HCL Notes Traveler * HCL Verse client, either: ** a web email client, Verse on Premises (VOP) ** a mobile email client, Verse Mobile (for iOS and Android) * HCL Domino server * HCL Domino Administration Client * HCL Domino Designer (Eclipse-based integrated development environment) for creating client-server applications that run within the Notes framework Domino competes with products from other companies such as
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
,
Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
,
Zimbra Zimbra Collaboration, formerly known as the Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) before 2019, is a collaborative software suite that includes an email server and a web client. Zimbra was initially developed by LiquidSys, which changed their name ...
and others. Because of the application development abilities, HCL Domino is often compared to products like
Microsoft Sharepoint SharePoint is a web-based Collaborative software, collaborative platform that integrates natively with Microsoft Office. Launched in 2001, SharePoint is primarily sold as a document management and storage system, but the product is highly confi ...
. The database in Domino can be replicated between servers and between server and client, thereby allowing clients offline capabilities. Domino, a business application as well as a messaging server, is compatible with both Notes and web-browsers. Notes (and since IBM Domino 9, the HCAA) may be used to access any Domino application, such as discussion forums, document libraries, and numerous other applications. Notes resembles a web-browser in that it may run any compatible application that the user has permission for. Domino provides applications that can be used to: * access, store and present information through a user interface * enforce security * replicate, that is, allow many different servers to contain the same information and have many users work with that data The standard storage mechanism in Domino is a document-database format, the "Notes Storage Facility" (.nsf). The .nsf file will normally contain both an application design and its associated data. Domino can also access
relational database A relational database is a (most commonly digital) database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A system used to maintain relational databases is a relational database management system (RDBMS). Many relatio ...
s, either through an additional server called HCL Enterprise Integrator for Domino, through ODBC calls or through the use of XPages. As Domino is an application runtime environment, email and calendars operate as applications within Notes, which HCL provides with the product. A Domino application-developer can change or completely replace that application. HCL has released the base templates as open source as well. Programmers can develop applications for Domino in a variety of development languages including: * the
Java programming language Java is a high-level, class-based, object-oriented programming language that is designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible. It is a general-purpose programming language intended to let programmers ''write once, run anywh ...
either directly or through XPages *
LotusScript LotusScript is an object oriented programming language used by Lotus Notes (since version 4.0) and other IBM Lotus Software products. LotusScript is similar to Visual Basic. Developers familiar with one can easily understand the syntax and struct ...
, a language resembling
Visual Basic Visual Basic is a name for a family of programming languages from Microsoft. It may refer to: * Visual Basic .NET (now simply referred to as "Visual Basic"), the current version of Visual Basic launched in 2002 which runs on .NET * Visual Basic (cl ...
* the JavaScript programming language via the Domino AppDev Pack The client supports a formula language as well as JavaScript. Software developers can build applications to run either within the Notes application runtime environment or through a web server for use in a web browser, although the interface would need to be developed separately unless XPages is used.


Use

Notes can be used for email, as a calendar, PIM, instant messaging,
Web browsing Web navigation refers to the process of navigating a Computer network, network of web resource, information resources in the International World Wide Web Conference, World Wide Web, which is organized as hypertext or hypermedia. The user interface ...
, and other applications. Notes can access both local- and server-based applications and data. Notes can function as an
IMAP In computing, the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is an Internet standard protocol used by email clients to retrieve email messages from a mail server over a TCP/IP connection. IMAP is defined by . IMAP was designed with the goal of per ...
and POP email client with non-Domino mail servers. The system can retrieve recipient addresses from any
LDAP The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP ) is an open, vendor-neutral, industry standard application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. Directory servi ...
server, including
Active Directory Active Directory (AD) is a directory service developed by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems as a set of processes and services. Initially, Active Directory was used only for centralize ...
, and includes a web browser, although it can be configured by a Domino Developer to launch a different web browser instead. Features include group calendars and schedules,
SMTP The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard communication protocol for electronic mail transmission. Mail servers and other message transfer agents use SMTP to send and receive mail messages. User-level email clients typical ...
/
MIME Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Message ...
-based email,
NNTP The Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) is an application protocol used for transporting Usenet news articles (''netnews'') between news servers, and for reading/posting articles by the end user client applications. Brian Kantor of the Univers ...
-based news support, and automatic HTML conversion of all documents by the Domino
HTTP The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, ...
task. Notes can be used with Sametime instant-messaging to allow to see other users online and chat with one or more of them at the same time. Beginning with Release 6.5, this function has been freely available. Presence awareness is available in email and other HCL Domino applications for users in organizations that use both Notes and Sametime. Since version 7, Notes has provided a Web services interface. Domino can be a
Web server A web server is computer software and underlying hardware that accepts requests via HTTP (the network protocol created to distribute web content) or its secure variant HTTPS. A user agent, commonly a web browser or web crawler, initiate ...
for
HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScri ...
files; authentication of access to Domino databases or HTML files uses the Domino user directory and external systems such as Microsoft Active Directory. A design client, Domino Designer, can allow the development of
database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...
applications consisting of forms (which allow users to create documents) and views (which display selected document
fields Fields may refer to: Music *Fields (band), an indie rock band formed in 2006 *Fields (progressive rock band), a progressive rock band formed in 1971 * ''Fields'' (album), an LP by Swedish-based indie rock band Junip (2010) * "Fields", a song by ...
in columns). In addition to its role as a groupware system (email, calendaring, shared documents and discussions), HCL Notes and Domino can also construct "workflow"-type applications, particularly those which require approval processes and routing of data. Since Release 5, server clustering has had the ability to provide geographic redundancy for servers. Notes System Diagnostic (NSD) gathers information about the running of a Notes workstation or of a Domino server. On October 10, 2018, IBM released IBM Domino v10.0 and IBM Notes 10.0 as the latest release. In December, 2019, HCL released HCL Domino v11 and HCL Notes v11.


Overview


Client/server

Notes and Domino are client/server database environments. The server software is called Domino and the client software is Notes. Domino software can run on Windows, Unix,
AIX Aix or AIX may refer to: Computing * AIX, a line of IBM computer operating systems *An Alternate Index, for a Virtual Storage Access Method Key Sequenced Data Set * Athens Internet Exchange, a European Internet exchange point Places Belgi ...
, and IBM mid-range systems and can scale to tens of thousands of users per server. There are different supported versions of the Domino server that are supported on the various levels of server operating systems. Usually the latest server operating system is only officially supported by a version of HCL Domino that is released at about the same time as that OS. Domino has security capabilities on a variety of levels. The authorizations can be granular, down to the field level in specific records all the way up to 10 different parameters that can be set up at a database level, with intermediate options in between. Users can also assign access for other users to their personal calendar and email on a more generic reader, editor, edit with delete and manage my calendar levels. All of the security in Notes and Domino is independent of the server OS or Active Directory. Optionally, the Notes client can be configured to have the user use their Active Directory identity.


Data replication

The first release of Lotus Notes included a generalized replication facility. The generalized nature of this feature set it apart from predecessors like
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and continued to differentiate Lotus Notes. Domino servers and Notes clients identify NSF files by their Replica IDs, and keep replicated files synchronized by bi-directionally exchanging data, metadata, and application logic and design. There are options available to define what meta-data replicates, or specifically exclude certain meta data from replicating. Replication between two servers, or between a client and a server, can occur over a network or a point-to-point modem connection. Replication between servers may occur at intervals according to a defined schedule, in near-
real-time Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...
when triggered by data changes in server clusters, or when triggered by an administrator or program. Creation of a local replica of an NSF file on the hard disk of an HCL Notes client enables the user to fully use Notes and Domino databases while working off-line. The client synchronizes any changes when client and server next connect. Local replicas are also sometimes maintained for use while connected to the network in order to reduce network latency. Replication between a Notes client and Domino server can run automatically according to a schedule, or manually in response to a user or programmatic request. Since Notes 6, local replicas maintain all security features programmed into the applications. Earlier releases of Notes did not always do so. Early releases also did not offer a way to
encrypt In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can decip ...
NSF files, raising concerns that local replicas might expose too much confidential data on
laptop A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. Laptops typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper li ...
s or insecure home office computers, but more recent releases offer encryption, and as of the default setting for newly created local replicas.


Security

Lotus Notes was the first widely adopted software product to use
public key cryptography Public-key cryptography, or asymmetric cryptography, is the field of cryptographic systems that use pairs of related keys. Each key pair consists of a public key and a corresponding private key. Key pairs are generated with cryptographic alg ...
for client–server and server–server authentication and for encryption of data. Until US laws regulating encryption were changed in 2000, IBM and Lotus were prohibited from exporting versions of Notes that supported symmetric encryption keys that were longer than 40 bits. In 1997, Lotus negotiated an agreement with the
NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...
that allowed export of a version that supported stronger keys with 64 bits, but 24 of the bits were encrypted with a special key and included in the message to provide a "workload reduction factor" for the NSA. This strengthened the protection for users of Notes outside the US against private-sector
industrial espionage Industrial espionage, economic espionage, corporate spying, or corporate espionage is a form of espionage conducted for commercial purposes instead of purely national security. While political espionage is conducted or orchestrated by governmen ...
, but not against spying by the US government. This implementation was widely announced, but with some justification many people did consider it to be a
backdoor A back door is a door in the rear of a building. Back door may also refer to: Arts and media * Back Door (jazz trio), a British group * Porta dos Fundos (literally “Back Door” in Portuguese) Brazilian comedy YouTube channel. * Works so title ...
. Some governments objected to being put at a disadvantage to the NSA, and as a result Lotus continued to support the 40-bit version for export to those countries. Notes and Domino also uses a code-signature framework that controls the security context, runtime, and rights of custom code developed and introduced into the environment. Notes 5 introduced an execution control list (ECL) at the client level. The ECL allows or denies the execution of custom code based on the signature attached to it, preventing code from untrusted (and possibly malignant) sources from running. Notes and Domino 6 allowed client ECLs to be managed centrally by server administrators through the implementation of policies. Since release 4.5, the code signatures listed in properly configured ECLs prevent code from being executed by external sources, to avoid
virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1 ...
propagation through Notes/Domino environments. Administrators can centrally control whether each mailbox user can add exceptions to, and thus override, the ECL.


Database security

Access control lists (ACLs) control a user of server's level of access to that database. Only a user with Manager access can create or modify the ACL. Default entries in the ACL can be set when the Manager creates the database. Roles, rather than user id, can determine access level.


Programming

Notes and Domino is a cross-platform, distributed document-oriented
NoSQL A NoSQL (originally referring to "non- SQL" or "non-relational") database provides a mechanism for storage and retrieval of data that is modeled in means other than the tabular relations used in relational databases. Such databases have existed ...
database and messaging framework and rapid application development environment that includes pre-built applications like email, calendar, etc. This sets it apart from its major commercial competitors, such as Microsoft Exchange or
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, which are purpose-built applications for mail and calendaring that offer APIs for extensibility. Domino databases are built using the Domino Designer client, available only for
Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
; standard user clients are available for Windows,
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
, and
macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
. A key feature of Notes is that many replicas of the same database can exist at the same time on different servers and clients, across dissimilar platforms; the same storage architecture is used for both client and server replicas. Originally, replication in Notes happened at document (i.e., record) level. With release of Notes 4 in 1996, replication was changed so that it now occurs at field level. A database is a Notes Storage Facility (.nsf) file, containing basic units of storage known as a "note". Every note has a UniqueID that is shared by all its replicas. Every replica also has a UniqueID that uniquely identifies it within any cluster of servers, a domain of servers, or even across domains belonging to many organizations that are all hosting replicas of the same database. Each note also stores its creation and modification dates, and one or more Items. There are several classes of notes, including design notes and document notes. Design notes are created and modified with the Domino Designer client, and represent programmable elements, such as the GUI layout of forms for displaying and editing data, or formulas and scripts for manipulating data. Document notes represent user data, and are created and modified with the Notes client, via a web browser, via mail routing and delivery, or via programmed code. Document notes can have parent-child relationships, but Notes should not be considered a hierarchical database in the classic sense of
information management system The IBM Information Management System (IMS) is a joint hierarchical database and information management system that supports transaction processing. History IBM designed the IMS with Rockwell and Caterpillar starting in 1966 for the Apollo pr ...
s. Notes databases are also not relational, although there is a SQL driver that can be used with Notes, and it does have some features that can be used to develop applications that mimic relational features. Notes does not support atomic transactions, and its
file locking File locking is a mechanism that restricts access to a computer file, or to a region of a file, by allowing only one user or process to modify or delete it at a specific time and to prevent reading of the file while it's being modified or deleted ...
is rudimentary. Notes is a
document-oriented database A document-oriented database, or document store, is a computer program and data storage system designed for storing, retrieving and managing document-oriented information, also known as semi-structured data. Document-oriented databases are one ...
(document-based, schema-less, loosely structured) with support for rich content and powerful indexing facilities. This structure closely mimics paper-based work flows that Notes is typically used to automate. Items represent the content of a note. Every item has a name, a type, and may have some flags set. A note can have more than one item with the same name. Item types include Number, Number List, Text, Text List, Date-Time, Date-Time List, and Rich Text. Flags are used for managing attributes associated with the item, such as read or write security. Items in design notes represent the programmed elements of a database. For example, the layout of an entry form is stored in the rich text Body item within a form design note. This means that the design of the database can replicate to users' desktops just like the data itself, making it extremely easy to deploy updated applications. Items in document notes represent user-entered or computed data. An item named "Form" in a document note can be used to bind a document to a form design note, which directs the Notes client to merge the content of the document note items with the GUI information and code represented in the given form design note for display and editing purposes. However, other methods can be used to override this binding of a document to a form note. The resulting loose binding of documents to design information is one of the cornerstones of the power of Notes. Traditional database developers used to working with rigidly enforced schemas, on the other hand, may consider the power of this feature to be a double-edged sword. Notes application development uses several programming languages.
Formula In science, a formula is a concise way of expressing information symbolically, as in a mathematical formula or a ''chemical formula''. The informal use of the term ''formula'' in science refers to the general construct of a relationship betwee ...
and LotusScript are the two original ones. LotusScript is similar to, and may even be considered a specialized implementation of, Visual Basic, but with the addition of many native classes that model the Notes environment, whereas Formula is similar to
Lotus 1-2-3 Lotus 1-2-3 is a discontinued spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (later part of IBM). It was the first killer application of the IBM PC, was hugely popular in the 1980s, and significantly contributed to the success of IBM PC-compatibles i ...
formula language but is unique to Notes. Java was integrated into IBM Notes beginning with Release 4.5. With Release 5, Java support was greatly enhanced and expanded, and
JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of Website, websites use JavaScript on the Client (computing), client side ...
was added. While LotusScript remains a primary tool in developing applications for the Lotus Notes client, Java and JavaScript are the primary tools for server-based processing, developing applications for browser access, and allowing browsers to emulate the functionality of the IBM Notes client. With XPages, the IBM Notes client can now natively process Java and JavaScript code, although applications development usually requires at least some code specific to only IBM Notes or only a browser. As of version 6, Lotus established an
XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...
programming interface in addition to the options already available. The Domino XML Language (DXL) provides XML representations of all data and design resources in the Notes model, allowing any XML processing tool to create and modify IBM Notes and Domino data. Since Release 8.5, XPages were also integrated into IBM Notes. External to the Notes application, HCL provides toolkits in C,
C++ C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...
, and
Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
to connect to the Domino database and perform a wide variety of tasks. The C toolkit is the most mature, and the C++ toolkit is an objectized version of the C toolkit, lacking many functions the C toolkit provides. The Java toolkit is the least mature of the three and can be used for basic application needs.


Database

IBM Notes includes a
database management system In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases span ...
but Notes files are different from relational or object databases because they are document-centric.
Document-oriented database A document-oriented database, or document store, is a computer program and data storage system designed for storing, retrieving and managing document-oriented information, also known as semi-structured data. Document-oriented databases are one ...
s such as Notes allow multiple values in items (fields), do not require a
schema The word schema comes from the Greek word ('), which means ''shape'', or more generally, ''plan''. The plural is ('). In English, both ''schemas'' and ''schemata'' are used as plural forms. Schema may refer to: Science and technology * SCHEMA ...
, come with built-in document-level access control, and store rich text data. IBM Domino 7 to 8.5.x supports the use of
IBM Db2 Db2 is a family of data management products, including database servers, developed by IBM. It initially supported the relational model, but was extended to support object–relational features and non-relational structures like JSON a ...
database as an alternative store for IBM Notes databases. This NSFDB2 feature, however, is now in maintenance mode with no further development planned. An IBM Notes database can be mapped to a relational database using tools like DECS, EI JDBCSql for Domino or NotesSQL.


Configuration

The HCL Domino server or the Domino client store their configuration in their own databases / application files (*.nsf). No relevant configuration settings are saved in the Windows Registry if the operating system is Windows. Some other configuration options (primary the start configuration) is stored in the notes.ini (there are currently over 2000 known options available).


Use as an email client

Notes is commonly deployed as an end-user email client in larger organizations. When an organization employs an HCL Domino server, it usually also deploys the supplied Notes client for accessing the Notes application for email and calendaring but also to use document management and workflow applications. As Notes is a runtime environment, and the email and calendaring functions in Notes are simply an application provided by HCL, the administrators are free to develop alternate email and calendaring applications. It is also possible to alter, amend or extend the HCL supplied email and calendaring application. The Domino server also supports
POP3 In computing, the Post Office Protocol (POP) is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a mail server. POP version 3 (POP3) is the version in common use, and along with IMAP the most common p ...
and
IMAP In computing, the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is an Internet standard protocol used by email clients to retrieve email messages from a mail server over a TCP/IP connection. IMAP is defined by . IMAP was designed with the goal of per ...
mail clients, and through an extension product (HCL mail support for Microsoft Outlook) supports native access for Microsoft Outlook clients. HCL also provides iNotes (in Notes 6.5 renamed to "Domino Web Access" but in version 8.0 reverted to iNotes), to allow the use of email and calendaring features through web browsers on Windows, Mac and Linux, such as
Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Microsoft Wind ...
and
Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and ...
. There are several spam filtering programs available (including IBM Lotus Protector), and a rules engine allowing user-defined mail processing to be performed by the server.


Comparison with other email clients

Notes was designed as a collaborative application platform where email was just one of numerous applications that ran in the Notes client software. The Notes client was also designed to run on multiple platforms including
Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
,
OS/2 OS/2 (Operating System/2) is a series of computer operating systems, initially created by Microsoft and IBM under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci. As a result of a feud between the two companies over how to position OS/2 ...
,
classic Mac OS Mac OS (originally System Software; retronym: Classic Mac OS) is the series of operating systems developed for the Macintosh family of personal computers by Apple Computer from 1984 to 2001, starting with System 1 and ending with Mac OS 9. The ...
, SCO Open Desktop UNIX, and Linux. These two factors have resulted in the user interface containing some differences from applications that only run on Windows. Furthermore, these differences have often remained in the product to retain backward compatibility with earlier releases, instead of conforming to updated Windows UI standards. The following are some of these differences. * Properties dialog boxes for formatting text, hyperlinks and other rich-text information can remain open after a user makes changes to selected text. This provides flexibility to select new text and apply other formatting without closing the dialog box, selecting new text and opening a new format dialog box. Almost all other Windows applications require the user to close the dialog box, select new text, then open a new dialog box for formatting/changes. * Properties dialog boxes also automatically recognize the type of text selected and display appropriate selections (for instance, a hyperlink properties box). * Users can format tables as tabbed interfaces as part of form design (for applications) or within mail messages (or in rich-text fields in applications). This provides users the ability to provide tab-style organization to documents, similar to popular tab navigation in most web portals, etc. * End-users can readily insert links to Notes applications, Notes views or other Notes documents into Notes documents. * Deleting a document (or email) will delete it from every folder in which it appears, since the folders simply contain links to the same back-end document. Some other email clients only delete the email from the current folder; if the email appears in other folders it is left alone, requiring the user to hunt through multiple folders in order to completely delete a message. In Notes, clicking on "Remove from Folder" will remove the document only from that folder leaving all other instances intact. * The ''All Documents'' and ''Sent'' "views" differ from other collections of documents known as "folders" and exhibit different behaviors. Specifically, mail cannot be dragged out of them, and so removed from those views; the email can only be "copied" from them. This is because these are ''views'', and their membership indexes are maintained according to characteristics of the documents contained in them, rather than based on user interaction as is the case for a ''folder''. This technical difference can be baffling to users, in environments where no training is given. ''All Documents'' contain all of the documents in a mailbox, no matter which folder it is in. The only way to remove something from ''All Documents'' is to delete it outright. Lotus Notes 7 and older versions had more differences, which were removed from subsequent releases: * Users select a "New Memo" to send an email, rather than "New Mail" or "New Message". (Notes 8 calls the command "New Message") * To select multiple documents in a Notes view, one drags one's mouse next to the documents to select, rather than using +single click. (Notes 8 uses keypress conventions.) * The searching function offers a "phrase search", rather than the more common "or search", and Notes requires users to spell out boolean conditions in search-strings. As a result, users must search for "delete AND folder" in order to find help text that contains the phrase "delete a folder". Searching for "delete folder" does not yield the desired result. (Notes 8 uses or-search conventions.) Lotus Notes 8.0 (released in 2007) became the first version to employ a dedicated user-experience team, resulting in changes in the IBM Notes client experience in the primary and new notes user interface. This new interface runs in the open source
Eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ce ...
Framework, which is a project started by IBM, opening up more application development opportunities through the use of Eclipse plug-ins. The new interface provides many new user interface features and the ability to include user-selected applications/applets in small panes in the interface. Lotus Notes 8.0 also included a new email interface / design to match the new Lotus Notes 8.0 eclipse based interface. Eclipse is a Java framework and allows IBM to port Notes to other platforms rapidly. An issue with Eclipse and therefore Notes 8.0 is the applications start-up and user-interaction speed. Lotus Notes 8.5 sped up the application and the increase in general specification of PCs means this is less of an issue. IBM Notes 9 continued the evolution of the user interface to more closely align with modern application interfaces found in many commercial packaged or web-based software. Currently, the software still does not have an auto-correct option - or even ability - to reverse accidental use of caps lock. Domino is now running on the Eclipse platform and offers many new development environments and tools such as XPages. For lower spec PCs, a new version of the old interface is still provided albeit as it is the old interface many of the new features are not available and the email user interface reverts to the Notes 7.x style. This new user experience builds on Notes 6.5 (released in 2003), which upgraded the email client, previously regarded by many as the product's
Achilles heel An Achilles' heel (or Achilles heel) is a weakness in spite of overall strength, which can lead to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to a physical vulnerability, idiomatic references to other attributes or qualities that can lead to ...
. Features added at that time included: * drag and drop of folders * replication of unread marks between servers * follow-up flags * reply and forward indicators on emails * ability to edit an attachment and save the changes back to an email id


Reception

Publications such as ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' in 2006 have criticized earlier versions of Lotus Notes for having an "unintuitive
ser Ser or SER may refer to: Places * Ser, a village in Bogdand Commune, Satu Mare County, Romania * Serpens (Ser), an astronomical constellation of the northern hemisphere * Serres, known as Ser in Serbian, a city in Macedonia, Greece Organization ...
interface" and cite widespread dissatisfaction with the
usability Usability can be described as the capacity of a system to provide a condition for its users to perform the tasks safely, effectively, and efficiently while enjoying the experience. In software engineering, usability is the degree to which a soft ...
of the client software. ''The Guardian'' indicated that Notes has not necessarily suffered as a result of this dissatisfaction due to the fact that "the people who choose nterprise softwaretend not to be the ones who use it." Earlier versions of Notes have also been criticized for violating an important usability best practice that suggests a consistent UI is often better than custom alternative. Software written for a particular
operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...
should follow that particular OS's
user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...
style guide. Not following those style guides can confuse users. A notable example is F5 keyboard shortcut, which is used to refresh window contents in Microsoft Windows. Pressing F5 in Lotus Notes before release 8.0 caused it to lock screen. Since this was a major point of criticism this was changed in release 8.0. Old versions did not support proportional scrollbars (which give the user an idea of how long the document is, relative to the portion being viewed). Proportional scroll bars were only introduced in Notes 8. Older versions of Notes also suffered from similar user interaction choices, many of which were also corrected in subsequent releases. One example that was corrected in Release 8.5: In earlier versions the out-of-office agent needed to be manually enabled when leaving and disabled when coming back, even if start and end date have been set. As of Release 8.5 the out-of-office notification now automatically shuts off without a need for a manual disable. Unlike some other e-mail client software programs, IBM Notes developers made a choice to not allow individual users to determine whether a return receipt is sent when they open an e-mail; rather, that option is configured at the server level. IBM developers believe "Allowing individual cancellation of return receipt violates the intent of a return receipt function within an organization". So, depending on system settings, users will have no choice in return receipts going back to spammers or other senders of unwanted e-mail. This has led tech sites to publish ways to get around this feature of Notes. For IBM Notes 9.0 and IBM iNotes 9.0, the IBM Domino server's .INI file can now contain an entry to control return receipt in a manner that's more aligned with community expectations (IBM Notes 9 Product Documentation). When Notes crashes, some processes may continue running and prevent the application from being restarted until they are killed.


Related software


Related IBM Lotus products

Over the 30-year history of IBM Notes, Lotus Development Corporation and later IBM have developed many other software products that are based on, or integrated with IBM Notes. The most prominent of these is the
IBM Lotus Domino HCL Notes (formerly IBM Notes and Lotus Notes; see Branding below) and HCL Domino (formerly IBM Domino and Lotus Domino) are the client and server, respectively, of a collaborative client-server software platform formerly sold by IBM, now by HCL ...
server software, which was originally known as the Lotus Notes Server and gained a separate name with the release of version 4.5. The server platform also became the foundation for products such as IBM Lotus Quickr for Domino, for document management, and
IBM Sametime HCL Sametime Premium (formerly IBM Sametime and IBM Lotus Sametime) is a client–server application and middleware platform that provides real-time, unified communications and collaboration for enterprises. Those capabilities include presence i ...
for instant messaging, audio and video communication, and web conferencing, and with Release 8.5,
IBM Connections HCL Connections is a Web 2.0 enterprise social software application developed originally by IBM and acquired by HCL Technologies in July 2019. Connections is an enterprise-collaboration platform which helps teams work more efficiently. Connecti ...
. In early releases of IBM Notes, there was considerable emphasis on client-side integration with the IBM Lotus SmartSuite environment. With Microsoft's increasing predominance in office productivity software, the desktop integration focus switched for a time to
Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketin ...
. With the release of version 8.0 in 2007, based on the Eclipse framework, IBM again added integration with its own office-productivity suite, the
OpenOffice.org OpenOffice.org (OOo), commonly known as OpenOffice, is a discontinued open-source office suite. Active successor projects include LibreOffice (the most actively developed), Apache OpenOffice, Collabora Online (enterprise ready LibreOffice) a ...
-derived
IBM Lotus Symphony IBM Lotus Symphony is a discontinued suite of applications for creating, editing, and sharing text, spreadsheet, presentations, and other documents and browsing the World Wide Web. It was first distributed as commercial proprietary software, t ...
.
IBM Lotus Expeditor IBM Lotus Expeditor is a framework (software), software framework by IBM's Lotus Software division for the construction, integration, and deployment of "managed client applications", which are client (computing), client applications that are deplo ...
is a framework for developing Eclipse-based applications. Other IBM products and technologies have also been built to integrate with IBM Notes. For mobile-device synchronization, this previously included the client-side IBM Lotus Easysync Pro product (no longer in development) and
IBM Notes Traveler IBM Notes Traveler (formerly IBM Lotus Notes Traveler) is a software, a push-email product which provides access to email and Personal Information Management (PIM) application for IBM Notes customers using supported mobile devices. Version 9.0 ...
, a newer no-charge server-side add-on for mail, calendar and contact sync. A recent addition to IBM's portfolio are two IBM Lotus Protector products for mail security and encryption, which have been built to integrate with IBM Notes.


Related software from other vendors

With a long market history and large installed base, Notes and Domino have spawned a large third-party software ecosystem. Such products can be divided into four broad, and somewhat overlapping classes: * Notes and Domino applications are software programs written in the form of one or more Notes databases, and often supplied as NTF templates. This type of software typically is focused on providing business benefit from Notes' core collaboration, workflow and messaging capabilities. Examples include customer relationship management (CRM), human resources, and project tracking systems. Some applications of this sort may offer a browser interface in addition to Notes client access. The code within these programs typically uses the same languages available to an in-house Domino developer: Notes formula language,
LotusScript LotusScript is an object oriented programming language used by Lotus Notes (since version 4.0) and other IBM Lotus Software products. LotusScript is similar to Visual Basic. Developers familiar with one can easily understand the syntax and struct ...
,
Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
and
JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of Website, websites use JavaScript on the Client (computing), client side ...
. * Notes and Domino add-ons, tools and extensions are generally executable programs written in C, C++ or another compiled language that are designed specifically to integrate with Notes and Domino. This class of software may include both client- and server-side executable components. In some cases, Notes databases may be used for configuration and reporting. Since the advent of the Eclipse-based Notes 8 Standard client, client-side add-ons may also include Eclipse plug-ins and XML-based widgets. The typical role for this type of software is to support or extend core Notes functionality. Examples include spam and anti-virus products, server administration and monitoring tools, messaging and storage management products, policy-based tools, data synchronization tools and developer tools. * Notes and Domino-aware adds-ins and agents are also executable programs, but they are designed to extend the reach of a general networked software product to Notes and Domino data. This class includes server and client backup software, anti-spam and anti-virus products, and e-discovery and archiving systems. It also includes add-ins to integrate Notes with third-party offerings such as Cisco
WebEx Webex by Cisco is an American company that develops and sells web conferencing, videoconferencing and contact center as a service applications. It was founded as WebEx in 1995 and taken over by Cisco Systems in 2007. Its headquarters are in San ...
conferencing service or the
Salesforce.com Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, an ...
CRM platform.


History

Notes has a history spanning more than 30 years. Its chief inspiration was ''PLATO Notes'', created by David R. Woolley at the
University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...
in 1973. In today's terminology, PLATO Notes supported user-created discussion groups, and it was part of the foundation for an online community which thrived for more than 20 years on the
PLATO system Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
.
Ray Ozzie Raymond "Ray" Ozzie (born November 20, 1955) is an American software industry entrepreneur who held the positions of Chief Technical Officer and Chief Software Architect at Microsoft between 2005 and 2010. Before Microsoft, he was best known for ...
worked with PLATO while attending the University of Illinois in the 1970s. When PC network technology began to emerge, Ozzie made a deal with
Mitch Kapor Mitchell David Kapor ( ; born November 1, 1950) is an American entrepreneur best known for his work as an application developer in the early days of the personal computer software industry, later founding Lotus, where he was instrumental in deve ...
, the founder of
Lotus Development Corporation Lotus Software (called Lotus Development Corporation before its acquisition by IBM) was an American software company based in Massachusetts; it was "offloaded" to India's HCL Technologies in 2018. Lotus is most commonly known for the Lotus 1-2- ...
, that resulted in the formation of
Iris Associates Iris Associates was an American software development company founded in 1984. It developed the software for Lotus Notes (subsequently IBM Notes). Iris worked under contract with Lotus Development Corporation until 1994, when it was bought by Lotus. ...
in 1984 to develop products that would combine the capabilities of PCs with the collaborative tools pioneered in PLATO. The agreement put control of product development under Ozzie and Iris, and sales and marketing under Lotus. In 1994, after the release and marketplace success of Notes R3, Lotus purchased Iris. In 1995 IBM purchased Lotus. In 2008, IBM released
XPages XPages is an IBM implementation of JavaServer Faces with a server side JavaScript runtime and the built-in NoSQL database IBM Domino. It allows data from IBM Notes and Relational Databases to be displayed to browser clients on all platforms. Th ...
technology, based on
JavaServer Faces Jakarta Faces, formerly Jakarta Server Faces and JavaServer Faces (JSF) is a Java specification for building component-based user interfaces for web applications and was formalized as a standard through the Java Community Process being part of t ...
. This allows Domino applications to be better surfaced to browser clients, though the UX and business logic must be completely rewritten. Previously, Domino applications could be accessed through browsers, but required extensive web specific modifications to get full functionality in browsers. XPages also gave the application new capabilities that are not possible with the classic Notes client. The IBM Domino 9 Social Edition included the Notes Browser Plugin, which would surface Notes applications through a minified version of the rich desktop client contained in a browser tab.


Branding

Prior to release 4.5, the ''Lotus Notes'' branding encompassed both the client and server applications. In 1996, Lotus released an
HTTP The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, ...
server add-on for the Notes 4 server called "Domino". This add-on allowed Notes documents to be rendered as web pages in real time. Later that year, the Domino web server was integrated into release 4.5 of the core Notes server and the entire server program was re-branded, taking on the name "
Domino Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces, commonly known as dominoes. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also ca ...
". Only the client program officially retained the "Lotus Notes" name. In November 2012, IBM announced it would be dropping the Lotus brand and moving forward with the IBM brand only to identify products, including Notes and Domino. On October 9, 2018, IBM announced the availability of the latest version of the client and server software. In 2019, Domino and Notes became enterprise software products managed under HCL Software.


Release history

IBM donated parts of the IBM Notes and Domino code to OpenOffice.org on September 12, 2007 and since 2008 has been regularly donating code to OpenNTF.org.


21st century

Despite repeated predictions of the decline or impending demise of IBM Notes and Domino, such as ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
'' magazine's 1998 "The decline and fall of Lotus", the installed base of Lotus Notes has increased from an estimated 42 million seats in September 1998 to approximately 140 million cumulative licenses sold through 2008. Once
IBM Workplace IBM Workplace is a discontinued a brand of collaborative software applications from IBM's Lotus Software division. It was intended to be the next generation of collaboration software that would work with IBM's Java EE-based WebSphere Portal serve ...
was discontinued in 2006, speculation about dropping Notes was rendered moot. Moreover, IBM introduced ''iNotes'' for iPhone two years later. IBM contributed some of the code it had developed for the integration of the
OpenOffice.org OpenOffice.org (OOo), commonly known as OpenOffice, is a discontinued open-source office suite. Active successor projects include LibreOffice (the most actively developed), Apache OpenOffice, Collabora Online (enterprise ready LibreOffice) a ...
suite into Notes 8 to the project. IBM also packaged its version of OpenOffice.org for free distribution as
IBM Lotus Symphony IBM Lotus Symphony is a discontinued suite of applications for creating, editing, and sharing text, spreadsheet, presentations, and other documents and browsing the World Wide Web. It was first distributed as commercial proprietary software, t ...
. IBM Notes and Domino 9 Social Edition shipped on March 21, 2013. Changes include significantly updated user interface, near-parity of IBM Notes and IBM iNotes functionality, the IBM Notes Browser Plugin, new XPages controls added to IBM Domino, refreshed IBM Domino Designer user interface, added support for To Dos on Android mobile devices, and additional server functionality as detailed in the Announcement Letter. In late 2016, IBM announced that there would not be a Notes 9.0.2 release, but 9.0.1 would be supported until at least 2021. In the same presentation IBM also stated that their internal users had been migrated away from Notes and onto the IBM Verse client. On October 25, 2017, IBM announced a plan to deliver a Domino V10 family update sometime in 2018. The new version will be built in partnership with
HCL Technologies HCLTech (formerly Hindustan Computers Limited or HCL Technologies) is an Indian multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company headquartered in Noida.It emerged as an independent company in 1991 when HCL entered into ...
. IBM's development and support team responsible for these products are moving to HCL, however, the marketing, and sales continue to be IBM-led. Product strategy is shared between IBM and HCL. As part of the announcement, IBM indicated that there is no formal end to product support planned. On October 9, 2018, IBM announced IBM Domino 10.0 and IBM Notes 10.0 in Frankfurt, Germany, and made them available to download on October 10, 2018.


See also

*
List of IBM products The following is a partial list of products, services, and subsidiaries of International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation and its predecessor corporations, beginning in the 1890s. This list is eclectic; it includes, for example, the ''AN/FS ...
* IBM Collaboration Solutions (formerly Lotus) Software division *
Comparison of email clients The following tables compare general and technical features of notable email client programs. General Basic general information about the clients: creator/company, O/S, licence, & interface. Clients listed on a light purple background are no long ...
*
IBM Lotus Domino Web Access HCL iNotes (formerly IBM Lotus iNotes and IBM iNotes) offers a full-featured web-based version of HCL Technologies's HCL Notes client. Formerly known as IBM Lotus Domino Web Access, HCL iNotes provides HCL Notes users with browser-based access t ...
*
Comparison of feed aggregators The following is a comparison of RSS feed aggregators. Often e-mail programs and web browsers have the ability to display RSS feeds. They are listed here, too. Many BitTorrent clients support RSS feeds for broadcasting (see Comparison of BitTor ...
*
Lotus Multi-Byte Character Set The Lotus Multi-Byte Character Set (LMBCS) is a proprietary multi-byte character encoding originally conceived in 1988 at Lotus Development Corporation with input from Bob Balaban and others. Created around the same time and addressing some of the ...
(LMBCS) * NotesPeek


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibm Lotus Notes
HCL Domino HCL Notes (formerly IBM Notes and Lotus Notes; see Branding below) and HCL Domino (formerly IBM Domino and Lotus Domino) are the client and server, respectively, of a collaborative client-server software platform formerly sold by IBM, now by HCL ...
Notes Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * Notes (album), ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) sho ...
1989 software
Lotus Notes HCL Notes (formerly IBM Notes and Lotus Notes; see Branding below) and HCL Domino (formerly IBM Domino and Lotus Domino) are the client and server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provide ...
Lotus Notes HCL Notes (formerly IBM Notes and Lotus Notes; see Branding below) and HCL Domino (formerly IBM Domino and Lotus Domino) are the client and server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provide ...
Lotus Notes HCL Notes (formerly IBM Notes and Lotus Notes; see Branding below) and HCL Domino (formerly IBM Domino and Lotus Domino) are the client and server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provide ...
Lotus Notes HCL Notes (formerly IBM Notes and Lotus Notes; see Branding below) and HCL Domino (formerly IBM Domino and Lotus Domino) are the client and server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provide ...
Lotus Notes HCL Notes (formerly IBM Notes and Lotus Notes; see Branding below) and HCL Domino (formerly IBM Domino and Lotus Domino) are the client and server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provide ...
Proprietary database management systems Document-oriented databases NoSQL Proprietary commercial software for Linux Email systems Divested IBM products 2019 mergers and acquisitions