Domino Activex Inotes File Upload Control

Database can be downloaded here


A number of years ago I wrote some code in Domino that allowed me to use the Domino Activex Inotes File Upload control in my own applications. The trick was that I wrote a java servlet to handle the fileuploads as the active control expected a particluar response from the server.

A couple of days ago I stumbled across an old post I made on notes.net ( as it was called at the time ) about this. I thought I would dig-up and re-publish the code here.

The about document of this database contains the java code for a servlet that is required to handle the file uploads sent from the ActiveX control. The instructions for installation are in the about document of the database. The rest of the database is a sample web discussion which shows how to use the code and activex control. To use the system you will need to re-sign the lotuscript code (agents and script libraries) with an id that can run agents on your server.

Basically the setup is this.

a) You configure,compile and install the java servlet on your domino server.
b) When you attach files via the activex control and submit the form then servlet captures the files sent from the activex control and stores them in a temp directory on the server.
c) When the form that contains the activex control is posted back to the server it triggers an agent to run that picks up the files from the temp directory and attaches them to the notes document.

You need to make the following changes to get this to work in your environment.

1. In the Thread subform you need to change the value of the V_ServerName field to be the base URI of your domino server.

2. On the server you need to create a directory where the files uploader servlet can temporarily store the files before they are attached by the agent. This directory must be under the notes data directory for the server.

3. You need to adjust the AttachUploadstoDoc function in the UploadFunctions script library by adjusting the line

FilePath = "d:\lotus\notes\FileUploads\" + Doc.VUser(0) + "\"

To match the directory on the server you set up in step 2.

4. You need to create a servlet ( using a java compiler ) using the java files attached to the “about this database document” and install it on your server,

The java package I created in this code is com.SHIS.inotes but you can change this just make sure you adjust the servlets.properties file ( step 5 ) to match you package name.

Before you complile the servlet adjust the line in UHandler.java file

FileOutputStream f = new FileOutputStream(new File("FileUploads/" + UID + "/" + FileName));

to match the name of the of the directory you create in 2. In the java code the directory name ( "FileUploads" ) is relative to the notes data directory , so you do not need the full path here.

5. Once you have compiled the java code then you need to install the .jar file on your server, and add the lines in the servlet.properties file ( attached in the “about this database document” ) to your servers servlet.properties file making sure that the java package name matches the java package you created.

If you need help on with installing servlets and the servlet engine settings please see the Domino Designer Help "Running servlets in Domino".

6. Once the servlet is in place and the servlet engine on the server is running then you can try out the activex upload control by creating a new message in this discussion database and attempt to attach some files and submit the message.