IBM Lotus Domino Web Access

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The software product IBM Lotus Domino Web Access (DWA), formerly known as iNotes or as iNotes Web Access, offers a fully-featured web-based version of the IBM Lotus Notes client. It provides an interactive interface that duplicates the functionality of the IBM Lotus Notes email client within a web browser.

[edit] Functionality

IBM Lotus Domino Web Access (DWA) allows users of IBM Lotus Domino to access their Domino-based mail, calendar, schedule, to-do list, contacts, and notebook (Notes Journal) from any computer, at any location, as long as they have an Internet connection. The product offers a very "rich user experience" within a browser by leveraging DHTML and what today is called Ajax. Domino Web Access includes a user configurable Welcome Page. DWA employs many rich DHTML widgets, including a "Virtual List" widget that supports a full scrollable list of entries within a Notes view or folder. This leverages XML Islands and the XMLHttpRequest object to dynanically retrieve the segment of the data within the Notes view or folder that needs to be displayed on the screen based on the user's interaction with the list widget. DWA uses such techniques to minimize the number of full-page refreshes that need to occur and to minimize transactions to the Domino Web Server. IBM Lotus Domino Web Access also integrates with the IBM Lotus Sametime instant messaging platform and offers offline support through IBM Lotus Domino Off-Line Services (DOLS).

[edit] History

A "Lotus Notes Webmail" (or "WebMail" or "Web Mail") client mechanism provided limited access to web-enabled Lotus Notes email systems (versions 4 and 5) from the Web in the late 1990s.

Lotus Software referred to iNotes as "Shimmer" in its beta-test version.

Release 5.0.8 (2001) of Lotus Notes introduced iNotes, which featured a fuller interface than the webmail client.

Lotus iNotes Web Access was awarded the 2001 Network Computing Well-Connected Award for "Best Web-based Application"

Release 6.5 of Lotus Domino (September 2003) saw the re-naming of iNotes as "Domino Web Access".

Release 7.0.2 of Lotus Domino (September 2006) saw the long awaited Macintosh Client support.