Question

Some agents in an ancient Lotus Notes application has a difference in agent-enabled behaviour that I cannot explain:

This is the agent list read in R7.0.3:

Enabled agents in R7, notice the small "6" http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/a167158e29.png

Here is the agents in the same database, read with R8.5:

Enabled agents in R8, seems disabled. http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/cc042913f1.png

I’ve checked the following but haven’t found any difference between the agents:

• Inheritance: They inherit from the same template, no prohibit flag set.
• User activation: They all allow user activation
• Language: They are all LotusScript agents.
• $flags are the same on all three documents.

There is a difference in trigger: The Auto-unlock agent is triggered on document modification, the others on schedule.

There is also a difference in that the ones with a “6” seems to have been exposed to CIAO – but even if the Notes client CIAO-aware that still leaves the difference between R7 and R8 to explanation.

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So, why is there a 6 in the agent checkmark on R7?

Answer 1

From the Lotus Notes Designer version 8 online help:

When you view a list of agents in the Work pane, an icon may appear next to the name of a scheduled agent. The icons are:

• Check mark with a 6 next to it – the scheduled agent is enabled and runs only on IBM® Lotus® Domino(TM) 6 or later (or on Lotus Notes/Domino R5.08 or later).
• Check mark with a 5 next to it – the scheduled agent is disabled for Lotus Domino release 5.08 or later, but will be considered enabled on Lotus Notes Domino R5.07 or earlier which does not recognize this functionality.
• Check mark – the scheduled agent is enabled and runs on any version of IBM® Lotus® Notes®.
• A yellow X – the scheduled agent is disabled.

So I’m thinking that, in the transition from Notes 7 to 8 (and that was a big one since it was basically a rewrite of Notes on top of Eclipse), extra flags were introduced that Notes 7 picks up as the R508+ icon but which is, in reality, a “disabled” flag in Notes 8.

This would be similar to their description of R507 not recognising the R508+ flag and considering it enabled.

If you really want to know, ask here where the actual developers hang out (they may well keep an eye on StackOverflow but I know that IBM software developers have to monitor the IBM-run forums from personal experience).