Getting resources in database as stream in XPages (SSJS / Java)

Some time back I was trying to get the resources in database (to be precise image resource) in my SSJS / Java code. I tried a lot of options like ClassLoader.getResourceAsStream, MyClass.class.getResourceAsStream but no success. Then today while going through the sample database of Extension Library I ran into a piece of code which got the image resource as stream using a single line of code.

var inStream:java.io.InputStream = facesContext.getExternalContext().getResourceAsStream("<RESOURCE NAME>");

As simple as that. In case of Java you would write like this:

InputStream inStream = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getResourceAsStream("<RESOURCE NAME>");

In my tests this worked for getting image resources, file resource and style sheets as streams.

Using dijit.form.CheckBox in check box group in XPages

dijit.form.CheckBox adds a fancy styling to the plain check box, which I love. Adding it to a single check box is pretty straight forward. Just set the dojoType property of the check box to dijit.form.CheckBox. But in case of check box group its not that straight forward.

When a check box group is rendered in browser it is rendered inside <fieldset> tag. So setting the dojoType property doesn't give the desired result. You need to set the dojoType property individually on each of the check boxes in the group. Fortunately, all the check boxes share the same name so they can be targeted using simple dojo.query.

Let's say the name of your check box group is "checkBoxGroup", then just add this script block to your XPage:

<xp:scriptBlock>
<xp:this.value><![CDATA[dojo.query("input[name=\"#{id:checkBoxGroup2}\"]").forEach(
function(node) {
dojo.attr(node, {dojoType: "dijit.form.CheckBox"});
}
)]]></xp:this.value>
</xp:scriptBlock>

Make sure you place this script block after your check box group. Needless to say that you need to add dijit.form.CheckBox in your XPages resources as Dojo module.

You can also extend this technique to set dijit.form.RadioButton in radio button group.

Error of "Invalid field name" while saving form

While working on a legacy Lotus Notes client based application, I did some modifications on a form but while trying to save it I was getting error message "Invalid field name" and the form simply refused to be saved. I checked all the field names trying to find out any invalid character amongst them, but no luck.

So I went to my faithful old friend — Google. And it took me to this discussion on Notes/Domino 8.5 Forum where a user was having the same issue. He resolved it by removing and adding existing sections. Why it happened, he didn't know.