Using netbeans 6.9 and Lotus Domino R8 java

Question

I want to create a Java frontend to add/manage content in a Lotus notes database, I have domino server 8.5 on my laptop and R8 client but how do I configure Netbeans 6.9 so I can use the domino Java classes in my Netbeans application. the first step is to establish connectivity to the local or server databases.

I also think that R8 only supports Java 1.4 so do I have to use the domino compiler, and if so how do I do this. I searched Google but although I found loads of hits far too many were for older versions of Netbeans and R5/ R6 notes which.

10th Jan: I'm signed up for the Open university M257 Java Course and am working through Learn Java in 24 hours (SAMS, Rogers & Cadenhead) so am really very new to Java. the underlying issue in this case is that Domino appears to supporting an older version of Java but am happy if I can get any connectivity to Lotus Domino at this point from NetBeans.

11th Jan: Following first answer I had a look in my domino server notes.ini and couldn't find any setting that might relate to Java, it only had HTTPJVMMaxHeapSize=64M and HTTPJVMMaxHeapSizeSet=1, I also carefully checked the server document so if version is configurable its not obvious how its done. I'm using Notes 8.0.2 FP6 which according to configuration in help is also running Java 1.6 so maybe compiler isn't going to be such a big issue?

Answer 1

Domino 8 1.4 compiler level of 1.4 by default, but you can change that to Java 5 (Domino 8.x) or Java 6 (Domino 8.5x) via an ini file change for your server.

As to how you reference the Notes Java classes in an external IDE, there are a lot of instructions out there for Eclipse which should be easily ported to Netbeans. Basically, you want to register the Domino JVM in your IDE (you're right, Domino uses its own JVM), and you will need to reference the Notes Java API in your projects (see Notes.jar in your Domino server installation).