In a recent blog post by Lotus Evangelist, it states all the multiple uses for Lotus Notes.  Some of them are listed below:

• A widget player
• Instant Messaging client
• Rebate Tracker
• Grocery List Minder
• Expense Reports
• Mileage tracking
• Password Logging
• Photo storage
• Stores tax returns
• Phone Call Logs

If that weren’t enough, it will also sync to your BlackBerry.

As you can tell, Lotus is far from a simple email service.  But if you had Lotus, and had been using it just for email, perhaps this post will help open you up to the world that you’ve been missing.

1. Is the Domino server running the BlackBerry Enterprise Server software either in the LocalDomainServers group or another part of the standard server organizational unit?  If so, add the the Lotus Domino server to a group called “BlackBerry Admins.”  Then, this group can be used to access control list needs.
2. If your Lotus Domino server running the BES software is configured as specified as above, maker sure that all Local Domain servers are set to “Run unrestricted methods and operations” on the server document.  The BlackBerry Enterprise Server will not work well without these settings.
3. Add BES task to the ServerTasks line in the notes.ini file of the Lotus Domino server running the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.  You could also configure Domino to load the BES task using a program document instead of creating a direct reference in notes.ini.  If not added to the ServerTasks line or in a program document, the admin needs to launch BES manually from the console each time the server is restarted by using “load BES” at the console.
4. In the user-state databases, make sure the special BlackBerry Admin group you set up is in the ACL with “Manager” rights.  Members of the BlackBerry Admin group need “Manager” access so they can update the ACL, delete the database should the user be removed from the system, and also perform any other maintenance that might be necessary.
5. If not using roaming profiles, user mail files should be configured using the Domino Web Access mail template in order for Personal Information Management synchronization to work properly.
6. If a profile database becomes corrupt, delete the database and restart Domino Server to recreate the profile database from the Microsoft SQL Server info.
7. Be sure that port 3103 (TCP) is open on the firewall for outbound initiated BlackBerry messages.
8. Lastly, be sure to enable database pruning on BlackBerry.  This keeps the size of the user state databases in check, as it selects 20 users and tries to remove documents in the state databases in 20 minutes.

Boyer started by stating it is possible for Domino to have a broader reach to all web users without a client-side installation.  The interactivity of XForms are combined with the high precision presentation layer of XFDL for the client side experience.  But, the Lotus WebForm Server is used to convert that to HTML and AJAX that is understood by your browser.  The result is the XML data processing and web services from Domino servers are extended out to the webtop.

Yet, if you happen to have the Lotus Notes client platform installed, the Notes replication capabilities can be brought to bear for when a user needs to work offline.  You can also use the Lotus Notes Composite Application Framework to create mashups with Lotus Forms and other application components.  Whether you use the Lotus Forms viewer or Lotus Forms WebForm Server to render a Lotus Form in Notes application component, you need to access a running Lotus Form using an API.  This gives you the ability to push data from other components, and also push changes from the Lotus Form.