How SharePoint Server 2010 can work together with Lotus Notes

We know that Lotus Notes has an own client and we know also that we could reach the Domino server by HTTP. For a couple of reasons http is not enabled and access to the content is only possible through the Notes client. With this post I will explain some ideas what is possible and document some limits.
With SharePoint we have the ability using http:// , https:// mailto: and few more protocols to create links pointing from a SharePoint page to other content. Using the Notes:// protocol is not possible to use in the same way we are using http://. What is now possible and how?
Limits: Where we cannot use Notes:// as a protocol:
Try to create a new Link in a List:

Try to create a new link in Summary Links WebPart:

Edit a page and let’s go through the html source code:
It is also not possible to use <a href="notes://MyServer/db1/folder7/doc8" target="_blank">notes://MyServer/db1/folder7/doc8</a> when editing a page and change the html source by yourself.

Where we can use Notes:// as a protocol:

Idea with Search Results:
By using our search functionality we offer with SharePoint 2010. First you need to crawl the Notes content and we have good documentation how to do that. Please check the following link list.
Crawl Lotus Domino with Lotus Notes Connector in SharePoint Server 2010
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/opal/archive/2010/02/16/crawl-lotus-domino-with-lotus-notes-connector-in-sharepoint-server-2010.aspx
Configure and use the Lotus Notes connector (SharePoint Server 2010)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff463593.aspx
Now a crawl is possible and the search result will be shown with the http:// protocol. How to get the Notes:// into the search result?
In the search administration go through Server Name Mappings:

Add the mapping you want:

A Full crawl is needed after that change and the search result should be now with the Notes:// protocol:

One impact has the ability to get security trimmed search results and to reach that you will need some more administrative tasks.
The idea how to create Links in SharePoint pointing to the Notes content:
- Use search to find “your content”.
- You may use special keywords to only get your one document or all related to a Part-Number or… many ways are possible.
- Copy the URL for the result page and use that as a Link somewhere in your SharePoint Site.
Play a bit with that idea to get a better feeling how that works for you.
Pro: Creating such Links needs a bit more work to find the best keywords and URL’s you can use somewhere else. With implemented security trimming it is a secure way as you are familiar within SharePoint content.
Con: It depends on the infrastructure you have implemented when talking about worldwide unequally distributed server systems with Notes and SharePoint. Federated Search can help here. Notes has a different Authorization behavior and Security trimming is also a time consuming administrative task and has security risks when something is not mapped in the right way.
Idea with an out of the box WebPart:
HTML form webpart gives you the ability to enter Notes:// links:
Edit a page and add the webpart as follows.

Result:

Pro: Using this webpart seems to allow you to enter html source in the way you want. URL’s can be really long.
Con: You need to have some html source knowledge.
Idea with WebPages saved with Word:
Take Word for Windows 2010/2007
Create a new document.
Add a notes Link.
Save the file as a single web page:

Upload that file into a DocLib. To open the MHT file directly in IE you need to set the Browser File Handling to permissive because otherwise you can only save a local copy.
You need to do this in the central admin when administrating the Web Application:

Idea to show the MHT file with the Notes:// Links inside another SharePoint page:
Start with Edit the page and insert the Page Viewer WebPart:

Enter the URL to the MHT file.
Result:

Pro: Edit your own Notes Links in your own document is independent of edit a page. URL’s can be really long. After you saved an edited MHT document the result will be shown immediately where you have added the page viewer WebPart.
Con: You need more steps but when you are familiar with Edit in Word it is easy enough.
Idea with an additional Redirector:
For this idea you need an additional “Service”. You will call the service with a http Url and the IE client will get a Notes:// link back.
Such an URL could look like the following:
http://MyRedirServer/redirect.nsf/goto?ReadForm&rt=Notes://MyServer/db1/folder7/doc8
Pro: You can use the standard way of add a Link in a List or Summary Link WebPart.
Con: It will be not that easy and you will need to double check those Links before others can use your Link list. Also the Redirect Service needs to be up and running all the time and the IT department has one more service to watch.

Joerg Sinemus