Replacement of Lotus Notes applications into a generally usable system (Html, PDF)

We have used Swing PDF Converter during the last 5 years to migrate documents in many custom Domino applications to pdf. Very welcome features are the possibility to create bookmarks within the pdf and embed attachments. Notes custom forms are rendered quite good to pdf. Documentation is clear. Of course you need to be familiar with Lotusscript. But the API is easy to use and well documented.. Support is very good.

Before investing in SwingPDF, we relied on an open-source solution that required a printer driver. This meant saving PDFs to the file system and manually attaching them to HCL Notes/Domino documents, or generating them as email attachments and copying content from there. The process involved multiple manual steps and lacked proper workflow integration. With SwingPDF, PDF generation is fully integrated into our existing Save & Send buttons. There is no longer any need for drag-and-drop, intermediate file handling or copy-and-paste. PDF creation has become a seamless part of our daily business workflow. From a development perspective, implementation is straightforward. Typically, no more than 20–30 lines of LotusScript code are required. Most of this code consists of reusable configuration elements such as watermarks, headers, footers, page size, attachments and PDF type. The application installs script libraries, agents and views that provide a structured and reliable framework. The starting point is the SwingPDF administration database, which offers centralised deployment and management. Administrators can send emails to users that automatically install a new icon bar on the client. This enables local PDF generation directly from views, folders and documents, using standard forms where required. Features Bookmarks, editable fields, password protection, attachments, header & footer, PDFA_NONE, PDFA_1B, PDFA_2B, PDFA_3B, Zip file handling and several more features all can be set via the LotusScript API. For our company, the server-based installation is particularly important. In this scenario, the necessary components are copied into a database of your choice, allowing developers to integrate PDF generation directly into existing workflows. We use this approach to generate a wide range of commercial and legal documents on a daily bases. For example on our website visitors are able to ask for offers based on a standard price list. Several hundred product options are available and the PDF Converter creates and sends the offer with the attached PDF file within seconds - everything completely automated. Licensing The licensing model is highly attractive. There is no limitation on the number of databases; every database on a licensed server can use the functionality. Compared to developing and maintaining a custom PDF generation agent, this saves considerable development time and cost. Support Vendor support is fast and responsive, and the product is continuously maintained, which ensures long-term reliability. Performance & Stability Generating a single PDF takes less than a second. Batch generation from views is stable and performs reliably. It should be noted that the product is not designed for mass archiving of entire Notes databases; the vendor offers a separate solution for that specific purpose. Layout & Output Quality Standard fonts are handled flawlessly. When using non-standard fonts in custom views, it is important to ensure that these fonts are installed on the server for server-based PDF generation. In our experience, there is no difference between locally generated and server-generated PDFs. Different levels of PDF security are available, including options such as PDF/A compliance. Security SwingPDF fully leverages the HCL Domino security model. Developers can implement company-specific security rules to ensure that sensitive information, such as HR data, remains protected. PDFs can also be generated with password protection and digital signature options where required. Very important is, that no internal data is transferred to SWING Software! Learning Curve The main SwingPDF database includes practical examples for various scenarios, and the API is well documented. End users with a local installation can generate PDFs easily via a guided dialogue that allows them to select forms and define the output destination (local file system, email, etc.). Upgrade & Lifecycle Management Version alignment between client and server installations is essential. When upgrading to HCL Notes 14, we discovered that an older SwingPDF version was still running on one of our servers. Due to changes in the Java runtime within Notes/Domino, an update was necessary. Summary The high-quality output, the straightforward LotusScript API, the flexible licensing model, competitive pricing and responsive support make SwingPDF a clear purchase recommendation for organisations working with HCL Notes/Domino.