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I am getting an email with a notes:// link from an external government source.

If I buy Lotus notes will I be able to download and read these files?

I do not know much about Lotus notes.

3 Answers 3

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Karan is right that upon installation of Notes the Notes URL protocol will be handled by Notes.

But in order to open the application/view/document that the link points to you need access in the form of a userid with proper access to the requested resource. It sounds like this is not possible to get since you say that it is from an external source.

Instead you should ask the source if they have a web enabled version of the application/view/document that you can access instead. I believe that it is a mistake that they send out their internal Notes URL links.

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  • Thanks, I checked the URL and it was a local server hostname. I will contact my source and see if they can provide the file in another way. Jul 9, 2013 at 0:17
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When the Lotus Notes client is installed it will register the notes:// URL protocol on your PC. After that you can click on a link such as notes://servername/names.nsf and if all goes well the the Notes client will be opened automatically and will load the file for you.

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Lotus Notes is not only a mail client, it is also a client for document databases. Mail documents in fact are one type of documents. In a corporate environment you may use Lotus Notes to access different databases like your own mails, a team mail account, your calender, a team calender, your address book, a company address book, multiple project collaboration databases, a company guidelines database, and so on.

In Notes you can send different links. This can be a link to a database (for example "notes://server/C1256514002BB18D"). It can also be a link to a view in the database (for example "notes://server/C1256514002BB18D/F1E8D19969CD7E84C12565160034D816"). In a mail database for example one view could be for incoming mails, another for sent mails. Notes can also link to a specific document (for example "notes://server/C1256514002BB18D/F1E8D19969CD7E84C12565160034D816/5280088C3C7E61A6C1257B12005939CD").

If your Notes Client sees such a link it first does a DNS lookup for "server". In your case you can check if DNS can resolve the server name you see. This might not be true if the server is an internal server of the sender. If Notes can resolve the server name it contacts the server. If you want to access another company's server, the company's firewall might prevent you from doing so. Even if you can access the server you still (might?) need to login and have the rights to access the database/view/document.

All in all, chances are very low that you can access the linked database/view/document. You will need to ask the sender of the link if he can send you the information directly and not as a link. Or if the same information is accessible through an HTTP link.

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