How to unhide the design of a Notes database

Select any Notes database (email, personal address book, applications etc.) on your workspace, open scanEZ from the Notes client toolbar. Click the Designs category from the tree.

Click the Hide or Unhide button to toggle the hide flag of your database. Click Yes to confirm the change. You can use this feature to help regain Designer access to a database that has been hidden.

Note: This feature only changes the hide flag, it doesn't encrypt or decrypt any formulas. Use the Notes Designer if you want to properly hide the design of your database. The main purpose of this flag is simply to allow (or not allow) a Domino Designer client to open a database. You won't see any formula or LotusScript code in a properly hidden database.

When you do a replace design you have the option to hide the design. There are a few things to understand about how Notes hide/unhide designs; the three things that Notes will do when hiding a design:

1. Puts on the Hide Design flag; the main purpose of this flag is simply to allow (or not allow) the Domino Designer client to open a database.
2. Encrypts any formulas in the database.
3. Deletes all LoutsScript source code (but not the compiled object itself) from the database.

This means that from the Domino Designer you cannot see the code anymore, it's physically gone. You might be thinking, "So, I have no chance to unhide the LotusScript or formulas...". Unfortunately, this is true unless you can find a way to decrypt formulas or decompile the LotusScript.

However, (as is often the case) when someone refreshes the design (which is faster and more convenient than a replace design), the hide flag remains checked (so the LotusScript and formulas are still hidden from the Designer)... but the design refresh has put the source code back (all the design elements will be replaced by the "not hidden" design of the template).

But, you still cannot see the LotusScript and formulas in the Designer because of the "Hide Design flag". This is where scanEZ can help. Using scanEZ's hide/unhide design option (click on the Design category, then the Hide/Unhide button), it can change the Hide Design flag in the database. It does not try to do anything to the LotusScripts or the Formulas. Once the flag is set to unhide, you can use scanEZ (or the Designer) to see if the LotusScript and formulas have been replaced from a design refresh.