XPages Portable Command Guide

A new book has been released by IBM Press “XPages Portable Command Guide” by four IBMers – Martin Donnelly, Maire Kehoe, Tony McGuckin and Dan O’Connor. We’re pleased to talk to the authors.
http://tinyurl.com/xpagespcg

There is also a “Meet the Authors” YouTube video.

Martin Donnelly, IBM
Maire Kehoe, IBM
Tony McGuckin, IBM
Dan O’Connor, IBM

First of all, we speak to Dan about taking over from Maureen Leland. Then onto the main event…

Can you explain the book title? How is this book different then the Mastering XPages Book? What topics does it cover?

Is this a book devs should surreptitiously leave on their admin’s desk?

What’s the most important part of the book for each of the authors?

It’s Martin’s and Tony’s second book. Was it easier second time around? Did it help Maire and Dan having experienced authors on board?

We have a visual editor for Application Properties, and there is a new editor for the xsp.properties in Upgrade Pack 1. Tell us about it?

What’s next for XPages?

Any more books in the pipeline?

Competition Time…

And we have a competition for 1 copy of the XPages Portable Command Guide and 1 copy of the XPages Extension Library (due out May 2012). All you have to do is send a comment to this episode telling us what you have done for the XPages community and we’ll pick the best one and send you a book.

And talking of competitions…

The THIRD XPages competition sponsored by We4It is now on. Head over to OpenNTF for more info.

This episode is sponsored by Intec

It’s been a while since the last episode, so Paul and David discuss what’s happened in the last few months…

OpenNTF

The second XPages contest has just wrapped with loads of great contributions. Details of all submissions can be found on the Contest page of xpages.info. Niklas Heidloff has also created a 35 minute video.

xSnippets, an XPages-enhanced resource to replace the Code Bin, has been launched with lots of great code snippets already. The site includes code highlighting by Serdar Basegmez and has a shortened URL of http://openntf.org/xsnippets.

IBM XWork Server

Named from Exceptional Work Experience.

The list price is $2000 per annum for a server with 4 applications, each comprising 4 NSFs. A second licence can be added to up the capacity to 8 applications, each comprising 8 NSFs. The server provides flexible use as an entry point to Domino, particularly for non-Domino customers. More information can be found on the developerWorks page.

Domino 8.5.3

Domino 8.5.3 was released October 2011 and continued the precedent of 8.5.x releases being more than just point releases. Significant enhancements included:

• OneUIv2 and OneUIv2.1 themes
• Dojo 1.5.1 and Dojo 1.6.1 (the latter delivered as a plugin)
• OSGi as a mechanism for deploying Java plugins without needing to install files on the server, via the new Update Site template
• XPages and Forms/Views perspectives added to the Domino Designer perspective. All are configurable via the Preferences panel
• Java design element
• XPiNC performance enhancements

Extension Library and UP1

Two forks of the Extension Library since October – 8.5.3 and 8.5.2. 8.5.3 allows easier deployment through the new Update Site template and has undergone significant refactoring in preparation for Upgrade Pack 1. An extreme example of this can be seen in the Application Layout control, look out for a forthcoming video on NotesIn9 by John Jardin (a link will be posted here in due course).

8.5.3 version includes mobile controls, RDBMS and Social. Current understanding is these won’t be included in UP1, but UP2 is already in preparation.

Thanks to Bruce Elgort for his help with Garageband.

This episode is sponsored by Intec

This episode came out of a request from John Jardin, a developer from South Africa, who’s just getting started with themes. And I knew the man to go to. I first heard him speaking on themes at BLUG at the end of March and it changed the way I develop applications, it was that important.

Today’s guest – Tim Tripcony, XMage at GBS

From Tim Clark: my co-presenters and today’s guest were made IBM Champions a few weeks ago. Thanks to Joyce Davis and the team at IBM for organising this.

• What does it mean to each of you?
• Will it change what you do?
• How we’re perceived, within our company and beyond?

Themes are one of those new areas that don’t mean much to traditional Domino Developers. CSS makes sense, that’s to add styling using classes but what are themes? They’re those files on the server, right, for oneui etc.

So there are the two areas. Resources and Controls. What kinds of thing can be added to resources? Can only client-side resources be added?

Can resources be included based on certain criteria?

Looking at the themes on the server, all they do is add CSS classes to a control. Is that all you can do?

So a style is just text. Are there any differences to the syntax for setting boolean or numeric properties?

Are there any limitations to the properties of a control you can set?

How do you find out the control’s name?

Can you explain “mode” and “override”. Mode is on the control, override on the property, right?

So that’s fine if you’re setting properties for all instances of, say, a pager. What about if you only want to set them for particular instances. Can you do that? Is that where the themeId property comes in?

Episode Links:
Tim Tripcony’s blog, download link on the right, for Tim’s session from various LUGs http://xmage.gbs.com/blog.nsf
Setting a default pager style using themes: http://hermes.intec.co.uk/Intec/Blog.nsf/dx/30052011203502HERQYF.htm
dPloy, Tim’s OpenNTF project with extensive use of themes http://www.openntf.org/internal/home.nsf/project.xsp?action=openDocument&name=dPloy
XPages Help Application, Paul’s OpenNTF Project with liberal use of themes, Java and OpenLog Java class: http://www.openntf.org/internal/home.nsf/project.xsp?action=openDocument&name=XPages%20Help%20Application

This episode is sponsored by Intec

Last episode the Development Competition had just been launched. We talk to a couple of the driving forces from OpenNTF.

• Bruce Elgort, chair of the Steering Committee
• Niklas Heidloff, chair of the technical committee

For a couple of years now we’ve had the awards for open source developers each year at Lotusphere, so what was the reason for running this competition?

They tell us a little bit about the sponsor since the contest wouldn’t be happening without them. We4IT – http://www.we4it.com/EN/

Tell us what needs to be done in order to contribute to the contest for openNTF?
What license does the contribution need to be under?
What do I need to sign or get approved by my management?
How to get involved: http://openntf.org/Internal/home.nsf/dx/Get_Involved

We also get answers to these important questions;

• Is this for newly unpublished code?
• Are previously published controls eligible?
• Who do I send the code to?
• In what format?
• Do I create a project or just email it somewhere?

Techy Talk….

• How do I get started creating a custom control?
• What is it?
• What’s the difference between a custom control and an XPage?
• Is it just like a subform?
• Can I pass in variables to the custom control?
• How does that work?

Here’s a great tip, rather than just showing the code, use a Design Definition. Here’s an article on how

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/ddwiki.nsf/dx/16102009115724SCAEXA.htm

What good Examples of custom controls are there?
(Login…  Debugger one…)
Also, my Audit Comments Custom Control

Look at what’s needed to import directly into Domino Designer, using the Import and Export for Designer tool

http://www.openntf.org/internal/home.nsf/project.xsp?action=openDocument&documentId=37FB34D05A78F4278625767E0026B2D4

What are good examples of custom controls.

Tim – Image lightboxer
Paul -
Dave – Video Embedder  (Actually I’ll be attempting this one myself for XPages.TV)
Bruce -
Niklas -

Links

Announcement:
http://www.openntf.org/blogs/openntf.nsf/d6plinks/NHEF-8GP9AK
http://contest.openntf.org/

Potential controls:
http://www.openntf.org/blogs/openntf.nsf/d6plinks/NHEF-8GTB2Q

This episode is sponsored by Intec

Martin Donnelly, IBM
Tony McGuckin, IBM
Mark Wallace, IBM

XPages Dev Competition

An OpenNTF competition for custom controls, driving re usability. Go to http://openntf.org/blog for more information
There are 3 iPads up for Grabs!!

Introduction

We couldn’t do a podcast about XPages without discussing the Mastering XPages book. But instead of making our guests relive the agony and ecstasy involved in writing the book, we want to focus more on the technical aspects of the book.

Mastering XPages

• Who is the target audience for the book?
• What are some of the techniques that the book highlights that might not be used yet by the developer community at large?
• What techniques or subject areas are must-read?
• Was there anything (suggestions/enhancements/fixes) that was fed back into the product as a result of your work on the book?
• Is there going to be a second book?
• What’s the crucial omission from the book?
• and much more…

And congratulations to our other competition winner…

Judy Kilpinen

This episode is sponsored by Intec

Joyce Davis (IBM Community Manager & Chief Blurbologist) That’s what her IBM profile says ;o)
Amanda Bauman (IBM Program Manager)

Introduction

After Lotusphere a community of XPages thought leaders came together to discuss a variety of potential projects. One of the discussions raised the need for an XPages forum, because XPages was getting subsumed by other Domino issues in the main Notes & Domino 8.5 forum. Niklas Heidloff soon put us in touch with Joyce and things started happening..

The XPages Forum

• What is the background to the forum template?
• Did the community “jump the gun” in pushing for it?
• What internal discussions had to take place?
• What are the cool features about the forum?
• What other forums use the XPages template?
• What is the plan for migrating the other forums to the template?
• How will the design be updated?
• Will the template be available on OpenNTF?
• How will developers be able to feed enhancements / feature requests back into the product?

We Didn’t Get It Live On Air…

but as promised, here’s the youtube video of Joyce unboxing her iPad2

On Other News…

Congratulations to Kathy Brown, winner of the first XPages book.
But the competition’s still open for the other one to be won… Check here for more details

This episode is sponsored by Intec

Nathan T Freeman
Tim Tripcony

Introduction:

At Lotusphere GBS won the 2011 Lotus Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Award for Cutting Edge Collaborative Innovation” for their Transformer product. We wanted to discuss that because it’s all about XPages……

Transformer

• Technically what does it do?
• Why does it do it like that?
• Are there specific use cases that are being targeted, or is this recommended for any client application that needs to go to the web?
• Is the transformation of LotusScript to Java an impediment to developers who have no prior Java experience? I believe some of the Java outputted is rather convoluted with callbacks in order to simulate client functionality.
• Is there a means to use this to take LotusScript Script Libraries that contain business logic and convert just that to SSJS? For those that might want to build from scratch but find re-writing lots of business logic code daunting?
• I’ve seen comments by developers about using the output as an entry point into XPages. Is that a reasonable use case?
• Does the output require the extension library to be installed on the server? If so, which version? Are there any GBS extensions that need installing, and what’s the support process in the case of someone identifying any bugs?
• What happens next, once it’s been through the transformer?
• Is it just GBS that can use this tool or can other BPs take this on and do it locally?

Other things that Nathan and Tim have done?

• Medusa for 8.5.2 / 8.5.3? Mentioned it at LS11, when might we see that?
• Anything else coming along?

This episode is sponsored by intec

Paul’s thoughts

AD101 – IBM Lotus Domino Designer: Today and Tomorrow

I didn’t realise XPages is (officially at least) only two years’ old. It’s very mature for its age (although of course it existed in Lotus Component Designer before that)

The enthusiasm for the XPages cheatsheet (thanks David!) and the Mastering XPages book was great. Resources that have been asked for continually by the community, now we’re getting them in abundance. Hopefully we can all still find something to blog about!

Cheatsheet: http://xpag.es/?cheatsheet

There were a whole host of XPages sessions (see previous podcast, Ed.), more than one person could go to. Most of the sessions I attended were packed.

In Designer: Now and Next

• 65% of C-level execs are aware of XPages as a development platform
• xpages.info had a slide
• great new XPages enhancements coming in the future
• XPages  perspective
• XPages debugger  - yay!!

Great enthusiasm from the community. That’s one of the things that makes Domino development so enjoyable.

Gurupalooza and Ask The Developers – not a great deal on XPages. Is that good? I think so. Two areas of contention/query were:

• Persuading admins to install the Extension Library. (Beer normally works, Ed.)
• Easier integration with non-Domino data sources. Jim Quill is working on that.

Teamroom template released, already being used extensively internally by IBM. Includes the iNotes calendar view widget from the Extension Library – something devs have been asking for for a while. Requires recent version of Extension Library, so go and download it. Document Library coming soon.

All in all, a great Lotusphere, promising for the year ahead.

David’s thoughts

Extension Library… I’ve been missing out.

Speed Improvements

Pre-Loading XPages

Better compression/consolidation of JS and CSS files?

Composite Apps – Yuk!  BUT…. Soon you’ll be able to run a pure XPages all inside the Notes Client SideBar so no more need for it to be a composite app.  Yay!

Mobile Controls – Didn’t realize how close IBM and especially Niklas Heidoff worked with the Dojo team. Native control to API? That means access to the Camera on the phone!!!  Cool!

AD104 – What’s New in Lotus Domino Objects and Best Practices

Keep using autouopdate=false

View Navigator is getting all the efforts as far as speed goes.

Tim’s thoughts

BP210 – XPages: Enter The Dojo

Session was very good and to see you both Paul & David with bandana on was very cool and good fun.
Lots of good content in there and the audience were completely enthralled in the session. I also handed out a huge stack of cheat-sheets at the door as people left.

IBM Collaboration Solution Labs were constantly busy on the XPages tables. It was great to see so many people interested in trying out XPages hands on.

Competition

This is your chance to win one of two copies of the Mastering XPages book, kindly donated by the authors.

Just add a comment to this entry tell us what you contributed back to the XPages community since February 10th. (Closing date 31-Mar-11)

We are not looking for anything as grand as the XPages extension library, it could be a small as a wiki article or an answer to a question at the forums or even a blog.

Paul, David and Tim will then chose from the submissions to

Your entry MUST contain the following information

1. Your Name
2. Email Address
3. Your contribution to the XPages Community (Max 100 words – including URL evidence)

We will contact the two winners for postal addresses later.

Good luck!

This episode is sponsored by intec

Intros

David Leedy – NotesIn9 Video ScreenCasts / http://lotusnotebook.com & http://notesin9.com
Paul Withers – Lead developer at Intec / http://hermes.intec.co.uk/intec/blog.nsf

State of the XPages Union

What’s been going on

• Notes 8.5.2
• Extension Library
• Group Transformer
• XPages.Info, XPages.TV, XPag.es – Link Shortner
• New TLCC Course

What’s coming up

• New book on XPages coming (Amazon UK : US : DE : FR) & available now on SafariBooksOnline
• CheatSheet Announcement – David is releasing an XPages cheatsheet

Featured OpenNTF XPages Project

• fileSendr
  New Release Jan 4 2011 by Declan Lynch
  Store data locally OR Integrate with Amazon S3!!

Lotusphere 2011 XPages Session Highlights

• Download the Ben Langhinrichs Genii database to manage your sessions or get one of the mobile versions
• When discussing the “level” – Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced…
  Note this is our OPINION based on the abstract…

Jumpstarts and Master Classes

• JMP101 – IBM Lotus Domino Application Development Jumpstart
  Overall intro to dev session.  Does touch on XPages
  Beginner
• JMP102 – XML and Web Services Jumpstart
  Integrates Web Services with XPages….
  Intermediate
• JMP302 – Master Class: CSS and HTML Master Class
  Import base needed to understand web dev.
  Beginner
• JMP303 – Leveraging JSON in both Client- and Server-Side JavaScript
  Intermediate
  Learn to use JSON with your XPage App

If interested in a pure “XPages Jumpstart” – see http://XPag.es/?Jumpstart1

App Dev Track

• AD101 – IBM LotusDomino Designer: Today and Tomorrow
  All Levels: Not really for XPage Dev, but will likely have some good nuggets on what’s happening in the future.
• AD102 – Hacking IBM Lotus Designer (Gently)
  Advanced: Customization of your DDE work environment??
  Tim Tripcony and Maureen Leland
• AD103 – Don’t Be Afraid of Curly Brackets: JavaScript for IBM LotusScript Developers
  Beginning: Must See Session.  Using SSJS
  Stephan Wissel
• AD104 – What’s New in Lotus Domino Objects and Best Practices
  Intermediate: Looks like a session to help improve speed in your XPages and Non Xpages applications
  James Cooper & Elizabeth Sawyer
  I’d highly recommend this, it sounds like this will cover how to make scalable XPages (and other) apps
• AD105 – Lotus Domino OSGi Unleashed: Everything You Need to Know – and More!
  Advanced
  David Taieb
  Advanced If I understand it correctly, OSGi is Eclipse platform, so this will be DEEP Java, digging into XPages Extension Library to see how to CREATE extensions. Please collect your lifejackets on the way in and ensure you fit your own oxygen masks before attempting to help anyone else
• AD106 – IBM Lotus Domino App Dev: All Things Considered
  All Levels: Future look into app dev roadmap
  Pete Janzen
• AD107 – Microsoft Sharepoint Meets IBM Lotus Domino: Development Deep Dive
  All Levels: Touches on sharepoint and XPage Integration.  Tips on Migrating AWAY from SharePoint!!!
  Stephan Wissel & Justin Lee
• AD110 | Building XPages Applications By the Book!
  Must See….  Building Apps from the authors of the new book
  Brief mention of the book if we didn’t do it earlier
  Martin Donnelly and Tony McGuckin
  Beginner / Intermediate
• AD111 | Developing Mobile Apps Rapidly for Webkit Browsers Using XPages
  Uses the extension library and mobile controls for building mobile apps.
  Intermediate / Advanced
• AD112 | How the Re-vamped TeamRoom and DocLib Templates Are Built Using the XPages Extension Library – Marie Kehoe
  Dissecting an IBM app build
  Intermediate
• AD113 | Show Your XPages in Style!
  Must See….  Styling.. oneUI..  Dojo Layouts and themes
  I guess this will make Intermediate seem like Beginner
• AD114 | There and Back Again: Strategies for Re-factoring Notes Applications to XPages
  Using the Extension Library
  Probably covering both Non-Technical and Advanced
• AD115 | XPages Extensibility API – Free Your Mind!
  Advanced: How to create you’re own controls using the Extensibility API
• AD116 | XPages Extension Library: Making Application Development Even Easier
  Must see… I really want to see this session so I’m hoping not to be working on the Monday afternoon.
  Absolute Must See: Paul Hannan and Maire Kehoe – Getting started with the Extension Library
  Beginner / Intermediate
• AD117 | XPages Performance Success Story: the Business Solutions Catalog
  Apparently WebSphere Portal’s Business Solutions Catalog is run off XPages and Domino.  This will show you want techniques were used in that app and once again prove that Domino kicks Websphere’s butt!  :)
  IBM’s proof that Domino is an application development platform
  Non-Technical
• AD118 | How XPages dramatically improved a non-profit’s ability to serve its disabled clients
  This session no longer exists …… it’s been moved to BP305 (see below)

Best Practises Track

• BP207 – Apps, Apps, and More Apps: Meet the Very Best Open Source Apps from OpenNTF
  This will cover all the stuff you can download and use for free from OpenNTF and also touch on the XPages stuff in OpenNTF
  Beginner /Non-Technical
• BP208 – Fabulous Feats with @Formula – Notes Client, XPages and Beyond
  Looks like a good session about when to use an @formula and when not to. But also where they can be used in XPages
  Beginner / Intermediate
• BP210 – XPages: Enter The Dojo
  Must See. Great session on how to get the most out of dojo in your XPages apps
  Intermediate.
• BP211 – XPages Blast Matt White / Tim Clark
  Beginner Intermediate Advanced
  Not too be missed. 30 top tips in 60 minutes
• BP305 | How XPages dramatically improved a non-profit’s ability to serve its disabled clients
  How a small company took out of date Notes apps and turned into state of the art XPages aps.
  Non-Technical

Show and Tell

• SHOW106 – XPages101 – How to build a simple XPages application Matt White / Tim Clark
  Beginner – How to get started with XPages
  Get there EARLY.  Sit up FRONT.  Do NOT MISS.
• SHOW107 – The DataSource Session: Take XPages data boldly where no XPages data has been taken before | Stephan Wissel & Jim Quill
  Getting data into an XPages app that isn’t stored in a Notes view or document. Should be very interesting and know Stephan will be very technical.
  Intermediate

Customer Case Studies

• CUST105 – Deloitte Recap: Running a Business on XPages and IBM Lotus Domino | Brian Benz
  This should be really interesting to see what a customer’s view of XPages really is. Mentioned on Ed Brill’s recent blog post.
  http://www.edbrill.com/ebrill/edbrill.nsf/dx/ibm.com-whitepaper-on-domino-as-a-rapid-application-development-platform
  http://bbenz.typepad.com/softwaresoapbox/2010/12/im-speaking-at-lotusphere-2011.html
  Non-Technical

This episode is sponsored by intec

Tim goes through what the Medusa plugin to Firefox is for and how to use it.
http://www.openntf.org/Projects/pmt.nsf/ProjectLookup/Medusa

Julian let’s us in on the XPagesWiki and what’s there.
http://xpageswiki.com

This episode is sponsored by Intec

Links

Feature Website – The XPages Blog