Update on org.openntf.domino
Tue, May 21st 2013 6:18a Paul Withers It’s been a little while since the initial release of org.openntf.domino, but as we’re gearing up towards M2 release, it’s worth giving an update of all the work that’s been going on under the hood.
M1 provided the core set of Java code that offered a host of possibilities for looping Collections, avoiding recycle, throwing generic exceptions instead of NotesExceptions and providing the MIMEBean. The jar could also be added to jvm/lib/ext for use in Java agents etc and co [read] Keywords: domino
lotus
notes
xpages application
bug
database
development
integration
java
openntf
properties
server
wiki
89
Business Use Cases – Customer Service
Sun, May 19th 2013 11:14a Paul Withers The overarching benefit to deploying Social Business solutions in customer service operations is the ability to engage with customers and understand them more deeply. This helps organisations to anticipate and meet their customers’ needs in ways that differentiate them from the competition.
If companies could increase customer retention rates by 5%, they could grow their profits by 25% -100%.
Frederick Reichheld, The Loyalty Effect
According to a recent ITSV CEO study, ‘Getting closer to the [read] Keywords: collaboration
applications
blogging
email
75
Social Business Use Cases: Marketing & Sales
Sun, May 12th 2013 11:21a Paul Withers Social technologies are being used to gather insights about products and brands, opinions about competitors, and perceptions of market segments. This market research and customer insight can be used as input for product requirements and design, advertising campaigns, pricing, packaging, and other marketing and product development activities.
In a recent study of 541 executives at 500 companies, 40% found that they could see specific improvements and increases in sales from social customer relati [read] Keywords: collaboration
development
mobile
103
Java and Selections Part Six: Value Picker Solution Continued
Thu, May 9th 2013 4:18p Paul Withers In the previous part I created a ListPicker class that extends IValuePickerData and Serializable. The hasCapability() and getSourceLabels() methods that the IValuePickerData interface requires have been implemented and just return false. In addition to the default constructor public ListPicker(), I’ve created two more: public ListPicker(List) and public ListPicker(Set). Because I’ve just used the generic classes as parameters of the methods, List will take any type of list like an Ar [read] Keywords: ibm
ajax
apple
database
interface
java
javascript
openntf
properties
111
Java and Selections Part Five: Value Pickers Solution
Wed, May 8th 2013 7:21a Paul Withers So we’ve added our Value Picker to the XPage, bound the component to an Edit Box or Dojo List Text Box or some other control that’s bound to a field on a Notes Document or viewScope variable. Now we’re ready to go.
A dataProvider for a Value Picker needs to implement the Java class com.ibm.xsp.extlib.component.picker.data.IValuePickerData (implement not extend). I also needed to implement Serializable, just like we do with a bean. IValuePickerData is an Extension Library class [read] Keywords: ibm
notes
database
dojo
eclipse
interface
java
openntf
properties
125
Java and Selections Part Four: Value Pickers Introduction
Tue, May 7th 2013 8:22a Paul Withers The Extension Library brings a new control to the party, the Value Picker. This gives the user an image or link that spawns a dialog from which they can select one or more options and even search for options. (The Value Picker itself doesn’t differentiate whether or not multiple items can be selected. That’s handled by the component into which the selected values are stored and to which the Value Picker is bound. Logically speaking, the Value Picker is bound to a component – an [read] Keywords: domino
xpages apple
database
dojo
java
properties
149
Java for Selections Part Two: Core Controls and Lists
Sat, May 4th 2013 9:21p Paul Withers So enough of the introduction, onto passing some Java to selectors.
There are two types of Collections you may have – Lists and Maps. Lists just have values. Maps have keys and values. So if you want the label and the value to be the same, use a List. If you want a different label and value, use a Map, with label in the key and value in the values.
I’m going to start simple with Lists and start at the basic level with core controls. This is also relevant to the Dojo controls like Doj [read] Keywords: dblookup
domino
database
dojo
java
javascript
133
Java and Selections Part Three: Core Controls and Sorted Lists
Sat, May 4th 2013 9:21p Paul Withers Ok. So we’ve seen we can pass a Vector or an ArrayList into a selectItems control for a Combo Box or Radio Button. And we’ve seen we can pass it via SSJS or EL (but EL is slightly more efficient). That’s all well and good if your options are already unique and already sorted. But what if they’re not.
Well you could run an @Unique and a JavaScript sort once you’ve retrieved it. But part of the point of using Java is better performance, easier debugging and avoiding c [read] Keywords: notes
xpages application
database
java
javascript
123
Java for Selections Part One: Introduction
Fri, May 3rd 2013 6:18a Paul Withers It’s no surprise that, despite coming from a background of minimal Java in the days before XPages, I now use Java as my main language in XPages back-end coding. There are a few areas where I’ve had to put my thinking cap on to work out how to use Java correctly when mapping between components and Domino, not least in number handling and Collections. Some time ago I put out a blog post of a useful cheat sheet for the plethora of core Collections objects available.
Those Collections ar [read] Keywords: domino
xpages java
95
Social Business Use Cases – Product Development
Sun, Apr 28th 2013 1:17p Paul Withers Business Use Cases – Product Development
By removing barriers between people, a successful Social Business can quickly and cost-effectively bring new solutions to market and better meet customer needs.
By using social platforms for co-creation, Social Businesses can engage a larger community beyond their own R&D staff. This helps to resolve product development challenges that are too big for in-house resources to handle themselves. In ‘crowd-sourcing’ for example, a wide range of part [read] Keywords: collaboration
community
development
network
74
IBM Collaboration Solutions Community Meeting
Mon, Apr 22nd 2013 3:18p Paul Withers Tomorrow (April 23rd) I will be speaking on the IBM Collaboration Solutions Community Meeting at 3pm BST (10am ET). The topic of this month’s meeting is XPages. The main part of the community meeting will see Abby Butts and Sam Bridegroom talking about how they have used XPages to develop applications to benefit a not-for-profit healthcare system. In the community member spotlight I’ll briefly talk about org.openntf.domino, a project that has got those of us involved in it enthused a [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
domino
ibm
lotus
xpages applications
community
database
java
openntf
648
New Notes 9 @Functions
Sun, Apr 21st 2013 8:18a Paul Withers With the inclusion of the Extension Library as core in Notes and Domino 9, there are eleven new @Functions provided for SSJS. They can be found in the Designer Help in IBM Domino Designer User Guide > Designing XPages Applications > Adding Controls from the XPages Extension Library > @Function (Extension Library). Note, you will not find these @Functions listed alongside the other XPages @Functions, so if you use search scopes in the Eclipse-based help, you’ll need to add this sec [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
notes
xpages applications
eclipse
java
javascript
openntf
server
116
Will Social Business Be a Distraction?
Sat, Apr 20th 2013 8:20a Paul Withers Will Social Business be a distraction to my employees?
Social Business provides a gateway for current and relevant information exchanges across geographies and organizational silos. Building trust and encouraging social interactions is key to driving social change in the workforce.
A successful Social Business will not foster an environment whereby employees are constantly chatting to their Facebook friends.
It is not about wasting time but about saving time and increasing efficiency, although [read] Keywords: collaboration
facebook
122
Currency Conversion and Negatives
Sat, Apr 13th 2013 6:17a Paul Withers There is a strange problem I’ve come across, but easily worked around. I had the need to capture currency values, some of which could be negative. There is a control in the Extension Library, the Dojo Currency Text Box, but I chose to use the Edit Box control with a number converter. But I wanted to force a specific currency, so I added the following in the number converter:
However, whenever I tried a negative number, it threw the error “The field is not a valid number”, trig [read] Keywords: dojo
176
12 Ways Social Technologies Can Add Value
Tue, Apr 9th 2013 10:14a Paul Withers 12 ways social technologies can add value in organisational functions within and across enterprises
Deliver customer insights
Co-create products
Leverage social to forecast and monitor
Use social to distribute business processes
Derive customer insights
Use social technologies for marketing communications/interaction
Generate and foster sales leads
Social commerce Customer service
Provide customer care via social technologies
Improve collaboration and communication; match talent to tasks
Use so [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
ibm
email
facebook
javascript
networking
twitter
widgets
369
org.openntf.domino – A New Hope for Java Developers
Tue, Apr 2nd 2013 4:17p Paul Withers Yesterday marked the release of the first milestone of org.openntf.domino, a community-driven project with a number of goal:
To make it quicker and easier to handle Domino objects.
To avoid gotchas for new Java developers like recycle().
To give useful parameter names to all methods.
To extend the packages with additional functionality.
To implement best practice approaches from our experience of Java development in XPages and elsewhere.
To lower the learning curve for developers, whether they [read] Keywords: domino
xpages best practice
community
development
java
openntf
wiki
194
How Social Business Can Help You
Thu, Mar 28th 2013 6:15a Paul Withers Social Business helps people to connect, collaborate and compete. Becoming a leader in today’s marketplace means using social solutions to transform how business gets done – driving cost savings, increasing revenue and cultivating competitive advantages.
When an organisation inspires its workforce to innovate and collaborate more productively, it creates tangible business value. Anticipating needs and delivering exceptional experiences delights customers and creates advocates. When you integ [read] Keywords:
331
Managing XPages Facets
Tue, Mar 26th 2013 7:14a Paul Withers Facets are nothing new in XPages. They are the bedrock of what makes XPages so configurable. Drop an Editable Area on a Custom Control and you can place content on that facet when you drop the Custom Control onto an XPage or another Custom Control. As with any other control, they’re not only for use in a Custom Control but also a native XPages control. The places they are most likely to be used are the Application Layout control and the Data View control.
Side note: there are also two face [read] Keywords: xpages application
What is Social Business?
Tue, Mar 19th 2013 6:14a Paul Withers Intec defines Social Business as any organisation that embraces networks of people to create business value. By fully integrating the collective knowledge of people-centric networks, Social Businesses accelerate decision-making, strengthen business processes and increase innovation.
Intec defines Social Business as any organisation that embraces networks of people to create business value.
A Social Business shifts the focus from temporary measures, such as documents and project plans, to the sou [read] Keywords: collaboration
applications
integration
mobile
310
Increasing Local History
Mon, Mar 11th 2013 7:39a Paul Withers I’ve always been a huge fan of Local History. It’s one of those pieces of standard Eclipse functionality that adds great power to Domino Designer. And because it’s standard Eclipse functionality it’s something developers find out about over time.
So a bit of background quickly. Local History allows you to retrieve previous saves of design elements made on the current PC. Because it’s native Eclipse, it’s only available in the standard Eclipse editors and the d [read] Keywords: domino
xpages eclipse
java
workspace
477
The Rise of Anti-Social
Thu, Mar 7th 2013 6:12p Paul Withers Over the last decade social tools have become not only prevalent. They have become critical to business. Just under a decade ago I created a LinkedIn profile. I doubt I was in the first wave of early adopters, but I was early. So early I forgot about it for a few years until I started getting lots of people connecting with me. Now any social business will use LinkedIn as a recruitment tool, maybe posting status updates of a new position but certainly checking out the LinkedIn profile of those wh [read] Keywords: calendaring
blackberry
enterprise
linkedin
profile
rim
twitter
523
Making Your Local Domino Server Work Like You Want
Wed, Mar 6th 2013 7:15a Paul Withers Like many XPages developers, I run a local Domino server installed on my laptop. There are a number of reasons for that:
Building an application is quicker when it’s on the same PC.
SSJS sessionAsSigner doesn’t work if there are multiple signers for design elements in use on the page. (I’m assuming that’s still the case; it was in 8.5.2 and I don’t envisage it being functionality that could easily be changed.)
I suspect there are similar issues with Java sessionAsS [read] Keywords: domino
notes
xpages apple
application
blogging
exchange
exchange
java
laptop
password
server
A Couple of SSJS Usability Suggestions
Tue, Feb 26th 2013 7:14a Paul Withers I’ve recently been looking back at an application I added some XPages functionality into a while ago and realised there were a couple of Server-Side JavaScript tips I have not shared before.
The first is actually unnecessary where I’ve used it. I think Tim Tripcony mentioned it and I started using it all over the place at the time and subsequently forgot about it completely. With scoped variables in particular, when they are bound to a control on the XPage, the scoped variable has a [read] Keywords: xpages application
javascript
server
354
Mapping Java Collections
Mon, Feb 25th 2013 9:25a Paul Withers I’ve been using Java for some time and one of the benefits is that there are a whole host of options for managing collections of objects. In SSJS we have arrays, as we do in LotusScript. LotusScript also gives Lists. SSJS and Java also make use of Vectors, most often for lookup keys, field values or column values. (Note that Vectors are an older Java construct and usually deprecated now.) SSJS also used maps and even newbie XPages developers actually use them, with scoped variables and var [read] Keywords: domino
lotusscript
xpages database
google
java
373
HTML or XPage Component
Sat, Feb 16th 2013 7:10a Paul Withers Yesterday evening I got involved in an XPages conversation. It started with this tweet from Chris Toohey:
Dr Marky Roden then brought me into the conversation, just as I looked on Twitter! A bit of a conversation then ensued, which is shown below.
As I said, I needed to do more investigation on all scenarios. I want to thank all those who got involved in the conversation for moulding this blog post. I’m a firm believer that the only stupid questions are the ones kept inside your own h [read] Keywords: notes
notes client
xpages interface
java
server
twitter
xml
388
Session Slides and Sample Database from IBM Connect
Sun, Feb 10th 2013 3:11p Paul Withers At IBM Connect 2013 Mike McGarel and I presented BP206, “It’s Not Herculean: 12 Tasks Made easier with IBM Domino XPages”. The session took an alternative approach of covering twelve areas where XPages offers an easier or more flexible option for delivering functionality than Notes Client or traditional Domino web. It was intended to highlight where productivity or functionality gains could be received by using XPages for new applications or taking a hybrid approach to existing [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
notes
notes client
sametime
xpages application
applications
database
java
openntf
310
Ed Brill “Opting In”: Thank You In Many Ways
Tue, Feb 5th 2013 6:11p Paul Withers Last year I had the honour of answering a call for sidebar contributions to Ed Brill’s book, “Opting In: Lessons in Social Business from a Fortune 500 Product Manager”. I had no doubt it would be a well-written, informative book. Ed’s announcement today of his new role as Director of Market Management – IBM Mobile Enterprise has given the book an interesting angle as well. IT professionals are renowned for being great at doing, not so eager at documenting. At what p [read] Keywords: collaboration
ibm
notes
blogging
community
enterprise
mobile
twitter
IBM Connect 2013 – My Plans
Sun, Jan 27th 2013 8:14a Paul Withers For me, conferences are all about learning, not just in sessions but outside of sessions. The next few days at IBM Connect are going to be full of learning – about the direction for IBM software for the next few years, about technical content, about resolving questions from developers and product managers, about the contacts in my social environment. In the two years since I first spoke at Lotusphere, as it was then, I’ve learned a load of stuff from a lot of people as well as sharin [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
lotusphere
notes
notes client
xpages mobile
358
Understanding Partial Execution: Part Three – JSF Lifecycle
Wed, Jan 23rd 2013 4:15p Paul Withers In the previous two parts of this series I’ve focussed on partial refresh and partial execution. But in order to fully appreciate why partial execution is important, you need to understand the JSF lifecycle. Part two focussed on what gets processed from the XPage, it’s important to understand how it gets processed. Remember that if execMode=”partial”, then the following phases only run for the execId. Outside of that area, nothing gets written back to the server and nothi [read] Keywords: xpages application
java
javascript
properties
server
861
Making The Most of the Notes Client – New Cheat Sheets
Wed, Jan 23rd 2013 11:11a Paul Withers Towards the end of last year I was on a customer site where a user was scrolling through a view to find entries that were towards the bottom. Needless to say I pointed out that by starting to type, you could jump down to the entries beginning with those letters. Over the next few days I pointed out a number of additional usability tips. It occurred to me that many users may receive minimal training on Notes applications. Frustrations probably often come from old user interfaces on applications d [read] Keywords: calendaring
ibm
lotus
notes
notes client
noteslotus
xpages applications
interface
288
Understanding Partial Execution: Part Two – Execution
Thu, Jan 17th 2013 4:14p Paul Withers In Part One I covered off what happens between server and browser in a partial refresh. Careful thinking about the refresh ID can help minimise the amount of content passed back from the server to the browser. But I emphasised that it has no effect on what happens on the server. In this part I’m going to focus on what gets processed on the server.
First I want to focus on a screenshot of the Events panel from Domino Designer Social Edition.
Partial Refresh settings
The area circled in g [read] Keywords: domino
xpages properties
server
334
Understanding Partial Execution: Part One – Refresh
Wed, Jan 16th 2013 7:13a Paul Withers This is another post based upon learning from the sessions I’ve been doing at LUGs this year. Partial Execution is extremely powerful, probably rarely used, but thanks to Tony McGuckin and Dan O’Connor has been made much easier to use in IBM Domino Social Edition.
But before I even discuss Partial Execution, it’s critical to have a proper understanding of what happens during a refresh. If you’ve worked with XPages for a while, you probably understand all the steps without [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
notes
notes client
xpages ajax
applications
development
javascript
properties
server
525
Understanding XPages Error Codes
Wed, Jan 9th 2013 7:14a Paul Withers During this year I’ve done a session looking under the hood of XPages and explaining what actually happens. I firmly believe (and the evaluations and feedback suggests I’m not wrong) that when you understand what’s happening, it builds confidence.
The starter for the session was XPages and error codes – a gentle introduction, but still valid.
Everyone knows XPages is display on the web via the Domino server. But even that is an over-simplification that leads to some confu [read] Keywords: domino
notes
notes client
xpages application
database
java
openntf
properties
security
server
627
Extension Library Value Picker and extlib.dijit.PickerListSearch
Thu, Dec 20th 2012 6:11a Paul Withers Over the last few weeks I’ve been communicating with Paul Hannan about the Value Picker and different behaviour if extlib.dijit.PickerListSearch.
With the Value Picker control, you have a number of options. The options can be provided from a list of hard-coded or computed values using the simpleValuePicker dataProvider. They can be provided from a view using the dominoViewValuePicker dataProvider. Or they can be defined in a Java class using the beanValuePicker. The beanValuePicker seems t [read] Keywords: database
java
xml
663
Full Text Search Musings
Wed, Dec 19th 2012 7:10a Paul Withers For a recent project I was involved in building some rather open-ended reporting functionality. Although my preference is to identify clear requirements to develop a targeted solution and avoid over-engineering, in this case it was not possible.
One of the huge strengths of Domino is full text searching. In the post-8.5.3 world there is even less reason to avoid them, because full text indexes can be stored on an external drive using the FTBasePath notes.ini variable and FTSearchSorted can be u [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
ldd
lotus
lotusscript
notes
database
development
security
350
NotesIn9, IBM Connect and IBM Champion – A Busy Week And More To Come
Tue, Dec 11th 2012 1:17p Paul Withers It’s been a busy week.
Last Thursday I had a mixture of good and bad news. Two abstracts I was hopeful about we’re rejected for IBM Connect, but a third was accepted. I’ll be presenting with Mike McGarel – not the first time I’ve presented with someone who works for Czarnowski, but this time there isn’t any plan for any costumes! We’re doing a session Mike suggested, called “It’s Not Herculean: Twelve Tasks Made Easier with IBM Lotus Domino X [read] Keywords: domino
dxl
ibm
lotus
notes
xpages eclipse
549
Inspecting Dojo on 8.5.3
Thu, Dec 6th 2012 7:40a Paul Withers As I blogged when 8.5.3 went live, Dojo is now packaged as 1.5.1 as physical files on the server for iNotes and 1.6.1 in a plugin. So how do you inspect what’s provided in the plugin? That was the focus on one of the comments on the post I made.
Well, Nathan Freeman and Serdar Basegmaz contributed a project to OpenNTF to allow you to run it in debug mode – Dojo Debug kit for Domino 8.5.3. You can use that plugin, import the source code into Eclipse or Domino for example.
But you can [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
inotes
notes
development
dojo
eclipse
openntf
server
398
Rich Text Lite Thumbnails: Check Your Notes Version and How To Get A PMR Fixed
Thu, Nov 22nd 2012 6:10a Paul Withers In a recent Notes Client development I had the need to programmatically detach images inserted into a Notes Document. The images also needed to be visible in the Notes Client rather than added as attachments. But an image pasted into a Rich Text field is not accessible via NotesRichTextItem.EmbeddedObjects. There was also the challenge that for some configuration documents I needed to use specific images for specific purposes, but I didn’t know in advance the programmatic name of the attac [read] Keywords: dxl
ibm
ldd
lotus
notes
notes client
rich text
rich-text
development
240
Views Productivity Tip – Take Ctrl
Wed, Nov 14th 2012 7:11a Paul Withers Sometimes a document doesn’t appear where you expect it to in a particular view. Tracking it down can be a laborious task. But it doesn’t have to be. There is a little tip that’s not as widely known as it should be. It’s nothing new, certainly dating back to R6 and probably even back to R1.
If you highlight a document in view 1, hold down Ctrl while opening view 2, not only will view 2 open but it will open with the same document from view 1 highlighted. No more hunting t [read] Keywords: notes
R6
development
287
Managing Tasks and ToDos in XPages
Thu, Nov 8th 2012 7:13a Paul Withers Earlier this week I was running a technical enablement session on XPages for IBM. One of the first steps was to configure Domino Designer. I’ve championed before some of the benefits that Eclipse brought to Domino Designer, such as the search and local history (which has been my saviour on many an occasion!).
But one I only recently became aware of was the Tasks view. As we were discussing the Trouble Ticket project on OpenNTF someone mentioned Hunter Mednay’s blog post about using [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
lotus
xpages development
eclipse
openntf
270
Why To Be Careful When Copying Views
Tue, Oct 16th 2012 8:12a Paul Withers We’ve all done it. We want to create a new view, but we don’t want to create it from scratch. We have one similar. So we copy and paste and modify it. It’s quick, it’s easy, it works.
Most of the time.
Sometimes it comes back to bite you because of seemingly innocent column settings. I needed a view to move data to an archive database. For better performance I decided against a NotesDocumentCollection in preference for a NotesViewNavigator and NotesViewEntries. So my code [read] Keywords: agent
archive
database
279
Test Your Regular Expressions In Domino Designer
Fri, Sep 28th 2012 2:34p Paul Withers Fredrik Norling blogged yesterday about using Regular Expressions to validate in XPages (but also traditional Domino web development). There is one option for validating using regular expressions that Fredrik didn’t mention, and it’s well worth covering. Because although you can find a lot of regular expressions on the web, writing your own or modifying regular expressions can be challenging. And testing the regular expressions can be a slow and boring process. Wouldn’t it be g [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
xpages development
dojo
257
VariableResolvers: Handle With Care
Fri, Sep 21st 2012 7:07a Paul Withers I’ve blogged before about VariableResolvers and the more I dig into them, the more powerful they are. Performance-wise, I’ve already blogged they’re as rapid as you can get, the perfect place for regularly-accessed bits of code. Anyone at UKLUG will have seen that I extended that particular performance table to show that a VariableResolver in an OSGi plugin is virtually as quick.
But there is a caveat I’ve found. Amusingly, I’d made the link that examines the caveat [read] Keywords: xpages database
java
xml
171
When a Dev Screws Up An Install, Don’t Get Nasty, Get NICE
Tue, Sep 18th 2012 7:10a Paul Withers Yesterday I totally screwed up my Notes install. Bottom line, it thought it was a multi-user install and no matter what I did, I couldn’t install the full client. There was a very simple cause. The usual one. I didn’t RTFM! We’ve all done it. (Please, just agree to make me feel less stupid.)
I tried uninstalls, reinstalls, reinstalls of basic Notes, uninstalls of basic Notes, uninstalls of other things, editing the registry, manually removing files. Yep, I got desperate.
Eventu [read] Keywords: admin
domino
ibm
lotus
notes
wiki
UKLUG: Digging Into The Dark Side
Wed, Sep 5th 2012 6:55a Paul Withers Cardiff was the venue for UKLUG this year, two days of all yellow goodness (in every sense!). For the third time I delivered a session digging under the covers of XPages to try to give developers one or more eureka moments. At BLUG I presented on my own but couldn’t fit everything into an hour. At DanNotes I was again going solo and couldn’t fit everything into two hours. At UKLUG I presented with Tim Tripcony and we had the cunning idea of cutting the number of slides and expanding [read] Keywords: script library
xpages application
database
java
properties
server
229
iNotes List View, iNotes Calendar View – Accessing The Object
Fri, Aug 24th 2012 5:14p Paul Withers Earlier today Julian Buss asked in a blog post about how to get the unid of a selected document in the iNotes List View. Even though I wrote that chapter in the Extension Library book, I was a little baffled myself. Even after I re-read what I’d written, I struggled to work out where I had found out about ext.tumbler and ext.item. I read what I’m sure others have, that I wrote that many of the events worked the same as the iNotes Calendar View.
I eventually tracked down where I had f [read] Keywords: inotes
database
properties
181
Domino Designer Shortcuts, Build Project and Quirks
Thu, Aug 23rd 2012 6:39a Paul Withers Some time ago Nathan Freeman blogged about making Domino Designer work the way you want, lots of excellent productivity tips for improving performance of Domino Designer. One of these was to turn off Build Automatically.
If you ever, ever, for any reason whatsoever, ever, ever, ever open a database that’s on a server in Domino Designer – switch it off. Ninjas kill kittens when you don’t (hat-tip to Rocky Oliver for that metaphor, originally used for not adding Option Declare i [read] Keywords: domino
lotusscript
ntf
xpages applications
database
java
server
150
How Many XPages Errors Have I Got?
Wed, Aug 15th 2012 3:29p Paul Withers Tonight I came this comment from a developer:
Rather than using the DisplayErrors control and showing the error messages, I just want a count. So I could do something like “You have 4 message(s) on the page”
All error messages can be displayed in a Display Errors control but can also be accessed programmatically, via facesContext.getMessages(). This gives access to a Java Iterator o all error messages passed via validation or programmatically via SSJS or Java.
The problem is there [read] Keywords: xpages java
server
160
Custom Language in XPages Revisited: The Good and The Bad
Thu, Aug 9th 2012 3:47p Paul Withers A little over two years ago I blogged about the different languages available in XPages, namely Expression Language, Server-Side JavaScript and Custom. I explained what Custom was and how it could be used.
Bearing in mind that XPages are compiled down to Java code, with each control being a class, it makes sense that the fewer controls you can use, the better for performance. Evidence bears out that hypothesis, as I will be showing at UKLUG next month. Furthermore, of the three, Server-Side Java [read] Keywords: xpages java
javascript
server
120
New Release of Mobile Value Picker
Wed, Aug 8th 2012 4:12p Paul Withers I’ve just published a new release of the Mobile Value Picker on OpenNTF.
The main reason for the new release is to force resetContent=”false” on the Cancel button on the mobilePicker Custom Control, to ensure content is not lost in a new document when using the SSJS approach.
The other addition is a Design Definition for the custom control, to make it more user-friendly.
In addition there is some minor cleanup on the sample XPages.
One note of caution. I’ve encountered pr [read] Keywords: xpages mobile
openntf
271
Diagnosing Field Changes
Mon, Jul 30th 2012 7:13a Paul Withers This blog post isn’t specific to XPages and may be something many developers are aware of. But it took me many years of Notes development to learn this little bit of information that can quickly help troubleshoot data issues with Notes documents. It’s still relevant in the world of XPages and well worth taking into consideration if you’re manipulating field values via managed beans. And it may be something XPages developers who have come from a non-Domino background may not be [read] Keywords: agent
domino
notes
notes client
xpages database
development
properties
XPages Mobile Controls: Mobile Value Picker Project
Tue, Jun 5th 2012 8:48a Paul Withers Over the weekend, as part of the third XPages contest on OpenNTF and based upon the series on this blog, I contributed the Mobile Value Picker project to OpenNTF. Niklas Heidloff has written a great blog post about the project and also recorded a video demonstrating the control.
The control allows you to use a Notes View, a Notes Document or a static list as the source of the list. I did some investigation into using a REST service, but that proved difficult. The reason takes a little understand [read] Keywords: notes
xpages mobile
openntf
server
146
When XPages Don’t Work – Why Do I See SSJS?
Mon, Jun 4th 2012 11:11a Paul Withers There are a number of reasons for errors in XPages. Some will be coding errors that can be diagnosed by enabling the default error page or adding a custom XPages error page. Others are caused by Java class loading errors, which throw an error 500 to the server console and the browser regardless of any error pages. The IBM_TECHNICAL_SUPPORT folder on the server can give you more information to track down the cause, and for this I’d like to give a quick shoutout to Jakob Majkilde’s exc [read] Keywords: domino
xpages application
dojo
java
javascript
openntf
properties
server
163
XPages: Build Project Investigations
Mon, May 28th 2012 6:11a Paul Withers One of the first things I do when I install Domino Designer is disable Build Automatically. If you’re not using XPages – or, more importantly, if you’re not working on applications that use XPages – it’s not an issue. However, if you’re working on XPages and either working in a team or may open a database on a production server, then Build Automatically should be switched off. Let me explain why.
Hopefully all XPages developers know that the XPages and Custom [read] Keywords: domino
xpages application
applications
database
eclipse
java
server
133
XPages Extension Library Book – Now Available
Fri, May 18th 2012 8:00a Paul Withers During Lotusphere 2011 Philippe Riand posted a now infamous tweet asking for members of the YellowVerse interested in writing an XPages book following up on the hugely successful Mastering XPages.
It’s been a long time in the making, but now XPages Extension Library has been published, written by myself, Paul Hannan, Declan Lynch, Jeremy Hodge and Tim Tripcony. There are also contributions from a number of other XPages experts.
Ed Brill’s post includes a discount code for 35% off the [read] Keywords: ibm
lotusphere
xpages dojo
154
XPages Mobile Controls and Value Pickers Part Four: Server-Side Approach
Thu, May 3rd 2012 1:11p Paul Withers I started off this tutorial series on mobile value picker with a discussion about some key differences between desktop browser development and mobile browser development. One of the key differentiators I discussed was connectivity. That was why this series has so far focussed on an approach that predominantly used Client-Side JavaScript and avoided interaction with the server as much as possible.
But when I first discussed the approach with David Leedy many weeks ago, his requirement was somewha [read] Keywords: roaming
xpages application
desktop
development
javascript
mobile
server
XPages Mobile Controls and Value Pickers Part Three: Client-Side Approach Extended
Thu, Apr 5th 2012 3:12p Paul Withers From some feedback to yesterday’s post, that code works fine if all you want to do is create a new document. So, I’ve gone away and come up with some amendments and improvements.
First of all, I’ve moved the New User button into the Page Heading control’s action facet. Again I use the Move to Application Page simple action, setting targetPage to “user” and setting forceFullRefresh to “true”. It’s important to do this. Otherwise, the user will [read] Keywords: xpages application
email
javascript
mobile
server
Quick Tip for iOS Browser Development
Tue, Mar 27th 2012 3:11p Paul Withers Last week, when preparing for the XPages Mobile Controls session at BLUG, Eamon Muldoon introduced me to a useful tip when testing on iOS. The problem is that many browsers such as Firefox and Safari use, by default, webkit styling, so use Android stylesheets.
But Safari has an option to change the user agent.
The first step is to enable the Develop menu. Go to Edit – Preferences. Then on the Advanced tab, check Show Develop menu in menu bar.
This will enable the Develop menu. From here yo [read] Keywords: agent
xpages development
firefox
iphone
mobile
142
XPages Portable Command Guide Review
Thu, Mar 22nd 2012 2:32a Paul Withers A couple of weeks ago I got a review copy of XPages Portable Command Guide. Being eager, I had already bought the electronic version.
First, a couple of points about the differing media. The electronic version is great for bookmarking and searching. Plus, because I always have my iPad with me, I always have PCG with me. But one of the nice additions on the paper version is quick reference material on the inside covers. This allows you to quickly find where to go to in the book based on certain n [read] Keywords: domino
xpages application
applications
database
development
java
javascript
mobile
properties
server
149
Update WhitePaper: Maximising the Benefits of XPages in 8.5.3
Fri, Mar 16th 2012 7:54a Paul Withers Some years ago I wrote a whitepaper on maximising the benefits of XPages in 8.5.x. About a year ago that was updated for 8.5.2. (I remember, because it was on the train to BLUG 2010!)
I’ve now updated the whitepaper to bring it up to date with 8.5.3, just in time for the imminent release of Fix Pack 1 later this month. The whitepaper draws on years of experience with XPages and an insight into the Extension Library controls delivered in Upgrade Pack 1.
Maximising The Benefits of XPages in [read] Keywords: xpages
89
Catch Me at BLUG
Wed, Mar 14th 2012 3:31p Paul Withers Next Thursday and Friday I will be speaking at BLUG 2012. This will be my third BLUG and it’s always a very enjoyable experience, with great speakers and content. I will be presenting two sessions:
Ready, Set, Go! How IBM Lotus Domino XPages Became Mobile
Eamon Muldoon and I will be presenting a session updated from Lotusphere covering all things mobile in the XPages Extension Library. There are some great controls available for providing users with a mobile browser experience that is auto [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
lotus
lotusphere
xpages mobile
154
Partial Execution Mode: Probably The Most Powerful XPages Feature You Don’t Use
Sun, Mar 4th 2012 2:39p Paul Withers One of my sessions for BLUG, The Eureka Moment: The JSF Knowledge You Need To Understand XPages, has led me to investigate XPages optimisation and partial refresh processing to an extent I haven’t in the past. Much of the evidence gained has been illuminating for me too and has given me an understanding which will make me and my team think more when developing our XPages applications in the future. The JSF lifecycle and its quirks, seems to be a topic more developers have been delving into [read] Keywords: ldd
lotus
xpages applications
javascript
openntf
properties
server
107
Improving Notes Client Performance Whitepaper
Fri, Mar 2nd 2012 5:13a Paul Withers Earlier this week I picked up a tweet from Alan Hamilton about an IBM whitepaper about how to optimise performance of the Notes Client.
Not surprisingly, the operating system has a big impact on the speed of Lotus Notes opening, but also hanging of the Notes Client (and presumably Domino Designer client). The whitepaper is well worth reading, particularly for support teams. Good management of the PC can avoid some of frustrations of users that are wrongly laid at the feet of Lotus Notes.
Any de [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
lotus
notes
notes client
xpages application
81
Social Enterprise Debate
Wed, Feb 29th 2012 1:10p Paul Withers Over on ZDNet site there is a debate going on at the moment about whether the social enterprise is fact or fiction. This is particularly apposite, at a time when social media is becoming more prevalent in business for some people whereas many people are still sceptical. My own views are no secret, based on previous blogs I’ve written on the benefits I’ve seen in my own business life from being social. Businesses who at least allow and at best encourage their employees to be social wi [read] Keywords: ibm
enterprise
161
Quick Setup / Restore of Domino Designer
Mon, Feb 13th 2012 7:13a Paul Withers David Leedy recently posted a video on Domino Designer Tips and Tweaks, which is great. But sooner or later, you’ll move to a new PC or (god forbid!) have a serious problem with Domino Designer / Notes and really want to reinstall, to clean everything up.
Then you’ve got to remember what settings you changed and where to find them.
Except you don’t. Because Domino Designer is on Eclipse. Out of the box, Eclipse gives you the functionality to export your preferences, as Dan [read] Keywords: domino
lotus
notes
notes client
sametime
community
eclipse
java
laptop
widget
widgets
99
Combining $ and #: An Alternative Approach
Sat, Feb 11th 2012 7:07a Paul Withers Over the last couple of days there have been a few discussions about combining Compute on Page Load and Compute Dynamically. The full trails are below:
Sven Hasselbach’s initial post
My explanation of what’s happening in the source code and Java
Sven Hasselbach’s response
A possible alternative from Mark Roden
Both make good points and I have to say I’m glad I don’t have to make a decision on what changes, if any, should be made to Domino Designer as a result! Whe [read] Keywords: domino
xpages bug
java
122
XPages Bindings: When # Runs at Page Load
Thu, Feb 9th 2012 7:03a Paul Withers As developers get more comfortable with XPages, one of the steps is to start to using the Compute on Page Load option instead of the Compute Dynamically option for Server-Side JavaScript. But there are times when that can’t be done. I encountered this last week and it took a chat with Jeremy Hodge for me to understand my problem. One of my colleagues had the same problem yesterday. And Sven Hasselbach has blogged about the same issue today. Unfortunately, it’s not a bug. It’s a [read] Keywords: xpages bug
java
javascript
server
226
NotesViewEntryCollections
Wed, Feb 1st 2012 7:11a Paul Withers One of the benefits of XPages is the power of repeat controls to effectively perform ‘joins’, whether that is with nested repeat controls or merging data prior to displaying in a repeat control. When it comes to collections of documents I tend to favour NotesViewEntryCollections. This is both for performance (predominantly using getColumnValues().get) as well as sort order (NotesDocumentCollections are sorted on document creation order).
Recently I had the need to extend an existing [read] Keywords: lotusscript
notes
xpages community
database
java
properties
XPages Source Panel: Navigate to Next Sibling
Mon, Jan 9th 2012 2:12p Paul Withers As a student of Classics and university and an IT professional, one of the key phrases in my life is a saying of the ancient Athenian lawgiver: “As I grow old, I always learn more.” One of the beauties of XPages is you can always learn more. Sometimes it’s through the pain of incompatibilities of different pieces of technology; sometimes it’s deliberately, whether at leisure to advance one’s personal skill-set or out of necessity for a current project; and sometimes [read] Keywords: domino
xpages eclipse
xml
85
Have a BOF Idea? It’s Not Too Late
Wed, Jan 4th 2012 2:06a Paul Withers Just before Christmas two new communities launched on Lotus Greenhouse for Lotusphere and Connect
The communities have a wealth of useful bookmarks, wiki articles and other content. IBMers and Champions have been adding content over the last few weeks and will continue to build in that in the lead up to Lotusphere and during the conference. The communities are intended as an ongoing resource for attendees to use to get the most out of the conference. (If you have any further questions, thereR [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
lotus
lotusphere
community
mobile
wiki
294
XPages Date Picker: My Preference
Thu, Dec 15th 2011 3:12p Paul Withers Today I took part in the Ask The Xperts webinar by GBS and TLCC. One of the questions was about problems with the XPages date picker in Internet Explorer 8. When not in compatibility mode, the page refreshes as soon as the user clicks on the date picker. There may be times when you want to avoid compatibility mode, for example, when using the CSS float property.
My preferred option to get around this is to use the Dojo date picker. However, if the Dojo module is applied to the inputText tag itse [read] Keywords: xpages css
dojo
javascript
99
Upgrade Pack 1 Has Arrived
Wed, Dec 14th 2011 3:11p Paul Withers In a busy week for IBM, Notes/Domino Upgrade Pack 1 has shipped today, as announced by Ed Brill. The upgrade pack is important for a number of reasons:
For customers requiring officially IBM-supported code (an argument I struggle to understand in application development, but that’s beyond the scope of this blog), this provides a supported release of the Extension Library
It ushers in a new way of delivering additional functionality outside the point release cycle
It provides updated XPage [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
notes
notesdomino
xpages application
database
development
mobile
How to Add In-Built Java Packages
Wed, Nov 30th 2011 12:11p Paul Withers Peter Leugner reminded me of the best method for including Java Packages that come with the Notes install and, for those who have never done it before, here is a pictorial description.
From the Package Explorer you have access to the plugin.xml. As well as an XML editor this also has GUI tabs, one of which is Dependencies. Just click on the Add button and you get a dialog of all libraries available. Note the library has a version number against it – we’ll come back to that.
Now go [read] Keywords: notes
java
xml
128
Why Reinvent The Wheel When There Are 1500 Already
Wed, Nov 30th 2011 7:23a Paul Withers During a recent discussion on Java I bemoaned the fact that some basic pieces of functionality we’ve exploited for years in Formula Language are missing. The example I gave was @Right, being able to get a portion of a string based upon the existence of another string. In JavaScript and Java there are no inherent methods in the base string classes to facilitate this. Yes, it’s not rocket science to write those functions, but it’s frustrating that popular languages don’t do [read] Keywords: dblookup
formula language
ibm
lotusscript
xpages development
eclipse
java
javascript
server
152
Why You Shouldn’t ‘Count’ on a NotesViewNavigator
Wed, Nov 23rd 2011 6:36a Paul Withers Agent profiling is not new in Domino, but it’s something that gets little press. Because it’s only available for agents, it’s probably also going to become less useful as more and more development is done in XPages. But, working from the premise that the methods in use in LotusScript do the same work on the whole as their Java counterparts, best practices learned from LotusScript are equally applicable to XPages development.
Over the last year there have been countless articles [read] Keywords: agent
domino
lotusscript
xpages development
java
javascript
profile
server
63
XPagesWiki.com Goes Mobile
Fri, Nov 18th 2011 1:08p Paul Withers If you’ve worked with XPages for any length of time you’ll probably have used some of the tips on XPagesWiki.com by YouAtNotes. It’s a well-categorised resource built on XPages too. Today came the news that it’s available on iPhone and iPad as a native app, so you can get the content at any time. Priced at £2.99 it’s good value with a nice clean interface, simple navigation and search functionality. Plus all the XPages goodness that comes inside the app. Below is a [read] Keywords: xpages interface
iphone
mobile
93
XPages Help Application v3.0.0
Mon, Nov 14th 2011 4:16p Paul Withers I’ve just completed development of new release of the XPages Help Application. There are a number of enhancements and modifications, including some refactoring of the Java code based on the learning I’ve gained over the last six months.
The most significant enhancement is a mobile interface, accessible via the m_Content.xsp XPage. You can see some teasers of the functionality in the screenshots attached, showing the iPad interface. You’ll see that it reproduces all the read-onl [read] Keywords: xpages application
development
dojo
interface
java
mobile
XPages Help Application – Mobile Navigation
Tue, Nov 8th 2011 5:11p Paul Withers I’m currently in the process of developing a mobile interface for viewing articles in the XPages Help Application. One of the significant differences is the navigation model. The initial page has links to the relevant views of the data – Contents, Index, Search (if the database is full text indexed) and Bookmarks (for authenticated users).
Bookmarks and Search results are simple. It is a single-level hierarchy. My dilemma is the best method for the Index and Contents views, so I̵ [read] Keywords: xpages application
database
interface
mobile
93
Using The Update Site: Object Variable Note Set
Sun, Oct 30th 2011 4:54p Paul Withers Tonight I installed the latest version of the Extension Library, or tried to. I installed it into Domino Designer first, then, after the restart, tried to import it into the Update Site template. But whether I imported as a local update site or imported the features, I got an object variable not set error. Because it uses a dialog box I could not see what the problem was in debug. A brief investigation of the design left me a little puzzled because the import is not an agent, a view action, a sh [read] Keywords: agent
domino
ibm
notes
community
75
One Reason for Installing At Least One 8.5.3 Designer Client
Wed, Oct 26th 2011 3:48p Paul Withers There are a host of good enhancements in 8.5.3. But one that is worth it’s weight in gold is the ability to review, set or clear the Prohibit Design Refresh setting on all design elements in an application in one go. From Domino Designer, just right-click on the application and select Application -> Set Prohibit Refresh Property…
This brings up a dialog of all design elements, grouped under design element type, allowing you to quickly and easily identify any refresh prohibited de [read] Keywords: domino
application
