Building an App with the frostillic.us Framework, Part 2
Fri, Jul 11th 2014 3:12p Jesse Gallagher Define the data model
Create the view and add it to an XPage
Create the editing page
Add notification to the model
Add sorting to the view
Basic servlet
REST with Angular.js
The first stage of building a frostillic.us-Framework-based app was a bit
unusual - focusing on creating a model object in Java - but the next phase is
about as bog-standard as it gets:
Create the view and add it to an XPage
The view we'll need is a basic one showing all Notes. We'll name it "NotesAll"
to match the [read] Keywords: notes
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98
Building an App with the frostillic.us Framework, Part 1
Wed, Jul 9th 2014 8:11a Jesse Gallagher Now that the framework I've been building is settling into a real project, I
figured one of the best ways for me to explain how it works and to double-check
my own assumptions is to make a tutorial on how to actually construct an app
using it. This will be a very simple one to start with: a note-taking app with
just a couple fields and only one business object to speak of.
The overall conceit of the framework is that it uses standard/ExtLib components
and idioms where appropriate but decl [read] Keywords: domino
notes
ntf
xpages database
development
java
openntf
server
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xml
290
The Trouble With Developing on Domino
Tue, Jul 8th 2014 8:15a Jesse Gallagher The core trouble in my eyes with developing on Domino is that it is unloved for
what it is. Not so much by customers (I have no interest in whether companies
use Exchange or SharePoint or whatever), but more by IBM. The situation reminds
me of Apple with products like WebObjects, Xserve, and Aperture: there's
clearly a dedicated and talented team behind it, but the organization's heart
isn't in it. The analogy is inexact: first, Apple's overarching motivations and
strategies are much e [read] Keywords: admin
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ibm
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community
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exchange
java
mac
server
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93
Dabbling in Reflection
Mon, Jul 7th 2014 12:15p Jesse Gallagher In a similar vein to my post from the other day, I'd like to discuss one of the
other bugaboos that crops up from time to time in the edges of XPages
development, usually spoken of in hushed tones: reflection.
If you're not familiar with the term, reflection is an aspect of
metaprogramming; specifically, it's the ability to inspect and operate on
objects and classes at runtime. Reflection in Java isn't as smooth as it is in
other languages, but it makes sense as you work with it.
The [read] Keywords: xpages development
java
properties
144
My Black Magic for the Day
Fri, Jul 4th 2014 4:12p Jesse Gallagher One of the overarching goals for my model framework is to get the job of
specifying business logic out of the XPage. So far, most of my work in the area
revolved around building in the ability to override getters/setters, establish
relationships, and so forth. However, a big problem remains: the XPage still
needs to be told things about the data that are really the model's job, not the
XSP markup's. Namely, validation.
A little while ago, I "solved" this by adopting Hibernate Validator [read] Keywords: ntf
xpages development
email
java
server
194
Things I Rarely Use: sessionScope
Thu, Jul 3rd 2014 6:15p Jesse Gallagher As this post's title implies, I'm considering making this a series on XPages
anti-patterns, but no promises there.
In any event, this is a topic that's been stewing in my brain for a little
while: my antipathy towards the session scope in XPages. Now, don't get me
wrong: other than the "not reset on logout" thing that may be fixed by now, I
have no technical qualms with sessionScope; it does what it says on the tin.
However, I've often found that many people use it very frequently, [read] Keywords: xpages
149
XPages Data Caching and a Dive Into Java
Wed, Jul 2nd 2014 2:11p Jesse Gallagher One of the most common idioms I run into when writing an app is the desire to
cache some expensive-to-compute data in the view or application scope on first
fetch, and then use the cached version from then on. It usually takes a form
like this:
public Date getCachedTime() {
Map applicationScope = ExtLibUtil.getApplicationScope();
if(!applicationScope.containsKey("cachedTime")) {
// Some actual expensive operation goes here
applicationScope.put("cachedTime", new Date());
}
return [read] Keywords: xpages application
interface
java
167
Another Round of URL Fiddling
Thu, Jun 19th 2014 3:11p Jesse Gallagher I was working on another installment of "Be a Better Programmer", but the
result isn't where I want it to be yet, so it'll have to wait. Instead, I'll
share a bit about my latest futzing around when it comes to improving the URLs
used in an XPages app. This has been a long-running saga, with the
latest installment seeing me stumbling across a capability that had been right
under my nose: the ViewHandler's ability to manipulate the URLs generated for a
page. That method worked, but h [read] Keywords: ibm
xpages css
dojo
java
properties
server
xml
157
The frostillic.us Framework
Mon, Jun 9th 2014 1:15p Jesse Gallagher For a while now, I've maintained a project called XPages Scaffolding on OpenNTF
and GitHub. This project is the NTF that I use when creating a new XPages
application and acts as a storehouse for my "bag of tricks", things like my
model framework, controller classes, and various goodies I've picked up over
the years, like a JSFUtil class and a flashScope. For a while, I've figured
that, once this stuff is in proper shape, I'd extract it into an OSGi plugin
and get it out of the NSF. L [read] Keywords: domino
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xpages application
applications
development
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integration
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openntf
properties
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196
REST Services for my Model Framework
Fri, Jun 6th 2014 7:15a Jesse Gallagher Recently, I've been refactoring out
my framework code from XPages Scaffolding into an OSGi plugin. Part of this is
just to help with code reuse and versioning: having a whole bunch of framework
classes in each NSF is a drag, both from a perspective of having a bunch of
extra stuff in the NSF and for having to worry about keeping them up to date (a
template would work, but eh...). But another part is that it lets me work on
some new features I've been itching to try.
One of thos [read] Keywords: domino
xpages java
187
Be a Better Programmer, Part 3
Thu, Jun 5th 2014 8:12a Jesse Gallagher After a break last week, this week's entry returns a bit to practical concepts.
Specifically:
Develop a Working Knowledge of Relative Speeds
Performance of an app depends on almost-countless factors, but I've found that
you mostly just need to know a few general ideas and rules of thumb to avoid
the real pitfalls.
Big O Notation
The first thing to have a general working knowledge of is the naively-named
Big O notation. This is one of the core concepts in a Computer Science
curriculu [read] Keywords: domino
database
java
259
Swift
Wed, Jun 4th 2014 6:14p Jesse Gallagher This is a topic that doesn't really fit my usual bailiwick of Domino
programming, nor is it something I'm particularly qualified to comment on,
since the most Objective-C programming I've ever done was some putzing around
years and years ago with a weird idea for a pseudo-database that didn't even
involve Cocoa, but I'm going to talk about it anyway.
I'm really excited about Swift.
In case you don't follow Apple circles, Swift was one of the fire hose of
announcements at WWDC on Mo [read] Keywords: domino
apple
bug
database
development
integration
java
python
173
Coaxing Enums Into XPage Combo Boxes
Wed, May 28th 2014 4:11p Jesse Gallagher I've been reworking Forms 'n' Views over the last couple days to use it as a
development companion for the OpenNTF Design API, and one of the minor hurdles
I ran across was presenting a getter/setter pair that expects a Java Enum to an
XPages control (a combo box in this case, but it would be the same with other
similar controls). I had assumed at first that it would simply not work - that
the runtime would entirely balk at the conversion. However, it turned out that
XPages does half th [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
xpages development
java
javascript
openntf
242
Code for Tim: LESS CSS for XPages
Sun, May 25th 2014 2:15p Jesse Gallagher When OpenNTF announced the "Code for Tim" initiative, I browsed
Tim's GitHub repository list and one stuck out to me: the "xspless" stub
repository for adding LESS CSS support to XPages. I'd latently wished for this
sort of feature for a while, but hadn't yet set out down the path. It seems Tim
had had the same desire, and had taken at least one more step than me.
I've decided to try my hand at making this desire a reality, and it's borne
some fruit so far. I've created a [read] Keywords: domino
xpages css
database
development
eclipse
openntf
server
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Be a Better Programmer, Part 2
Thu, May 22nd 2014 10:12a Jesse Gallagher For this week's installment, I'd like to cover a more abstract topic than last
time:
Develop a Philosophy of Programming
By this grandiose title I don't mean that your outlook on programming has to be
an answer to life, the universe, and everything (though tell me if it is), but
more that it's useful to know why you do what you do. Why are you a programmer?
I'm assuming it's not because of a particular love for "delivering"
"enterprise" "workflow" "solutions".
In my case, i [read] Keywords: enterprise
outlook
242
For-fun Project: NSF StateManager
Tue, May 20th 2014 3:11p Jesse Gallagher Earlier this year, I created a StateManager for XPages using Couchbase as a
back end. Mostly, this was just to give myself an excuse to mess around with
XPages internals and Couchbase. But even still, it had an interesting
characteristic: by storing the state of an XPage between requests in a location
available to multiple servers, the XPages became cluster-friendly - you could
load an XPage on one server and make later requests to another (though it would
take further work to handle other [read] Keywords: admin
domino
xpages database
openntf
server
219
The DSAPI Login Filter I Wrote Years Ago
Mon, May 19th 2014 12:11p Jesse Gallagher In one of the conversations I had at the meetup yesterday, I was reminded of
the DSAPI filter I use on my server for authentication, and remembered I'd yet
to properly blog about it.
Years ago, I had a problem: I was setting up an XPages-based forum site for my
WoW guild, and I wanted sticky logins. Since my guildies are actual humans and
not corporate drones subject to the whims of an IT department, I couldn't
expect them to put up with having to log in every browser session, nor did I [read] Keywords: admin
domino
xpages database
password
server
286
Be a Better Programmer, Part 1
Thu, May 15th 2014 4:11p Jesse Gallagher For over a year now, I've had notes on this blog-post series sitting on my
desktop, staring at me and asking why I haven't actually started it. Well, I'm
going to start it now.
The title and core concept are stolen from the illustrious Day[9], though I
expect any mentions of video games will be incidental at best. What I want to
do is encourage everyone, myself included, to be a better programmer, and I aim
to do this by sharing overall concepts and strategies that I have found to hel [read] Keywords: foundations
notes
xpages database
desktop
java
outlook
xml
349
So it goes.
Mon, May 12th 2014 6:12p Jesse Gallagher Having only briefly met Tim Tripcony in person and lacking the writing skill
for the task, I feel like it's not entirely proper for me to comment on his
death, but I'm doing to do so anyway.
Years ago, when I was finding out about the Lotus community and starting my
journey learning XPages, Tim immediately stood out as one of The People to pay
attention to. His knowledge of the platform and willingness to share made his
blog an excellent resource, but it was more than that. In a way that [read] Keywords: lotus
xpages community
213
Book Review: Mastering XPages, Second Edition
Sun, May 11th 2014 3:12p Jesse Gallagher For a review of Mastering Xpages, I could copy almost wholesale the
introduction from my review of XPages Extension Library: the low count of
XPages books makes each one an essential purchase. As before, fortunately the
book rises above that obligatory baseline and is absolutely worth your time.
That's the upshot of this review: if you're a Domino programmer, buy and read
this book.
Size
One of the first things you notice about the book is its size, clocking in at
over a thousand pages [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
rich text
xpages application
community
css
development
enterprise
java
javascript
mobile
214
Pretty URLs: A Step in the Right Direction
Sat, May 10th 2014 9:11p Jesse Gallagher A long time ago, I mused a bit about the URL problem in XPages. The core
problem then, as it is today, was that XPage URLs are ugly as sin. Domino URLs
were never pretty, but XPages took them back a few steps. Just look at this
normal-case monstrosity:
https://someserver.com/foldername/app.nsf/somepage.xsp?action=openDocument&docum
entId=E0023409DE744F8085257CD3007006A3
Barely any part of that has anything to do with the task at hand! Some parts -
like the folder path and NSF name [read] Keywords: domino
xpages server
195
Using a ViewHandler to Serve a Different XPage
Sat, May 3rd 2014 8:12a Jesse Gallagher I've been using a ViewHandler class for a while now for a specific purpose:
injecting controller objects automatically. However, I hadn't really dug into
them further than that. I should have, though: I spent a little time poking
around this morning and found that they can help solve two minor annoyances
I've had for a while.
For the purposes of this post, the pertinent one of those is the ability to
serve a different XPage than the one requested. In normal cases, this isn't a
particu [read] Keywords: domino
notes
xpages database
192
Expanding your use of EL: Mea Culpa
Fri, May 2nd 2014 7:11p Jesse Gallagher A while back, a wrote a couple posts about using Expression Language (EL) to
clean up your XPages code, and in the first of them I gave what I labeled an
exclusive list of the interfaces that XPages EL provides special support for
(as opposed to just looking for getters/setters). It turns out I was sorely
mistaken: there are at least two other types that EL specially supports.
The first is the class used for JavaScript objects, such as allowing #{foo.bar}
to bind like you'd expect to [read] Keywords: xpages interface
javascript
240
My Current Ideal App-Dev Routine, April 2014
Sun, Apr 27th 2014 11:11a Jesse Gallagher Though most of my paying work involves working with clients' creaky old
databases, greenfield projects will always have my heart. For these and for my
side projects, I've been moving towards an ideal Domino-app strategy that seems
to serve me well.
The Setup
My apps consist of at least two NSFs: one for the app itself and at least one
for data. The only non-design notes in the app NSF are for app configuration,
and even then I keep it limited. Everything else goes in the "data" databa [read] Keywords: administration
domino
notes
ntf
xpages bug
database
desktop
development
dojo
laptop
network
server
vm
319
An XPage As A Tree: Implications
Wed, Apr 16th 2014 3:11p Jesse Gallagher A few posts ago, I talked about how the skeletal nature of an XPage is really a
very abstract representation of a UI. At its core, it isn't conceptually tied
to the web - and, indeed, the probable bulk of the work done by JSF is to push
against the normal rules of the web.
The goal of XPages/JSF is to abstract away the messy business of writing web
pages, much like a cross-platform mobile framework attempts to abstract away
the chore of writing to iOS or Android directly.
In practice, I [read] Keywords: xpages css
desktop
java
mobile
network
properties
server
widget
114
How I Added File-Download Support To My Model Framework
Sat, Apr 12th 2014 10:33a Jesse Gallagher Unlike the last few posts, this one isn't as much a tip or tutorial as it is an
attempt to share my suffering by detailing the steps I took recently to add
file-download and -upload support to my current model framework.
The goal of my framework overall is to retain the benefits of normal Domino
document data sources (arbitrary field access, ease of use in simple cases, and
compatibility with standard XPage idoms) while adding on useful new abilities
(getters/setters, relationships with o [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
application
interface
openntf
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Loading Resources via Themes
Thu, Apr 10th 2014 10:36a Jesse Gallagher In today's TLCC XPages webinar, Marky Roden had a great presentation discussing
resources and design definitions to help speed up Designer. If you didn't catch
it live, it's worth tracking it down when it's available.
I'd like to build on what he was talking about a bit by explaining how to use
themes to load resources in a way that also prevents Designer slowdown while
having the secondary benefit of being clean design (with some caveats that I'll
get into).
If you're not familiar [read] Keywords: xpages application
css
development
dojo
javascript
properties
xml
93
The Collections Framework as Education
Sun, Apr 6th 2014 4:15p Jesse Gallagher While I've been formulating the followup to my last post, I've also been
thinking about how wonderful the Java Collections framework is. I've been
singing its praises for a long time (as have others), but what's stood out to
me lately is how well it encapsulates many of the most important foundational
concepts of Java.
One of the reasons Java appears so intimidating and foreign to Notes developers
is that the way many are introduced to it - as an auxiliary for XPages -
involves learni [read] Keywords: notes
xpages database
interface
java
87
An XPage As A Tree
Tue, Apr 1st 2014 8:05p Jesse Gallagher I'd like to take a blog post or two to discuss an aspect of XPages that isn't
directly applicable to normal XPage development, but which can be a conceptual
shift that causes a lot of things to fall into place: the tree nature of an
XPage. This has nothing to do with Java, SSJS, beans, or JSF phases. It barely
even has much at all to do with web pages.
You've likely heard that XPages aren't really XML - that they're actually Java,
created from the "simpler" XML you write. This is tr [read] Keywords: ibm
xpages application
development
enterprise
interface
java
javascript
properties
python
server
xml
71
Life in Other Worlds
Tue, Mar 25th 2014 5:17p Jesse Gallagher I've found the reaction to BlueMix to be pretty interesting. Unsurprisingly,
the main question in our community has been "how does this relate to Domino?"
The answer is pretty clear: it doesn't.
That's not really a bad thing! About half of the problems a platform like
BlueMix solves - app packaging, multi-server availability, data-store access -
are either non-issues on Domino or are done much more easily with it than with
other app servers. The other advantages, well... IBM could lik [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
notes
community
development
eclipse
java
microsoft
python
server
314
SNTT: Reconstructing DateRanges
Thu, Feb 27th 2014 8:11a Jesse Gallagher In the OpenNTF API chat, I was reminded yesterday of how terribly broken
DateRange retrieval is in Java. Specifically, though you can create date ranges
and use them in view lookups, retrieving them from documents or view entries is
FUBAR. To wit:
Field Value 02/27/2014, 02/28/2014, 02/27/2014 - 02/28/2014, 01/01/2014 12:00 AM -
01/02/2014 12:00 PM
doc.getItemValue("SomeField") [02/27/2014, 02/28/2014, 02/27/2014, 02/28/2014,
01/01/2014 12:00:00 AM EST, 01/02/2014 12:00:00 PM EST]
No [read] Keywords: lotusscript
sntt
java
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My Current Model Framework, Part 2: An Example
Fri, Feb 21st 2014 2:11p Jesse Gallagher To go along with the updated release of my Scaffolding project yesterday, I've
created an example database created with that template and containing a basic
use of my model framework:
model-framework-example.zip
This demonstrates a few things about the framework:
Setting up the two classes that go with each object type - the object itself
(e.g. model.Department) and the "manager" class that handles fetching objects
and collections (e.g. model.DepartmentManager) and adding the collectio [read] Keywords: database
xml
291
Couchbase StateManager for XPages, Part 2
Fri, Feb 21st 2014 9:11a Jesse Gallagher I had the opportunity to dive a little back into the StateManager I wrote the
other week to try out a theory. The first thing I noticed was that there was a
minor problem: it didn't work at all. Specifically, the code I had didn't
actually store the whole proper state of the view, so it ended up being
regenerated anew each time; the fact that this didn't cause an error was what
led me astry.
Fortunately, I was able to scrounge together enough code to get it to work
properly, bringing t [read] Keywords: domino
xpages java
402
Domino the Identity Server
Tue, Feb 11th 2014 7:10a Jesse Gallagher As seems to happen a lot lately, my fancy was struck earlier by a Twitter
conversion, this time about the use of Domino as a personal mail server. Not
only do I think there's potential there, but it should go further and be a
drop-in replacement for personal mail, calendar, and contacts storage.
I think there's tremendous value in controlling your own domain and the
services on it, without being permanently attached to someone else's name for
an email address (your school, your company, [read] Keywords: admin
domino
ibm
inotes
notes
notes client
development
email
google
security
server
twitter
379
Couchbase StateManager for XPages, Part 1
Wed, Jan 29th 2014 1:11p Jesse Gallagher The other day, I attended Tony McGuckin's Connect session on XPages scalability
(a companion to his earlier Masterclass on performance) and I was inspired to
try out a thought I had: could it work to use Couchbase to further push the
bounds of XPages scalability?
If you're not familiar with Couchbase, it's a product similar to CouchDB, which
is in turn essentially Domino-the-DB-server re-done for modern needs. Last
summer, I wrote some data sources to use Couchbase data in an XP [read] Keywords: domino
xpages application
database
java
password
properties
server
xml
473
"Build Automatically", "Refresh automatically", and "Team Development"
Thu, Jan 23rd 2014 4:10p Jesse Gallagher TL;DR: "Build Automatically" and "Refresh automatically" are unrelated, but
work together when both enabled when using SourceTree for source control.
I just had a conversation on Twitter where I went a little crazy talking about
my hopefully-correct view of how the various sync processes in Designer work
when you're dealing with source control.
The original impetus was a post by Mark Leusink about the fact that you have to
build your NSF project in order to sync it with an on-disk-pro [read] Keywords: application
development
eclipse
server
twitter
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Data separation with an asterisk
Thu, Jan 9th 2014 8:12a Jesse Gallagher A little while ago, I converted over to the practice of separating your XPage
app from the NSF that contains the data, even when it's going to be a
one-to-one mapping. This confers a number of advantages in the areas of easier
testing, easier development, programming discipline, and security. One of my
favorite aspects is the ability to do this on your data DB:
Don't allow URL open
This alone adds tons of security: no more worrying about ?ReadViewEntries,
hiding your views from the web, [read] Keywords: notes
notes client
rich text
xpages database
development
security
server
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Go read: "Paul Hannan, The XPagers [sic] Champion"
Tue, Jan 7th 2014 4:44p Jesse Gallagher In spite of its heinous, brutal titular attack on English-language rules of
plural punctuation*, I urge you to go read David Leedy's recent post about Paul
Hannan. I can't add too much other than my agreement. Paul always does an
excellent job filtering through our grousing on Twitter and it'll be a shame to
not meet him in person at my first Lotusphere.
* I kid.†
† Not really. [read] Keywords: lotusphere
twitter
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A Quick, Dirty, and Inefficient @ManagedBean Implementation in XPages
Tue, Dec 17th 2013 8:11a Jesse Gallagher By now, most of us are pretty familiar with the process for adding managed
beans to an XPages app: go to faces-config.xml and add a
... block for each bean. However, JSF 2 added
another method for declaring managed beans: inline annotations in the Java
class. This wasn't one of the features backported to the XPages runtime, but it
turns out it's not bad to add something along these lines, and I decided to
give it a shot while working on the OpenNTF API.
The first thing that's required [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
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database
interface
java
openntf
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The Curse of TMTOWTDI
Tue, Nov 26th 2013 2:17p Jesse Gallagher TMTOWTDI is a Perl-ism, standing for "there's more than one way to do it". It
is often a blessing, particularly in the context of Perl, in that it results in
multiple synonymous ways to accomplish the same task, each of which fits best
in a different context.
However, as you might expect, this is a double-edged sword that can lead to
messy code and a difficult learning curve. It's this negative context that
bites the XPages platform in a number of ways.
One way is relatively benign bu [read] Keywords: domino
xpages application
database
development
dojo
java
200
Building My App On Custom Renderers
Sun, Nov 24th 2013 7:18p Jesse Gallagher A little while ago, I mentioned how I have become smitten with custom renderers
- Java classes that take XPage components like application layouts and widgets
and render them in custom HTML. Though I've had a lot of other things to work
on in between then and today, my ardor for the subject has not dimmed. So
today, I mostly completed the process for my task-tracking app.
At a high level, the app is a fairly typical web app built using the
popular-for-good-reason Ace - Responsive Admin Te [read] Keywords: admin
xpages application
css
development
java
properties
widget
widgets
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Internalize This Deep Wisdom
Tue, Nov 19th 2013 5:17p Jesse Gallagher Toby Samples tweeted earlier an old blog post by Jeff Atwood about the virtue
of minimal code, and I think everyone would be well-served by reading it and
the articles it links to (the Wil Shipley post has since moved (incidentally,
if you don't currently pay attention to Wil Shipley, you really, really should
)).
I've found maintaining the goal of reducing the conceptual weight of my code to
be the most valuable tool in my belt. One way of doing that is to separate out
unr [read] Keywords: xpages
173
My Current Model Framework, Part 1
Sun, Nov 17th 2013 10:21a Jesse Gallagher As I do from time to time, I've recently been taking another stab at a standard
model framework for my XPage apps. My latest one has been proving its worth in
a couple apps I've been writing lately, and I'd like to go over the general
goals and advantages of the way it works.
The framework is focused on a couple main ideas:
Low Overhead. The Java language requires a certain amount of overhead to get
anything done, but I want to minimize that. The task of defining a new model
object con [read] Keywords: domino
xpages database
eclipse
java
openntf
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I Am Terribly Excited About Custom Renderers
Tue, Nov 12th 2013 6:10p Jesse Gallagher It's much to my chagrin that it took me until this past weekend to properly
dive into custom renderers. I had seen them before, primarily when working with
mypic, but always avoided building my own, primarily because of what a hassle
they are to write. However, I'm now convinced that the hassle is worth it, at
least for some primary uses.
If you're not familiar with custom renderers, they're sort of an odd beast, but
they're the kind of thing where the concept eventually "clicks" in [read] Keywords: ibm
xpages application
css
java
properties
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How I Want To Use Domino, Take 2
Wed, Oct 30th 2013 1:10p Jesse Gallagher A while back, I wrote a post about how I wanted to use Domino. The gist of that
was that I was enamored with the idea of using Domino as a back-end database,
but not necessarily as a app-dev platform on its own - basically, how you would
use a SQL or NoSQL database. Since then, I've doubled down on my use of XPages
as an app-dev platform with many advantages, but I still find it very useful to
imagine Domino not as "Notes apps on the web, now with a modern coat of paint",
but as a colle [read] Keywords: domino
inotes
notes
sametime
xpages css
database
development
email
profile
server
sql
92
Thanks, Bruce
Wed, Oct 2nd 2013 8:12a Jesse Gallagher Though I'm not as eloquent on the matter as the many others who have shared
their appreciation for what Bruce Elgort has done for the community, I wanted
to be sure to pitch in as well. I have been active in this community for a
relatively short amount of time, but even before that Bruce's was one of the
names I knew looking in from outside, from his personal contributions to the
Taking Notes podcast and to his leadership of OpenNTF. And since I started
being actively involved in the com [read] Keywords: notes
community
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168
URLs in XPages
Tue, Oct 1st 2013 6:11p Jesse Gallagher The topic of URLs came up today in a chat and in the most recent NotesIn9, and
I think this is an area that deserves some particular attention. When designing
any web app, it's easy to fall into some traps with URLs, and writing XPages
code juggles things around a bit - some things are much easier than usual, some
are insidiously harder.
At a base level, there are four main types of URLs you'll use when writing a
web app, distinguished by how they begin (don't quote me on the names, or [read] Keywords: domino
rich text
xpages css
server
167
Domino Wishlist, September 2013
Fri, Sep 20th 2013 10:11a Jesse Gallagher I joined in a tweet from Paul Hannan earlier about desired Domino features
(that's a very worthwhile thread to read - lots of great ideas from others) and
it's had me thinking about more on my list. Fortunately, I have a blog for this
kind of thing! I'm leaving off a couple big-ticket items like Eclipse-4.x-based
Designer on the Mac because IBM may not be required for that.
Make $WSIS not trigger crummy SSL behavior (really, first-class support for
proxies in front of Domino, not just I [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
notes
ods
xpages database
eclipse
firefox
java
mac
server
ubuntu
172
Progress on the org.openntf.domino Design API
Fri, Sep 6th 2013 4:14p Jesse Gallagher The primary focus of my recent work with the OpenNTF Domino API has been the
implementation of a fleshed-out design API. I've done a lot of work in my
Domino-programming career manipulating design elements, usually via DXL (such
as with my Forms 'n' Views app), and my aim is to codify all of that into the
API itself, eventually growing it to cover almost every design element that
Designer does (we'll see about Navigators, Composite Apps, and the like).
One of the big hurdles in recen [read] Keywords: domino
dxl
rich text
xpages java
openntf
properties
xml
155
Materials From MWLUG 2013
Sun, Aug 25th 2013 10:13a Jesse Gallagher I gave two presentations at MWLUG 2013 in Indianapolis, and here are the slide
decks and resources for those:
AD110: Write Cleaner, More-Manageable XPages Applications With Java
Slide Deck
My blog template on GitHub
My portfolio template on GitHub - I didn't actually go over this, but it was
original plan: it provides a simple example of using controllers and my new
model classes
XPages Scaffolding on GitHub - this is the template I use when creating each
new project and is the [read] Keywords: domino
xpages applications
database
java
openntf
122
Expanding your use of EL (Part 2)
Wed, Jul 24th 2013 10:15a Jesse Gallagher Last time, I said that my next post would delve into operations and comparisons
in EL, but I figured first it would be good to have a real-use example of what
I talked about last time.
In several of my apps lately, I've taken to using properties files to store app
configuration, primarily the server and file paths for the databases that store
the actual data. The standard way of doing this is to use the platform's
built-in bundle-handling abilities. However, that'd leave me stuck with e [read] Keywords: ibm
application
interface
java
properties
server
152
Expanding your use of EL (Part 1)
Tue, Jul 23rd 2013 12:13p Jesse Gallagher One of the main aspects to cleaning up the code of an XPage is the heavy use of
Expression Language (EL), which is XPages/JSF's shorthand language for binding
properties to values and methods. The most common kind you'll run across is the
kind you get for "free" when working with document data sources:
This is the essence of EL in a nutshell: the actual code behind the scenes can
be pretty complex, but EL handles that for you. It goes far beyond this,
though, in two important ways: a [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
xpages application
interface
java
javascript
properties
123
Couchbase Followup and a Github Repository
Tue, Jun 18th 2013 1:19p Jesse Gallagher Since my initial tinkering with Couchbase, I've been idly thinking about
improvements to the data sources and potential uses I may have for it.
As for the latter, I think I may give a shot to implementing IKSG's new
project-tracking system in it. I'll lose out on reader and author fields, but
otherwise it'd be a pretty direct translation between NSF or Couchbase data
stores.
For the former, I decided to drop my development code in a Github repository
and start tracking my to-dos there [read] Keywords: xpages database
development
java
xml
159
Couchbase Data Sources for XPages
Mon, Jun 17th 2013 8:19a Jesse Gallagher The other day, I attended a Couchbase Developer Day in Philly. If you're not
familiar with Couchbase, it's one of the young crop of NoSQL databases, and
more specifically a document database and a conceptual cousin to Domino by way
of Damien Katz. It's this similarity that makes it so interesting to me -
Couchbase's still-living predecessor CouchDB started life as Notes built from
the ground up for the web and the heritage is clear. Couchbase itself ends up
being like if you melted dow [read] Keywords: domino
notes
xpages database
java
properties
server
119
The "final" Keyword in Java
Sun, Jun 16th 2013 6:18p Jesse Gallagher Yesterday, I suggested that everyone enable finalizing parameters in their code
cleanups and, better, to do the same in their Java save actions; later, I set
Eclipse loose on the org.openntf.domino API to implement it there. Adding final
keywords to method parameters (and elsewhere where possible) is one of the
habits I picked up from reading Effective Java a bit ago, but it's kind of a
subtle thing and the benefits aren't immediately obvious.
If you're not at all familiar with the fina [read] Keywords: domino
database
eclipse
java
openntf
116
Development Improvements, June 2013
Tue, Jun 4th 2013 11:22a Jesse Gallagher I'm always looking to improve my programming/development/administration
methods, and in the past couple months I've made a few more changes. To my
chagrin, these changes are mostly things that I should have been doing for a
while now and I've been sloppy to do them differently, but hey - fixing a
problem is still improvement!
Serious About Source Control
I've been using source control for a while now, and I hope everyone else has as
well. However, I've been lax in a couple ways, w [read] Keywords: administration
domino
dxl
notes
notes client
ntf
xpages application
desktop
development
java
mac
server
vm
301
Better Living Through Reverse Proxies
Thu, May 30th 2013 1:17p Jesse Gallagher A while ago, I set up Apache as a reverse proxy in front of Domino. Initially,
that was in order to serve a WordPress site on the same server, but since then
it has more than proven its worth in other ways, mostly in the areas of fault
tolerance and SSL support.
IBM recognizes those benefits, which is why Domino 9 on Windows comes bundled
with IHS; however, I am a responsible admin, so I don't run Windows on my main
servers. Fortunately, stock Apache does the job nicely... or it does usu [read] Keywords: admin
domino
ibm
notes
xpages server
vm
websphere
191
How I Got XPiNC Run-On-Server With SSO Working
Fri, May 17th 2013 5:14p Jesse Gallagher Among the new features in Domino 9 is this little guy, found on the Launch pane
of a database's properties when you set it to open an XPage:
If you've ever used an XPiNC application before, you'll know this is a godsend,
promising the vast performance benefits of running an app on a server combined
with the "the users are stuck using the Notes client" benefits of XPiNC.
I turned this on for a new app on one of my client's servers (let's say the
server name is ClientName-2/ClientNa [read] Keywords: admin
domino
notes
notes client
policies
sametime
xpages application
database
desktop
network
properties
server
121
Public Service Announcement - NotesIn9 is down.
Tue, May 7th 2013 11:16a Jesse Gallagher David Leedy has run into some trouble with NotesIn9.com being down and he asked
if I could help him get the word out about it, which I'm more than happy to do:
Hi - Just wanted to drop a note out there about my NotesIn9.com website.
Currently it's redirecting to someplace else for some unknown reason. I
assume it's been php hacked but I don't know.
My Wordpress site is generously hosted by Chris Miller and I've sent him a
note. Though since he's in the middle of the [read] Keywords: xpages bug
103
My Latest Programming-Technique Improvements
Tue, Apr 23rd 2013 9:18a Jesse Gallagher Over the past couple weeks, I've been trying out some new things to make my
code a bit cleaner and I've been having a good time of it, so I figured I'd
write up a quick summary.
Composed Method
First and foremost, I've been trying out the Composed Method of programming.
This is not a new idea - indeed, it's a pretty direct application of general
refactoring - but the slight perspective change from "factor out reused code"
to starting out with clean, small blocks has been a pleasan [read] Keywords: agent
domino
ibm
lotusscript
xpages application
database
eclipse
java
openntf
112
Java Traps and Misconceptions
Tue, Apr 23rd 2013 6:16a Jesse Gallagher I wrote a post over at the Social Biz UG site covering a number of traps and
conceptual hurdles I frequently see people running into when it comes to Java:
https://www.socialbizug.org/blogs/gidgerby/entry/java_traps_and_misconceptions?l
ang=en_us [read] Keywords: java
119
Fun With Old XML Features
Tue, Apr 2nd 2013 11:18p Jesse Gallagher One of the side effects of working on the OpenNTF Domino API is that I saw
every method in the interfaces, including ones that were either new to me or
that I had forgotten about a long time ago. One of these is the "parseXML"
method found on Items, RichTextItems, and EmbeddedObjects. This was added back
in 5.0.3, I assume for some reason related to the mail template, like
everything else added back then. Basically, it takes either the contents of a
text item, the text of a rich text ite [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
notes
rich text
xpages java
javascript
openntf
xml
84
Release M1 of org.openntf.domino
Tue, Apr 2nd 2013 9:17p Jesse Gallagher Yesterday, we released milestone 1 of our improved Domino API. This is our
first tagged release meant for proper testing - all of the classes are
implemented, many of the banner features are in there, and we've been using it
in various real-world situations. I switched a couple of my side projects over
- my portfolio site, the code for this blog (though I haven't deployed the
template yet), and a couple personal game-related apps. That kind of testing is
going to be crucial in getting us [read] Keywords: domino
openntf
95
We Have The Technology: The org.openntf.domino API
Thu, Mar 21st 2013 7:13p Anonymous As Nathan and Tim posted earlier today, a number of us have been working
recently on a pretty exciting new project: the org.openntf.domino API. This is
a drop-in replacement/extension for the existing lotus.domino Java API that
improves its stability and feature set in numerous ways. The way I see it,
there are a couple main areas of improvement:
Plain Old Bug Fixes
doc.hasItem(null) crashes a Domino server. That's no good! We've fixed that,
and we're going through and fixing other [read] Keywords: agent
domino
dxl
lotus
notes
bug
database
java
openntf
server
xml
68
A Mini-Vacation With Ruby and the Domino Data Service
Sat, Mar 2nd 2013 4:11p Jesse Gallagher Since I've been neck-deep in LotusScript and Java for the past couple weeks, I
decided to take a bit of a sanity break today and play around with Ruby.
Specifically, I wrote a skeletal wrapper for the Domino Data Service in the
ExtLib and the first steps of a Rails app using it a bit. I don't expect this
to actually be useful down the line, or even necessarily to get any more work
put into it, but it was a fun diversion.
The API takes the same general shape as the normal Domino API, exce [read] Keywords: domino
lotusscript
database
java
server
76
I Know Some Guys
Tue, Feb 26th 2013 12:09p Jesse Gallagher I've been a bit quiet lately, but that's mostly because I've been pretty busy
lately. After my old company began closing down, I started going whole-hog in
my consulting company, I Know Some Guys. Naturally, I can't go TOO much into
it, but the general gist is "so far, so good." We have a couple clients so far
and they've been keeping me busy indeed. A lot of that has involved classic
Notes client and web development, but I guess that serves me right for
snickering at people work [read] Keywords: domino
notes
notes client
consulting
database
development
83
The Bean-Backed Table Design Pattern
Tue, Jan 22nd 2013 4:13p Jesse Gallagher First off, I don't like the name of this that I came up with, but it'll have to
do.
One of the design problems that comes up all the time in Notes/Domino
development is the "arbitrary table" idea. In classic Notes, you could solve
this with an embedded view, generated HTML (if you didn't want it to be good),
or a fixed-size table with a bunch of hide-whens. With XPages, everything is
much more flexible, but there's still the question of the actual implementation.
The route I've bee [read] Keywords: domino
notes
xpages database
development
java
78
More On "Controller" Classes
Mon, Jan 7th 2013 6:14p Jesse Gallagher Since my last post on the matter , I've been using this "controller" class
organization method in a couple other projects (including a refresh of the
back-end of this blog), and it's proven to be a pretty great way to go about
XPages development.
As I mentioned before, the "controller" term comes from the rough equivalent in
Rails. Rails is thoroughly MVC based, so a lot of your programming involves
creating the UI of a page in HTML with a small sprinkling of Ruby (the "view"),
ba [read] Keywords: xpages development
java
javascript
properties
server
110
"Controller" Classes Have Been Helping Me Greatly
Wed, Dec 26th 2012 3:14p Jesse Gallagher I mentioned a while ago that I've been using "controller"-type classes paired
with specific XPages to make my code cleaner. They're not really controllers
since they don't actually handle any server direction or page loading, but they
do still hook into page events in a way somewhat similar to Rails controller
classes. The basic idea is that each XPage gets an object to "back" it - I tie
page events like beforePageLoad and afterRenderResponse to methods on the class
that implement [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
xpages interface
java
server
89
Moving From Ruby-in-XPages to Polyglot
Wed, Dec 12th 2012 1:18p Jesse Gallagher I've tweeted about this a couple times, but in some of my spare time lately
I've put together a new, cleaner implementation of the
generic-scripting-language support I first created back when I did my original
work with Ruby. I named the new project "Polyglot" and it has two facets:
The aforementioned generic-scripting-language support, done more cleanly and
with better capabilities.
A method for storing standalone page-generating scripts as documents in the
database that are executed [read] Keywords: domino
formula language
lotus
xpages database
java
121
Programming Tips: Implied Booleans and the Ternary Operator
Tue, Dec 11th 2012 7:21a Jesse Gallagher This isn't Domino- or XPages-specific per se, but I figured I'd make a post
about some of my favorite stylistic bits in many programming languages: implied
boolean values and the ternary operator, which are distinct but often used
together.
What I mean by "implied boolean values" is when a language lets you use things
that aren't strictly comparisons or boolean values in if/then tests. The best
example for this is probably C (and no doubt the languages that came before
it): for a lon [read] Keywords: domino
xpages java
javascript
properties
83
Putting Apache in Front of Domino
Sat, Dec 8th 2012 1:10p Jesse Gallagher The other day, for my side-project company, I wanted to set up hosting for a
WordPress site, ideally without setting up another whole server. The first two
ideas I had were pretty terrible:
Hosting it on Domino directly with PHP via CGI. Even if this worked, I assume
the performance would be pretty poor and I'd have no confidence in its general
longevity.
Hosting it on Apache on another port and using Domino to proxy through. While
Domino does have some minor proxy capabilities, they didn [read] Keywords: domino
css
linux
server
69
My Current Data-Source Musings
Mon, Nov 26th 2012 5:10p Jesse Gallagher My quest to find the ideal way to access data in XPages continues. Each time I
make a new project, I come up with a slight variation on my previous theme,
improving in one or more of the various conflicting factors involved. The
problem, as always, is that the standard xp:dominoView and xp:dominoDocument
data sources alone are insufficient to properly separate business logic from
presentation. On the other hand, accessing view data in a way that is both
efficient and flexible via just the [read] Keywords: ibm
xpages java
58
A Couple Blog Matters
Mon, Nov 26th 2012 5:10p Jesse Gallagher I've made a couple structural changes to the blog here. Normally, I wouldn't
make a fuss over things like that, but they're pertinent to the overall theme.
First off, I changed the links over on the right, adding a link to the
in-progress home page of my side-project company, I Know Some Guys. We're in
the market for contracts - web site projects, internal apps, and the like. I
may have more about that later.
I also promoted the link to my portfolio page to its own category. Since the [read] Keywords: ibm
xpages application
widgets
78
The Ruby Builder for XPages
Wed, Nov 7th 2012 12:14p Jesse Gallagher After I got Ruby in XPages to the point where it's generally working enough to
power this blog, I set my sights on an even-more-important goal: being able to
write backing Java classes in Ruby. While replacing SSJS is quite handy, my
general use of inline scripting like that has declined significantly in favor
of Java classes.
Fortunately, JRuby has a language cross-compiler and some hooks to write
Java-compatible Ruby classes. Unfortunately, I was repeatedly stymied by a
couple things:
[read] Keywords: ibm
xpages application
eclipse
interface
java
62
Self-Aggrandizement for Fun and Profit
Mon, Nov 5th 2012 8:15p Jesse Gallagher As I alluded to in my previous post, I decided to set up a "portfolio" site to
house a list of projects I've made or collaborated on and my recently-updated
resume:
http://portfolio.frostillic.us
The site itself is intentionally quite simple: it's meant to house clear
content, while further details are available on linked pages. Nonetheless,
despite its simplicity, it's allowing me to further refine a couple things I've
been tinkering with lately:
Bootstrap. Collaboration Today cam [read] Keywords: collaboration
domino
xpages applications
database
mobile
77
Taking a Swing at the URL Problem
Sun, Nov 4th 2012 6:13p Jesse Gallagher In the new portfolio web site I'm setting up for myself, I've decided to see
what I can do about Domino's, and XPages' specifically, tendency towards
ungainly URLs. An XPage URL, particularly an auto-generated one from, say, a
view panel, can quickly become filled with undesirable elements - namely,
".nsf", ".xsp", "$$OpenDocument", "action=", and "documentId=". They all make
sense and serve important purposes for the server, and to a certain extent URLs
other than the main o [read] Keywords: domino
xpages database
server
62
Improving My Development Process: Source Control
Mon, Oct 22nd 2012 2:11p Jesse Gallagher I think it's fair to say that most professional programmers know that they
should use source control, but, unless you work for a company that mandates it,
you treat it like flossing or going to the gym. However, unlike your personal
health and well-being, using source control is very important and can improve
your life noticeably.
I'm a recent convert, in part due to Domino's historic hostility to proper
source control. However, since 8.5.3 and its inclusion of the surprisingly good
So [read] Keywords: domino
notes
xpages application
database
development
63
A Couple Things I've Been Trying Out Lately
Tue, Oct 16th 2012 12:09p Jesse Gallagher I'm always trying to figure out new tricks and (groan) patterns for my XPages
development, and I've had a couple trends and experiments lately that I think
are worth mentioning.
First off, I've been doing a lot of source control stuff lately, but that's a
topic for another post, currently in crummy-draft form.
Beyond that, I think I'll just start a list:
The joys of ExtLibUtil. Historically, I've had a general "JSFUtil" class (with
the name and original code copied from here), but [read] Keywords: domino
lotus
xpages database
development
java
168
Building XPages servlets with FacesContext access
Thu, Sep 6th 2012 7:11a Jesse Gallagher I have a confession to make: I'm not crazy about XAgents. Don't get me wrong - they do everything they're supposed to and do it well. However, it's always kind of bothered me that you take a visual design element like an XPage and turn off all the higher levels to get back down to the core servlet. Plus, it muddies the list of XPages in the DB - some are actual XPages, some are just wrappers for scripts. So my objection is essentially pedantry.
However, the fact that my objection is wildly [read] Keywords: ibm
xpages application
database
google
java
openntf
122
A Custom Control for dojox.widget.Toaster
Wed, Sep 5th 2012 8:14a Jesse Gallagher Update: Looks like Chris Toohey beat me to this by a couple months: http://www.dominoguru.com/pages/04092012113950.html
Marky Roden did a presentation at MWLUG that included, among other things, a demonstration of Pines Notify, a jQuery plugin that provides Growl-style notifications - something that could come in tremendously handy in a lot of situations.
I wanted to use something like this, but I decided to check to see if there's an equivalent in Dojo already, so I don't have to start incl [read] Keywords: css
dojo
properties
widget
200
Quick-and-Dirty CKEditor Toolbar Setup for XPages
Tue, Sep 4th 2012 5:14p Jesse Gallagher A while back, I got annoyed by the lack of a "Source" button in the default rich text editor in XPages. After a bit of digging, I found that there is indeed one (not to mention a whole world of CKEditor toolbar plugins and enhancements) - just not by default. I think there's a way you can pick from a couple named "stock" toolbar layouts, but I ended up going the route of defining my own, naming each button in a group.
In CKEditor, at least pre-3.6 (and I guess it works later too), toolbars [read] Keywords: domino
rich text
xpages xml
63
A Couple Updates to My Domino-One-Offs Repository
Tue, Sep 4th 2012 4:16p Jesse Gallagher I realized earlier that I let a couple of the classes in Domino-One-Offs stagnate relative to the versions I currently use. Since originally posting my convenience XML library and, more usefully, the DynamicViewCustomizer, I've tweaked both in my various projects to add more features I ended up needing.
com.raidomatic.xml
DynamicViewCustomizer
SortableMapView
The DynamicViewCustomizer has gone further down the path of Notes-client fidelity at the expense of a bit more overhead, doing things [read] Keywords: domino
notes
java
xml
66
An Extended Document Data Source To Support MIMEBean
Wed, Aug 22nd 2012 5:11p Jesse Gallagher Ever since I personally came up with the idea of storing serialized Java objects in Notes documents via MIME, I've been trying to use the technique all over the place, since it's basically the best thing since sliced bread.
My latest notion was that the pattern would be all the cooler if the serialized Java objects could be referenced directly in EL, so you could do something like #{doc.LineItems[3].cost}, pulling directly from a more-or-less normal Domino document. I decided to give implemen [read] Keywords: domino
notes
database
java
53
Starting With Java Classes First
Mon, Aug 20th 2012 6:11p Jesse Gallagher Every time I make a new XPages app, I start by using the normal xp:dominoView and xp:dominoDocument data sources, on the theory that building with the standard set of components will keep things clean while I build on top of that. However, with each successive app, the time before I get annoyed at how messy the code has to be and start writing Java wrapper and management classes gets shorter and shorter.
For example, in my Forms 'n' Views mini-Designer app, I have the sidebar list of database [read] Keywords: xpages database
java
javascript
server
66
I Started Another Side Project
Thu, Aug 9th 2012 7:12a Jesse Gallagher While working on the view indexer thing (which seems to be taking the form of "yet another SQL exporter for Domino", but with some advantages), I started thinking about how I often want a nice, quick way to edit some views, forms, or stylesheets without having to launch Windows and Designer. The Mac client is there for views, but the experience still leaves something to be desired. In addition, I do very little lately that's intended to be seen directly in the Notes client - most views are se [read] Keywords: domino
dxl
notes
notes client
xpages dojo
mac
sql
widgets
57
This View Indexer Thing Might Be Worth Some Time
Sun, Aug 5th 2012 2:16p Jesse Gallagher I've put a little more time into my small view indexer from the other day, and it seems even more promising now. The editor I made for it might give you some idea of the potential:
Since the view building is all being done in Java, I decided to toss in the list of available JSR-223-compliant scripting languages currently available. The scripting context is given a variable "doc" that's a DocumentWrapper class I wrote that implements Map to make its use a bit easier. For added fun, I baked [read] Keywords: application
java
server
88
I Went Crazy and Made a Small View Indexer
Sat, Aug 4th 2012 9:12a Jesse Gallagher Warning: this post is almost entirely pie-in-the-sky nonsense, untethered from reality. Probably.
So yesterday, for some reason, I got to thinking about Domino's view indexing and whether or not it can be readily done better. The current view indexer does its intended task with aplomb (most of the time), but it has its problems. For one, iterating over view indexes in Java (read: everything you should do in Domino today) is dog slow. More theoretically, since it deals only with summary data fo [read] Keywords: domino
rich text
database
java
oracle
server
wiki
84
Mixing Dojo's BorderContainer with OneUI
Tue, Jul 31st 2012 7:14p Jesse Gallagher Chris Toohey's post earlier today reminded me of a technique I've been using in some of my apps lately. Since most of what I've been doing has been for internal and admin/reporting-type apps, I've been using OneUI extensively - it's straightforward with the Extension Library, looks pretty good, and the consistency of UI works for that type of application.
However, I ran into a problem with large views: putting a very horizontally-large table into the content area of OneUI breaks it horribl [read] Keywords: admin
notes
notes client
application
dojo
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Faking Sortable View Data
Sun, Jul 22nd 2012 1:11p Jesse Gallagher There's a point in most decent-sized XPages apps I write where I switch from using standard data sources like xp:dominoView to writing Java classes that implement List, usually due to some multi-source data merging I have to do that would be extremely cumbersome or slow to do otherwise. This works well, but one problem is that view data sources have special powers that plain-Jane Lists lack, such as easy sortable column headers.
Having encountered TabularDataModel a bit ago when making an acti [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
lotus
notes
xpages database
development
java
oracle
server
83
A Prototype In-App Messaging System for XPages
Mon, Jul 9th 2012 12:12p Jesse Gallagher Sven Hasselbach's post about ApplicationListeners the other day and the notion of post-MVC methods of app architecture got me thinking about the notion of generic messaging/events inside an XPages app. The first example that comes to mind is a project-tracking database where there may be events like "new task created" or "delivery ready for review" - business logic stuff where the fact that it's a document being modified is an implementation detail. In my actual project-tracking database a [read] Keywords: agent
notes
xpages application
database
interface
java
javascript
openntf
oracle
properties
xml
75
Using Lombok to Write Cleaner Java in Designer
Fri, Jul 6th 2012 4:15p Jesse Gallagher Java, as a language, has a number of admirable qualities, but succinctness is not among them. Even a simple "Person" class with just "firstName" and "lastName" properties can boil over with at least a dozen lines of boilerplate to add constructors, getters, setters, and equivalency testing. Fortunately, Project Lombok can help. Their main page contains a good video of the basics, while the Feature Overview page covers the rest. If you've written a lot of Java classes, I suspect that the v [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
notes
eclipse
java
properties
server
69
Basic Org Charts With xe:navigator and xe:beanTreeNode
Fri, Jul 6th 2012 7:14a Jesse Gallagher The topic of generating org charts on an XPage came up recently, and I decided to try my hand at making a pretty basic one using a technique similar to my re-use of Outline design elements from the other week. Not only are the generated hierarchies potentially useful, but it ended up providing a much cleaner example of how to recursively generate an Extension-Library tree.
To get started, I mocked up some basic data: I created a standard Domino directory database and created users with unique S [read] Keywords: domino
database
server
78
Using dojo.behavior
Tue, Jul 3rd 2012 6:16a Jesse Gallagher JavaScript in a browser is a messy business. While you can generally avoid writing a lot of client JavaScript when doing XPages development, it will eventually be necessary to get your hands dirty. While a bit of XSP.openDialog() here and there, things can get hairy when you want to start including the same or similar code everywhere. You can move the code blocks themselves off to a script library, but then you're still stuck including function calls inline.
Enter dojo.behavior. I ran across d [read] Keywords: domino
script library
xpages css
development
dojo
javascript
81
Book Review: XPages Extension Library
Mon, Jul 2nd 2012 4:14p Jesse Gallagher Unlike many development environments, there are only a handful of books about XPages. Combined with the historical lack of documentation, that makes all three - Mastering XPages, XPages Portable Command Guide, and XPages Extension Library - essential. In that sense, the quality of the book is a less important purchasing-decision factor than its mere existence.
Fortunately, XPages Extension Library doesn't skimp on quality or breadth of coverage. The sections of the book track the natural progr [read] Keywords: xpages application
development
dojo
eclipse
java
61
Use Interfaces All The Time
Wed, Jun 27th 2012 6:15a Jesse Gallagher In addition to being useful concepts generally, Java interfaces can be used literally in code as a way of keeping your code as clean and generic as possible. While you can't ever create a new object based on an interface, you CAN use interface names as object types for variables and parameters. For example, this is a legal way to create a Vector of Objects:
List someList = new Vector();
"That's great and all," you say, "but why bother doing that?" And indeed, in a simple case like a most [read] Keywords: agent
domino
ibm
lotus
notes
xpages database
interface
java
javascript
oracle
xml
69
Putting java.util to Use
Fri, Jun 22nd 2012 9:16a Jesse Gallagher I'm in the process of figuring out a good way to combine data from several sources into a single activity stream, which means that they should be categorized by date and then sorted by time. While that's a piece of cake with a single view, it gets hairy when you have several views, or perhaps several different types of sources entirely. Fortunately, abstract data types are here to help.
You're already using Lists and Maps, right? For this, I decided to use Maps and one of my personal favorit [read] Keywords: interface
java
oracle
wiki
106
Re-using Classic Domino Outlines, Rough Draft
Tue, Jun 19th 2012 3:14p Jesse Gallagher My current big project at work involves, among many other things, viewing individual project databases through a centralized "portal". These all use the same base template, but can be individually customized, usually with new or changed views. Additionally, I'm going to be granting web users varying roles that correspond to existing or planned access roles in the target database. The result is that I'm spending a good amount of time trying to dynamically adapt some classic Notes elements to [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
lotus
notes
xpages database
java
javascript
openntf
server
56
Reverse-Engineering File Formats for Fun
Mon, Jun 11th 2012 6:16a Jesse Gallagher Well, okay, it wasn't for fun; it was for work. About a year and a half ago, I had occasion to parse the contents of shared object files from a Flash Media Server ("*.fso" files), and I figured it might be interesting to go back over the kind of things I had to do to accomplish that.
The first thing I did was to search around to see if anyone else had solved the same problem. However, while there are plenty of parsers for "Flash shared objects", not the least of which is in Flash itself, i [read] Keywords: java
server
wiki
50
Ruby Builder First Draft: Intriguing Failure
Sat, Jun 9th 2012 7:14a Jesse Gallagher For a while now, I've been fiddling with trying to make an Eclipse builder that smoothly translates Ruby files into Java classes and adds them to the project to be compiled, the idea being that, rather than only using Ruby inline in XPages or via "script libraries", you'd be able to write all of your supporting Java classes in it as well.
I'd been giving it about an hour or so of frustration every couple of weeks, but yesterday I decided to hunker down and make it work. After patching the [read] Keywords: xpages eclipse
java
openntf
