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 in the context of an XPage.
Generic Scripting Languages
With the usual when-I-get-around-to-it caveat, I plan to use Polyglot to
entirely supplant Ruby-in-XPages, since its JSR-223-based features cover JRuby
as well. The main thing I need to check on is proper memory usage - the
embedding mechanism I originally used provides clear control over the lifetime
of the scripting runtime, while JSR 223 does not. That may be fine, since it
may properly manage itself, but it makes me a bit nervous.
I'll also have to work out proper context variable access (e.g. "database",
"currentDocument", etc.). Some languages (Ruby, namely) seem to have gained a
magic power since last I checked to access those variables without having to
add special support, but I need to figure out if others work the same way or if
I need to try an idea for an adapter I had.
In addition to the JSR 223 languages, I also just today added support for
formula language via #{formula: ... } bindings, since I realized that that was
exceedingly easy to do. For that one, I didn't bother binding it to the
contextual variables, but instead just have it look for "currentDocument" - if
it's present, it passes the lotus.domino.Document from that to the
session.evaluate(...) call; if it's not, it forgoes the second parameter. I
don't expect I'll use that binding much, but it was fun to add.
Standalone Scripts
The standalone script support is a little different - the idea is that, rather
than working another language into an XPage, you write a script entirely in the
other language, much like you might do with, say, PHP (don't use PHP). You can
write a script using a basic editor, it's stored in a document in the database,
and then you can execute it in the context of a ScriptRunner XPage, meaning you
have the same Java environment as usual (with the same caveat as above that I
need to sort out variable access).
Besides the usual suite of JSR 223 languages, I've also started working on
integrating the XSP parser from the XPages Bazaar, both as a way to familiarize
myself with the Bazaar and to see if there's any use in a setup where your XSP
markup is stored in documents and evaluated at runtime rather than design
elements compiled in Designer. Maybe, maybe not, but it's a fun test.
For now, it's still in an "experimental" state, but eventually I hope to cobble
it into a proper releasable state and have it supersede Ruby-in-XPages entirely.
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
326
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
185
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
185
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
218
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
202
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
203
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
252
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
268
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
289
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
