XPages Extension Library: A Step-by-Step Guide to the Next Generation of XPages Components

Saw this on Twitter today, from @PaulSWithers, whom I recently met at DanNotes 2012

The XPages Extension Library's next-generation XPages controls make application development far more efficient, effective, scalable, and rewarding. With IBM® Lotus® Notes®/Domino® 8.5.3 and Upgrade Pack 1, IBM has incorporated powerful new capabilities and support. These components and technologies are now fully ready for even the toughest production challenges.

XPages Extension Library is the first and only complete guide to Domino development with this library; it's the best manifestation yet of the underlying XPages Extensibility Framework. Complementing the popular Mastering XPages, it gives XPages developers complete information for taking full advantage of the new components from IBM.

Combining reference material and practical use cases, the authors offer step-by- step guidance for installing and configuring the XPages Extension Library and using its state-of-the-art applications infrastructure to quickly create rich web applications with outstanding user experiences. Next, the authors provide detailed step-by-step guidance for leveraging the library's powerful new support for REST services, mobile and social development, and relational data. The book concludes by showing how to include Java™ code in Domino XPages applications—a great way to make them even more powerful.

Coverage includes

• Automating deployment of XPages Extension Library throughout your IBM Lotus Notes/Domino or IBM XWork environment

• Integrating modern design patterns and best practices into Lotus Domino applications with drag-and-drop ease

• Incorporating AJAX capabilities with Switch, In Place Form, and other dynamic content controls

• Extending applications with Dojo widgets, popups, Tooltips, Dialogs, and Pickers

• Implementing state-of-the-art navigation and outlines

• Using Layout and Dynamic Views controls to painlessly modernize most Domino applications to XPages

• Quickly building mobile interfaces for existing applications

• Using social enablers to connect with social platforms and incorporate social features

• Integrating SQL datasources into XPages data-driven applications

http://www.amazon.com/XPages-Extension-Library-Step-Step/dp/0132901811

Mobile web - Fortified with XPages and Dojo

I saw this on Twitter, thanks to fellow IBMer, Vincent Perrin

 Social application developers are continually challenged to deliver applications that provide exceptional work experiences, yet do it in a timely and cost effective manner. Not only does the application experience need to be exceptional, but it needs to be available from a mobile device, web browser or desktop client. Developers need an application development platform that allow them to meet those objectives. With today's release of Lotus Notes and Domino Upgrade Pack 1, meeting those objectives became even easier.

Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.3 Upgrade Pack 1 provides a rich set of assets for building desktop and mobile web applications as well as including two social application templates. Upgrade Pack 1 contains the following:

• Domino XPages Extension Library

• Includes new set of mobile specific XPages controls and other assets

• Updated templates built with controls in Extension Library

• TeamRoom: XPages UI including mobile access

• Discussion: new mobile access

• Domino Access Services: New set of JSON based REST services for accessing Domino data

Here's Pete Janzen's article in full on developerWorks - Mobile web - Fortified with XPages and Dojo

I've also blogged about XPages previously: -

Download Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.3 Upgrade Pack 1 - XPages goes mobile ….

It's so easy to access IBM Connections from XPages

Introduction to IBM Lotus Domino 8.5 XPages - Available on OpenCourseWare on the IBM Lotus Greenhouse

Introduction to IBM Lotus Domino 8.5 XPages - Available on OpenCourseWare on the IBM Lotus Greenhouse

Saw this in my inbox this morning, and thought it worth sharing.

Not sure if I have the brain-power to learn XPages right now, but it's definitely hot technology, being used in many IBM Lotus products, including Quickr for Lotus Domino.

If you're interested in knowing more, check this out: -

The OpenCourseWare (OCW) movement,  part of the larger Open Educational Resources (OER) movement, was pioneered 10 years ago when the Massachusetts Institute of Technology launched its OpenCourseWare initiative, making educational course materials in digital form available on a free and open basis to all. 

ISSL Education is pleased to announce an OpenCourseWare Pilot in  IBM Lotus Greenhouse. The free courseware available, as part of this pilot is the material used in the instruction of Course D8L55 - Introduction to IBM Lotus Domino 8.5 XPages. The timing for building Social Business application development skills that leverage XPages technology could not be better - especially with the recent announcement of the Domino 8.5.3 XWork Server.  

                    

 Here are a few key points about the OpenCourseWare Pilot :

Materials usage is intended for those who would like to setup their own environment and self-instruct on XPages.

Classroom and self-paced eLearning versions of this course are available (at the public list price) for individuals who prefer formal instruction and lab support.

A variety of additional XPages Application Development courses are available for a fee to continue your study of this technology and further develop your skills. 

To access and download the free courseware you need to be a member of Lotus Greenhouse.  

Already a member? Login to access "Introduction to IBM Lotus Domino 8.5 XPages" courseware.

With the launch of this pilot, ISSL Education takes a step forward to advance informal learning through the sharing and use of free, quality educational materials to build skills in the marketplace.

Please share this announcement with peers, partners and clients.

Thank You!

IBM Training - Introduction to Lotus Domino 8.5 Xpages - 23/24 March 2011

A colleague drew my attention to this upcoming course, running in here in the UK, in Manchester.

Course Title and Description:  D8L55GB Introduction to Lotus Domino 8.5 Xpages
Course Date: 23rd March 2011
Course Duration: 2 Days
Location: Manchester
Price: £995 Plus VAT

Objective

Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

    * Create a new XPage in an application
    * Create a custom control in an application
    * Bind a document in an application as a data source to an XPage
    * Utilize an @Function in an XPage
    * Set Client-side and Server-side validation both at server and application level
    * Given an XPages application that is exhibiting an issue with the display, troubleshoot and resolve the issue with the application

Key topics

    * Create a new XPage in an application.
    * Create a custom control in an application.
    * Bind a document in an application as a data source to an XPage.
    * Utilize an @Function in an XPage.
    * Set Client-side and Server-side validation both at server and application level
    * Given an XPages application that is exhibiting an issue with the display, troubleshoot and resolve the issue with the application.

More details can be found here and, if you're interested, you can also take a look at the IBM Software Group  Training Wiki here.

Avnet to host UK XPages worshop 16th & 17th April

My friend and colleague, Tim Clark, has mentioned that Avnet are running an XPages workshop on April 16/17 for IBM Business Partners.

Remember that XPages is pertinent in the Notes/Domino web application world and, as announced at Lotusphere, will also be relevant to Quickr in the future.

Having seen one of my team, Chris M, demo XPages at the TechJam in Warwick yesterday, I can definitely recommend taking a look....

If interested, please check Tim's blog here.

Download Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.3 Upgrade Pack 1 - XPages goes mobile ….

Saw this via the Featured documents for IBM Lotus Notes, Domino, iNotes & Notes Traveler newsletter which plops into my inbox thanks to @LotusSupport 

Mobilize your social applications with Upgrade Pack 1. IBM delivers and fully supports over 100 new XPages controls and objects that help accelerate the development of mobile and web applications. Easily extend your Lotus Notes Teamroom and Discussion applications to mobile users with new XPages templates. And socialize Lotus Domino assets via common, lightweight REST interfaces.

Lots of excellent stuff in the newsletter, including the Lotusphere and IBM Connect conferences, and a Wiki Usage Survey

Do you use the IBM Lotus or IBM WebSphere Portal product wikis? If so, we want your feedback. IBM is continuing to develop improvements and release updates to the wikis. We want to hear what is important to you so that we can prioritize improvements that help you most. The data we collect from all wiki usability and feedback activities is used to influence our priorities for future design enhancements and development.

IBM Notes 9 on the Mac - it's lovely ….

Following many others in my network, I've taken the plunge and updated my Mac to run IBM Notes 9, replacing IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.4 CD5.

• Activity streams: allow you to view and take action quickly on content and events
• Embedded Experiences: allow you to access business critical actions from other applications without leaving your email. This brings collaboration in-context and results in tighter integration across iNotes, Connections, Notes, app dev (XPages), and 3rd-party products and services
• Contemporary user interface, simpler navigation, easier to locate information both in Notes and iNotes
• IBM Notes Browser Plug-in: allows rapid delivery of IBM Notes Social Edition applications to the web
• Incorporation of a social application container, based on the OpenSocial standard, which provides for development of a reusable set of "gadgets" from both IBM and third parties
• Inclusion of the XPages Extension Library which greatly improves developer productivity when building collaborative workflow driven applications for web, mobile web and Notes
• Domino Designer provides a new home page, editor enhancements and a server-side JavaScript debugger for use with XPages
• Enhancements to Domino REST services and new Calendaring and Scheduling APIs
• Domino integration: SAML, OAuth
• Notes Traveler: Windows Phone 7.5/8; BlackBerry 10 BES support; IBM i Server

It's early days, but it's looking very nice.

Here's the IBM Notes and Domino 9.0 Social Edition Public Beta Forum from where you can access the Public Beta site here: -

Roll up, roll up, get your IBM Collaboration Solutions demos here ….

I was looking for a downloadable or on-line demo of IBM WebSphere Portal earlier, and ended up here at IBM developerWorks, where's there a whole slew of IBM product demos and trials, including: -

Live Demos

• LotusLive Labs
• Lotus Connections
• Lotus Sametime
• Lotus Quickr
• Lotus iNotes
• IBM Mashup Center
• Lotus Forms Turbo
• Lotus Notes Traveler
• WebSphere® Portal

On-Demand Demos

• What's New in IBM Lotus Domino Designer 8.5
  
  
• XPages Components in the Notes 8.5.1 Client: Video Demonstrations
  
  
• Creating a simple XPages application
  
  
• Using XHTML on an XPage
  
  
• Building a government mashup with IBM Mashup Center 2.0
  
  
• Adding the Google Gadget widget to the mashup builder
  
  
• Discover how LotusLive, the integrated social networking and online collaboration services, can help your business.
  
  
• Lotus Foundations Overview
  
  
• Introduction to Mashups
  
  
• IBM Mashup Center
  
  
• Lotus Web Content Management: Create Personalized Promotions

Some are old, all are good.

Worth checking out ….

It’s so easy to access IBM Connections from XPages

This from Niklas Heidloff

I've implemented another feature for XSnippets to share snippets on the IBM Connections instance deployed on Greenhouse. 

I've used the XPages Social Enabler which comes with great functionality to handle the authentication including SSO and functionality to invoke REST services easily and parse XML. I also used the documentation of the Connections REST services. If I have time I document later more how I've done it. For now you can read the source code on OpenNTF. I want to thank my colleague Yun Zhi Lin whose code I used as starting point.

On the XSnippet page there is a new icon now to share on Connections.

Want to know more ? Then read the article ….

IBM Collaboration Solutions Technical Tweetup 2

This from Paul Mooney

#ICSTT is back.  Scheduled for 12pm EST on Thursday 16th August during MWLUG, we plan to put on another technical Q&A forum for any and all to partake in.  Lessons learned from last time:

• We want to emphasise it is open to all and everyone to send in questions and answer them.  More interaction the better!

• Going to keep it to 60 minutes in future

• You can go to the tweetup website to submit your questions in advance (or if you don't use twitter).  You can also see the archive of previous chats there.

So the topics this time will be XPages and IBM Connections. Teamstudio are hosting it again and you will able to donate to charity if you feel your questions have been answered, or you have been given good direction.   Of course if you drift out of the designated topics it's not a big deal.   Fancy being in the moderators chat on these topics ?(this is just a skype chat for the duration just to try to help out with answering on questions).  Just leave a comment.

I missed this last time around, so will make a conscious effort to dial in and see what's going on.

Hmmm, fancy some XPages development training in London in February ?

If so, go here: -

http://xpages101.net/

and sign up - for a measly 130 of your fine English pounds :-)

DanNotes - Comwell Klarskovgaard, Korsør - May 2/3

It's my great privilege to have been invited to speak at this year's DanNotes conference.

I'm humbled by the speakers with whom I'm co-presenting, and will do my level best to maintain the high standards.

The agenda is being finalised at present, and is here.

My sessions are: -

Wednesday

14.15-15.15 WebSphere administration for Domino admins

Thursday

10.00-11.00 Desktop Single Sign-On in an Active Directory World

There's a plethora of other great topics on offer, including JSF, Tivoli Directory Integrator, XPages, IBM Connections, IBM Sametime, Lotus Notes Traveler, GBS Transformer  etc.

Have you registered ? If so, I look forward to meeting you.

If not, why not ? Get on and register :-)

Lotus TechJam III - The first of a series in 2009

Following on from our successes in May and September, we will be running another series of Lotus TechJam events in the next few months.

For those who have not attended before, the concept of a TechJam is an event "run by techies, for techies, with technical content". We try and avoid "Death by PowerPoint" and aim for

This time we're going on the road, and escaping from the comfort zone of Lotus Park ( Staines ) and from the M25, so will be exploring the highways and byways of the UK: -

24th February    IBM Warwick
26th February    IBM Edinburgh
3rd March          IBM Hursley Park

covering all or some of the following topics: -

• Lotus Notes and Domino – An Update
• XPages - Building Collaborative Web Applications in Lotus Domino and Beyond
• Collaboration in Context - Lotus Mashups and Lotus Sametime Together
• Lotus Quickr – Team Collaboration
• Lotus Sametime – For Microsoft Sharepoint Customers !!
• Portal Accelerators – From Collaboration to Mashups
• Collaboration and Content – Quickr and Filenet Working Together
• Lotus Connections – Social Networking – The Next Generation
• Lotus Protector – Email and Security - In A Box
• Lotus Foundations – The Appliance of Collaboration
• LotusLive – End-to-end Communication and Collaboration – As A Service

( precise agenda will vary from location to location )

For more details, and a more proper invitation, please see here.

Going to Lotusphere 2011 #LS11 ? If so, you NEED to order some of these ...

Keith ( aka @LotusEvangelist ), being a true Lotus Evangelist, has written an XPages application to host a website with the honourable purpose of showcasing a yummy Lotusphere-themed treat; Girl Scout Cookies.

No, before you ask, I'm told that they are not made with real Girl Scouts; they are, however, made by a troupe of .... Girl Scouts ( aka Brownies, apparently ).

Not sure what you get if you mix cookies and Brownies ....

Anyway, here's the app -> http://noffiya.com/gscookie.nsf <- and here's Keith doing a much better job of describing the treat.

I've ordered mine, and am hoping that the lovely @dilftechnical can deliver them - assuming that her hold luggage is large enough to cope with all of these orders :-)

Australia Lotus User Group - Better Known as AusLug

Saw this on the IBM Connections Community Chat on Skype earlier ( want to know more ? Ping me @ david_hay )

Some of the AusLug presentations are up on Slideshare here: -

Ed Brill's Keynote

Social Business at Work - Ed Brill

XPages: The Next Step In Your LIfe As A Notes Developer

I Smell A RAT- Rapid Application Testing

Customising IBM Connections
The Nerd Girl's Panel

Thanks to Andrew for sharing the URLs ...

Thanks to IDoNotes for updating :-)