Posts Tagged IBM

Comparison between Extension Library (OpenNTF) and Upgrade Pack 1 (IBM) – You’re help is appreciated

2013-May-21 at 10:22 am · Filed under Extension Library ·Tagged IBM, openntf, upgrade pack, XPages

Some days ago I posted a question on the XPages development forum: Comparison of functionality between Extension Library (OpenNTF) and Upgrade Pack 1 (IBM).

I work in a hosted environment and having a change applied (continue to work with extension libraries from OpenNTF via Update site instead of Upgrade Packs) is a complicated issue. Therefor I have wrote down some use cases where new functionality in the Extension Library which are not available in the Upgrade Pack can bring value to the organisation.

To save time I only did the comparison on paper, which means I have only looked in the “readme” files distributed which each new release and compared them the “What’s new in Domino Designer 8.5.3 Upgrade Pack 1” online document. I admit this is probably not the best research but it helps you to get started.

Below you will find the comparison. Please respond in case I have missed something or understood incorrect. The use cases are too sensitive so I will leave them out of this document. Thank you in advance for your assistance!

Package name	Extension Library	Upgrade Pack 1
Release date	2013 April	2011 December
Distributed by	OpenNTF	IBM
Controls
Area: Data Access			Expose data access services.
- Document	þ	þ
- View	þ	þ
- Relational Database Support		þ
Area: Dojo Form			Mimic components from the Dojo toolkit.
- Dojo Button	þ	þ
- Dojo Check Box	þ	þ
- Dojo Combo Box	þ	þ
- Dojo Currency Text Box	þ	þ
- Dojo Date Text Box	þ	þ
- Dojo Filtering Select	þ	þ
- Dojo Horizontal Slider	þ	þ
- Dojo Slider Rule	þ	þ
- Dojo Slider Rule Labels	þ	þ
- Image Select	þ	þ
- Select Link Select	þ	þ
- Select List Text Box	þ	þ
- ListTextBox Name Text Box	þ	þ
- Dojo Number Text Box	þ	þ
- Dojo Radio Button	þ	þ
- Dojo Simple Text Area	þ	þ
- Dojo Number Spinner	þ	þ
- Dojo Text Area	þ	þ
- Dojo Text Box	þ	þ
- Dojo Time Text Box	þ	þ
Area: Dojo Layout			Mimic components from the Dojo toolkit.
- Accordion Container	þ	þ
- Accordion Pane	þ	þ
- Border Container	þ	þ
- Border Pane	þ	þ
- Dojo Content Pane	þ	þ
- Dojo Data Grid	þ	þ
- Dojo Data Grid Column	þ	þ
- Dojo Data Grid Row	þ	þ
- Stack Container	þ	þ
- Stack Pane	þ	þ
- Tab Container	þ	þ
- Tab Pane	þ	þ
Area: Extension Library			Extend the capabilities of the Designer Core Controls.
- Accordion	þ	þ
- Application Layout	þ	þ
- Bread Crumbs	þ	þ
- Widget Container	þ	þ
- Data View	þ	þ
- Dialog	þ	þ
- Dialog Button Bar	þ	þ
- DropDown Button	þ	þ
- Dump Object	þ	þ
- Dynamic View Panel	þ	þ
- Dynamic Content	þ	þ
- Firebug Lite	þ	þ
- Form Layout Column	þ	þ
- Form Layout Row	þ	þ
- Forum Post	þ	þ
- Forum View	þ	þ
- Form Table	þ	þ
- Outline	þ	þ
- Inline List Container	þ	þ
- In Place Form	þ	þ
- Keep Session Alive	þ	þ
- List Container	þ	þ
- List of Links	þ	þ
- List Separator	þ	þ
- Multi-image Output	þ	þ
- Name Picker	þ	þ
- Navigator	þ	þ
- Pager Add Rows	þ	þ
- Pager Expand/Collapse	þ	þ
- Pager Save State	þ	þ
- Pager Show/Hide Details	þ	þ
- Pager Sizes	þ	þ
- PopupMenu	þ	þ
- Redirect control		þ
- Sort Links	þ	þ
- Switch	þ	þ
- Tag Cloud	þ	þ
- Toolbar	þ	þ
- Tooltip	þ	þ
- Tooltip Dialog	þ	þ
- Value Picker	þ	þ
Area: iNotes			Support certain views, lists, and stores.
- iCal Store	þ	þ
- iNotes Calendar	þ	þ
- iNotes ListView	þ	þ
- ListView Column	þ	þ
- Notes Calendar Store	þ	þ
- Notes List View Design	þ	þ
- Notes List View Store	þ	þ
Area: Mobile			Support mobile applications.
- Mobile Page	þ	þ
- Mobile Switch	þ	þ
- Page Heading	þ	þ
- Rounded List	þ	þ
- Single Page Application	þ	þ
- Static line item	þ	þ
- Tab Bar	þ	þ
- Tab Bar Button	þ	þ
Domino Access Services			REST API that accesses databases on Domino servers.
- Remote Services	þ	þ
- REST Service	þ	þ
- Domino Mail service		þ
Updated templates			Skeleton that contains design elements, but no documents. You use a template to create an application.
- TeamRoom	þ	þ
- Discussion	þ	þ
- Document Library		þ
Social Business Toolkit			Single source for developing integrations and leveraging IBM Connections and IBM SmartCloud for Social Business.
- Activity Stream		þ
Social Enabler			Tools and controls for XPages to access information from other social applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, LotusLive, or IBM Connections.
- File service		þ
- Twitter		þ
- Connections		þ
- Sametime controls		þ
- Facebook controls		þ
- Web Security Store		þ	Storage of user credentials when an application needs to connect to third party servers.

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Distribution of the extension library

2013-April-29 at 11:35 am · Filed under XPages ·Tagged extension library, IBM, nsf, replication, update site, upgrade pack, XPages

I have written a document on the distribution of the extension library. I have compared Upgrade Pack installation option with using an Update Site. You may guess who has become the winner. If there is anything incorrect stated in the document please let me know.

PDF: Distribution Extension Library

Introduction. 2
- Description. 2
- Upgrade Pack. 2
- Update Site database. 2
Discussion. 3
- Physical installation versus runtime installation. 3
- Administration overhead. 3
- IBM support. 3
- Speed in delivery of new functionality. 4
- Proven technology versus Experimental phase. 4
Comparison. 4
- Winner. 4
References. 5
- XPages Extensibility API Developers Guide. 5
- Installing and administering the XPages Extension Library. 5
- XPages Extension Library Deployment in Domino 8.5.3. 5

Introduction

This document discusses the (recommended) way the extension library is distributed within Organization X.

Description

Based on the XPages Extensibility API, the Extension Library provides a set of new artifacts, including controls, which introduces extended capabilities to supplement XPages.

At the moment we see the library distributed in 2 ways:

Upgrade Pack.
Update Site database.

Upgrade Pack

The Upgrade Pack is an installation package that contains new features and improvements in Domino Designer.

The main functionality highlights of this upgrade pack include the following:

XPages Extension Library.
Domino Designer tooling plug-in.
Domino Data Services.
Updated TeamRoom and Discussion templates.

The XPages Extension Library provides additional controls that are ready to use.

The Upgrade Pack is restricted to a specific release of Domino. Currently there is 1 version released which is dedicated to Domino 8.5.3.

The Upgrade Pack 1 is supported by IBM.

Update Site database

An Eclipse update site is a repository for features and plug-ins and it follows a standard format. In IBM Notes the update site is an NSF application where OSGi bundles are dynamically contributed to the OSGi runtime of the Domino server.

The Extension Library will be uploaded to the Update Site application from where it is made available.

A great advantage of this approach is that plugins are not physically installed on the server but started up on HTTP startup of the Domino server.

The Domino OSGi launcher will automatically detect which version of a plugin it should use. Multiple versions of the Extension Library can be hosted by an update site. This increases the delivery of new functionality.

The Extension Library for an Update Site is distributed via OpenNTF at http://extlib.openntf.org/.

Discussion

There should be a discussion what the preferred way to distribute the extension library is. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages:

Physical installation versus runtime installation.
Administration overhead.
IBM support.
Speed in delivery of new functionality.
Proven technology vs. Experimental phase.

Physical installation versus runtime installation

The installation (and de-installation) via an Upgrade Pack is a physical installation and demands that a server must be shut down. The installation via an Update Site is not a physical installation and the server does not have to be shut down, only the HTTP task has to be restarted on the server.

The Update Site can be installed on multiple servers via replication and hereby the installation of the Extension Library on multiple servers can be accelerated.

There is a downside to the runtime installation. A Notes server has to have defined in the Notes.INI settings that dynamic bundles can be installed in OSGI via HTTP reset:

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/ddwiki.nsf/dx/XPages_Extension_Library_Deployment#Set+the+Notes.INI+variable+-+OSGI_HTTP_DYNAMIC_BUNDLES

In order to have this Notes.INI setting in place the server has to be restarted once.

Administration overhead

The Extension Library provided via OpenNTF has continuous new releases. Most of these releases are bug fixes and the others provide new functionality.

It is likely that developers demand after the installation of latest release via an Update Site, in order to have access to the new functionality. This will create extra requests and administration overhead.

On the other side the physical downtime of a server has a very high impact also on the administration side (announcements, change requests, fall back servers, incident reports sent by ignorant users).

IBM support

Upgrade Pack is “supported” by IBM. You can discuss what that means. For certain you can make a PMR (problem management record) but it is not known if IBM is providing hotfixes for bug fixes for the Upgrade Pack.

Experiences in other PMR’s on Notes software (NTF templates for Notes) have not been positive always.

On the other hand one cannot really say that distribution of the Extension Library from OpenNTF via an Update Site is “not supported” by IBM. Since the release of the Extension Library there have been multiple releases (over 30) of the Extension Library. Most of these releases are bug fixes assumed.

There is a lively discussion on the Extension Library on OpenNTF http://www.openntf.org/internal/home.nsf/discussions.xsp?action=openDocument&name=XPages%20Extension%20Library&documentId=523C4281B0889F12862577910060E232 which makes the necessity of support from IBM less.

Speed in delivery of new functionality

In Today’s world software suppliers provide more often software updates silently on the background to boost security or to provide new functionality. In the browser world this seems almost to have become a standard.

Being able to deliver new functionality more quickly can bring extra value to the business.

An Upgrade Pack has only been released once until now. The announced Upgrade Pack 2 seems only to be focused on Notes Traveller. In the meantime more than 30 releases are available for the Extension Library on OpenNTF.

Proven technology versus Experimental phase

Upgrade Pack 1 contains only a stable version of the Extension Library. The Extension Library on OpenNTF contains also experimental features (e.g. Social, RDBMS support). These features will someday reside in the ‘ordinary’ Extension Library.

The features are collected in an Extended Components library. This Extended Components library must be installed via an Update Site. From discussions on the internet it seems to be possible to install this library on top of an Upgrade Pack via and Update Site. But why use 2 methods to distribute functionality when you can combine them via one (via Update Site)?

Comparison

Based upon the previous discussion we will compare the two methods.

	Upgrade Pack	Update Site
Installation	Physical	Runtime
Administration	1 version	Multiple versions
Support	IBM (PMR)	OpenNTF (defect, discussion)
New functionality	New Upgrade (once 2 years?)	New Release (each 2 months)
Proven vs Experimental	Proven	Proven + Experimental

Winner

The overall ‘winner’ in this comparison is the distribution via an Update Site. A runtime installation offers a lot of benefits above a physical installation:

Quick installation.
Availability server.
Replication option installation software.
New functionality.

There are some drawbacks:

A server needs to have the OSGI_HTTP_DYNAMIC_BUNDLES Notes.INI property which requires a restart of the server.
Installed versions of the Upgrade Pack should be removed first.

References

XPages Extensibility API Developers Guide

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/ddwiki.nsf/dx/Master_Table_of_Contents_for_XPages_Extensibility_APIs_Developer_Guide

Installing and administering the XPages Extension Library

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/ddwiki.nsf/xpDocViewer.xsp?lookupName=Domino+Designer+XPages+Extension+Library#action=openDocument&res_title=Installing_and_administering_the_XPages_Extension_Library_ddxl853&content=pdcontent

XPages Extension Library Deployment in Domino 8.5.3

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/ddwiki.nsf/dx/XPages_Extension_Library_Deployment

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If alignment of a row in a view requires an upgrade of your server… (XPages Documentation Wiki)

2013-January-25 at 11:39 am · Filed under Applications, OpenNTF, XPages ·Tagged IBM, IBM Domino 9.0 Social Edition, XPages Documentation Wiki

I reported a defect on the XPages Documentation wiki. As you can see in the screen shot the alignment of information in the view is broken:

Here it is in an instance on an IBM address:

I was surprised I got contacted shortly after that by IBM (mostly they don’t seem to respond on reported defects on IBM projects on OpenNTF)

Here the conversation:

Michael Stewart

8:07 PM (15 hours ago)

to me, Jennifer

Hi,

Your server level may be the cause of some or all of the problems you’re
seeing. The 2.8.2 template requires IBM Domino 9.0 Social Edition. My
apologies for not making that clear on OpenNTF or in the 2.8.2 template
documentation. Jennifer Heins has added text to that effect in both places.

If you are able to upgrade, you can get the beta here:

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/ndsebetaforum.nsf/topicThread.xsp?action=openDocument&documentId=2F8AD78A70015CC485257AD3004AF0EE

and I would appreciate it if you could let us know at that point whether
you still see the problems you have reported.

Again, sorry for the inconvenience–but I’m also glad that you made the
initial attempt, since it exposed the need for this clarification.

Mike

From: Patrick Kwinten
To: Michael Stewart
Cc: Jennifer Heins
Date: 01/24/2013 01:17 PM
Subject: Re: Re view alignment defect

Hi Mike,

no I did not make any modifications to the views or styling.

As theme have I set idctheme, since our server is on 8.5.2. it extends
oneui2.1

KR Patrick

On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 6:52 PM, Michael Stewart wrote:
Hi,

Regarding this defect:

http://www.openntf.org/internal/home.nsf/defect.xsp?action=openDocument&documentId=226AFB4BE255565486257AFD003A0914

I don’t recognize the styling in the top image. It isn’t just the view
entry alignment that is off, but also the highlighting of the navigation
entries in the lefthand column. Have you made any modifications to the
styles in this wiki?

Thanks,

Mike

Well excuse me? Do I need to upgrade my server so a broken line for a row are fixed? FAIL!

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New project on OpenNTF – Timeglider

2012-November-28 at 1:13 pm · Filed under Applications, OpenNTF, XPages ·Tagged IBM, timeglider, timeline, timemap

Today I posted a new project on OpenNTF:

Timeglider JS is a zooming, panning data-driven timeline widget written in Javascript.

This project delivers an XPages application to manage the documents in a Notes DB so you can distribute corporate timelined information with Notes security (ACL).

Help appreciated on the Domino Blog template – Display a list of uploaded files

2012-February-8 at 12:35 pm · Filed under Lotus Notes, OpenNTF ·Tagged administration, domino blog, IBM

I want to create a list of all the files users have created under ‘Uploaded files’ and display this somewhere HTML Block Template. Does anyone know which DXTag to use or other alternatives? (computed text?).

I have posted my question on OpenNTF:

http://www.openntf.org/internal/home.nsf/discussion.xsp?action=openDocument&documentId=45A97957524DF1FD8625799E003995E4

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Domino Blog tip: set XML/Content Encoding value

2012-January-24 at 2:32 pm · Filed under Applications, OpenNTF ·Tagged administration, domino blog, IBM, swedish characters, template, utf-8

Apologies that this blog starts to look more like an archive but I have been lately been involved in non-development activities like attending Lotusphere 2012. I will write later an article on that one.

Today I received an incident report from a collegue about a problem with the Domino blog template (the one everybody wants to have with XPages, hint IBM (this time with documentation))…

The RSS feeds were broken, or at least throwing up an error. It turned out to be that Swedish characters in names were causing the problem. Since I work for a Swedish company it is likely that the error would occur more often and in more blogs/places… so worth a search on Google.

I found the following document very helpful:

http://blog.inetfusion.com/A55CF7/technotes.nsf/dx/11242009023753PMEWES7R.htm

The Fix
- Added the value ‘ISO-8859-1′ to the configuration document, under the Syndication tab, field ” XML/Content Encoding:” down towards the bottom.

When replacing the computed value with “ISO-8859-1″, it appears to be working. Have not changed the lookup form value. This is probably in some documentation somewhere.. but there’s no documentation with the template.

The character set was set to UTF-8 because they should support Swedish characters (link). When setting them to ISO-8859-1 the errors did no longer occur.

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Design @ IBM – Widget Gallery

2010-December-10 at 11:01 am · Filed under development ·Tagged dijit, Dojo, IBM

I am not sure if anyone has mentioned the Widget Gallery on IBM’s Design site?

If you explore the widgets gallery you will find an excellent description of each (dojo) widget including demo’s, documentation, source code, enhancement and related widgets.

A recommendation!

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Buggy LotusScript debugger – Looses focus at startup.

2010-December-7 at 11:22 am · Filed under LotusScript ·Tagged debugger, designer, IBM, support

Whenever I start the LotusScript debugger it comes up and then disappears. It simply loses focus. I cannot set focus on the debugger via the tab controls under Windows. What is worst, Domino Designer also becomes frozen, since it is said to the background by the debugger.

Have more people experienced this pain and how did you solved it? Can it be resolved by any of the preferences in Designer under debug?

I read a similar case here. I have registered a support case at IBM so I am waiting for a reply. But in the mean time I cannot test my code…

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New release of Bildr

2010-October-21 at 5:24 pm · Filed under Applications ·Tagged bildr, IBM, oneUI, openntf, pictures, XPages

Today I have launched a new release for Bildr, an application to distribute images on the web. I have started this project mainly to have an on-going learning experience with web development and XPages in general.

For this release I focused a lot on improving the user-interface, so I watched closely at the oneUI specifications. I find the oneUI user interface contributing to deliver more consistent and professional applications, although I do not agree with all the specifications and sometimes experience conflicts when developing.

What I find lacking in the examples pages are for example Form design. But for this release of Bildr it has been a good experience working more closely with the oneUI theme.

Under the hood I removed the view data tables and changed them for repeat controls. The views in Notes are now also much more light-weighted.

I also added some new features like filter options and user profiles. This user profile will also be used for future web-enabling the upload of pictures. For now you can at least delete documents from your profile.

Help wanted

An application is never finished I guess but for now I will monitor the application and see what support questions come in. Next release will probably be in December.

I also posted some help wanted requests on OpenNTF, feel free to take a look at them and see if you can help me.

So download the app and install it or open it in Designer if you want to learn XPages. See ya!

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Kwintessential Notes

Posts Tagged IBM

Comparison between Extension Library (OpenNTF) and Upgrade Pack 1 (IBM) – You’re help is appreciated

Distribution of the extension library

Contents

Introduction

Description

Upgrade Pack

Update Site database

Discussion

Physical installation versus runtime installation

Administration overhead

IBM support

Speed in delivery of new functionality

Proven technology versus Experimental phase

Comparison

Winner

References

XPages Extensibility API Developers Guide

Installing and administering the XPages Extension Library

XPages Extension Library Deployment in Domino 8.5.3

New project on OpenNTF – Timeglider

Help appreciated on the Domino Blog template – Display a list of uploaded files

Domino Blog tip: set XML/Content Encoding value

Design @ IBM – Widget Gallery

Buggy LotusScript debugger – Looses focus at startup.

New release of Bildr

Looking for a new challenge

Search

Introduction

OpenNTF

Twitter Updates

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IBM Domino Blog Administration Manual (PDF)

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