Hi there, currently I am following another Angular course since it seems to have become the leading development framework at work. So back to learning all the rules within Angular.
At the moment I am modernizing a Domino application with the help of XPages which:
- Implements Model-View-Controller architecture, mostly inspired by the guys at Pipelia since IBM never told us to do so.
- Is written in Java to support the MVC architecture and to have close integration with XPages runtime.
- Is using Expression Language wherever possible to avoid usage of SSJS.
- Uses the lifecycle of JSF in XPages at the max.
- To cover support for different devices I am using Bootstrap as front-end framework. So I miss some native behavior which I do not tend to cover-up.
So far so good and I think I have come quiet long in my project so I still dare to call it rapid application development.
The code-base has been reduced dramatically and all exotic upcoming JavaScript libraries from the early 2000 I have been able to replace with just XPages. With my latent UX skills and extending the out of the box Bootstrap I might now even call this application ‘sexy’ 🙂
I know I haven’t touched many areas discussed in the XPages community such as:
- Websockets (I do not see a use-case yet).
- Writing Java servlets (please pass me a demo NSF).
- Watson services (cloud is still a sensitive topic).
- set up micro-services with smartNSF and consume them in my Java code with an mapper library (requires changes in the environment).
- Integration with IBM Connections.
- Redefining my data with the help of a Graph DB.
Either I see little usage, it is not possible or there is no-one to guide me (the information is certainly not provided by the vendor).
So now back to Angular. Learning all these rules, technologies and new tools setup I was wondering what new technical options this framework will bring me at work. Reflecting on the type of customer-orders I receive I am wondering:
Is XPages not sufficient for most of your line of business apps?
Perhaps you have a though about this?
Happy development & enjoy your summer 🙂
Kwintessential Notes 
From my experience is the development of Angular applications easier than XPages applications due to the separation of frontend and backend.
Angular applications feels snappier because the partial refresh equivalent is on the browser side only.
Another aspect is that in case of any problem there are a ton of resources for Angular. XPages resources are limited.
Yes, you can build line of business applications with XPages. But building them with Angular is more fun.
fun is probably the developer’s point of view
Actually my experience is that building applications with Angular is also less in effort. And the applications feeling is better.
So there are also advantages for the business side. 😉
XPages already has a number of well documented limitations and despite the best effort of a very small but dedicated team of people that are doing what they can XPages falls further and further behind limiting what you can do in significant ways. XPages died as a viable development platform several years ago. All that remains is for the community to decide where to spread the ashes. If you are building solutions today it seems to be a more strategic choice to using a platform that has a future. The only use case for XPages is where a company has invested in developing skills to develop using the platform and it has not (yet) placed itself in a position to develop with an alternative.
Change the word “XPages” with “Domino” and your comment makes a lot more sense.
Sven, I agree. if you ask if Domino is sufficient for line of business and then the answer from me is definitely yes. We have applications being used by management of mid-size and enterprise companies. If you ask XPages my answer is no. We never went with XPages for many of the reasons that I see companies now moving away from XPages to MVC/REST. We went MVC/REST from the very beginning.
There are many JS frameworks out there but it all depends on what your needs are. Each has their advantages and disadvantages. Choose one and stick with it. Keeping the front end and back-end separate provide a huge advantage. Using the MVC/REST approach allows you to use whatever application language you are comfortable with. Just create a standard approach for sending, receiving and processing JSON.
For us the most important things if flexibility and data security and that is Domino.