In search of a superb XPages reference application, is IBM Lotus going to get involved ?
16 December, 2008 10:46:20 PM mangelcalvo Xpages | Comentarios (8)
I've been following XPages technology birth with delight. After "dark ages" of scarce news in Domino world this is something that could change the way Lotus Domino technology is perceived by IT managers.
We're about to see the appearance of a new release, 8.5, with this new technology included. I think this could help me to show a state-of-the-art platform, Domino, to future customers, to actual customers, to attendants to Lotus training events. In brief, to anybody I talk and do not know many aspects about Domino technology.
But, in spite of all this new achievements, I still find it difficult to show people how amazing Lotus Domino is. I know about the potential and by being a long term Lotus developer I do know how much things are changing and improving (despite the disappointing news that Domino Designer is not completely Eclipse based yet), but I still find it difficult to show how an impressive tool Domino is.
A few months ago Rocky Oliver and Bob Balaban, and maybe some other bloggers, asked people for ideas in order to renew the templates being delivered with Domino. By the way, Notes templates have an obsolete and outdated look and feel, in my modest opinion, and I avoid showing them to potential customers (excepting the Blog template).
The reason for writing this entry in my blog is because I have not seen any movement in that direction from IBM. As the market trends in Spain are not very good for Lotus Domino, and I would like to have heard from the wrong sources and be completely wrong, I've thought something could be done, and IBM should get involved.
What I do need, better what we do need, in order to show everybody how good Lotus Domino is, is a superb XPages application. And I mean superb, because what competency is doing maybe is not superb but it looks as if it was.
The look and feel has to be, again, state-of-the-art CSS, Web 2.0, show Web Services integration, maybe use also the potential of using widgets. I think the answers to Rocky and Bob questions provide tons of ideas. It has to be good from inside but primarily look very nice from outside. It has to be something that can be shown outside of our small community, the Lotus community, and could compete in interest in global technology forums, and we could say proudly, it's done with Lotus Domino. Yes it is!
Maybe I've been a little impatient and in LotusSphere something like this is going to be announced. Again, I would like to find that this post is completely wrong and that new superb XPages application is in the oven right now.
PD: I know people from Ideajam are working in an XPages version and maybe that is going to be that superb tool.
Hi Bruce,
Sure, I'm beginning with XPages right now and every resource is gold.
Thanks.
Would you be also interested in seeing a sneak peak of our LS Session? Maybe you can be our test audience? Send me an email to let me know.
Hey Miguel --
First, for getting started with XPage application development - check out the 8.5 Discussion Forum Template, which was given a considerable XPage-infusion and is readily available in the public beta.
Outside of that, and TaskJam, there are a few bloggers out there that are really becoming "subject matter experts" on XPage development, with the likes of John Mackey ({ Link } ) really putting out some great content.
I myself have put some things out there, including two example applications for the sole purpose of having something to rip apart and learn from - both available from IBM developerWorks:
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(IBM login/registration required)
But I'm wondering if maybe we're taking the wrong approach to this...
I tell ya what - you come up with the application idea, and I'll write it and make it available for download.
I'll make the build as public as possible, and make sure that people can both learn from what I'm doing and learn from my mistakes as well (and I will make many).
So... which application should we tackle first?! ;-)
Interesante entrada Miguel Angel, mejor dicho, muy interesante ¡¡¡.
Tu ya sabes lo que pienso del tema, hay que potenciar el producto. Estoy de acuerdo en que el Designer debe ser "Eclipse total", eso no quita en que la gente pueda usar lo que conoce. Hace muy poco, concretamente la semana pasada un partner de AS/400 me ha pedido su opinión sobre su apuesta por nuevas tecnologías, quiere introducirse en el mundo Lotus/Domino. Te puedo enviar el correo con la respuesta que le dí. Ha hecho sus pinitos con el Designer, no le gusta nada. En el AS/400 tenemos un cliente de desarrollo totalmente integrado con Eclipse, no hay color. No nos podemos quejar, IBM está potenciando el producto a tope, pero un buen paquete de buenos templates incluidos con el producto serían de gran ayuda para la gente que desarrolla y para los usuarios.
Bueno ya hablaremos, un saludo.
@4 Chris
I've following the resources you are pointing and your two articles at delevoperworks. Very good stuff !
But the superb XPages reference application is yet to come. I take your offer and if I can find an overwhelming idea be sure that I'll let you know :-)
By the way, Merry Christmas
Miguel
@5 Martín,
Conozco tu punto de vista y coincido con él. Designer es una herramienta obsoleta que dice poco del producto y, de hecho, cuando la gente lo ve por primera vez, tiene la misma reacción que tu cliente. Hace 10 años era más atractiva :-)
Lo de Designer sobre Eclipse, me pregunto qué es tan complicado que después de haberlo visto en demos hace ya casi un año , todavía no han podido resolver. Seguro que el problema es complejo, pero IBM tiene potencial para poner más recursos al servicio de Maureen Leland y solventarlo :-0
Martín, mientras tanto, Feliz Navidad
Hola Miguel Angel, en mi opinión no creo que sea un problema de dificultad, yo diría que es un tema de intereses y competencia con otros clientes de desarrollo del gigante azul. No se si conoces el cliente de desarrollo de Rational (antes llamado WebSphere Client). Recuerda que hace años se comentó que Domino se iba a integrar dentro de WebSphere pero la cosa quedo en nada, igual me equivoco pero igual los tiros van por hay. En este tema los que mandan son los mercaderes.
Un saludo
Martín,
Sí, he trabajado con él, y por cierto me parece impresionante. Y entiendo que a IBM, si es posible, le interesa disponer de una base única de clientes de desarrollo. Sin embargo las experiencias anteriores han sido nefastas.
Espero que no estén planificando la segunda parte de la metida de pata con Workplace 2. Los resultados de aquella equivocada decisión llevamos sufriéndolos unos cuantos años.
Lo triste es que quizás tengas razón.... a lo mejor todavía hay esperanza.:-)
Hello!
We have an application called TaskJam which will be free XPages app which you can use to learn and work with. Would you like to have a copy?