Author: David Leedy

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Notes In 9 XPages

If you still believe in IBM’s “Backward Compatibility” you’re nuts.

Yes that’s a shocking title.  I almost NEVER do that.  But I wanted to get your attention so sue me.

I’ve seen a couple of remarks here and there about XPages and poor “backward compatibility” like we’re used to having with the Notes Client.

First thing to know.  In the Web / XPages world “Backward compatibility” guarantees are a thing of the past.  They’re done.  Get over it.

Second thing, and this is very important.  This is NOT IBM’s fault at all.

(Ok, well maybe on rare occasion it’s 5% their fault because some things would be nice if they knew ahead of time – cough iOS and Dojo)

If you want to stay in the Notes client then yeah ok, you could probably expect good backward compatibility.  But if you go into XPages and stuff forget about it.  It’s not going to happen.  There’s just too many moving parts.  dojo, ckeditor, different web browsers, different operating systems.  This is not IBM’s fault.  This is just a different world then the closed box Notes Client.

Case in point today.  I got news that my file upload system stopped processing pictures from iPads running on 9.0.2.  Well crap that sounds bad and gives me flashbacks of the last XPages / iOS issue.

After a full team press on this we discovered the problem. Then Declan found this post.

In iOS 9.0.2 if you upload from the iPad photo library the file type is “jpeg”.  This is a CHANGE from Apple.  Stupidly, if you upload direct from the camera the picture comes through as “jpg”.

So guess what idiot had this line of code :

if (this.smallType.equalsIgnoreCase(“JPG”)) {

yeah that would be me…

Changing it to :

if (this.smallType.equalsIgnoreCase(“JPG”)  || this.smallType.equalsIgnoreCase(“jpeg”)) {

Solved the immediate problem.

Now overall my code is not very robust.  It was a rush job originally and the amazing Devin Olson is currently doing the next version much better.

But we as developers need to learn how to test better. And we need to test more often.  And not just when a new version of Domino or a new version of the Ext. Library comes out.  But you need to test when mobile OS’s get updated.. desktop OS’s, etc…

And in addition to testing if you’re going to be running Web / XPages applications you MUST be able to stay on more current versions.  Everything else is changing around your app.  Your best chance really is ALWAYS run the latest and greatest. If your company isn’t willing to do that then they’re nuts! Gone are the days when you say “Works best with Internet Explorer 6”.

I do not know how to do automated testing.  There was  NotesIn9 #40 on Selenium  but I’m not sure that’s still valid.  I hear Selenium has problems if the id’s change as XPages is known to do.

If anyone has good testing strategies I’d sure be interested in hearing about it.

Categories
Notes In 9 Podcast XPages

NotesIn9 183: Thinking Different In XPages

Ok, this show is a little different. Well..  a LOT different.

In case you didn’t know, David Navarre runs an EXCELLENT blog at lostinxpages.com. He recently made a post that I thought was rather interesting :

Writing and speaking about your code might actually make it better

It should come as no surprise that I 100% believe in the title of the post. In that post David talks about a coding challenge that he recently had to deal with.

I began to comment on his post and once I realized it was going to get a little “long winded” I figured I’d just make a show out of it.  Lot less typos that way!  🙂

Anyway this show doesn’t really have a true “demo”, but I discuss his post and solution to his problem and then talk a little bit about a possible alternate solution and why you might want to consider that.

Big thanks to David for not only running a great blog and videoing sessions at MWLug but also being a really good guy!

Categories
Uncategorized

XPages Developers – are you allowed to use the OpenNTF Domino API project? Please answer.

I’ve been doing a lot of shows on NotesIn9 that deal with Java. I will be doing many more.  I’ve been doing this for 2 reasons.

1 – This is how I work these days.  It’s not the only way to make XPages applications but I personally believe it’s the best practice way.

2 – I’ve actually had a lot of people asking me for more Java content.  Either at shows like MWLug or via email.

Here’s the issue though.  When I do Java, I’m using the OpenNTF Domino API project.  This project is a BRILLIANT piece of work that makes life a LOT easier for development.  So far I’ve used this in all my shows.

BUT BUT BUT I am also hearing that not everyone is able to use the OpenNTF Domino API.  Let’s face it – you do need an Admin to get it on the server the first time. (By the way there are paid support options for that project in case you didn’t know – contact Red Pill Now or Intec Solutions).

So here’s my questions. And PLEASE comment as I really want to know.  And yes I mean you “lurkers” out there as well. 🙂

In your environment are you allowed to :

  1. Use the OpenNTF Domino Api?
    1. If not PLEASE tell me why?
  2. Use the latest XPages Extension Library from OpenNTF?

 

If you could answer and give me any details I’d really appreciate it.

P.S. This isn’t just for Developers.  If you are an Admin or consultant I’d like to hear your experience as well.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

NotesIn9 hits 63 hours of Free Video tutorials

I’m in the process of moving all my hosted video files to YouTube and updating the blog posts. Let me tell you this is a PAIN IN THE BUTT! But when it’s all said and done I should be able to cancel my video host account and save around $20 per month.

A little while ago, without my even asking, 2 people reached out to me to offer generic help. This was unexpected and meant a great deal to me as my websites and information is a mess and I’m just overwhelmed. Sadly I’ve been so busy and disorganized I barely have time to give them things to do.

However I recently did get some very key help from Tim Briley who gave me a key jumpstart in some video organizing needs. Thanks Tim! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the assistance. Tim is helping maintain a database of show information. With his help I’ve now migrated the first 100 episodes to YouTube and updated, I believe, all the corresponding blog posts. The rest will be rather slow going as I’ve got to upload maybe 50 shows to YouTube.

But tonight I was looking at my completed master show list which has all the show times. So I thought I’d get them into a spreadsheet and see where we stand.

Assuming my math is accurate then NotesIn9 has now produced 221,760 seconds of shows or to shorten it 63 hours of videos!

Wow! 🙂

Big thanks to all the contributors who helped make this possible!!!

P.S. Once I get all this clean up done I hope to actually get back to producing more show! Oh to dream. haha

Categories
Community

IBM Champion thoughts – How to thank someone

It’s that time year again where you can nominate someone to be an IBM Champion. I’ve talked about this before on the blog.

You can find out about the program here. And you can go to this page to nominate someone.

Note: The nomination form is a little “daunting” to say the least. Just fill in what you know. You don’t need to fill in everything.

You’re supposed to nominate people based on their contributions for the last 12 months, NOT their “life time” contributions. For this and other reasons I always try to first nominate someone that has never been an IBM Champion. We have such a great community that there always seems to be new blood showing up and every group needs new people.

This year I’ve identified 2 people that, to me, have done some significant contributions over the last year. I believe that both, like me, are simply customers. That’s cool to me. They are:
@szavocki
Steve Zavocki – USA – @szavocki – http://notesspeak.blogspot.com
Johnny Oldenburger – Netherlands – @JOldenburger – http://xpagesandmore.blogspot.com

I’m not going to go into why I think they deserve their nominations as I think that’s up to you to decide on your own. I’ll just say that I’ve enjoyed their efforts and want to thank them for their time.

If you’ve benefitted from any community contribution in the last year, please consider nominating that person to be an IBM Champion.

Thanks

P.S. I don’t broadcast it much but I’m currently an IBM Champion as well. I was honored with that when the initial group was announced at conference in Las Vegas. So I’ve had a good run. I’m NOT here asking you to nominate me. NotesIn9 will continue regardless. Please first nominate a few other people before you even consider nominating me.

Categories
Notes In 9

NotesIn9 Migration Update

I’m starting to migrate all of my NotesIn9 episodes from my current hosting on Libsyn.com to YouTube. I actually have a volunteer helping me which is awesome!

As part of this process I’ll be uploading a lot of missing shows to the YouTube Channel and then updating the original blog post to point to the YouTube location. So if you subscribe to NotesIn9 on YouTube you might think to yourself “What the Heck??”.

So just letting you know what’s going on. Currently I have the first 50 shows migrated over. Slow going but getting there.

Dave

Categories
Java Learning XPages XPages

NotesIn9 182: XPages and Java from Start to Finish

In this show I do an in depth demo of an XPages app that’s based on Java Code. I didn’t take time to build it from scratch in front of you, but I go over every line of code in the app.
The app lets you you Create, Read, Update, and Delete Project documents, and then add to each project an unlimited number of tasks.

It’s a long demo – but I first show the app, then go through all the Java code, and then finally the XPages code itself.

I hope this helps you put the pieces together to consider adding Java to your XPages toolbox.

Note: In the Demo, I do use the OpenNTF Domino API which makes life so much easier. It’s not required and in the near future I will try to produce a “cheatsheet” to help translate from the API to the lotus.domino classes.

 

ni9-182 Demo File.nsf

Categories
XPages

Surprise! There’s an Ask the IBM XPages Experts Event today

I just found out last night about this Ask the Experts session from IBM on XPages.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27046328

  • Tuesday, September 15, 2015
  • Time: 11:00 AM EDT (15:00 UTC/GMT, UTC-4 hours) for 60 minutes

To the person who commented on this on my blog post back from 2013 THANK YOU very much for letting me know about it!

I kinda wish I so it sooner so I could plan better.  But I’m going to try and attend.

Looks like there’s another event coming soon on the Domino Database.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27046303

Categories
Appcelerator

NotesIn9 181: Appcelerator Event Listeners

In this show, IBM Champ, John Jardin returns with a great demo on Appcelerator Event Listeners.

 

 

Categories
AngularJS XPages

NotesIn9 180: Alternative Frontend Development for XPages

In this episode Eric McCormick returns with a great show talking about how to surface some of your XPages/Domino data to different frontends like AngularJS.