Presentation fro m Engage 2019 about modernising Notes, Domino and XPages applications

1. Modernizing Your Domino and
XPages Applications
Paul Withers, Intec Systems Ltd
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2. Paul Withers
• ICS Developer
• React and Node Developer
• Lifetime IBM Champion
• OpenNTF Board Member
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Notes Developer XPages Developer Java Developer
Microservices
Developer

3. AGENDA
• Defining the Scope
• Positioning “Now”
• Modernising Web
• Modernising Mobile
• Modernising for DQL
• Modernising Integration
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4. Defining the Scope
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5. Modernisation
• Oxford English Dictionary Definition
The process of adapting something
to modern needs or habits.
e.g. ‘the industry is undergoing modernization’
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6. NOT Changing Colours
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7. Themes CAN Modernise
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8. New Methods of Access are Modernisation
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9. Challenge Previous Assumptions / Behaviours
• Refactor functionality as well as code
• Did reality mirror theory?
• Has time changed needs?
• Have user’s habits changed?
• Should user’s habits change?
• Has platform/environment changed expectations?
• What can you learn from other platforms?
• Do technical changes impact needs?
• Are IT landscape changes relevant?
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10. Migration vs Modernisation
• Migration means moving everything
• Migration rarely allows parallel running
• Migration isn’t interested in platform enhancements
• Modernisation can be addition or change
• Modernisation may not include all functionality
• Modernisation can be gradual
• Modernisation should take into account platform
enhancements
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11. Out of Scope Modernisations
• TeamWorkr
• We4IT Aveedo
• Darwino
• Other third-party modernisation tools
• Modernising development skills
• Modernising development tools
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12. Positioning Now
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13. Notes Client Sample
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14. Notes Client – Navigators
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15. Notes Client – Outlines
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16. XPages
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17. 30 Years, Common Theme
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18. Modernising Web
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19. Modern?
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20. Which Would You Use?
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21. OpenNTF Snippets (formerly XSnippets)
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22. Context-Sensitive Options
• Create Snippet
• My Favourites
• Add to Favourite
• Add Comment
All require authentication
Only visible now when authenticated
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23. Navigation Reorganised
• Create Snippet – moved to banner
• Follow OpenNTF and Follow Snippets – moved to footer
• Menu options reduced
Can header and footer areas be better utilized?
Are all menu options required?
Can options be consolidated?
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24. Layout
• Home page combines 30 most recent and most
downloaded
• Layout amended to utilize screen real estate
Tabular layout is typical of Notes Client
Data View offers more flexibility per row
Repeat controls / Forum View breaks out of row paradigm
For multiple columns, Bootstrap is best
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25. Search Improved
• “Full text search” retained
• Combined with “faceted search”
• Facets for Language and Author replace views
What are main search criteria?
Can views be removed by faceted search?
V10 adds DQL and dynamic FT index updates
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26. Behind the Views
• What is throughput?
• Can / should data be archived to optimise the application?
• Reporting may need consideration – combining results, tabbed view
• Which search criteria can use views?
• Which search criteria require full text index / DQL?
• Code for search will be more complex
• Are dominoViews required?
• Will search results be small enough to convert to Java
objects?
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27. Bootstrap Responsive
• Should be preferred out-of-the-box theme
• Unless mobile is explicitly out of scope
• Menus collapse
• Banner and title menus merge!
• Layouts reorganize
• <div styleClass=“col-sm-12 col-md-6”></div>
• sm, xs, md, lg
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28. OpenNTF Snippets (formerly XSnippets)
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29. Layout and Style
• Not all buttons are equal
• Styling can encourage / warn users
• Why are fields ordered the way they are?
• Modernisation allows review
• What new functionality is appropriate?
• Consider social – within / outside the enterprise
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30. Other Approaches
• Dashboard combines information and navigation
• Option to hide
• Links replacing categorised view
• Alphabetical selection to filter further
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31. Forms
• Tabbed tables are problematic on web
• “Wizards” or pseudo tabbed tables
• Set viewScope for tabs visited
• Save as draft (or different form name) until all tabs visited
• Ensure methods for cleanup
• Ensure unique document checking finds these too
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32. Modernising Mobile
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33. All Hail!
• Theo’s Wine app
• https://openntf.org/main.nsf/
project.xsp?r=project/Wine
%20Tasting
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34. Customers, Learn from Jeff Goldblum!
If desktop feels 10 years old, mobile will feel 20 years old
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35. Tablets are Different
• Different size
• Different font size
• Different method of clicking
• Different application integration
• Different add-ons available (e.g. camera)
• Different typing interfaces
• Different text / image ratios
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36. Navigation as Home Page
• Page sizes / layouts have an impact
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37. Image Maps for Categorisation
• Assumes fixed categories
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38. Embedded Views
• Filters via dialog lists / buttons instead of categorization
• Forms with “show single category”
• @Environment for “session scoping”
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39. Multiple in a Single Form
• Embedded view means no out-of-the-box search bar
• Backend search, store in folder (Private Desktop First Use
issues)
• Categorised views
with filters
• Store view name etc
in notes.ini
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40. Images or Bar Text for “Charting”
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41. Recommendations
• Increase font sizes
• Selected / deselected images for “tabs”
• Tabbed tables with switch rows programmatically
• Think about alignment of buttons
• Show only icon
• Avoid icons that are platform-specific if targeting iOS and
Android
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42. @Environment
• Can use in Forms
• Can use in Pages
• Can’t use in View selection formulas
• Can’t use in View column formulas
• Can use in View column hide-when formulas
• Use to filter wide views
• Can cause error messages in Notes Client after changing in DDE
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43. Product Integration
• Why not integrate client with browser?
• Consider future directions of products
• For desktop, show only if online
• If SSO not enabled:
• Pass parameters to a public chart
• Run as server agent, validated with secret key passed from Notes
• Put in folder and process from DQL
• Generate exports on server and post centrally
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44. Modernising for DQL
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45. Why DQL?
• Better performance for some aggregations
• ViewNavigator on a simple query against a simple view
will be quicker
• Very powerful for user-driven flexible queries
• NOT just for Node.js, usable from LS and Java
• Relevant for existing applications as well as new
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46. DQL Requires…
• SELECT @All except for in viewname syntax
• Needs only field name
• Needs sorted ascending
• Needs non-categorized and show multiple values as
separate entries
Modernising for DQL means revisiting
your database design and adding / removing. Do it!
For database size etc,
carefully consider externalizing view indexes
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47. Modernising Integration
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48. REST Service Provider Options
• LotusScript web agent
• Access via ?OpenAgent, “print” JSON response
• No ability to set headers though
• SmartNSF
• CustomRESTHandler or other REST service “route”
• XAgent
• Set viewState=“nostate”
• Can use XOTS for asynchronous processing / chaining
• REST Service Plugin
• Better standardisation, e.g. Gson / Jackson for autoconversion
• HTTP restart to deploy
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49. REST Service Provider Options
• Node.js API Gateway
• DQL to read / write from Domino
• JavaScript to manage validation
• Express recommended for routes
• Node-RED
• HTTP Request Node
• DominoV10 nodes to read / write from Domino
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50. REST Service Considerations
• Assume bad data
• All developers are lazy by nature! Validate and error
• Security?
• Authenticate as Domino user? (Build your own OAuth?)
• Run as signer (or server)?
• Require additional verification?
• Endpoints?
• Use specific endpoints for e.g. approve functions
• Logging
• Do you want to log transactions?
• How will you clean up the logs?
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51. Making REST Service Calls
• LotusScript classes available
• JSON parsing is easier in Java
• Assuming you’re embracing Gson / Jackson
• Apache Wink plugin has bug
• Dependency on Apache Commons Logging not exposed
• Impacts consuming REST services
• Fine for providing REST services
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52. Refactoring
• Re-use XPages workflow code
• Centralise passing document ID / dominoDocument
• Add extra validation in REST service first
• Pass a return value
• Handle errors accordingly – no UI for REST!
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53. Request Types
• GET – No body allowed
• POST – Submit data, read / write
• PUT – Replace entire object
• PATCH – Minor update to existing object
• PATCH is not enabled by default on Domino
• Update the Internet Site Document
• DELETE – No body allowed
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54. Error Codes
• 1xx – Received and understood, stand by
• 2xx – Received, understood and accepted for processing
• 3xx – Redirecting
• 4xx – You did something wrong
• 5xx – We did something wrong!
See Wikipedia
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55. HTTP Status Codes
• 200 – OK
• 202 – Accepted for processing
• 302 – URL found but server is redirecting
• 400 – Bad request
• 401 – Unauthorised
• 403 – Forbidden
• 404 – Not found
• 405 – Method not allowed
• 500 – Internal server error
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56. REST Service Development Tools
• OpenAPI 3.0 (Swagger) specification
• Swagger Editor (online, Node.js app, Docker)
• Postman REST Client
• Firefox RESTClient plugin
• Node-RED
• IBM Cloud, Node.js app, Docker
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57. Summary
• Modernisation means re-evaluation
• Modernisation doesn’t define scope
• Modernisation doesn’t define amount of effort
• Modernisation isn’t a “one size fits all”
• Demos on
https://github.com/paulswithers/EngageModernisation
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58. Thank You
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Paul Withers
Intec Systems Ltd & OpenNTF
pwithers@intec.co.uk
@paulswithers
https://www.intec.co.uk/blog
https://paulswithers.github.io
https://www.dominonextstep.com/
https://www.dominonextstep.com/
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