XPages on Bluemix - the Do's and Dont's

XPages on IBM Bluemix:
The Dos and Don'ts
(Eme06)
Oliver Busse, We4IT, Germany
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Many Dos, not so much Don‘ts 
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About me
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• Working for We4IT
• Aveedo® Application Framework
• „Bleeding Yellow“ since R4.5
• IBM Champion for ICS
2015 + 2016
• OpenNTF Member Director
@zeromancer1972
www.oliverbusse.com
@we4it
www.we4it.com

Agenda
• Prerequisites
• Best practices: design and data separation
• Using the DDE plugin vs. the CF command line
• Understanding the "mysterious" MANIFEST.YML file
• Experiment: holding data in the XSP runtime
• Security considerations
• Plugins and extensions? No problem!
• Tipps & tricks
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• Prerequisites
• Tipps & tricks
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Prerequisites
• Create an IBM Bluemix account
• Create an XPages NoSQL database service
(i.e. a Domino Server)
• Get the latest* Extension Library from OpenNTF
• Install Extlib on your local Domino Designer to get the
Bluemix plugin
• Setup Bluemix preferences in DDE
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*) 9.0.1v16, January 2016

Create or login to your Bluemix account
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XPages NoSQL database service
• Add a service
• Scroll down to „Bluemix Labs Catalog“
• Find „XPages NoSQL Database“
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Additional steps (not described here)
• Open the XPages NoSQL Database service properties
page
• Grab the user ID to access the Bluemix Domino
instance
• slaney/Bluemix (USA)
• langan/Bluemix (UK)
• coming soon: CAN and AUS
• Optional: setup additional web users
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Get the Extlib from OpenNTF
• Download and install it via the updatesite mechanism
• https://extlib.openntf.org/
• https://www.dalsgaard-data.eu/blog/deploy-an-eclipse-
update-site-to-ibm-domino-and-ibm-domino-designer/
• Check Extlib version in DDE and server
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Bluemix prefs in Domino Designer
• File, Preferences, Domino Designer, IBM Bluemix
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New IBM Bluemix toolbar control
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• Prerequisites
• Tipps & tricks
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Design and data separation
• Create the data part on the Bluemix Domino instance
• create a blank database
or
• copy and existing database with data
• Setup ACL etc.
• Keep in mind the additional webusers you may have created
before
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Setup local dev environment
• Separate data and design also on your local
environment
• Find and modify ALL static references to „database“ on
every XPage, Custom Control and Code
• Document data sources
• View data sources
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Compute „database“ references
• Utilize the bluemixContext bean
• comes with the OpenNTF Extension Library since v13
• isRunningOnBluemix()
• findDatabaseName() always returns „tododata.nsf“
• static default filename of the data part on the XPages NoSQL
service
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https://www.eu-gb.bluemix.net/docs/services/XPagesNoSQLDatabase/index.html

More flexible: use a custom bean
• Compute server and filepath dynamically
• for the local and the Bluemix environment
• Allows a different filename on the XPages NoSQL
service (other than „tododata.nsf“)
• Generic code for „database“ computation for
document, view and repeat data sources
• There is a snippet for you… 
• https://openntf.org/XSnippets.nsf/snippet.xsp?id=daobean-
for-xsp-on-bluemix
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Examples: the DAO-Bean
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<xp:this.data>
<xp:dominoDocument
var="document1"
databaseName="#{javascript:dao.dbpath}"
formName="greeting">
</xp:dominoDocument>
</xp:this.data>
<xp:repeat
id="greetings"
rows="9999"
var="greeting"
indexVar="index">
<xp:this.value>
<![CDATA[#{javascript:dao.getViewEntries("greetings")}]]>
</xp:this.value>
…
</xp:repeat>

• Prerequisites
• Caveats and restrictions
• Tipps & tricks
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What the DDE Plugin does
• When running for the first time
• It will ask for a local folder
• It will create a copy (or replica) of the XSP part
• It will create a manifest.yml file
• It contacts the Bluemix XSP runtime and uploads the 2 files
• Afterwards
• It updates the local copy / replica
• It modifies the manifest.yml file
• It contacts the Bluemix XSP runtime and uploads the 2 files
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What the DDE Plugin also does…
• It won‘t display error messages or log outputs during
deployment
• hard to troubleshoot
• Sometimes it may not work when running a second,
third, … time
• DDE restart will solve this problem
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The CF command line
• CF = Cloud Foundry
• Download and install the command line
• https://github.com/cloudfoundry/cli/releases
• http://docs.cloudfoundry.org/devguide/cf-cli/
• You can create a batch file to accellerate deployment
• Verbose output of any action during deployment
process
• Access to the XSP runtime file system (e.g. for reading
system logs)
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A simple triplet of commands
• cf api
• use api.bluemix.net or api.eu-gb.bluemix.net
• cf api https://api.bluemix.net
• cf login
• provide username and password
• cf login –u username –p password
• cf push
• will upload your local droplet instantly using the
manifest.yml file
• cf push
• cf push <applicationName>
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Benefits using the CF command line
• Full control of what‘s being done
• Understand how cloud deployment works
• Create new XSP runtimes and instances on the fly (wait
for it!)
• Deploy plugins and other resources (wait for it!)
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Disadvantage using the CF command line
• You have to create the local NSF copy / replica
manually
• beware of local encryption!
• You have to type in a console… ;-)
• I recommend using CMDER command line replacement for
Windows
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• Prerequisites
• Tipps & tricks
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The manifest.yml file
• The manifest.yml file is a simple text file (not even
XML)
• It contains fundamental definitions for the runtime and
the service(s) used
• When using hybrid it contains credentials!
• do not commit the file to a repository!
• Domino Designer Plugin comes with a versatile editor
for the manifest.yml file
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The manifest.yml editor
• Gives you the basic configuration for a single XSP
runtime application
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Example: manifest.yml
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---
applications:
- name: greets
host: greets
instances: 1
memory: 512M
timeout: 180
buildpack: xpages_buildpack
command: /app/launch_xpages_webcontainer
env:
APP_HOME_URL: /greets_xsp.nsf
APP_PRELOAD_DB: greets_xsp.nsf
services:
- IBM XPages NoSQL Database-UK
= custom setting
= default setting

Did you know?
• The manifest.yml file can deploy more than one
application to the XSP runtime 
• APP_PRELOAD_DB: xsp1.nsf, xsp2.nsf, xsp3.nsf
• By setting values manually you can modify and / or
create new XSP runtimes, e.g.
• scaling instances and memory
• setting up new XSP runtimes and hosts
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• Prerequisites
• Tipps & tricks
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Experiment: data in the XSP runtime
• This is not supported!
• This may work flawlessly, but don‘t rely on it
• Maybe useful for configurations, not for production
data
• XSP Runtime is a slim Domino environment, so
everything is possible regarding data
• Faulty behavior of pager
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Pros and cons
+Direct and fast access to commonly used data sets (e.g.
application and user profiles)
+No data separation necessary
+No changes needed in an existing application
- Data will be overwritten
- every time you re-deploy
- every time you re-scale the application
- every time the runtime restarts
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• Prerequisites
• Tipps & tricks
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Security considerations
• You have to manage at least two ACLs
• XSP Runtime (design part)
• XPages NoSQL service (data part)
• Design part
• manage Anonymous access only to force a login page
• Data part
• Manage ACL corresponding to the user ID and web users you
may set up in the XPages NoSQL service
• Other known ACL rules such as user roles apply here
• You can lock yourself out from that ACL – be careful, Full
Access Admin is NOT available to unlock!
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Locked out from data NSF?
• Deleting and re-creating the service has no effect, NSFs
will re-appear!
• You have to contact IBM support for unlocking or
deleting the NSF!
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• Locked out from design NSF?
• remove the runtime and re-deploy – phew!

• Prerequisites
• Tipps & tricks
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Imagine…
• to use your favorite extensions even on IBM Bluemix
• to enrich your application with genius software like the
OpenNTF Domino API or the XLogger
• You can do this!
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+

Using plugins: preparation
• Create a folder „shared-plugins“ in the local
deployment folder
• Download the plugin or extension, unzip it
• Locate the updatesite version of the plugin
• Copy the content of the plugins folder into the
“shared-plugins” folder (.jar-files)
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Using plugins: deployment
• Deploy the application (cf push)
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• Prerequisites
• Tipps & tricks
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Using the XPages Toolbox
• Versatile profiling tool for performance monitoring
• Available on OpenNTF for on-premises use
• https://www.openntf.org/main.nsf/project.xsp?r=project/XP
ages%20Toolbox/
• Setup automatically by modifying the manifest.yml file
• Add this to the ENV section:
• APP_INCLUDE_XPAGES_TOOLBOX: '1'
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XPages Toolbox (Profiler)
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Grant restricted access of the JVM
• Like in on-premises environments you may want to
enable full access for the JVM when using e.g. Java
reflections.
• Instead of setting the java.pol file you simply add this
to the manifest.yml ENV section
• APP_JAVA_POLICY_ALL_PERMISSION: '1‘
• Keep in mind that this may be a security issue
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Verbose mode while deploying
• When using the CF command line the following added
to the manifest.yml file will deliver detailed messages
during the deployment
• APP_VERBOSE_STAGING: '1'
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Don‘t want to type?
• Use the editor to set those up ;-)
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Missing view icons
• When using view icons in XPages view panels the icons
are missing
• They won‘t be displayed even if you use
@ViewIconUrl SSJS function
• However, you can add them manually 
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View icons: lost but found
• Open the deployment folder of the XSP part
• Create the folder notesdata/domino
• Copy the folder <NotesData>/domino/icons to it
• The folder will be published to the XSP runtime
• The view icons will re-appear!
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Thank you!
Special thanks to:
• Tony McGuckin, Martin Donnelly, Brian Gleeson
(IBM Ireland Labs, XPages and Bluemix Dev Team)
• Pete Janzen
(IBM, Sr. Product Manager, IBM Enterprise Social Solutions)
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Resources
• https://openntf.org/XSnippets.nsf/snippet.xsp?id=daobean-for-xsp-on-Bluemix
• http://notesx.net:8090/obusse/Greets
• http://greets.eu-gb.mybluemix.net/
• http://cmder.net/
• https://www.openntf.org/main.nsf/project.xsp?r=project/XPages%20Toolbox/
• http://oliverbusse.notesx.net/hp.nsf/blogpost.xsp?documentId=10C2
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XPages on Bluemix - the Do's and Dont's

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