1.
OPTIMUS XPAGES:AN EXPLOSION OF
TECHNIQUES AND BEST PRACTICES
Mar. 15, 2016

2.
Courtney Carter
@Teamstudio
Howard Greenberg
@TLCC
Paul Della-Nebbia
@PaulDN
John Jardin
@JohnJardinCodes

3.
Asking Questions
Use the “Questions” pane to ask questions.

4.
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applications implement best practices, work
more efficiently, and prepare for the future.
AboutTeamstudio

5.
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faster, better, and more easily.

6.
Reveal true business usage with Usage Auditor.
http://www.teamstudio.com/solutions/notestools/usage-auditor

7.
OPTIMUS XPAGES:AN EXPLOSION OF
TECHNIQUES AND BEST PRACTICES

8.
1
#XPages
Your Hosts Today:
Howard Greenberg
TLCC
@TLCCLtd
Optimus XPages
Paul Della-Nebbia
TLCC
@PaulDN

9.
TLCC Courses
• The Leader in Notes and Domino Training since 1997
• Self Paced Distance Learning Courses
– XPages, Development, and Administration
• XPages from basic to advanced
– Two Java courses
– JavaScript course
– XPages 2 course
– Rapid Application Development
• Free demo courses
– Intro. To XPages Development
2

10.
TLCC Application Development Services
3
• Let us help with your development
needs
– Bootstrap
– Java
• Convert Notes Apps to mobile and the
web!
• Modernize old Domino web
applications
• Interface with backend data systems
• Skills transfer

11.
Upcoming and Recorded Webinars
4
www.tlcc.com/xpages-webinar
View Previous Webinars
(use url above)
• April – Getting Started with the Domino API with Paul Withers and
Jesse Gallagher

12.
Asking Questions – Q and A at the end
5
Use the Orange Arrow button to
expand the GoToWebinar panel
Then ask your questions in the
Questions pane!
We will answer your questions
verbally at the end of the
webinar

13.
6
#XPages
John Jardin
Ukuvuma
@JohnJardinCodes
Optimus XPages

14.
Optimus XPages – An Explosion of
Techniques and Best Practices

15.
About John Jardin
• CTO of Ukuvuma Solutions
• Over 14 years development and consulting
• Core Focus
 IBM Domino and XPages
 Web technologies
 Mobile Development
 IBM Bluemix
 Internet of Things
• IBM Champion (2013-2016)

16.
My Alter Ego

17.
Agenda
• Overview
• Application Architecture
• User Experience
• Optimization
• Closing

18.
Overview

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“A developer in today’s world needs to
look both ways before crossing a one-
way street.”
- Doug Linder

20.
Overview
• A reality most developers are facing is that businesses are
moving to the Cloud
• This means:
 Applications need to be Cloud ready
 APIs, APIs, APIs
 Modular Services
 Mobile strategy. No exceptions
 Optimized user experience and application performance

21.
Application Architecture

22.
Application Architecture
• Single Page Application
 One entry point to your Application
• One URL
 One XPage. Many custom controls

23.
Application Architecture
• Single Page Application cont.
 Advantages:
• Full page reloading no longer required
• Actions can have as little as one server request
• Request and response data can be measured in bytes
• Core CSS/JS resources are loaded once

24.
Application Architecture
• Single Page Application cont.
 Disadvantages:
• JavaScript dependency
• Optimization is essential
• Knowledge of 3rd party UI libraries a must
• Single entry point to application makes navigating a bit more
complex

25.
Demonstration

26.
Application Architecture
• OpenNTF Domino API
 Extends Domino Object Classes
• Additional methods and properties
• Improved code
 Quick to install and configure
• This also applies to existing XPages applications
 No need to recycle Domino Objects in Java
 Multi-threaded processing

27.
Application Architecture
• Model View Controller Strategy
 Model
• A Java class for each document type
• Define field names as class properties
• Use a constructor to default property values
• Generate getters and setters for each property

28.
Application Architecture

29.
Application Architecture
• Model View Controller Strategy cont.
 View
• XPage or Custom Control
• Should only contain HTML and XML tags where possible
• Styling exists mostly in style sheets
• Logic exists in JavaScript files or Java classes
– i.e. Controllers

30.
Application Architecture
• Model View Controller Strategy cont.
 Controller
• A Java class for each document type
• Manages all logic related to its Model and View
– Validating content
– Saving data
– Fetching data
– Special functions

31.
Application Architecture
• Model View Controller Strategy cont.
 A Controller should exist for each of the following:
• The application as a whole (e.g. Global Controller)
• For the user’s session (e.g. Session Controller)
• For each document type that can be submitted or viewed
• For each primary feature of your application:
– Report Controller
– API Controller
– User Controller

32.
Application Architecture

33.
Demonstration

34.
Application Architecture
• XPages Extension Library
 A plethora of additional controls
 Application Layout for rapid UI design
 Twitter Bootstrap and jQuery enablement
• If enabled, your UI is automatically bootstrapped and responsive

35.
Application Architecture
• XAgents
 A XPage that does not render a user interface but executes logic
and returns data as a result
• Accessed via a URL with optional parameters (aka Web Service)
 Expose your XPages application through APIs
• For mobile apps
• 3rd party platforms and applications
 Run scheduled Java agents that execute XPages logic

36.
Application Architecture
• XAgents cont.
 Example XPage acting as an XAgent:

37.
Application Architecture
• XAgents cont.
 Example scheduled Java agent executing XAgent:

38.
User Experience

39.
User Experience
• Twitter Bootstrap
 HTML, CSS and JavaScript framework for developing responsive
applications
 Intelligent styling that re-adjusts web page based on device’s
form factor
• Laptops/Desktops
• Smartphones
• Tablet devices
 Modern UI controls
 Offered as part of the XPages Extension Library

40.
User Experience
• 3rd Party Libraries
 Animate.css – Provides animations to your XPages controls
 Toastr – Provides non-blocking notifications
 Font Awesome – A collection of vector icons that are easily
customizable:
• Grouping
• Sizing
• Animating
 Sweet Alert – Provides animated alert notifications

41.
Demonstration

42.
Optimization

43.
“A developer achieves perfection not when
there is nothing more to add, but when there’s
nothing more to take away”
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

44.
Optimization
• Multi-threaded Operations
 Powered by ODA XOTS
 Execution of logic in its own thread that user does not depend on:
• i.e. Asynchronous operations in Java code
 Allows for quicker response times when performing server side
operations
 Especially important for Web Services accessed by mobile apps

45.
Optimization
• Switch and Dynamic Content Controls
 Divide web page into HTML blocks that are rendered/removed
when relevant
 This means:
• Only populate the HTML you need
• Hidden HTML is not rendered to the browser until it’s required
• Less HTML for jQuery/Dojo to work through
• Web page is lightweight

46.
Demonstration

47.
Closing

48.
Closing
• For more information, please check out:
 IBM XPages – www.xpages.info
 OpenNTF – www.openntf.org
 XPages Knowledge Base - wiki.openntf.org
 Animate.css - daneden.github.io/animate.css
 Toastr - github.com/CodeSeven/toastr
 Sweet Alert – t4t5.github.io/sweetalert/

49.
Contact Information
• John Jardin
 Email: john.jardin@ukuvuma.co.za
 Blog: http://johnjardin.ukuvuma.co.za
 Blog: http://www.bleedingcode.com
 Twitter: @JohnJardinCodes
 Skype: john.v.jardin
• Ukuvuma Solutions
 Website: www.ukuvuma.co.za
 Twitter: @ukuvuma

50.
Questions????
7
Use the Orange Arrow button to
expand the GoToWebinar panel
Then ask your questions in the
Questions panel!
Remember, we will answer your
questions verbally

51.
#XPages
@JohnJardinCodes
@TLCCLtd
@Teamstudio
@PaulDN
Upcoming Events:
 Engage, Eindhoven, the Netherlands – Mar. 23 to 24
 EntwicklerCamp, Gelsenkirchen, Germany – April 11 to 13
 ICON US Virtual User Group – May 9 and 10th
 Social Connections, Toronto, Canada – June 6th and 7th
 MWLUG, Austin, TX – August 17 to 19
Question and Answer Time!
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Teamstudio Questions?
contactus@teamstudio.com
978-712-0924
TLCC Questions?
howardg@tlcc.com paul@tlcc.com
888-241-8522 or 561-953-0095
Howard Greenberg
Courtney Carter
John Jardin Paul Della-Nebbia