Per Henrik Lausten

Creating your first managed bean for XPages

2012-02-08T11:46:41Z

With Java and managed beans you can make your XPages applications even more powerful. In this blog post I will go through the steps to create and use a managed bean in XPages.

I am using Lotus Notes and Domino Designer 8.5.3 and will therefore use the new Java design element for the Java code located in the Code section.

In short: use "New Java Class" to create a Java class. Give your new class a package name (e.g. com.company) and a class name (e.g. HelloWorld). Add a local variable and let Eclipse generate getter and setter for it by using Source - Generate Getters and Setters. Also, let Eclipse generate a public no-parameter constructor by using Source - Generate Constructor using Fields and deselect your newly created field and omit call to super().

You will then have the following basic skeleton for a Java class:

package com.company;

public class helloworld {

	public helloworld() {
	}

	private String someVariable;

	public String getSomeVariable() {
		return someVariable;
	}

	public void setSomeVariable(String someVariable) {
		someVariable = someVariable;
	}

}

In order to support the XPages server page persistence option "Keep pages on disk", the Java class needs to be serializable. The Java class therefore needs to implement Serializable. Therefore, add "implements Serializable" after your class name (and Eclipse will automatically add the required import). Then use the Eclipse Quick Fix to "Add generated serial version ID". You now have a basic skeleton for a Java class that can be used as a managed bean:

package com.company;

import java.io.Serializable;

public class helloworld implements Serializable {

	private static final long serialVersionUID = 6469339826789980362L;

	public helloworld() {
	}

	private String someVariable;

	public String getSomeVariable() {
		return someVariable;
	}

	public void setSomeVariable(String someVariable) {
		someVariable = someVariable;
	}

}

Now we need to tell XPages that we would like to use this Java class as a managed bean. First, Add the Package Explorer view to your Eclipse perspective using Window - Show Eclipse Views - Other and select Package Explorer. Now go to the Package Explorer and navigate to the WebContent/WEB-INF folder where you will find a faces-config.xml file. Open the faces-config.xml file and add the following managed bean section in the <faces-config> section:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<faces-config>
	<managed-bean>
		<managed-bean-name>helloWorld</managed-bean-name>
		<managed-bean-class>com.company.helloworld</managed-bean-class>
		<managed-bean-scope>session</managed-bean-scope>
	</managed-bean>
</faces-config>

You now have a basic faces-config for your HelloWorld Java class. Scope for a bean can be the usual scopes (application, session, view, request).

With the Java class and the faces-config in place the managed bean can now be used in an XPage. The bean value (both the getter and setter) can be accessed from an XPage using #{helloWorld.someVariable}.

This very basic example of a bean does not do anything. The Java class would of course have to add values to the someVariable property before that value would be useful in an XPage. I will create a 2nd blog post that shows how to use a bean in a repeat control to display values from the managed bean.

For more information on XPages and managed beans have a look at:

The Discussion and Teamroom templates in the Extension Library that both use beans
Mastering XPages page 415 for a Java class example
Mindoo: XPages series #4: Backing Bean Management with XPages by Karsten Lehmann
Mindoo XPages blog series on managed beans (and more) by Karsten Lehmann
xpagesblog.com: Writing a Managed Bean to Automate Server Side Functionality in XPages by Jeremy Hodge
xpagesblog.com: Getting Deeper into the Managed Bean - Creating a Cached Master/Detail Recordset by Jeremy Hodge
What the heck is a bean? by Tim Tripcony (with this great quote by Tim: "Why is it crucial to understand the nature of beans when developing XPages, even if you're not specifically writing Java code? Because darn near everything in an XPage is a bean.")
Tim Tripcony on managed beans and themes (and much more): Taking themes to the next level
Update: Jeremy Hodge has done a 3 part video series on getting started with managed beans for Notesin9. Its called "Intro to Java for XPages developers" and can be found at XPages.TV

Thoughts from Lotusphere 2012: Lotus Notes Social Edition

2012-01-23T12:26:54Z

One of the highlights from Lotusphere 2012 was the accouncement of the next feature release of Lotus Notes called Lotus Notes Social Edition.

Lotus Notes Social Edition features a new homepage with activity streams and embedded apps (embedded experiences) using open standards such as OpenSocial. From the Lotus Notes homepage a user can interact with an external application without leaving the home page (collaboratio in-context). Lotus iNotes (the web mail component for Lotus Notes) will also support activity streams and embedded apps. The new homepage looks similar to the activity streams in the upcoming IBM Connections 4.0 release.

XPages and the Extension Library Social Enabler toolkit can be used to implemenet applications that support activity streams and OpenSocial gadgets in order to create embedded apps. The Social Enabler Toolkit is currently only part of the OpenNTF release and will be part of Upgrade Pack 2.

Social Edition also features a brand-new and more simple UI for mail (for both the Lotus Notes client and for iNotes webmail):

In between now (8.5.3) and Social Edition we will see a 8.5.4 release with features required to be able to deploy the Social Edition upgrade on top of Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.4. In 2012 we will also see the release of Upgrade Pack 2 (IBM supported Extension Library with new features currently only available in the experimental part of the OpenNTF Extension Library).

Lotus Domino 8.5.4 is planned to support SAML and oAUTH for authentication. With Domino supporting oAUTH it will be possible to bring XPages applications into the context of other applications.

Finally, the Lotus Notes app browser plugin for Firefox/Windows was presented at Lotusphere. This plugin is a lightweight Lotus Notes client in the browser that can run Notes client applications. This enables organizations to focus on implementing new XPages web applications and have their existing/old Notes client applications use the plugin.

Ed Brill from IBM has blogged about Lotus Notes and Domino Social Edition and also posted his "Messaging and Collaboration Strategy" session from Lotusphere on Slideshare.

Chris Reckling from IBM has blogged about the Notes and iNotes announcements from the Lotusphere 2012 OGS.

Thoughts from Lotusphere 2012: IBM Connections 4 (“Next”)

2012-01-23T11:55:56Z

At the Lotusphere 2012 Opening General Session (OGS) and throughout the conference IBM showed the next version of IBM Connections (to be called IBM Connections 4.0?). My first impression of the next release of IBM Connections is that it looks really, really great! Among many things it features exciting new elements such as activity streams, social mail and embedded apps (using open standards such as Activity Streams and OpenSocial gadgets).

Embedded apps for activity streams can be created using e.g. XPages. An embedded app makes it possible for the user to take action directly from the invidual post in the activity stream (without leaving IBM Connections).

The integrated mail and calendar of IBM Connections (social mail) will support Lotus Domino and Microsoft Exchange as backend mail servers. This is an interesting move that makes the underlying mail server in use irrelevant to the IBM Connections deployment.

IBM Connections 4 also includes community metrics (to track e.g. adoption rates), optional realtime group video chat using a plugin from Polycom, ECM library integration and realtime co-editing of documents, presentations and spreadsheets using IBM Docs (IBM Docs is currently in beta on IBM Greenhouse).

My plans for Lotusphere 2012

2012-01-10T05:53:37Z

This is how I look

I am going to Lotusphere 2012 in Orlando - and I look forward to it!

Here are some of the things I plan to do and attend:

B.A.L.D. (Bloggers and friends Annual Lotusphere Dinner) on Saturday
Business Development Day general session on Sunday
Welcome Reception on Sunday evening
Opening General Session on Monday morning
UK Night on Monday (if I can fake a proper English accent - and get the necessary UKLUG sticker on my conference badge)
IBM Nordic dinner on Tuesday evening
OpenNTF booth duty on Tuesday and Wednesday at booth 516
The Lotusphere party at Sea World on Wednesday evening
This Week in Lotus LIVE on Thursday morning
Ask the Developers on Thursday
The (someday famous) Lotusphere basketball game with teams of Lotusphere attendees, speakers and IBMers - arranged by Jon Mell. Time and place to be determined.

Look for me and let's see who says hi first See you there!

XPages Extension Library on OpenNTF updated to match Upgrade Pack 1

2012-01-03T20:43:56Z

The XPages Extension Library project on OpenNTF was updated yesterday to version 853-20111215. This version matches the newly released Domino 8.5.3 Upgrade Pack 1.

If you want to use the OpenNTF version (and not Upgrade Pack 1) you can update your servers and clients using the update site method.

You can find the installation instructions for the OpenNTF version and for Upgrade Pack 1 on the Lotus Notes and Domino Application Development wiki.

Notes/Domino 8.5.3 Upgrade Pack 1: Great news for XPages

2011-12-17T22:11:29Z

Great news for XPages today: Notes/Domino 8.5.3 Upgrade Pack 1 has just been released.

In short, Upgrade Pack 1 is an IBM supported version of the XPages Extension Library. This should help remove the fear of the Extension Library being open source that some customers have had, and thereby improve the adoption of XPages out there.

Upgrade Pack 1 is available on Passport Advantage as part number CI5GIEN.

The 46th DanNotes conference is a wrap

2011-12-01T20:43:12Z

Last week we held the 46th DanNotes conference. We had 80 participants and 7 speakers. Some of the presentations are available now as links on the agenda. Others will be added to the agenda later. We will also publish videos from the event once they have been edited.

On the agenda you can find links to the presentations by Chris Connor on XPages, Java, and Mobile - and links to the presentations by Ulrich Krause on compact, compress, DAOS and more. The presentation by Ulrich is also available on Slideshare.

The following presentations held by Stuart McIntyre and Niklas Heidloff have not yet been added to the agenda:

Stuart McIntyre: IBM Connections - Bridging the Gap
Stuart McIntyre: The IBM Mobile Collaboration Portfolio
Niklas Heidloff: OpenNTF Overview
Niklas Heidloff: XPages Mobile Controls

Niklas has blogged about the event - his blog entry contains links to the projects and controls that he showed in his sessions.

Stuart has blogged about his impression of the event. He even calls DanNotes for "the daddy of all user groups".

I look forward to the 47th conference which takes place in May, 2012. Let me know if you are interested in speaking at the event.

IBM Certified Application Developer – Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5

2011-11-30T08:56:04Z

Last week at the DanNotes conference IBM offered certification tests at half the price. I took the LOT-951 test in record time between lunch and the developer BOF and passed with a score of 87.5%.

The test focuses on Domino Designer in Eclipse features, some @Formula and Lotusscript programming enhancements, and a lot of XPages. If you plan on taking the test, then rememember to have a look at the test objectives while preparing for the test.

Next up for me is the LOT-922 test which is required to upgrade my certification to the advanced level.

I’m a guest on This Week in Lotus episode 79

2011-11-28T16:50:03Z

A quick blog post to let you know that last week I was invited to be part of This Week in Lotus episode 79 together with Stuart McIntyre, Darren Duke - and Gab Davis as the 2nd guest. We discussed Sametime, OpenNTF, XPages and very naturally the 46th DanNotes conference which took place the day after the recording.

It was great fun and I look forward to being a guest again sometime in the future. By the way, this was my 2nd appearance on the show as I was a guest on episode 24 too.

XSnippets: code snippets for XPages

2011-11-19T07:27:14Z

The beta version of XSnippets was recently announced by Niklas Heidloff on the OpenNTF blog. XSnippets is a code repository of useful XPages code snippets that OpenNTF contributors can contribute to. If you have useful code snippets then consider adding them to XSnippets.

I have added my first code snippet to XSnippets based on my blog entry on how to control the HTTP response status code in XPages:

I am a member director on the OpenNTF board of directors

2011-10-25T17:52:47Z

As previously blogged my company PHL Consult and I support OpenNTF and open source. To further show my support I nominated myself for one of the 9 member director positions in the OpenNTF board of directors.

The board of directors for the newly incorporated OpenNTF has now been set and I am happy to have been elected to be part of the board (for one year). The new board had its first board meeting last Thursday and I look forward to be able to add value to OpenNTF.

My 1st year as self-employed consultant at PHL Consult

2011-10-20T05:28:16Z

One year ago I started as self-employed consultant at my own company PHL Consult after having worked for IBM for 16 years - and what a great year! Starting on my own has proved to be one my of my best decisions ever.

It has been a year of classic Lotus Notes application development work, XPages development work, teaching courses and much more. I started with one customer and have since then been doing work for 10 other paying customers and been involved in proposals for a handful more. Furthermore, I reviewed David Leedys XPages cheat sheet, and reviewed the IBM course "Modernizing Lotus Domino 8.5.2 Applications".

This year I also became member of the boards at NotesNet, DanNotes and OpenNTF.

The following are public sites that I have implemented for customers during my 1st year:

startdithjerte.dk: a portal (in Danish) on heart failures and defibilator products with a related web shop where you can buy automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and accessories. I implemented the solution using XPages.
mediaplus.dk: a company web site with a backend CMS. I implemented the web site using XPages and brought the proposed web design to life by extending the OneUI CSS.

Lessons learned (and assumptions confirmed):

Networking is important: several of my customers have chosen me for their work because we were connected in some way.
Advertising helps: I advertise my business services on the Google advertising network and know for a fact that some customers came to me via that channel.
Being social: I am a strong believer in blogging and social networks and the impact that it can have on you and others.

I look forward to the next year and what it will bring me of interesting work and projects.

One final advice: pursue your dream!

Going to Lotusphere 2012

2011-10-09T19:36:20Z

Lotusphere 2012 takes place January 15 - January 19, 2012 in Orlando, Florida - and I am very happy to report that I will participate in the conference. This will be my first ever Lotusphere in the US (I participated in the Lotusphere conference in Berlin in 1999).

I arrive Friday evening (January 13) and leave again Thursday evening (January 19). I will be staying at the Disney's Yacht Club Resort, if you need me

I look forward to meet a lot of interesting people from the Lotus community - most of whom I have only been in contact with through blogging, Twitter, Skype, mails etc. and never met before. See you soon!

Update: I have created a Lanyrd event for Lotusphere 2012.

Lotus Notes/Domino 8.5.3 and IBM XWork Server 8.5.3 are here

2011-10-04T09:53:00Z

It's October 4th and Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.3 are now available for download on Passport Advantage. The brand new IBM XWork Server has also been announced.

I have been looking forward to this release in general, and in particular because of features specifically for XPages developers:

improved JavaScript editor
finally a java design element for XPages
Dojo 1.6.1
OneUI version 2.1 (which looks very similar to the prototype 3.0 version that the Lotus Notes and Domino Application Development wiki uses)
option to combine CSS and JS in a single file to improve site speed
improved HTML5 support such as support for adding HTML5 attributes
source control enablement

I look very much forward to an improved experience when working with XPages development in the Domino Designer client. Happy coding!

Integrating a Lotus Notes application with Exchange

2012-02-08T13:36:48Z

I recently finished a project with the purpose of integrating a Lotus Notes CRM application with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange. The customer has moved their mail handling to Exchange and Outlook and still uses Lotus Notes for their application handling including this CRM application. The CRM application had functionality to import mails from Notes, send mail from Notes, and create and maintain meeting invitations. My task was to make this functionality work with Exchange and Outlook instead.

In order to integrate with Exchange I used the Exchange Web Services (EWS) Java API and created a Java class with the necessary jar files imported that is responsible for the interface between the existing Lotusscript logic and the EWS API. The Lotusscript logic then uses LS2J to use the methods in the Java class.

With Exchange Web Services installed on the Exchange server the Java API can access the web services using the WSDL at /EWS/Service.wsdl (through an endpoint called /EWS/exchange.asmx).

To allow the Lotus Notes client to communicate with the Exchange server I needed to change the java.policy file in order to add: permission java.net.NetPermission "setCookieHandler", "write";. To automate this I used this Lotusscript code by Darren Oliver that checks the java.policy file for a specific permission policy and if not found adds the permission policy.

At first I wanted to use Exchange Impersonation to allow a single Windows Active Directory account to be able to act on behalf of others users on a Exchange mailbox. This decision was later changed to use the individual users own credentials. The user is prompted for their password and this is stored encrypted for their use only in a profile document. The following code snippet shows how communication with the Exchange server is set up in Java using the EWS API:

service = new ExchangeService(ExchangeVersion.Exchange2010_SP1);
// service.setTraceEnabled(true); // enable to trace the web service communication in the Java debug console
service.setUrl(new java.net.URI(server));
ExchangeCredentials credentials = new WebCredentials(userid, password);
service.setCredentials(credentials);

A meeting is simply created using the Appointment class. Time zone support is achieved by using UTC as the time zone for date details. To format dates as UTC I used the LSGMTTime property of the NotesDateTime class.

Appointment appointment = new Appointment(service);
appointment.setSubject(subject);
appointment.setBody(MessageBody.getMessageBodyFromText(body));
appointment.setStart(formatter.parse(startDate));
appointment.setEnd(formatter.parse(endDate));
appointment.setLocation(location);
// Save as appointment - and not as a meeting with participants
appointment.save(SendInvitationsMode.SendToNone);

Importing mails is done by presenting the user with a list of mails from the users Exchange mailbox. The list is retrieved by looping through the Inbox folder:

ItemView view = new ItemView(100);
view.getOrderBy().add(ItemSchema.DateTimeReceived, SortDirection.Ascending);
FindItemsResults<Item> findResults;
findResults = service.findItems(WellKnownFolderName.Inbox, view);
service.loadPropertiesForItems(findResults.getItems(), new PropertySet(BasePropertySet.IdOnly, EmailMessageSchema.Subject, EmailMessageSchema.DateTimeReceived, EmailMessageSchema.Sender));

The user then selects a mail from the list and the corresponding mail in Exchange is retrieved with the unique item id as identifier.

EmailMessage message = EmailMessage.bind(service, new ItemId(mailItemId));

Rich text support between Notes and Outlook is handled using Lotusscript stream and mime classes:

Set stream = session.CreateStream
Call stream.WriteText(mailBody)
Set mime = doc.CreateMIMEEntity("Body")
Call mime.SetContentFromText (stream, "text/html;charset=UTF-8",ENC_NONE)

When sending mails from the Notes CRM application the user can access their Outlook contacts. The list of Outlook contacts is retrieved by looping through the Contacts folder:

ItemView view = new ItemView(2000);
view.getOrderBy().add(ContactSchema.DisplayName, SortDirection.Ascending);
FindItemsResults<Item> findResults;
findResults = service.findItems(WellKnownFolderName.Contacts, view);

The Microsoft Outlook client is launched when a meeting invitation is created in order for the user to finish the meeting invitation in Outlook. This is achieved by using the Shell Lotusscript command together with the fact that Outlook can be launched with a parameter that indicates what item to open when launched:

Shell( getOutlookPath() + " /select outlook:" + Ucase(doc.OutlookUniqueId(0)) )

The use of LS2J led to some performance issues at the customer site in the form of 10-20 seconds load times before a document was opened. The reason for this is that the Java code is extracted to disk whereby the Antivirus program at use at the customer site started to check all files for virus before the document could be opened. The customer modified the Antivirus settings to remove this check whereby the documents opened within reasonable time again.

DanNotes: The 46th Danish LUG conference is in November

2011-09-05T20:12:55Z

DanNotes is the Danish Lotus user group. It started as a Lotus user group back in 1993 and has since then organized 2 day conferences for the Danish Lotus community with a schedule of 2 a year. The next conference in November is conference number 46! That's an impressive number of conferences.

I am proud to have been selected as member of the board at the spring conference in May and I am thereby part of the group of organizers that plan the next conference.

I am really looking forward to meet Anders Holm Petersen who is the new country manager for IBM Collaboration Solutions in Denmark, to meet our great lineup of speakers: Niklas Heidloff, Stuart McIntyre, Ulrich Krause, and Chris Connor - and also to meet the many members of the Danish Lotus community.

If you are interested in joining the conference, then head over to the DanNotes website and register. There is a LinkedIn event and a Lanyrd event for the conference if you are interested in tracking the conference using social tools.

PHL Consult supports OpenNTF and open source

2011-09-04T16:10:02Z

My company, PHL Consult, became member of OpenNTF in August and thereby supports OpenNTF and the use of open source within the Lotus Domino/XPages community. This means that I support the idea of open source in general (and support OpenNTF as an organization) - and that I both contribute code to and reuse code from OpenNTF. I have so far contributed 2 open source XPages custom controls to OpenNTF:

At the time of writing this blog post OpenNTF has 23 company members. Members according to OpenNTF are "companies with the common interest to provide open source for IBM Lotus Notes and Domino and to encourage broad industry use of these applications. To achieve these goals members are willing to devote resources or participate in other ways".

I am teaching two XPages courses in August

2011-08-22T18:22:18Z

I will be teaching two 3-day courses in August, 2011 on basic XPages application development. The courses are arranged by Intravision.

The first 3-day course starts August 23 at IBM in Lyngby. Seats are still available if you are interested in signing up for the course. Please see the course details (in Danish) for more information on how to sign up.

The second 3-day course takes place the week after and is a closed course for a group of developers from the same company.

XPages: only show content for authorized users

2012-02-08T13:38:08Z

Today I was asked: how do you make sure that anonymous users do not see content that only logged on (and thereby authorized) users must see?

I often use a simple solution of having a xp:panel for anonymous users and another xp:panel for authorized users (both on the same XPage). Only one of the two panels are rendered based on whether the user is logged or not. So the two xp:panels would look like this:

Panel 1: for anonymous users

<xp:panel>
<xp:this.rendered><![CDATA[#{javascript:@UserName() == "Anonymous"}]]></xp:this.rendered>
You must log on to see contents.
</xp:panel>

Panel 2: for authorized users

<xp:panel>
<xp:this.rendered><![CDATA[#{javascript:(@UserName() != "Anonymous"}]]></xp:this.rendered>
This is the secret content.
</xp:panel>

You can combine this with the XPages Dojo Login Custom Control available on OpenNTF so that the user can stay on the page when logging on instead of going to a seperate login page.

XPages Web Analytics custom control on OpenNTF

2011-06-26T11:06:43Z

What a great weekend for open source contributions from me! Yesterday I created the XPages SEO custom control - and today I have created a new XPages custom control for the OpenNTF development contest called XPages Web Analytics custom control: the custom control makes it easy to add web analytics to your XPages web site.

In the first release the custom control supports Google Analytics and Woopra Web Analytics.

In order to use the custom control you download it from OpenNTF, unzip the downloaded file and open the included Notes database. In the database you will find a custom control called "WebAnalytics" that you can include in your own XPages application. Once included you just drag the custom control to your XPage and add the custom properties for the specific web analytics providers that you would like to use.