92: The XXX Episode

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:48 — 49.3MB)

Episode 92 recorded on Friday 9th March 2012.  Mike McGarel joins Darren and Stuart to discuss the XWork Server offering  6 months on, the new OpenNTF XPages development contest, a new and improved xpages.info site and community efforts to improve IBM Connections documentation.

[The XXX Episode – That’s XWork, XPages contest and xpages.info, hope that still proves arousing ?]

Hosts

Stuart McIntyre (blog | twitter | company) & Darren Duke (blog | twitter | company)

Guests

Mike McGarel

Mike McGarel (blog | Twitter) , As a Collaborative Solutions Developer for Czarnowski Display Services, “XPages marks the spot”in my career right now. All of our new development efforts have been XPages-focused for over a year.  I am Vice President of GRANITE, the Chicago-based ICS user group. I also help out with various community get-togethers such as the Blogger Open at Lotusphere and the annual Midwest Lotus User Group conference.

Topics

XWork Server Update – TNG

  • Ed asks what next for the newest member of the Domino family
  • “Social Business Databases”?
  • ISV chicken and the egg issues?
  • “. . . awareness is lower than we expected at this point in time.”Proof that it needs its own marketing campaign?

Third OpenNTF Development Content

  • Sponsored by We4IT
  • Deadline: June 3rd, 2012
  • Two categories (Controls and Applications). Each category will have 2 winners. The Control category winners will receive $800.00 each, the Application category winners will receive $1600.00 each. The winners can choose between Amazon vouchers or payment via Paypal.

“New look”of http://xpages.info

  • Fantastic work by Bruce and the team

Connections Community Documentation

iPad Fever

  • Stresses the need to get up to speed on mobile development. If you’re company is still thinking about mobilizing your apps, it time to stop thinking and start doing.
  • So how many iPad 3’s will Stuart be buying? 😉

MWLUG 2012

  • Dates: August 15th – 17th
  • Location: Pittsburgh, PA at the Omni William Penn Hotel.
  • 5 Tracks: Administration, Application Development, Business Cases and Strategy, New Technology and Integration, and Social Business
  • YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/mwlug (videos from 2009-2011)
  • Website: new XPages-based site plans to debut at the end of March
  • Call for abstracts:  Planned for mid-April 2012

Tips

Darren:

  • Notepad++. Notepad they way it should have been. One of the first things I install on a new machine. Excellent light weight editor.

Mike:

  • In the grand tradition of developers stealing borrowing from one other, I saw this site mentioned within a Planet Lotus blog post from Mark Roden: http://jsbeautifier.org/. It makes JavaScript code more readable by adding indents and line breaks.

Stuart:

  • Chrome with IBM Connections Files issue workaround. Great job, Sjaak!

74: The X-Rated Show. XPages, XSnippets and Xtensions – what have OpenNTF and IBM done to Xtend Domino Development?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:11:15 — 65.3MB)

Episode 74, recorded on Wednesday 19th October 2011.  We discuss the latest release of the XPages Extension Library, the IBM XWork Server offering, the XPages Contest, DANNotes and more…

Hosts

Stuart McIntyre (blog | twitter | company) & Darren Duke (blog | twitter | company)

Guests

Niklas HeidloffNiklas Heidloff (blog | twitter | OpenNTF blog) is is an architect in the IBM Lotus Domino development team and leads IBM’s engagement in OpenNTF including XPages.info.
Martin DonnellyMartin Donnelly (linkedin) is a software architect and tech lead for the XPages runtime team in IBM Ireland and has worked on all three XPages releases from Notes/Domino 8.5 through 8.5.2, Prior to this, Martin also worked on XFaces for Lotus Component Designer and on JSF tooling for Rational Application Developer. In the 1990s while living and working in Massachusetts, he was a lead developer on Domino Designer. Now, once again based in Ireland, Martin lives in Cork with his wife, three daughters, and two greyhounds. When pressed, he confesses to playing soccer on a weekly basis, and salmon fishing during the summer when the opportunity presents itself.
Chris ConnorChris Connor (company | twitter | blog | linkedin) is a Consultant / Developer in XPages, Mobile, Eclipse, Java. Worked with Lotus Notes and Domino for 16+ years. Based in Hamilton (just outside Glasgow) in Scotland. Works for customers throughout the UK.

Topics

XPages Extension Library update 

  • What is the Extension Library?
  • Why did IBM release this as an extra library?
  • What’s new in the release?
    • Mobile controls
    • Social Enabler
    • Extlib tooling plugin for Designer
    • New discussion and teamroom template
    • Upgrade to support accessibility and localization
  • What version of Notes/Domino is required?
  • What happens to the Mobile Library?
  • How does the Extension Library get deployed and how does support work?

Reflections on IBM XWork Server launch 

  • What has the reaction been like from customers?
  • Beyond the 4×4 and 8×8 restrictions the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Uplift parts for Connections entitlements announced 

  • Just 60GBP list price
  • Effectively discounts Connections sales into N/D customers by ~40%
  • Difficult to know how to handle customers where only some of the users need the uplift

XPages Contest 

  • Goals: Mobile apps or social applications
  • Awards: 3 iPads/iPhones/vouchers and 1 Lotusphere 2012 ticket
  • Deadline for submissions: 12/02/11

XSnippets – Next Generation of the OpenNTF Code Bin 

  • Contributors: Frank van der Linden, Serdar Basegmez, Bruce Elgort, Niklas Heidloff
  • Other goal: Document how we do things, not only the results

DANNotes coming soon 

  • Niklas, Chris and Stuart all speaking there
  • 23-24 November, 2011 in Korsor, 75 minutes West of Copenhagen

Tips

Darren:
Lose hours and hours (via twitter, sorry can’t recall who) – http://www.drawastickman.com/
Niklas:
http://xpages.info/videos has 10 hours of free XPages videos
Martin:
New books:
XPages Extension Library – ETA April 2012 (Amazon US | Amazon UK)
XPages Portable Command Guide: A Compact Resource to XPages Application Development and the XSP Language – ETA January 2012 (Amazon US | Amazon UK)
Chris:
Look at building XPages apps more around java instead of SSJS.
Stuart:
SocialNotes – fixed price deployment of Connections Files & Profiles for Notes/Domino customers

[Music this week courtesy of the Stone Roses who announced they are reforming yesterday. Go buy their music on iTunes!] 

72: That explains the pants!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:06:57 — 61.4MB)

Episode 72, recorded on Thursday 7th 2011.  We discuss the passing of Steve Jobs, IBM’s new XWork Server offering, the release of Notes/Domino 8.5.3 and its new entitlements, Lotusphere 2012 and more…

Hosts

Stuart McIntyre (blog | twitter | company) & Darren Duke (blog | twitter | company)

Guests

Tim ClarkTim Clark (blog | twitter | company) has been working in the Information Technology industry since 1987 and has a wealth of experience in all sorts of areas. From September 2011 Tim became the Technical Services Manager for GSX Groupware Solutions. Tim is enjoying his new role immensely and gaining new skills, talking to customers and learning a new product set.  For the previous 17 years Tim was working for IBM UK in customer support, technical sales and business partner technical roles. Tim has specialised in Lotus technologies and has a gained a reputation for being the go to technical person for the business partner community. Tim is an accomplished speaker and for the past 2 years he has co-presented the extremely popular XPages session in the Lotusphere Show and Tell track. Since it’s launch Tim has been enabling business partners all over Europe on Lotus XPages. Tim is also a Lotus Certified Professional (Domino Administrator) and a RedHat Certified technician. When not working Tim is passionate about playing rugby, riding his motorbike, playing drums and spending time with his new family.
Julian WoodwardJulian Woodward (blog | twitter | company) has been working in IT since 1987. He started as a C and Assembler developer, moving through Clipper (remember that?!) to Lotus Notes 3 and all subsequent versions. He’s seen the world from the ISV, customer and partner perspectives, and has lived in London his whole life (so far). In 1995-6 Julian did a Post-Diploma course in singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London …but the lure of IT was strong, and he returned to work for a business partner before setting up Axiot in 2005. He’s still primarily working as a developer, in Lotus Notes/Domino and Microsoft C#, SQL-Server, etc. He is a member of the London Developer Coop, and Axiot is a Penumbra Group company. Julian is a keen Facebooker, a reluctant Tweeter, an occasional blogger and an on-the-fence GooglePlusser. He’s passionate about music, singing, real ale, real cheese, his wife, rugby (watching, not playing) and his children. Although not necessarily in that order.
Larry HawesLarry Hawes (blog | twitter | company) is the Principal and founder of Dow Brook Advisory Services, where he advises enterprise software vendors on product roadmap, positioning and messaging, go-to-market, and merger and acquisition strategies. Larry is also an internationally recognized expert on the application of information management technologies to drive high-value business transformation. His research and consulting work is focused on collaboration and knowledge management practices in the technology domains of enterprise social software, unified communication and collaboration, enterprise portals, document and content management, and business process management.  Larry’s previous work experience included three and a half years as an analyst and consultant at Delphi Group and almost five years as an IBM consultant and program manager. Most recently, he was Lead Analyst, Collaboration and Enterprise Social Software at the Gilbane Group. Larry holds a BA in Music from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and a MA in Historical Musicology from the University of Michigan. He earned the MBA degree, with honors, at Babson College. He lives on a beautiful property abutting the Dow Brook Reservoir in Ipswich, MA with his wife, two sons, a dog, and a cat.

Topics

RIP Steve Jobs

  • An incredibly sad day
  • What has Steve Jobs meant to us?
  • What did he do that has made a difference to our careers in tech?

IBM XWork Server released

  • Sans “Lotus”(Domino without the ‘Lotus’or the ‘Notes’?)
  • Good name?  Anyone else struggling with the singular?
  • Larry, any thoughts on how this competes with MS and others?
  • ISVs – will they show interest?
  • $2,000 per year every year

Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.3 released

Lotusphere 2012 Registration Open

  • Who’s going
  • Abstracts are MIA right now. Are they cutting it close?

Apple iPhone 4s

Tips

Darren:
Don’t take a week off. You really don’t want to come back 😉
Tim:
Don’t believe the hype. Apple is a prime example this week. Also OSX Lion is rubbish, but Apple will tell you otherwise. ;o)
Julian:
If you use OS/X Lion, you can implement the reverse scrolling direction on Windows using XMouseButtonControl freeware from http://www.highrez.co.uk/.
Larry:
Honor Steve Jobs’life by following his example. Believe in your talents and live your life on the edge.
Stuart:
Steve Jobs’ address at Stanford.  And my real tip… Notes/Domino customers – implement Profiles and Files now.  Perhaps even using SocialNotes offering!

[Music this week is by Pomplamoose, taken from the track ‘Centrifuge’.  Get it and more from their site at pomplamoose.com or on iTunes!]