lessons learned from the worlds largest xpage project
DESCRIPTION
Working on the world's largest XPages implementation has its challenges. Modernizing an IBM Notes client application used in over 105 countries by over 100,000 users teaches you a lot! In this session, we'll share some of the challenges and our appropach to overcoming them. We'll demonstrate a new XPinC performance feature in the upcoming Social Edition being added as a result of our work with IBM. We'll also demonstrate best practices in user interaction, share lessons learned on team development using a single .nsf file -- and much more. Come and find out more about how you can save time, money and avoid end-user frustration as we share our experiences - and open the covers of the largest XPages project in the world. Sample DB provided!TRANSCRIPT
© 2013 IBM Corporation
BP211 Lessons From the Worlds Largest XPages Project Andrew Barickman | Practice Leader, PSC Group LLC Mark Roden | Senior Consultant, PSC Group LLC
About Andrew
• Nearly 20 years delivering IBM Notes Domino® work
• Started at Lotus in Boston
• Manage PSC’s Collaboration Practice at PSC• Delivery• Personnel• Sales Support• Team and Project Technical Direction
• Contact Information• [email protected]• @ajbarickman
Over 15 years IBM Notes Domino® work
Senior Consultant at PSC• XPages developer • Project Leader
Contact Information• Blog: http://www.xomino.com• Email: [email protected]• Twitter: @markyroden• Skype: marky.roden
About Mark
www.psclistens.com @pscgroup
The Application• Lesson One: Team Development and XPages• Lesson Two: Performance• Lesson Three: User Experience
Questions
Agenda
Over 65,000+ Users
105 Countries
14 different resources from PSC
14,000 consulting hours
The Worlds Largest? Really?
Single page web application– Dojo– jQuery– EXTJS– Extension Library
Modalities – The promise of XPages• IE, IE9, Firefox• Notes – Connected & Disconnected• Mobile
• Feature Rich iPad • Handset approvals
Technical highlights
Gantt Chart with COM Export to MS Project
MS Excel data import and export
Automatic Print to PDF
Dynamic Forms– Independent form builder– Build using JSON data representation
Windows explorer file integration– Round trip editing of Office documents– Maintains file depencies
Functional highlights
Highly tailored project management application
Manages the content and deliverables for all of their customer engagements
Full application lifecycle management• Provisioning• Archiving
What does it do?
Limited to 8.5.2 due to roll out constraints
Thousands of instances of the same design spread across many servers
Self contained so that it can be replicated and used locally
Support all different modalities that XPages allows
YEARS of highly complex, business specific logic and customized code
Application Design / Constraints
Working with Domino Designer in Eclipse (DDE)• Not the same as traditional Notes development• Refresh all code updates before building• No design locking• Build Path needs consideration
Lesson One: Team Development and XPages
Individual servers for each developer• Same domain to replicate NABs• SSJS debugging• No cross building issues
Source control
Master build management
Recommendations
Virtual Machine (VM) distribution• Mimic production environment• Reducing testing incongruity• Maximizing productivity• Easy to deploy to new team members
Recommendations
If the application does not perform nothing else you do to it matters
• Single Copy XPage design• Major XPINC performance improvement in Notes 9• Preloading of design elements for Notes client
Lesson Two: Performance
Single Copy XPages Design (SCXD) works when you have many instances of a single design
The following example with be shown using the team room template
Performance - Single Copy XPages Design
Opening the Team Room in the notes client
Performance - SCXD
View source for a database WITHOUT SCXD
Performance - SCXD
Open the database in designer to enable Single Copy XPages design
Performance - SCXD
Open the database in designer to enable single copy XPage design
Performance - SCXD
Shut Notes and reopen the database – path to the SCXD NOT the database
Performance - SCXD
Benefits for both Notes client users and browser users
Performance increases for a user switching between many team rooms because the resources are already cached locally
Increased server efficiency and performance because the server can cache those resources once and serve them to many different users regardless of the team room they are opening
But wait….. It gets better if you are using Notes clients and IBM Notes Domino® 9 Social Edition
Performance - SCXD
Create a local replica of the SCXD
Performance - SCXD
Open the SERVER copy of the database
Performance - SCXD
The server database is now using the LOCAL resources
Performance - SCXD
If the user accesses the database via a browser the server looks for the SCXD on the server at the path specified
If they use a Notes client without a local copy or replica of the SCXD then it uses the server based copy
If they have a local copy or replica of the SCXD they get the added benefit of large performance increases
If no SCXD exist it will fail gracefully
But wait again… there is yet more!
Performance - SCXD
XPagesPreload=1
XPagesPreloadDB=…
Specify the local SCXD database
Include the page or pages to preload when the Notes client starts
Those elements and any dependencies will be preloaded to greatly speed up initial open
Performance - PreLoad
How do I know if preloading is working?
Add –RPARAMS –console to your application shortcut
This will load the OSGI console on load of the Notes client
Performance - PreLoad
Performance - PreLoad
OSGI console will show the preloading information after client load
Performance - PreLoad
The results you get will vary greatly depending on the speed of your WAN/LAN connection
Our experience in the Notes client – your results may vary– 2-3 times as fast for normal operations such as opening a view or
opening a document– Up to 10 times as fast for initial database open when using
preloading
Performance –Conclusions
Where is my lightning bolt?
Users need to know that something is happening
How do I search for my documents?
Demos• Good solution • Better solution
Lesson Three: User Experience
XPages and web development require a new approach
Fundamentally different than in Notes
Key interface to nearly every application you build
Get it right and your users will love you
Getting Views on the Web Right
Paging through thousands of records is not practical
Views – Out of the Box Usability
F
Your users don’t know FT search syntax…
Views – Search
C-
Views – Query Builder
B+
Views – EXTJS Grid
A+
Views – EXTJS Grid Architecture
A sample database will be shown to provide working examples
This database will be made available after the conference
Demonstration
Questions and Answers
Those who worked on the grids:– Steve Lohja – Imran Bhaidani– Troy Reimer– Andrew Barickman– Mark Roden
Thanks also to contributions by Tony McGuickin (IBM)
Thanks to the PSC team
41 © 2013 IBM Corporation
Legal disclaimer
© IBM Corporation 2013. All Rights Reserved.
The information contained in this publication is provided for informational purposes only. While efforts were made to verify the completeness and accuracy of the information contained in this publication, it is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind, express or implied. In addition, this information is based on IBM’s current product plans and strategy, which are subject to change by IBM without notice. IBM shall not be responsible for any damages arising out of the use of, or otherwise related to, this publication or any other materials. Nothing contained in this publication is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, creating any warranties or representations from IBM or its suppliers or licensors, or altering the terms and conditions of the applicable license agreement governing the use of IBM software.
References in this presentation to IBM products, programs, or services do not imply that they will be available in all countries in which IBM operates. Product release dates and/or capabilities referenced in this presentation may change at any time at IBM’s sole discretion based on market opportunities or other factors, and are not intended to be a commitment to future product or feature availability in any way. Nothing contained in these materials is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, stating or implying that any activities undertaken by you will result in any specific sales, revenue growth or other results.
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled environment. The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon many factors, including considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the user's job stream, the I/O configuration, the storage configuration, and the workload processed. Therefore, no assurance can be given that an individual user will achieve results similar to those stated here.