AD114 -- Beyond the Mobile Browser? Building Rich Mobile Applications for IBM Lotus Domino

1. Beyond the Mobile Browser – Building Rich Mobile Applications for IBM Lotus® Domino® John M. Wargo | Director, Industry Solutions Practice AT&T Mobility

2. Agenda ● Introduction ● Deciding: Browser vs. Rich client? ● Understanding the power of IBM Domino Web Services for mobile devices ● Building the XML Web Service ● Building a BlackBerry client ● Building a Windows Mobile client ● Building the RESTful Web Service ● Wrap-up 2

3. About this Session ● Explore the differences between rich client and browser-based applications for mobile devices ● Learn how to use Lotus Domino Web Services to deliver data to mobile applications ● Learn how to build rich mobile applications to access your Domino databases ▬ BlackBerry© JavaTM application ▬ Microsoft Windows Mobile© application ▬ Others (possibly Google Android© Application) ● Targeted at Domino Developers 3

4. About Me ● Director, Industry Solutions Practice for AT&T Mobility focusing on Emerging Mobility Solutions ● Developer, worked for Research In Motion for 2.5 years ● Certified Notes developer since Notes 2.0 (before buttons) all the way through Notes 8 ● Creator of award winning Automated Deployment Toolkit and ConfigSave for Lotus Notes ● Responsible for two IBM Beacon Awards ▬ Biggest Business Impact in 1997 ▬ Best Tool/Utility 2001 ● Author of BlackBerry Development Fundamentals (www.bbdevfundamentals.com) ●Home: www.johnwargo.com Twitter: @johnwargo 4

5. Agenda ● Introduction ● Deciding: Browser vs. Rich client? ● Understanding the power of Domino Web Services for mobile devices ● Building the XML Web Service ● Building a BlackBerry client ● Building a Windows Mobile client ● Building the RESTful Web Service ● Wrap-up 5

6. Deciding on the Right Client ● Depends on your audience ▬ Are there a limited number of client platforms you need to build for? ▬ The browser is a great common denominator for most all mobile devices ● Will your mobile users need to interact with the data locally? ▬ Can’t really do that with a browser application unless you use something like Google Gears ▬ Browser application wouldn’t “run” when the radio is off (airplane mode) or when the device is out of coverage ● Will your application need to interact with other device applications (calendar, tasks, email)? ● Will the application need to function in areas with limited cellular coverage? 6

7. Strengths of the Mobile Browser ● Uses standards-based technologies ▬ HTML, XHTML, CSS*, JavaScript*, AJAX* ● Allows you to build once and run many places ▬ Pretty much every network-connected mobile device has a browser ● Leverage your core skills as a Domino/Web developer ● Most of your work has already been done if the application is already browser-enabled ▬ If so, your users could use your application in the same client (browser) only on different machines ● No application to deploy 7

8. Weaknesses of the Mobile Browser ● Slow! ● Both data and layout information delivered over the air (OTA) ● Limited in capabilities (it’s only a browser after all) ● Limited interaction with other applications on the device (and their data too) ● Limited ability to keep its data local without resorting to third-party tools ● Complicated business logic runs on the server 8

9. Browser Limitations ● If you haven’t Web-enabled your application yet, you’ve got a lot of work to do ▬ It’s easier if your business logic is in libraries rather than coded into forms or views ● Read only Document Object Model (DOM) on many devices ▬ Means you may not be able to mimic rich client capabilities in the browser (hide div's, change content on the fly and so on) ● Can’t code to the latest version of the browser ▬ Not all of your devices will be running the latest version of the OS/handheld code ● Not all mobile devices support Adobe Flash 9

10. Strengths of the Rich Client Platform ● Fast! ● Can do just about anything it wants on the device ▬ Easily store and manipulate data locally ▬ Easily interact with other device applications and application data ▬ Can create contacts, calendar appointments, tasks and more... ▬ Interact with hardware components (camera, Bluetooth scanner, etc.) ● Complicated business logic runs in the client ● Did I mention it’s fast? 10

11. Weaknesses of the Rich Client Platform ● May require a different set of skills than the typical Domino developer has ● Rich client applications can be much harder to create than browser applications ● May not run on multiple device platforms ▬ Depends on which technologies you used to build the application ▬ Java? ▬ .NET ▬ It would be great if there was a single cross platform option, but it’s actually getting worse with iPhone and Android 11

13. The Power of Domino Web Services for Mobile Devices ● Web Services are really easy to build in Notes Designer 7.x and 8.x ▬ Especially if you’ve already separated your business logic from the application ▬ We'll discuss two types: XML-Based Web Services and RESTful Web Services ● Allows multiple clients to easily access your business logic and data ▬ Build the business logic once into a Web Service then add client after client (including Notes) until you’re done ● Easily facilitates application to application communication – even across servers 13

14. Multiple Client Options 14

16. Domino Directory Lookup ● The sample application performs a simple lookup against the Domino Directory ▬ Every Domino shop has at least one extra Domino Directory they maintain (right?) ● How it works ▬ Requester passes in a partial last name ▬ Service returns a list of names that match the search string ▬ Requester selects name ▬ Service returns some of the fields from that contact’s Person Document in the database ● The two operations of the service are connected 16

17. Web Service Shell 17

18. SOAP Message Format To consume from a Java application, the Web service must use Doc/Literal SOAP message format 18

19. The Code: Defining Variables 'Some Notes objects we'll need Dim db As NotesDatabase Dim s As NotesSession 19

20. The Code: Two Classes 'The following class defines an array of strings 'that will be returned by the function GetUserList Class UserList Public users() As String End Class 'the following class defines the user details 'that we will be returning for a detailed lookup Class UserInfo Public FirstName As String Public LastName As String Public FullName As String Public EmailAddress As String Public OfficePhone As String Public MobilePhone As String End Class 20

21. The Code: Defining the Main Class Class DomDirLookup Sub New //Initialization Code goes in here End Sub Function GetUserList(searchStr As String) As UserList //Code goes in here End Function Function GetUserDetails(searchStr As String) As UserInfo //Code goes in here End Function End Class 21

22. Demonstration 22

24. Building a BlackBerry Java Client 1) Generate the web services stub classes 2) Create a new BlackBerry Java project 3) Import the stub classes 4) Write your code 24

25. Generating the Web Services Consumer Stub 1) Download (and install) the Sun Java Wireless Toolkit (http://java.sun.com/products/sjwtoolkit/) 2) Run the Stub Generator to create the stub classes you’ll call from your Java application 25

26. Generating the Web Services Consumer Stub 26

27. The Stub Classes 27

28. DomDirLookup Class // This class was generated by 172 StubGenerator. // Contents subject to change without notice. // @generated package com.johnwargo.domdirlookup; public interface DomDirLookup extends java.rmi.Remote { public java.lang.String[] GETUSERLIST(java.lang.String SEARCHSTR) throws java.rmi.RemoteException; public com.johnwargo.domdirlookup.USERINFO GETUSERDETAILS(java.lang.String SEARCHSTR) throws java.rmi.RemoteException; } 28

29. Building the BlackBerry Java client 1) Create a new Java project 2) Import the stub classes 3) Write your code 29

30. Building the BlackBerry Java client 30

31. Obtaining the Complete Instructions ● I wrote a series of documents describing this process at johnwargo.com: ▬ http://www.johnwargo.com/index.php/Domino/dbja1.html ▬ http://www.johnwargo.com/index.php/BlackBerry/dbja2.html ▬ http://www.johnwargo.com/index.php/Miscellaneous/bbdja25.html ▬ http://www.johnwargo.com/index.php/BlackBerry/bbdja3.html 31

33. Building a Windows Mobile Client 1) Create a new Project 2) Add a Web Reference to the project 3) Write your code 33

34. Building a Windows Mobile Client 34

36. Building a RESTful Web Service ● Some mobile platforms do not support XML-based Web Services directly ● You can hand craft the SOAP Request and Response, but that's really painful ● You could use kSOAP (for Java applications) or other open source libraries to provide the needed support, but that can get ugly (and difficult to support/troubleshoot) ● You can use Representative State Transfer (REST) as a useful alternative to XML-based Web Services 36

37. About REST ● Request Parameters are included in the HTTP request URL ● Service results are included in the body of a HTTP response (using JSON for example - www.json.org) ● Request Examples: ▬ http://servername/dbname.nsf/agentname?openagent&searchstr=war ▬ http://servername/dbname.nsf/agentname?openagent&searchstr=john%20wargo ● Response Example: ▬ [“Anna Wargo”, “John Wargo”] ▬ {“FirstName”:”John”,“LastName”:”Wargo”,“Email”:”jwargo@somedomain.com”, “OfficePhone”:”123.456.7890”,“MobilePhone”:”987.654.3210”, “HomePhone”:”456.789.1230”} 37

38. RESTifying the Domino Directory Lookup Service ● Two Options: ▬ Split the existing Web Service into two agents ▬ Migrate Web Service into a single agent that parses the URL command line then calls separate functions in the agent ● Use the same logic, just a different access method and output format for the data (JSON for example vs. XML/SOAP) ● You could but the logic in a script library then create two wrappers around it (XML-based Web Service and RESTful Web Service) ● Could use the JSONWriter LotusScript classes in your application to output the JSON (http://preview.tinyurl.com/ykdnmx3) 38

39. RESTifying the Domino Directory Lookup Service 39

41. Wrap-Up ● Read the articles on how to build the Domino XML Web Service and BlackBerry Java Application ▬ http://www.johnwargo.com/index.php/Domino/dbja1.html ▬ http://www.johnwargo.com/index.php/BlackBerry/dbja2.html ▬ http://www.johnwargo.com/index.php/Miscellaneous/bbdja25.html ▬ http://www.johnwargo.com/index.php/BlackBerry/bbdja3.html ● Download the sample Domino database from the articles or from http://www.johnwargo.com/files/ls2010-ad114.zip ● Download the sample BlackBerry Java application from the articles or from http://www.johnwargo.com/files/ls2010-ad114-bb.zip ● Download the sample Windows Mobile application from http://www.johnwargo.com/files/ls2010-ad114-winmo.zip 41

42. Wrap-Up ● Be sure to fill out your session evaluations! ● Want More? Repeat of BP212: Delivering IBM Lotus Domino to Mobile Devices: Top 10 Mobile Browser Dev Tricks - and More! (with Rob Wunderlich) at 1:30 PM Today! 42

43. Questions? 43

44. Legal Disclaimer © IBM Corporation 2010. 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. IBM, the IBM logo, Lotus, Lotus Notes, Notes, Domino, Quickr, Sametime, WebSphere, UC2, PartnerWorld and Lotusphere are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Unyte is a trademark of WebDialogs, Inc., in the United States, other countries, or both. Java and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both. Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. 44

AD114 -- Beyond the Mobile Browser? Building Rich Mobile Applications for IBM Lotus Domino

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AD114 -- Beyond the Mobile Browser? Building Rich Mobile Applications for IBM Lotus Domino