®
IBM Software Group
Domino XPages
Technology Introduction
Philippe Riand – XPages Architect
IBM Confidential

IBM Software Group | Lotus software
XPages Technology
 Brings State-of-the-Art Web technology to Domino 8.5
 Uses JSF as the runtime fundation, but doesn't require JSF/Java skills
 Extensive palette of UI controls
 Pre-built Web 2.0 functionality (Ajax...)
 Allows and enforces reutilization through custom controls
 Decreases the time for writing Web Applications
 Brand new web applications
 Modernizing existing web applications or “Web-ify” Notes applications
 Solves problems expressed by the Domino community
 Known limitations are addressed
• UI/Data separation, HTML generation control, Server state,
Localization, Extensibility…
*

IBM Software Group | Lotus software
Designed for Web 2.0
 Advanced set of controls
 Web pager, Section, Tabbed panel...
 Advanced View layouts using repeated sections
 Native support for Ajax behaviors
 Partial refresh, available to every event
 Typeahead
 Comes with the Dojo JavaScript library
 Natively leverages Dojo widgets (RichText, Date/Time picker...)
 Gives easy access to Dojo modules & widgets
*

IBM Software Group | Lotus software
Enables Enterprise Scale Applications
 Extensible architecture
 Custom controls
 An XPage can call any Java code/library
 JSF config files can be used to provide custom options
 Extended data access capability
 Applications can access data located in multiple NSF databases
 Multiple documents/views can be displayed on the same page
 Built-in localization and internationalization support
 Support String localization & dedicated pages per locale
 Automatic support for user timezone
*

IBM Software Group | Lotus software
New Design Elements within Designer
 XPages
 An XPage is the UI design element used to render web pages
 Based on an extended version of Java Server Faces, adapted to Script
developers
 Custom controls
 A custom control is a reusable piece of UI created by assembling existing controls/
behaviors within an XPage
 Appear in the control palette similarly to native controls
 Parameterizable through custom properties
 No Java nor other low level technology is required to create a custom control
 Server-side JavaScript libraries
 JavaScript is the preferred scripting language for XPages
 Themes
 A theme defines the look & feel of the application.
*

IBM Software Group | Lotus software
Leverages Web/Domino developers skills
 JavaScript is used as the main scripting language
 JavaScript used on the client and on the server
 Simple actions are also provided for common tasks
 Leverages the existing design elements (Form, Views,
Agents...)
 Forms carry the document schema (data definition) and some business
logic (computed fields...)
 Views used to query the Domino store
 Agents can be called using the back-end API
 Leverages and exposes the back-end API
 JavaScript accessors on top of the Java back-end API
 JavaScript has been extended to support @Functions()
*

IBM Software Group | Lotus software
Eclipse Based XPages WYSIWYG Editor
*

IBM Software Group | Lotus software
Complete Control of the Rendering
 Look & Feel is driven uniquely by CSS
 Full support of CSS classes or inline styles
 Uses CSS file resources
 Support Themes for skinning an application
 Predefined styles for controls
 A theme can be defined locally, in an NSF, or globally
 2 themes provided out of the box
 HTML tags/attributes can be embedded within XPages
*

IBM Software Group | Lotus software
Domino Integration
 Fully integrated within the Domino server
 Installed as part of the Domino HTTP Server
 Automatically starts with the HTTP server
 No deployment required – Create a design element within an NSF and
save it
 Leverages the Domino security model
 Data security done through the back-end API, using the web user
credentials
 Code execution controlled based on developer signatures
 Uses a custom Servlet Container
 Leverages the HTTP server configuration
• Authentication, request dispatching...
*

IBM Software Group | Lotus software
Performance
 Highly tuned JSF runtime
 The runtime has been highly tuned to optimize both the CPU cycles
and the memory consumption
 XPages are compiled into efficient Java code
 Maximizes the network bandwidth and application
responsiveness
 HTML content is “Gzipped” on the fly if the browser supports it
 Static content (JavaScript libraries, CSS...) is shrinked and pre-
compressed (gzip)
 Uses HTTP expires header cache for resources
*