The document discusses insights from the world's largest XPages project led by Andrew Barickman and Mark Roden, focusing on team development, performance, and user experience. Key lessons include recommendations for server configurations, leveraging single copy XPages design for improved performance, and enhancing user interaction through better interface design. The application serves over 65,000 users globally, showcasing functionalities like Gantt chart integration and dynamic forms.

1. BP211 Lessons From the Worlds
Largest XPages Project
Andrew Barickman | Practice Leader, PSC Group LLC
Mark Roden | Senior Consultant, PSC Group LLC
© 2013 IBM Corporation

2. 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
• abarickman@psclistens.com
• @ajbarickman

3. About Mark
 Over 15 years IBM Notes Domino® work
 Senior Consultant at PSC
• XPages developer
• Project Leader
 Contact Information
• Blog: http://www.xomino.com
• Email: mroden@psclistens.com
• Twitter: @markyroden
• Skype: marky.roden

4. www.psclistens.com @pscgroup

5. Agenda
 The Application
• Lesson One: Team Development and XPages
• Lesson Two: Performance
• Lesson Three: User Experience
 Questions

6. The Worlds Largest? Really?
 Over 65,000+ Users
 105 Countries
 14 different resources from PSC
 14,000 consulting hours

7. Technical highlights
 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

8. Functional 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

9. What does it do?
 Highly tailored project management application
 Manages the content and deliverables for all of their
customer engagements
 Full application lifecycle management
• Provisioning
• Archiving

10. Application Design / Constraints
 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

11. Lesson One: Team Development and XPages
 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

12. Recommendations
 Individual servers for each developer
• Same domain to replicate NABs
• SSJS debugging
• No cross building issues
 Source control
 Master build management

13. Recommendations
 Virtual Machine (VM) distribution
• Mimic production environment
• Reducing testing incongruity
• Maximizing productivity
• Easy to deploy to new team members

14. Lesson Two: Performance
 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

15. Performance - Single Copy XPages Design
 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

16. Performance - SCXD
 Opening the Team Room in the notes client

17. Performance - SCXD
 View source for a database WITHOUT SCXD

18. Performance - SCXD
 Open the database in designer to enable Single Copy
XPages design

19. Performance - SCXD
 Open the database in designer to enable single copy XPage
design

20. Performance - SCXD
 Shut Notes and reopen the database – path to the SCXD
NOT the database

21. 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

22. Performance - SCXD
 Create a local replica of the SCXD

23. Performance - SCXD
 Open the SERVER copy of the database

24. Performance - SCXD
 The server database is now using the LOCAL resources

25. 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!

26. Performance - PreLoad
 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

27. 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

28. Performance - PreLoad

29. Performance - PreLoad
 OSGI console will show the preloading information after
client load

30. Performance –Conclusions
 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

31. Lesson Three: User Experience
 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

32. Getting Views on the Web Right
 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

33. Views – Out of the Box Usability
F
 Paging through thousands of records is not practical

34. Views – Search
C-
 Your users don’t know FT search syntax…

35. Views – Query Builder
B+

36. Views – EXTJS Grid
A+

37. Views – EXTJS Grid Architecture

38. Demonstration
 A sample database will be shown to provide
working examples
 This database will be made available after the conference

39. Questions and Answers

40. Thanks to the PSC team
 Those who worked on the grids:
– Steve Lohja
– Imran Bhaidani
– Troy Reimer
– Andrew Barickman
– Mark Roden
 Thanks also to contributions by Tony McGuickin (IBM)

41. 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.
41 © 2013 IBM Corporation