Domino Interface

I having been doing research for the past couple of months on how I can create an file uploader control for my UX Pages Project which now has involved to become the iPhora Application Designer. Again Jake Howlett's Codestore.net and a couple of other blogs were great starting points. There was four different ways I could create a Domino file uploader: - Embedding a traditional file upload control into a Domino form - Creating a separate HTML form and referencing in the name of the Domino FUC on a traditional Domino form - Using XPages and create a FUC - Set DominoDisableFileUploadChecks=1 in the Notes.ini file and create a HTML Form that does a ?createdocument on a traditional Domino form (that I learned from Jake Howlett's blog) All these techniques will work in creating a Domino File Uploader control. However, each of these techniques have limitations that I do not like. Since I am a strong believer of the total separation of form and data the use of traditional Domino FU...

Adobe Systems was gracious enough to donate a copy of Flash Builder 4 Premium for our MWLUG 2010 Giveaway during Justin Hill's Flex and Domino session. Mark Davenport from Share Logic is the lucky winner. There were many who were hoping to be the winner of this product. If you are recently unemployed and looking into learning a new technology that is in demand, Adobe System has a program for currently unemployed developers to get themselves a copy of Flash Builder 4 Standard. More information can be found at http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/free/index.html. There will be more news to come about MWLUG.

We are fortunate enough to have two great sessions on integrating and developing Adobe Flex applications with Lotus Domino and Lotus Notes at MWLUG 2010. Justin Hill from Prominic.NET and Jerry Carter from Teamworks Solution will cover both beginning and advanced topics on using Adobe Flex with Notes and Domino. In addition, thanks to our Contributing Partner, Adobe Systems, we will be giving away two copies of Adobe Flash (Flex) Premium which retails for $700.00 at each of the sessions. We would like to thank Kevin Hoyt from Adobe Systems for this generous donation to MWLUG 2010. So if you are interested in learning more on how to work with Adobe Flex and Domino and get a chance to win a copy of Adobe Flash Premium come to these two sessions. Register at http://www.mwlug.com. Domino Applications with Adobe Flex Speaker: Justin Hill - Staff, Prominic.Net Notes and Domino provides a RAD environment that is like no other tool. However, creating Notes/Domino applications that competes ...

Last Thursday I attended the Chicago Flex User Group meeting and the topic was Adobe Flex 4 and Flash Builder 4. The Flex 4 framework brings the development of user interface to the next level. With Flex 4 the skinning and layout process is now separate from the individual objects and containers like HBox and VBox no longer exist. The container is replaced with layout definitions that is part of the skin class. It is fully integrated with Adobe Catalyst so applications can quickly be developed. I see a big potential for Domino applications running with a Adobe Flex or AIR interface. As a result of the big announcement that Apple refuses to support Flash on the iPhone, there was definitely an anti-Apple sentiment at the meeting. A couple of Flash developers I know are switching from iPhones to Android because they are that pissed off at Apple. I personally use a Blackberry.

If you are interested in Flex, there is a Chicago Flex User Group meeting tonight. For more information go to: http://www.chicagoflex.org/

I will be presenting at the next GRANITE Lotus User Group meeting, June 8, 2009, on the topic of resurfacing UI interfaces of Domino applications using with Adobe Flex. My friend David Charney from Illumen Group will also present on Understanding the Basics of UI Design. In addition, there hopefully will be a presentation on best practices of virtualizing your Domino and Lotus environments.

Last Friday was the second annual RIApalooza conference here in Chicago which I attended. It is run by a number of Chicago user groups including Adobe User Group and Flex User Group. They did a great job. Hats off to Correy Miller from Magenic for a great presentation on applying UX principles in developing applications. All the food was provided by Microsoft. There are now great tools out there to create Rich Internet Applications (RIA) including Adobe Flash and Flex and Microsoft Silverlight. Google now is starting to roll out their toolkit. However, one audience asked about IBM's contribution to providing development tools and support for Rich Internet Applications. The only mentioned was the Expeditor platform that most attendees have not hear of or disliked because of how big and bulky it is compared to Adobe's and Microsoft's solution. Unfortunately, the perception is that IBM does not seem to be involved in RIA at all. It then hit me, what is IBM's strat...

If you are interested in rich internet applications or want to learn more about User Interface design, the second annual RIApalooza is being held in Chicago on May 8, 2009. If you want more information, go to http://riapalooza.com. It is cheap, $20.00 for an all day event. If you are coming let me know. I will be there.

Over the past couple of months I have been optimizing our IBF 3.0 technology to develop applications. One of the goals of the project is to develop Notes applications with an interface design that is effective for users, especially small business users. The design team and myself have gone through a number of different designs understanding the limitations of the Lotus Notes Basic client. I thought about designing just for the Lotus Notes standard client, but I do not like it because it is big, slow, and the UI is buggy. As many who know me, I would have preferred that IBM revamped the Basic client rather than go with the an Eclipse framework. I understand why IBM went with the Eclipse framework, my I still do not like it. I am a proponent of small and lite clients. The Lotus Notes Basic client is much leaner and faster, but the UI and controlling it even with all the tricks that I and others like Chris Blatnick and Nathan Freeman has come up with is still lacking. This is espe...