Alan’s blog about software, technology, travel, and the occasional golf post. http://www.alanlepofsky.net/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/ en-us Thu, 3 Jul 2008 16:00:00 -0400 Thu, 3 Jul 2008 16:00:00 -0400 http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/second-life-inside-lotus-notes Alan Lepofsky http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/second-life-inside-lotus-notes?opendocument&comments http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/second-life-inside-lotus-notes upcoming capabilities of Domino XPages.  What follows is always "But what about new features for the Notes client?"  In my opinion Composite Applications for the Notes 8 client are one of the coolest things we've ever done, but I'm disappointed that they are not talked about all that much.

Here are four videos showing examples of composite applications:
- IBM Lotus Notes 8 - banking composite application - Part 1
- IBM Lotus Notes 8 - banking composite application - Part 2
- Lotus Notes 8 Composite Application Capability: Lead Manager
- Lotus Notes 8 Smart Assist Composite Application Demo

Last year Lotus released a library of 22 components that developers can use to make composite applications in Lotus Notes 8.

Lotus plans on releasing a big update to that library very soon, and you can have a sneak peak!

A few of the things that the first sneak peak mentions are:
- Update Site and Documentation Site are now separate.
- A lot more than 22 components, and you can install features at a lower level of granularity.
- Includes new components not just for composite applications, but also for the sidebar, and menu extensions.

At 2:40, notice the Export View As Spreadsheet!  I want to try that one.


In the second sneak peak you are shown how to run a Win32 component inside Lotus Notes as part of a composite application.   The example used is Second Life!



So if you are a Lotus developer, take a look into Composite Applications.   Here are some key resources:

- Lotus Notes component development in Composite Applications Wiki
- IBM Lotus Notes composite Application blog
- IBM Lotus Notes composite application podcast series
- Designing composite applications: IBM Lotus Notes components
- Developing composite applications: Composite application assembly, part 1 ]]> http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dxcomments/second-life-inside-lotus-notes http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/second-life-inside-lotus-notes?opendocument&comments Wed, 2 Jul 2008 23:30:00 -0400 http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/scopes Notes 8 Alan Lepofsky http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/scopes?opendocument&comments http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/scopes
On the left  is Lotus Notes 8, the right Firefox.  Both products let you simply click on the left side of the search box to be provided with a drop down list of choices of search engines.



In a future version of Lotus Notes, I hope it will be easier to develop, install, and manage additional scopes, as well as a catalog of them open to the community, with lots of developers contributing!   I believe all of these things are being worked on. ]]> http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dxcomments/scopes http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/scopes?opendocument&comments Wed, 2 Jul 2008 21:30:00 -0400 http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/iphone-2-has-lotus-notes-like-selection Alan Lepofsky http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/iphone-2-has-lotus-notes-like-selection?opendocument&comments http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/iphone-2-has-lotus-notes-like-selection new iPhone video, I could not help but notice that the new software pays respect to the long standing Lotus Notes selection model!  (yes, it went away in 8, we've learned and put it back!)



The iPhone appears to have an annoying extra step of having to click Edit first though.   ]]> http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dxcomments/iphone-2-has-lotus-notes-like-selection http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/iphone-2-has-lotus-notes-like-selection?opendocument&comments Tue, 1 Jul 2008 09:44:46 -0400 http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/canada-day-141 Alan Lepofsky http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/canada-day-141?opendocument&comments http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/canada-day-141
                   


To get your party on, please check out my favourite Canadian band, The Great Big Sea's new album Fortune's Favour.

Also, here are some lists of Canadian actors, athletes, bands, and musicians!

Enjoy, eh! ]]> http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dxcomments/canada-day-141 http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/canada-day-141?opendocument&comments Tue, 1 Jul 2008 08:53:25 -0400 http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/lifehacker-on-firefox-3 Alan Lepofsky http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/lifehacker-on-firefox-3?opendocument&comments http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/lifehacker-on-firefox-3 Top 10 Firefox 3 Features and Power User's Guide to Firefox 3

Before anyone posts it, yes I know about the current lack of support for FF3 and Lotus Connections 2.0. ]]> http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dxcomments/lifehacker-on-firefox-3 http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/lifehacker-on-firefox-3?opendocument&comments Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:30:00 -0400 http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/xpages Application Development Alan Lepofsky http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/xpages?opendocument&comments http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/xpages
As defined in the Domino Web App Dev Wiki, "An XPage is a new design element based on JavaServer Faces (JSF) technology that lets developers create Web 2.0 enabled pages for use in Web browser applications running on Domino 8.5. "

The Taking Notes gang has just released a new podcast to help you get you up to speed: Taking Notes Episode 83: XPages and Yellow Water

Several bloggers have been writing about XPages, here are some of the articles I know about: (in no specific order)
- Rob McDonagh - XPages in Domino Designer 8.5
- Nathan Freeman - Why Xpages Are Better Than Cake and Ice Cream
- John Mackey has several blog postings on XPages
- John Head - XPages Comes of Age
- Andrew Pollack wrote one of the original articles, XPages in Domino Designer, and has posted several times about them. 1 2 3 4 5.

Here is the IBM Lotus Designer 8.5 - XPages Hello World sample application.  This is part of a getting started tutorial for XPages in the 'Lotus Domino Designer Basic User Guide'.

I heard a rumour that someone might start a blog that aggregates all XPages related content into one place. ]]> http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dxcomments/xpages http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/xpages?opendocument&comments Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:00:00 -0400 http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/use-high-def-stupid Alan Lepofsky http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/use-high-def-stupid?opendocument&comments http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/use-high-def-stupid
I also wish my channel guide would only display shows available to me.   I know they show everything on purpose, so that you DO SEE what you are missing, and you buy it, but I can still wish. ;-)

I used to complain that computers should be as easy to use as televisions.  You just press power on/off, channel up/down, and volume up/down.  Done.  Unfortunately now with the combination of cable boxes, DVRs, media centers, surround sound systems, Blu-ray players, etc, TV is becoming rocket science! ]]> http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dxcomments/use-high-def-stupid http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/use-high-def-stupid?opendocument&comments Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:30:00 -0400 http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/lotus-connections-quickr-sametime-bundle Alan Lepofsky http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/lotus-connections-quickr-sametime-bundle?opendocument&comments http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/lotus-connections-quickr-sametime-bundle IBM Lotus CEO Community Collaboration Bundle combines the benefits of the latest releases of IBM Lotus Connections, IBM Lotus Sametime Advanced, and IBM Lotus Quickr, offering a complete collaboration solution at a great value." ]]> http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dxcomments/lotus-connections-quickr-sametime-bundle http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/lotus-connections-quickr-sametime-bundle?opendocument&comments Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:45:00 -0400 http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/revisting-accessing-your-mail-locally Mail Alan Lepofsky http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/revisting-accessing-your-mail-locally?opendocument&comments http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/revisting-accessing-your-mail-locally
I wrote the first two tips
Local Mail - Part 1: Explaining Local vs. Server, and
Local Mail - Part 2: Checking the size of your mail file

but then I got side tracked as I tend to do!  Then last  week I was helping an IBM colleague with their mail, and we discovered that while they thought they were using their email locally, they actually were not.  I bet this is a very common situation, so I was motivated to get back to writing about this.

Here are the topics I plan on writing about to round out the series...
Local Mail - Part 3: Creating your new local mail file.
Local Mail - Part 4: Configuring Lotus Notes to use the local replica.
Local Mail - Part 5: Configuring the schedule for when Lotus Notes will check for new mail.
Local Mail - Part 6: Tying it all together. ]]> http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dxcomments/revisting-accessing-your-mail-locally http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/revisting-accessing-your-mail-locally?opendocument&comments Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:45:00 -0400 http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/connections-kicks-sharepoints-butt Lotus Connections Alan Lepofsky http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/connections-kicks-sharepoints-butt?opendocument&comments http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/connections-kicks-sharepoints-butt E2.0 Conference: Social Computing Platforms (IBM & Microsoft) session which he moderated.  My favourite quotes from the summary are:

"IBM was the clear winner across the board. The storyline and narrative woven around the presentation and demonstrations was near-perfect."

"Clearly, Microsoft did a poor job of showing and explaining why business and/or technical decision-makers should consider SharePoint as a credible solution to meet the social computing needs of an organization."

Anyone working someone thinking about Sharepoint, please read this. ]]> http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dxcomments/connections-kicks-sharepoints-butt http://www.alanlepofsky.com/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/connections-kicks-sharepoints-butt?opendocument&comments