XPages: why to use them?

HCL Notes/Domino 8.5 Forum (includes Notes Traveler)

Subject: XPages: why to use them?

Feedback Type: Suggestion

Product Area: Domino Server

Technical Area: Application Development

Platform: ALL

Release: 8.5.1

Reproducible: Always

Hello,

I've been learning XPages in the last few weeks and started creating my first XPages for real use (8.5.1FP2 Designer and server). The more I learn about XPages the more convinced I am that they are useless. Everything I've seen so far can be done with forms and agents as or more easily.

Here are the main problems I've faced:

1. Reuse of what we've done before. I've built a large repository of reusable LotusScript libraries, subforms and agents. NONE of these can be used with XPages and IBM wants me to throw all these to trash and start from the beginning again.

2. Header and Footer. A company specific layout typically has a header and footer (implemented as subforms before) where header opens some div tags and the footer closes them. How do I do this with XPages? I've tried e.g. custom controls ("Item not found") and placing the HTML retrieved with Ajax to div with .outerHTML (footer does not render correctly).

3. Security. In an HTTP agent I can choose to run it with user's rights or signer rights. Now in my XPage I'm creating an Excel (.xlsx) file in the server side which I need to send to the user via HTTP. In this process I need to (in my understanding) write this file to the disk but the user does not have rights to do that. Am I correct that XPages code always runs with user's rights?

4. Slowness. Development typically involved hundreds or thousands iterations where I save a small change and test it with a browser. When I save a form or agent I can get the result to my browser page in the same second. When I save an XPage (have to use mouse for saving bec usually Crtl-S does not work) it takes about 30 sec to build before it shows up on my browser! This slows down development a lot. Even the subsequent page loads are slower than they are for the same thing in a form and agent, even if I set the XPage to stay in memory.

5. You still need to create the form! Why? Form is also just a presentation layer.

Fix these and XPages may become usable. One positive comment though: the error messages of SSJS are very descriptive!

I guess XPages are useful when there is a need to share components with Mashup Center etc. but if there is not, is there any reason why I should use XPages?

Of course forms and agents seem to be in maintenance mode and it's not fun to develop with something that Lotus seems to have declared dead. So please fix XPages fast or start developing forms and agents again (e.g. "[x] stay in memory" check box for agents!).

thanks,

- Panu

Feedback number WEBB85SG9E created by ~Alexis Minlutex on 05/25/2010

Status: Open
Comments:

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XPages: why to use them? (~Alexis Minlute... 25.May.10)

. . Good summary... (~James Brewever... 25.May.10)

. . My comments (~Denise Xanaman... 25.May.10)

. . . . Thanks for the comments (~Alexis Minlute... 25.May.10)

. . It's not as bad as you think... (~Sanjay Quettum... 25.May.10)

. . . . It is as bad as you think... (~James Brewever... 25.May.10)

. . . . . . Trust me, no Kool-Aid here... (~Sanjay Quettum... 25.May.10)

. . . . . . . . Yet everyone seems to say it's 97% ... (~James Brewever... 25.May.10)

. . . . . . . . . . Just for others reading, not everyo... (~Elizabeth Minf... 26.May.10)

. . . . . . . . . . . . I agree completely! (~James Brewever... 26.May.10)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heh... (~Sanjay Quettum... 26.May.10)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . that is not what I said (~Elizabeth Minf... 26.May.10)

. . . . OK Thanks (~Alexis Minlute... 25.May.10)

. . My thoughts (~Maria Xanjumib... 25.May.10)

. . . . Thanks for your comments (~Alexis Minlute... 25.May.10)

. . . . . . use the MS OOXML SDK V2 for Excel 2... (~Elizabeth Minf... 26.May.10)

. . . . . . . . Is that Java based? (~Alexis Minlute... 26.May.10)

. . . . . . . . . . no Java yet (~Elizabeth Minf... 26.May.10)

. . . . . . . . . . . . I'm generating the XML (~Alexis Minlute... 27.May.10)

. . . . . . Some of my thoughts (~Elizabeth Dwoj... 25.May.10)

. . . . . . . . Good comments (~Alexis Minlute... 25.May.10)

. . . . . . Dojo Option for Charts (~Maria Xanjumib... 26.May.10)

. . . . . . . . Yes, I'm using them in my other rep... (~Alexis Minlute... 26.May.10)

. . One more positive comment (~Alexis Minlute... 26.May.10)

. . . . don't wait MS will develop a conver... (~Patti Desvelut... 31.Jan.11)

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