Do I need a separate XPage for each of my 30+ Notes views?

Question

I am working to place an XPage front-end on an existing Notes app that has many views. Right now, I am building the XPages and Custom Controls (CCs) in a separate NSF from the existing App/Data. (Not a requirement, but I offer this in case it affects your answer.)

Planning for maintenance, I was hoping to build a minimum of reusable XPages/CCs. I realize I may need a separate CC for each underlying Notes View, but I was hoping to reuse one or a few XPages and decide at run-time what view should be displayed in a "content" panel/div. (A "computed Custom Control"?)

In addition, I was hoping to provide a left menu/list of views on the XPage that would (1) allow view selection via click and (2) visually indicate which view was selected (again, targeting reusability... not a menu for each view.)

(Notes App parallel: A frameset with an outline in the left frame and a content frame for loading views selected from the outline.)

Any suggestions, resources, links, pointers, etc. would be very appreciated.

Also, in your reply, please assume that I cannot use the Extensions Library.

Thank you for helping an obviously new XPages developer.

Why are you not able to use Extension Library (or Upgrade Pack 1)? — Per Henrik Lausten
The application will be distributed and I cannot control or dictate that the customer install the Extension Library. I need a "lowest common denominator" solution. I am hoping to run on stock Domino 8.5 and up. — Grant Lindsay
I suppose that another way I could have asked my question is, How did developers handle non-trivial numbers of views in XPages before the advent of the Extension Library? — Grant Lindsay

Sven Hasselbach Sven Hasselbach · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-14T16:48:56

You could use URL parameters to control which view will be displayed. To to this you can create a XPage which has the columns computed like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xp:view xmlns:xp="http://www.ibm.com/xsp/core">

<xp:viewPanel rows="30" id="viewPanel1">
    <xp:this.data>
        <xp:dominoView var="view1" viewName="All"></xp:dominoView>
    </xp:this.data>
    <xp:this.facets>
        <xp:pager partialRefresh="true" layout="Previous Group Next"
            xp:key="headerPager" id="pager1">
        </xp:pager>
    </xp:this.facets>

    <!-- Column 1 -->
    <xp:viewColumn id="viewColumn1"
        columnName="#{javascript:view1.getColumnNames().get(0)}">
        <xp:this.rendered><![CDATA[#{javascript:view1.getColumnCount() > 0}]]></xp:this.rendered>
        <xp:viewColumnHeader id="viewColumnHeader1"
            value="#{javascript:view1.getColumnNames().get(0)}">
        </xp:viewColumnHeader>
    </xp:viewColumn>

    <!-- Column 2 -->
    <xp:viewColumn id="viewColumn2"
        columnName="#{javascript:view1.getColumnNames().get(2)}">
        <xp:this.rendered><![CDATA[#{javascript:view1.getColumnCount() > 1}]]></xp:this.rendered>
        <xp:viewColumnHeader id="viewColumnHeader2"
            value="#{javascript:view1.getColumnNames().get(2)}">
        </xp:viewColumnHeader>
    </xp:viewColumn>

</xp:viewPanel>

</xp:view>

Now you can open the XPage with the URL

http://example.com/yourdb.nsf/view.xsp?viewName=[NAME OF THE VIEW]

Additionally you can add the databaseName parameter to use a view from another db. The other properties can be computed too (categorization, sorting etc.).

Do I need a separate XPage for each of my 30+ Notes views?

4 Answers