Is there a clever way how to share custom controls among Xpages applications?

2
votes

For our Xpages application stack we have to create cca. 100 controls that will cover our new UI parts/helpers and some additional services. These controls are meant to be very general and have to be used by many Xpages applications. Now question is how to share these controls among applications(databases). Controls need some managed beans to work, also some CSS, JS and images. To copy the whole stuff into each application and maintain it somehow is not the way (even design inheritance doesnt help here). What's more ... mixing these 100 controls among application specific controls is real hell as controls doesn't support any namespaces or some packages grouping (like java in Package Explorer), so at the end we have very long list of controls in DDE which is nightmare to navigate and work with.

We tried to use Extension Library approach and followed this tutorial

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/ddwiki.nsf/dx/Master_Table_of_Contents_for_XPages_Extensibility_APIs_Developer_Guide

... but honestly I tried 3 times on my computer from scratch and even example project from tutorial didn't work properly and still caused some errors in update site project. My colleague also tried this on his computer with no luck. And entire process as described in the article above is set of many java classes, XML and configuration files even for small control (eclipse plugin project -> feature project -> updated site project and then you have to install this update site test it and when bug occurs you have to run another cycle ...). Comparing to e.g. this http://tapestry.apache.org/component-classes.html its extremely heavy weight approach in Xpages.

So my question is, is there any other approach that can help us in this area to share controls among applications? Or is there any update expected in this area for upcoming Notes release e.g. R9.1 ?

2
xpages
Add the debug component from OpenNTF. It cuts the whole cycle. You need the feature and update site then only for final deployment. The process isn't specific to Domino but to OSGi – stwissel
I would certainly recommend adding a Category to your custom controls (CC properties, next to where you define the namespace xc...). This has started restoring some small bit of my sanity lately. – Eric McCormick

2 Answers

5
votes

the most efficient way to share controls is an extension library. It does come with a learning curve. You could use Nathan's XSP Starter Kit to ease your pain. Alternatively you can use the import/export plug-in from OpenNTF to move controls (and their supporting files) around.

In any case: XPages custom controls do support name spaces and grouping -> just have a look at the property panel of a control. You can define:

  • the namespace (defaults to xc, but you are free to design your own)
  • the group it should appear in
  • icons
  • how it looks at design time (to hide the inner workings)

So step 1 is to group and clean and then think about the distribution. Extlib definitely would be best.

-1
votes

There is good ol' method for sharing design elements in NSF: templates. You can make your database a template, and then inherit just specific design elements by copy/pasting them at designer level. In design element's properties view, Design tab, look for "Inherit from the design template" property. It contains template name from which you copied the element. Watch out for the property "Prohibit design refresh or replace to modify", it should be off.

This has some consequences when deploying the application to production, though, so please, read the documentation/help about template inheritance. Especially combination with XPages/custom controls requires the template to be built and signed.

We use it to share custom controls like application layout and picklists with no problems.