background
I have designed many tools in the past year or so that is designed to help me program for XPages. These tools include primarily helper java classes, extended logging (making use of OpenLogger and my own stuff), and a few other things that I personally feel I cannot work without. It has been discussed with my employer, and we feel that it might be a good idea to start publishing these items to openNTF. Since these tools are made up of about 3 .nsfs, all designed to use the same java code, key javascript classes, css, and even a custom control or two, I would like to consolidate key items into a plug-in that can be installed at the server and client level. I want to do this consolidation before I even think about publishing any of the work I've done so far. It would just be far too much work to maintain, not just for me, but for potential users. I have not really found any information on how to do such a thing in google searches. I also have to make sure that I am able to make use of the ExtLib libraries, openNTF Domino API, and the Notes API.
my questions
How does one best go about designing such plug-ins? Must a designer
use eclipse, or is this it possible to do this directly in the Notes
Designer?
How does a designer best go about keeping a server and client up to date while designing and updating the plug-in code? Is this why GitHub is often used?
Where is the best place to get material to get started in this direction? I sort of feel lost in the woods, knowing I need to head north, but not having a compass for that first step.
Thank you very much for your input.
In my experience, I found that diving into plug-in development is a huge PITA until you get used to it, but it's definitely worth it overall.
As for whether you can use Designer for plugin development: yes, but you will likely eventually want to not do so. I started out by using Designer for this sort of thing for a while, presumably with the same sentiment as you: why bother installing another instance of Eclipse when I'm already sitting in one all day? However, between Designer's age (it's roughly equivalent to, I think, Eclipse 3.4), oddities when it comes to working sets between the "Applications" and "Project Explorer" views, and, in my case, my desire to use a Mac app, I ended up switching.
There are two major starting points: the XSP Starter Kit (http://www.openntf.org/internal/home.nsf/project.xsp?name=XSP%20Starter%20Kit) and Niklas Heidloff's video on setting up Eclipse for XPages development (http://www.openntf.org/main.nsf/blog.xsp?permaLink=NHEF-8RVB5H). The latter mentions the XPages SDK (http://www.openntf.org/internal/home.nsf/project.xsp?name=XPages%20SDK%20for%20Eclipse%20RCP), which is also useful. In my setup, I found the video largely useful, but some aspects either difficult to find (IBM's downloads are shifting sands) or optional (debugging, which will depend on whether or not you're using Eclipse on Windows).
Those resources should generally get you set up. The main thing to worry about when setting up your Eclipse environment will be making sure your Plug-In Execution Environment is properly done. If you're following the SDK setup instructions, that SHOULD get you where you need to be.
The next thing to know about is the way plugins are structured. Each plugin you want to install in Designer or Domino will also be paired with a feature project (a feature can house several plugins), and potentially an update site - the last one is optional if you just want to import the features into an Update Site NSF. That's how I often do my normal plugin development: export the paired feature to a directory and then import the feature into the server's Update Site NSF and then install in Designer from there using Application -> Install. You can also set things up so that you deploy into the server's plugin/feature directories instead of taking the step of installing into an update site if you'd prefer. GitHub doesn't really come into play for this aspect - it's more about sharing/collaborating with your code and also having a remote storage location for your git repositories (which I highly advise).
And as for the "lost in the woods" feeling: yep, you'll have that for a good while. There are lots of moving parts and esoteric concepts to get a hold of all at once. If you mostly follow the above links and then start with some basics from the XSP Starter Kit (which is itself a plugin project that you can pair with a feature) - say, printing text in the Activator class and making an implicit global variable just to make sure it works - that should help get your feet wet.
It's best done in Eclipse. You can debug your code running on the server from there, as well as run it directly from there. The editors are also more up-to-date. You want:
Eclipse for RCP and RAP developers
XPages SDK for Eclipse RCP (from OpenNTF)
XPages Debug Plugin (from OpenNTF - basically allows you to load the plugins to the Domino server dynamically, rather than exporting to an Update Site all the time)
XSP Starter Kit on OpenNTF is a good starting point for a plugin. There are various references to the library id, which has to be unique for your plugin. Basically, references to org.openntf.xsp.starter need changing to whatever you want to call your plugin. You're also best advised to remove what you don't need. I tend to work in a copy of the Starter, remove stuff, build and if there are errors with required classes (Activator.java obviously will be required and some others), then paste them back in from the Starter.
XPages OpenLog Logger is a good cross-reference, that was built from XPages Starter Kit. It's pretty much stripped down and you'll be able to see what had to be changed. A lot of the elements of the XSP Starter Kit correspond to Java classes you'll probably be familiar with from your XPages Java development.
GitHub etc tend to be used as source control, which is useful for working out what's changed from time to time.
Related
I'm working on legacy code in a DotNetNuke module, trying to get classes and behaviors under a testing framework: I'm taking this opportunity to follow advice from the "Working effectively with legacy code" book, so what happens is that i'm trying to define areas which can be tested thoroughly and then converted to services. Then i'd like to use an IoC framework for it to work. For now, i've set eyes on Ninject.
However i'm hitting a design problem: as i'm in a DotNetNuke module, i can't really change application-wide structure: for example i can't derive the Application from NinjectHttpApplication. I can't use these suggestions from SO either.
I was thinking about having the Kernel in a static class that my module would set up and then use but from what i've read around it's a very bad idea.
So i'm starting to ask myself if it's possible to use an IoC in an application that hasn't been set up to support it from scratch. If i'm supposed to have a whole dependency tree loaded for each request, how can i rewrite legacy code locally and benefit from IoC? Is there a pattern where IoC use can grow out from very local rewrites?
Even though i'm working with DotNetNuke, any standalone component that can be installed into an independent framework begs the same question. Also i'm not targeting Ninject specifically, if another IoC framework can help in this case i'm willing to consider it.
From my experience, your best bet to get this type of abstraction within the context of DotNetNuke is by using the WebFormsMVP framework. This is really the only sane way I've found to do unit testing in a DNN module, and if memory serves I spent awhile trying to wire up Ninject a year or so ago.
But be warned, it is still WebForms and will never be drop dead simple. And without knowing your existing code base, I'd have a hard time knowing how easy it will be to make the migration.
I have a couple of resources on GitHub that you can check out for reference:
The first is a module template that should act as a solid starting point:
https://github.com/irobinson/WebFormsMvp-DNN-Module-Template
The second is a small example project:
https://github.com/irobinson/BeerCollectionMVP
Depending on the version of DNN you're using, it may or may not already ship with WebFormsMVP, but you should be able to either bundle the dependencies w/ your module or upgrade to the newer version of DNN if that's reasonable.
I know the title might be a little misleading so if you find better words for what I mean, please feel free to modify it. I take the concept of 'target' from Xcode.
I'm an iPhone developer now turning to android one. With Xcode I can do the following, supposing I have a list of apps in which users grow different plants:
I can set different target, e.g. apple, bear etc.
for each target I can choose to load different database/UI images, they are all in the project file with same names but in different folders, and I can set which target uses which files.
at building phase I simply choose targets and click build, and then I can have a list of my apps.
The advantage of this is I don't need to change anything in code, just grab the resources from designer and change a little project setting, and all is done.
Now with eclipse I can't find out how I can do that so simple. I have to remove old resources and copy new ones there to build for a different target. This takes too much time when I have to make an update for 20 apps. So is there a better to achieve what I'm requiring? any plugin for eclipse or there are some easy ways that I don't know yet?
I got a solution with Android Studio's Gradle Build System i-e defining different flavors of my app and then using build variant configuations, producing different apps from same/shared code base, resources etc.
As per Android Developers Docs
The build system uses product flavors to create different product versions of your app. Each product version of your app can have different features or device requirements. The build system also uses build types to apply different build and packaging settings to each product version. Each product flavor and build type combination forms a build variant. The build system generates a different APK for each build variant of your app. Now one can have two or more product flavors e.g (paid flavor, free/demo flavor) etc for one single project with same code base.
For more information See Build Variants & Product Flavors Doc
I started a similar topic and added a bounty, so I even got responses.
Here is the topic with explanation of the problem and possible solutions that I found on the web. These are mainly library projects and broadcast receivers. Maybe library projects will work for you?
There is also a satisfactory answer that I got with a solution for Android/Eclipse. It proposes using SharedPreferences for determining which code/image/package is invoked and which not. The problem I see with it is that the entire code and resources must be in the app, so this gets quite large in case that one has a lot of different images.
Maybe there will be other helpful answers there, you can have a look after a couple of days. What I already know is that there is no such thing like targets in Eclipse... In Android Studio there are modules which seem to be similar, but that does not really help us.
I was wondering if there is an off the shelf tool to help create a 'web application' directory structure with a basic application up and running? The source code would already be pre-written I'm guessing or based on the options some files may/may-not be generated.
I'm not sure what you'd call it but say we have a custom framework* which are to be used for web application development - rather than 'creating' a directory structure all the time we could just create it once and have a console like interface similar to the play framework to generate a basic application or an empty one as per the developer's choice.
We could just give various types of 'zip' files and ask folks to unzip it and import it in their IDE of choice and continue. However, we'd prefer to have an 'installable' to run from the command line (or GUI but no such preference) to have a basic application up and running without everyone wanting to do it all over again.
How does the Play framework do it? What do they use? (I'm guess similar things exist for RoR, Groovy/Grails.)
*It's not custom per se, but similar to having all the spring/hibernate/restlet/freemarker etc files pre-configured, up and running and a directory structure with packages for the various components by convention
I think one of the key points here regarding the Play framework is that it uses the concept of convention over configuration. Your applications are forced to follow the same pattern for the different parts of your application, or it will not work. I personally like this because it makes working on different projects easier, as the rules are always the same, rather the somewhat unwritten rules of best practice.
Java EE on the other hand takes the concept of configuration over convention. Therefore all your files and structures are defined in your relevant XML documents that specify your frameworks, classpaths, etc. There do exist some tools to try to bridge the gap. For example
IDE's will have project creation tools for your chosen framework, so will create a Struts or Spring MVC project structure with a few simple wizard steps. Eclipse does this for sure as one example.
Spring MVC also has Roo. This is a boilerplate code generation tool that creates large parts of your initial project for you.
From your description it seems you have a few different frameworks that you want to have auto-generated, but I don't think any tool currently will serve your purpose. Your concept of a zip file is your best bet here.
If you want a kind of scaffolding in the Java EE world, take a look at Appfuse which provides some archetype with several implementations on the views layer (JSF, Spring MVC, Struts 2...).
Let me elaborate on the question...
I have a custom CMS (built on codeigniter FTW) that includes many different types of modules.
Every time we have a new project come through the door, it is a variation and amalgamation of a few of the existing modules.
Sometimes a project comes through with requirements that are not satisfied by the existing modules, in that case I will write a new module...
All the modules are separated out in folders and the code is VC-ed using GIT. Every module has it's own Model, View, Controller, SQL and Javascript files. All the dependencies are also separated and folder-ed nicely...
The next step for me is to create some sort of installer script that will take me through the "scaffolding" process step by step, allowing me to choose from the existing modules. A glorified "makefile" if you may...
Rather than rolling my own, does anyone know of any such thing out in the wild.
I know of Apache ANT (java), what I need is something in pure PHP with very low or no dependencies...
I would like something as simple as running a git pull and then php make.php
Thanks.
The "Ant-like" alternative I am aware of in PHP land is phing it is written in PHP and it will allow you to perform several tasks for packaging, deploying and testing your web applications. The documentation is a great starting point if you want to hit the ground running.
It is can also be extended to define new tasks if needed (examples and explanations are provided in the documentation)
Reading through the doco it appears to be possible to install Phing without PEAR as documented here you would have to correctly setup the environment on each machine you wish to use Phing on. I can not confirm this method though as I use PEAR for all my installs.
Dashcode keeps source files in a ".dcproj" project file, which is really a package to OS X, which in turn is actually nothing more than a directory structure. I'd like to continue to use Dashcode but without the "convenience" of the ".dcproj" structure. Why? I want to...
check the source code into Mercurial
use TextMate when developing the non-GUI parts of the code
eventually build and deploy platform-specific customizations of common core code (i.e., have multiple projects share some common source
I can deploy the Dashcode project into a directory and then do all of the above. But once I do, I likely cannot return to Dashcode, which is quite handy for visual stuff. A more flexible solution would enable me to tell Dashcode where the code is and to read/write it there, not in a ".dcproj" package.
I haven't heard of anyone doing this - but it would cool because checking a dashcode project into source control is a total pain in the neck (I'm Versions for SVN and it totally chokes on dashcode - I don't think its Versions' fault - but who knows..)
I'm finding dashcode quite good for GUI stuff, but its just a neglected product, so there are lots of things that are sort of developer hostile in it.
So here is how I'm using dashcode now:
I use dashcode for GUI layout.
I publish to www_cache_dashcode
I have my custom javascript files in www_client
I then have a little make file that copies everything from www_cache_dashcode to www_client
www_client is under version control, but I exclude/ignore the files that are copied in from www_cache_dashcode
www_cache_dashcode is not under version control
my dashcode project is under version control, but I only rarely update it because there is ALWAYS a conflict. (I'm sure its somehow my fault - but whatever).
Hope this helps,
JJ
One thing to remember, but i am still looking at this to gauge the effect, is that Dashcode will generate code. This can be switched of and on. menu > View/Stat Code Generator or View/Stop Code Generator.
Apple do not say a lot other than "Because the canvas generates HTML and CSS automatically for you, you may want to turn its code generation off if you’re tweaking elements by hand. To turn off the automatic code generator, choose View > Stop Code Generator. When you’re finished tweaking values by hand, you can turn the code generator back on by choosing View > Start Code Generator."