There's plenty of free XPages learning activity underway!  Don't miss the opportunity to start learning XPages with these resources:

- It's not too late to sign up for TLCC's free 2 hour XPages Webinar starting today at 3:00pm and repeating tomorrow at 8:00am.

- IBM and GBS have both an online Webinar as well as a in person development workshop in four cities.

- PACLUG in Las Vegas will have free XPages related sessions,

- TLCC and XPages 101 both are providing discounted courses this month.

There's many more events too.  Check out the full list  at XPages.info.

-John

Technorati: XPages
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Portlet Factory has been renamed and rebranded to support more mobile/social development.  This is part of the Web Experience Suite.

Here’s an overview:

Web Experience Factory Next beta mobile automation components
• Mobile List & Detail Service Consumer wizard for creating great looking mobile and multi-channel applications in minutes.
• Data Layout builder for scrolling lists with configurable options such as thumbnail images and multi-line text with multiple styles
• Mobile Page Navigation builder for native-looking navigation tabs and lists
• Geolocation builder for access to device geolocation without coding
• Mobile UI themes for smartphone-optimized look and feel, including optional “slide in” effect
• Mobile Rich Data Definition library for automatic support for mobile UI controls such as selectable lists, numeric keypad input, phone numbers, etc.
• Mobile Device Type profile set for multi-channel support

The full pdf describing all the new features can be found here. The Beta download is now available here.

-John
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For those who have been waiting for the Mastering XPages book, it is now available.  As Ben pointed out, Amazon shows the book as being available.  

I received mine yesterday directly from the publisher since I had some involvement with the book, but I believe that only saved a day or two.


Technorati: XPages
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I was very humbled when I was asked to be a technical reviewer for the new book Mastering XPages: A Step-by-Step Guide to XPages Application Development and the XSP Language by IBM Press.  I refer to the authors as the "Lotus Dream Team" because who better to publish a book on XPages but the folks who have led the development effort: Martin Donnelly, Mark Wallace, Tony McGuckin, and Jim Quill.  The depth of knowledge here is deep folks.

As a technical reviewer my role was to read each chapter and test each example, make sure everything worked as expected, and then provide my feedback.  I can't say enough of how I enjoyed the book.  It is not your typical approach for learning development in a new language.  The author's approach is to have the reader learn how to do everything in the source panel first as opposed to the graphical interface.  The concept is that the reader will learn XPages from the bottom up and in depth.  This will lay the foundation to understand the fundamentals of the language, and provide you with the skills to read XSP markup and understand how everything works together at runtime.

Well, I have to tell you, I thought I knew XPages very well prior to reading this book.  Not so!  It really took my skills to the next level.  I feel much more comfortable reading the XSP source and identifying an issue quickly.  It's second nature now.

The other thing I enjoyed about this book, is the Author's insight into the development of this product.  In various chapters they point out and explain the behind the scenes knowledge and the history of the technology..... why certain decisions were made, why things work the way they do.  For example, XPages in the Notes client and the technology and challenges behind that.  That type of information can only be delivered from this team of Authors, and it made the book that much more enjoyable.

Here's a list of the table of contents:

Part I Getting Started With XPages
-Chapter 1 A Little XPages History
-Chapter 2 Getting Everything You Need
-Chapter 3 Building Your First XPages Application

Part II XPages Development: First Principles
-Chapter 4 Anatomy of an XPage
-Chapter 5 XPages and JavaServer Faces
-Chapter 6 Building XPages Business Logic

Part III Data Binding
-Chapter 7 Working with Domino Documents
-Chapter 8 Working with Domino Views
-Chapter 9 Beyond the View Basics

Part IV Programmability
-Chapter 10 Custom Controls
-Chapter 11 Advanced Scripting
-Chapter 12 XPages Extensibility
-Chapter 13 XPages in the Notes Client

Part V Application User Experience
-Chapter 14 XPages Theming
-Chapter 15 Internationalization

Part VI Performance, Scalabilty & Security
-Chapter 16 Application Performance & Scalability
-Chapter 17 Security

Part VII Appendixes
-Appendix 1 XSP Tags Quick Reference
-Appendix 2 XSP Style Sheet Reference
-Appendix 3 Useful XPages Sites on the Net

I definitely recommend this book for Beginners, Intermediates, and Advanced XPage developers....there's something in there for everyone. The book can be ordered from IBM Press or Amazon.com.  

The target date was around the Lotusphere timetable. I know everyone is working overtime to make it happen.

-John
Technorati: Domino 8.5 - XPages XPages
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I recently passed my Websphere Portal 6.1 Administration and Deployment certification (LOT-955) with a score of 97, and passed my Websphere Portal 6.1 Application Development (LOT-959) with a score of 100.  

Now, the high scores are not exactly a reflection of my portal skills, but more a reflection of my study skills.  These products are very deep and you could study for months without uncovering all there is to know about them.  Having the correct resources can help you by isolating the topics that the tests focus on most.

Of course no amount of studying can take the place of hands on skills.  If you want to learn Portal, Portlet Factory, or Rational Application Developer (RAD) and do not have access to the software, you can download trial versions of these products from IBM.  Or even join their beta programs to learn the latest versions.

Some folks do not believe in the merits of certifications, but I do...not for the reasons most might think,  i.e. increased job opportunities.  For me, studying for my certification forces me to study topics of a product that I might not have learned in my normal day-to-day work.  This increases the depth of my skills.  Then of course comes the "Ah Ha" moment when one day you solve a problem, or suggest a solution, with some knowledge you only learned because of studying for your certification. That makes it worth it to me.

Here's a list of resources that helped me:

Websphere Portal 6.1 Administration and Deployment certification (LOT-955)
-  Websphere Portal 6.1 info center
-  Wiki - Step by step cluster guide
-  Websphere Portal 6.1 955 sample questions (many of these questions were almost identical to the ones on the test!)
-  Wiki - WebSphere Portal V6.1 Configured with Multiple LDAP's and Multiple Realm's

Websphere Portal 6.1 Application Development (LOT-959)
-  IBM - Websphere Portal Training resources (There are numerous links on this page)
-  Lot 959 FreeExamKing sample questions (again, these sample questions were very similar to what I saw on the test)
-  IBM's Virtual Innovation Center courseware (this requires a partnerworld login..but it's excellent!)

I also used certFx sample tests.  They cost around $90, and you usually can find a promotion code for a discount.  However, the above links to the online sample questions were very similar.  One advantage of buying a certfx test is that they guarantee you will pass the test, and will reimburse for the testing fee if you do not pass.  That's $200 dollars now. (I think it went up recently)

My study approach is to read the material, then take a sample test.  If I do not know the answer to a sample test question I go to the info center or google and research it.  Then I take the sample test over again (a couple of times) before my scheduled test date, this way it's all fresh.

Good luck on your tests!

-John

Technorati: Websphere Portal Websphere Portlet Factory
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I'll be speaking at The View's Lotus Developer 2010 in Boston on May 12th to the 14th.  If you see me there, please stop by and introduce yourself.  That's the best part about conferences....meeting new people.

I have 2 sessions.  Currently, both are being scheduled to repeat, so I'll be busy.  Here's the descriptions:

XPages: Write once, run everywhere!
With the latest release of Domino Designer, the platforms for running your XPages applications have been significantly expanded. Attend this session for a deeper understanding of the new XPages features in version 8.5.1 and how to leverage them in your applications. See how XPages now runs in the Notes client including the settings you’ll need for client launch and themes as well as customizing your XPages based on the client type using JavaScript or @commands. Take a deep dive into the Component Design Element to learn step-by-step how to create components as well as how to produce Actions and Events for wiring in composite applications. See how to simply include XPages components in composite applications as well as iWidgets for both the IBM Mashup Center and WebSphere Portal. Take home a copy of the applications used in the presentation with full access to the code.

Building Rich Internet Applications in Domino using AJAX, JSON, and the Dojo toolkit
Are your Domino Applications so yesterday? Bring your apps into the Web 2.0 world with a Rich Internet Application (RIA) facelift utilizing JSON, AJAX, and Dojo. Get an explanation of JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) — what it is, how it works, and why you want to use it. Get an understanding of the advantages of JSON over XML for building RIA applications with Domino. Learn how Domino can natively serve up JSON as well as how to generate JSON with agents and views. Explore the Dojo toolkit, an AJAX framework that now ships with Lotus Domino, and learn how you can leverage Dojo to build Rich Internet Applications. Walk away with an understanding of JSON, how to utilize JSON in AJAX frameworks, the Dojo toolkit, as well as a sample database with code.

Hope to see you there!

-John
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In the Dynamic View Custom Control I built, and is available on OpenNTF, I noticed that the pager control does not reset when I switch datasources.  The Pager control does not reset because the custom control is not reloaded in the demo I put together.  So I was looking for a way to reset the control programmatically and I came across this article from Matt White on the XPagesblog and then also came across the same answer on IQJam (both are great resources!).

The article shows you how to get a class in JS in the Designer so that you can browse the methods that are available to you.  So for example if you want to jump to a certain page for a View control or Pager control you can use this "gotoPage()" method.

For a Pager:
var pager:com.ibm.xsp.component.xp.XspPager = getComponent("pager1");
pager.gotoPage(1);  //0 is first page etc.,.

For a View:
var view1:com.ibm.xsp.component.xp.XspViewPanel=getComponent("viewPanel2");
view1.gotoPage(1);

Here's a screen shot of the script editor and some of the methods available for a View control.  As you can see there is also gotoFirstPage(), gotoLastPage(), gotoNextPage(), gotoPreviousPage(), and gotoRow().




-John
Technorati: Domino 8.5 XPages
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I created an XPages custom control that dynamically builds a view based on a series of passed in parameters.  Normally with XPages, if you want different views to be displayed on your XPage, you would create the multiple view controls and hide the ones that should not be displayed.  This custom control allows you to drop a single CC on your XPage and it can generate the views for you.  Cick here to open the OpenNTF.org project.

Overview

I included a sample page and test data so you can try the Custom Control out.

When you first launch the database, click on a view to generate: Projects, Customers, or Orders.





When you click on one of the view links I set session scope variables for the view parameters.  You can pass these parameters anyway you like or compute them too. For the demo I chose session variables. You can even build an interface so the users can tailor their own views.  Here's a sample of setting the parameters for the Project view:





On the Custom Control, you can see how I pick up the Session Variables and pass them to the control:





To further demonstrate how you can change the view dynamically, I added a custom control that has input controls bound to the session variables.  This allows you to change any of the parameters and click the "Build View" button to regenerate the view.  So you can change the order of the fields, the width of the view, link column etc.,  

*Note: the fields do not have to be physically in the view.  I grab the fields from the backend document:




The ccDynamicView control is actually very small.  It consists of 2 nested repeat controls with a pager control:



I used Paul Calhoun's example Creating a Dynamic HTML Table on an XPage to add the columns to the tables as it iterates through the field list.  By adding the <xp:td> tags around the repeat controls the Outline palette seemed to object to this and will not let me select the repeat control anymore with my mouse. This makes it difficult to edit the custom control through the interface. If you need to make changes, you need to use the source view.

This repeat control builds the columns and the view header by exploding the list of columns and iterating through them:

        <xp:tr>
                        <xp:repeat id="repeat2" rows="30"
                                value="#{javascript:@Explode(compositeData.columns)}" var="colName"
                                indexVar="colIndex" first="0">
                                <xp:td>

                                        <xp:text escape="true" id="computedField1"
                                                value="#{javascript:colName;}"
                                                style="color:rgb(0,0,128);font-weight:bold">

                                        </xp:text>
                                </xp:td>
                        </xp:repeat>
                </xp:tr>


The next repeat control retrieves the data set for the view depending on the fulltext and category parameters, and then retrieves the field values for document.  Along the way it formats the rows for alternating color and builds the href links.


Cons
On the downside to using this custom control, the view cannot be expanded and collapsed.  Nor is their the ability to click a column heading and sort the data.  If anyone knows how to add that feature please comment!  

-John

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