Beyond The Yellow Bubble

As most members of the yellowverse probably know by now, IBM have announced the first (closed) beta release of Notes 8.5.1.  I don't know about you but for me (as a Notes developer) this probably represents the single most important release of Notes since Notes R5.  I don't have a copy (yet), but I defintely want Santa to place one under my Christmas tree well before Christmas day.

What makes it so important?  While IBM marketing seem to be placing greater emphasis on the extension to mobile devices such as iPhone, there are three little items that get a brief mention:-

1. Eclispe-based editor for LotusScript:  The power of Eclipse is finally being released for LotusScript programmers.  While we still are not seeing any major enhancements to the LotusScript language this new editor promises to provide dramatic productivity improvements to those of us that spend all day writing LotusScript code.  This is especially true for OOP where it has been a real pain to maintain large Class libraries.
   
2. Eclipse based editor for Java:  I am not a big user of Java, but I have a lot of respect for what the language can do.  If you do program in Java then I am sure you are going to appreciate having a full-featured Java edited inside DDE.  After all, Eclipse was built on/for Java!  The real holly grail for Java developers (Java UI classes) seems to have been pushed back to 8.5.2 (or later)
   
3. XPages for Notes Client: There has been a lot of excitement in the yellowverse about Xpages and the way this new design element promises to transform the way we develop Web applications in Domino.  My excitement has been not as great as my focus is largely on application development for the Notes client.  Based upon the limited information I have, Xpages for the Notes client is probably the single biggest enhancement to Notes client development outside of Forms, Views, and LotusScript.  I am surprised more has not been spoken about  XPages for Notes until now.  The following are some of the reasons why I expect Notes developer to scramble to convert applications to use this design element almost exclusively:-
   
1. Dual Multi Client Development: Ever since Notes 4.5, Lotus has sought to provide a way to support a thick and thin client in a single application.  The potential of this has never been fully relaised due to limitations with the existing design element that has often lead to two applications existing inside the one NSF.  We have probably all struggled with the challenges of needing large amounts of client specific code to make this work.  While Xpages still needs to evolve I expect it will reduce the complexity considerably in making an application look/feel the same on  a wide range of clients that include Notes, Web browsers, and mobile devices.
2. Application Configuration: One of the really cool features of Xpages is that almost everything is configurable as a formula.  IBM have now opened Pandora's box for all those things you have wanted to change dynamically but never could (e.g. column title for a view, disabling an edit control)
   
3. Source Code For Design Elements: Xpages can be viewd/edited as either a visual design or source code.  The source code is a great addition if you want to do a mass change (e.g. change all references of Arial to your favorite font).  It also means we can send the entire design element as a piece of text to another developer and not have to enclose it inside an NSF for transportation.  And we can probably use XSLT safely to automatically apply design standards and best practices
   
4. Multiple Data Sources: Unlike Forms, an Xpage is not restricted to displaying data from a single Notes document.  This opens up the capability to consolidate data from multiple documents/sources without the need to use @DBLookup etc.  And while the initial versions of XPages only support data inside NSFs,  the groundwork seems to have been laid for a later expansion to bring in data from other sources such as XML and SQL databases.  I typically back myself to develop an application in Notes 3-4 times faster than I could develop the application in an environment such as .Net (even after I took the .Net classes!).  But I have always been constrained that my Notes application cannot compete with the sheer speed of SQL Server, ORACLE etc for high volume applications.  Nor can I provide relational capabilities such as JOINs which are often sought as part of an application's requirements.  Give me the ability to bring SQL data into my Notes application and the sky is the limit.  In a difficult economy why would a company want to spend so much money building a  front end to an ORACLE database using C# or Java when they could do it in Notes for so much less?
   

Thanks IBM... we now have a classy client (8.0.0) that runs a little faster (8.0.2) that has dramatically reduced the cost of ownership (8.5.0) and now will allow developers to build 21st century applications for both the Web client (8.5.0) & (soon) Notes client (8.5.1).  Every Notes client developer should be pushing IBM to provide more information and to gain access for your organizations to the 8.5.1 betas.  In 2-3 years time we will most likely be developing Notes applications in a radically different way than we are today.  8.5.1 is the release that will start us down that path and we need to prepare for that transition.

Update: The following entry from a Design Partner (i.e. someone in the know  - wink wink) is not inconsistent with the above suggestions.