Erik Brooks

UPDATE: Here's a link to this idea on IdeaJam.

So XPages are cool.  VERY cool.  And since they can be bolted onto an existing Notes app you should be really, REALLY tempted to upgrade your existing Domino web apps with screen-by-screen updates.

Simply rewrite a form/view/etc. as an XPage and leverage all of the CSS and JSF goodness, give your users a better experience, give your app better performance, etc.  And you can finally code stuff where it's supposed to be, without having to use all of the hack-tastic legacy Domino web techniques.

But there's one big hurdle here:  XPages don't work with LotusScript.  At all.  So those legacy apps, if they use WebQueryOpen or WebQuerySave agents, are looking for a forklift-style upgrade where you get to rewrite your agents and script libraries in Javascript and/or Java.

So a cool new technology requires a massive rewrite?  Hmm.... sounds kinda like Microsoft.

But wait, it gets worse.  The Notes client doesn't support XPages (yet).  Oh, I'm sorry - did you need to use that app on the web AND in the Notes client?  Well now you get to maintain your Lotusscript libraries for the Notes client, all while maintaining new Javascript/Java libraries for XPages on the web, right?  Certainly you're ready to double your dev and testing efforts.

I know, I know - Notes 8.5.1 will get XPage support in the Notes client.  This may mean we finally have a single dev road where we can simply write an app in XPages and it Just Works(tm) in browser or client.  And that would be really, really fantastic.  But (as far as I know) Xpages still aren't going to support LotusScript.  So, again, any legacy apps will need major rewrites to take advantage of the new front-end.

I'm sure Lotus development saw this coming a mile away as a shortcoming of XPages.  It was asked about in forums for the Notes/Domino 8.5 Beta, and also the Gold release.  There's even a Wiki article that tells you how you can have an XPage run an agent (which could be an LS agent) as a pseudo-band-aid to try to help on some things.  Unfortunately that approach is riddled with shortcomings, such as requiring that you save your doc(s) prior to calling the agent (even if you're not certain you want to do so yet) and foregoing all XPage error encapsulation.  All your XPage can do is say "Hey man, I kicked off the agent, ok?"  And recreating the functionality of a WebQueryOpen agent? That's even more fun.

Naturally, I opened a PMR for this, asking to be added to the enhancement request to have XPages consume Lotusscript.  But you know what?  THERE WASN'T ONE.  Not a single SPR relating to this.

Now, certainly Lotus development has talked about this.  Certainly Design Partners have mentioned this on conference calls.  Certainly there was feedback about this in the private Betas.  I'm sure Nathan's shouted loudly that this is a huge barrier for legacy applications.  But for general customers this is the only formal means at our disposal to ask for this type of thing.

So if you too would like to see Lotusscript support in XPages, open a PMR and ask to be added to SPR# PALT7SVH29 .