© 2014 IBM Corporation

Julian Robichaux, panagenda Kathy Brown, PSC Group

BP205: Improving Your IBM® Domino® Designer Experience

Who We Are

▪ Julian Robichaux • panagenda • nsftools.com • @jrobichaux

▪ Kathy Brown • PSC Group LLC • runningnotes.net • @runningkathy

The Goals of this Session

▪ Understand how Eclipse™ and IBM® Domino® Designer work together – especially by using helpful things that “come for free” with Eclipse

▪ Avoid breaking things – and learn how to fix them when they break

▪Work more efficiently

▪ Some information will be old hat, some (hopefully) will be brand new

Domino Designer in Eclipse

▪ “DDE” to you and me

▪ Is it in, on, with, or next to Eclipse? – perhaps we should say “wrapped inside of”

▪ But I thought Eclipse was just an IDE! How can it do all this “wrapping” stuff?

An Informal History of Eclipse

▪ Began life as an IBM project to replace the VisualAge® IDE – VisualAge had compilers for C, C++, Smalltalk, Java, Cobol, and several

other languages

▪ Eclipse developed as a platform (written in Java) that could: – run on multiple operating systems – allow development for many different languages & content types – provide (but not require) a GUI – use plugins for extensibility

“The Eclipse platform itself is a sort of universal tool platform - it is an IDE for anything and nothing in

particular.”

http://www.eclipse.org/platform/overview.php

A Very Abbreviated Timeline

▪ 1999: Development of Eclipse begins at IBM

▪ 2001: Eclipse 1.0 released, eclipse.org created

▪ 2002: Eclipse 2.0 released

▪ 2004: Eclipse Foundation formed, Eclipse 3.0 released under the new Eclipse Public License

▪ 2004-2013: New Eclipse “simultaneous release” every year; 3.x through 2011; 4.x starting in 2012

Also in 1999...

Why Are You Telling Me This?

▪ Things to understand: – Eclipse has a long, rich history completely outside of Domino – Many (most?) of the “new” DDE things are actually “old” Eclipse things – Name overlaps (view, navigator, workspace, etc.) – Two completely separate JVMs – When you mix two very different (and established) technologies

like this, things are bound to be confusing or... difficult

10

Installing (and Reinstalling) measure twice, cut once

Considerations: Fresh Install

▪ A well defragged hard drive

▪ Disable virus scan on entire Notes directory if possible, NSF and JAR files in Notes directory at minimum

▪ Disable the Windows Search/Index service

▪ Don’t use an encrypted portion of your disc

▪ Disable Aero on Windows 7

Considerations: VMWare

▪ Fixed size page file, 1.5 to 2 times your RAM – Defrag first, then restart and fix the page size

▪ Turn off things that poll – CD auto-play, Bluetooth, shared or mapped drives

▪ Defrag+compact regularly (or use a fixed size VM)

▪ Keep your VMWare Tools (drivers) updated

Considerations: VMWare Fusion

Install Tips

▪ If you’re using VMWare, take a snapshot

▪ Install EVERYTHING (check all the boxes, even if you don’t think you’ll use Sametime, Connections, etc.)

▪ Don’t get clever with your install paths

▪ Reboot when you’re done, then delete the temp folder

▪ If you’re using VMWare, take another snapshot

Upgrade Tips

▪ Install over the old copy, or nuke it and start over? – Always better to nuke (uninstall first, then reboot and delete -- don’t just

delete) and start fresh * – If you can’t, at least consider deleting or renaming the framework and the

data\workspace\.config folders first (gets rid of old JAR files)

▪ Resist the urge to do the trick where you rename the old directory so you can have multiple versions of the client on your workstation

*Spin your chair 3 times clockwise while throwing salt over your LEFT shoulder

Upgrade Tips

▪ “Install Interrupted” and other errors • Often caused by incomplete or

improper uninstall of previous client version (registry entries pointing to files that no longer exist, etc.)

▪ Use the IBM “NICE” tool • http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21459714

Reinstalling

▪ Best bet is to uninstall, use the NICE tool, then reinstall

▪ Also reinstall/repair options if you re-run the installer

▪ Command line option: • setup.exe /v"REINSTALLMODE=vamus REINSTALL=ALL"

JVM Memory Settings

• make sure Xms is smaller than Xmx, for garbage collection purposes

• you might have issues with Xmx larger than 1024

• NOTE: these settings can get reset after a FixPack install

• http://nsftools.com/blog/blog-08-2013.htm

• DDE 9.0.1 GETS MORE MEMORY BY DEFAULT!

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21617708

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Understanding Eclipse

Configuration

Perspectives and Views

▪What are they?

▪ Perspectives are layouts of Views – Think of a painter’s palette

▪ Views are panels or tabs with the tools you need – Think of the colors on the palette

Perspectives and Views

Perspective

View

Perspectives

▪ Default perspectives: – Debug, Domino Designer, Forms/Views, Java, Java Browsing, Javascript, and

XPages

More Perspectives

▪ Each perspective has Views, menu items, and toolbars needed for that focus • For example: the navigator in the Domino Designer perspective has Frameset and

Pages, the one in the XPages perspective does not

Customizing Perspectives

▪ Menu option “Customize Perspective...” – Add or remove Eclipse views – Add or remove Menu and Toolbar items

Customizing Perspectives

▪ “Manual” customization – Move view panes all to the left or right for more screen real estate – Drag up Outline – Add Package Explorer

• (Window - Show Eclipse Views)

Saving Perspectives

▪ Save Perspective As... – Always a good idea to do this BEFORE customizing

▪ You CAN make changes in a copy, however if you make them in the default perspective, then your changes will be there whenever you open DDE

– i.e. changing IDs opens the default perspective

▪ Unfortunately, you cannot make DDE open to your custom perspective

My Favorite View: Progress

Window - Show Eclipse Views -

Other... - General - Progress

Tips on Views & Perspectives

▪ Make the tab full screen – Double-click the tab title, and double-click again to reset it – Or click the small “maximize” icon on the tab bar – Or use Ctrl-M

▪ Use Window - Reset Perspective when you’ve totally borked it

Working Sets

▪ It’s an Eclipse thing for organizing your projects (Notes DB == Eclipse project)

▪ All applications for a client, or all applications for a project, or only templates, or only production applications, etc.

▪ Switching working sets does NOT release the open applications from memory (!)

Working with ... Working Sets

▪ Select one or more working sets, or no working sets (shows all applications ever opened in the history of time)

▪ Edit Current Working Set

▪ Manage Working Sets

More Working Sets

▪ New in Notes 9, select Applications Not in a Working Set

▪Working Set preferences – “Ask me” is good if you often (ever) open the wrong app

Preferences and Settings

▪ Notes client and DDE shared storage of settings

▪ Eclipse is a cornucopia of plugins • Every plugin has its own folder in [notesdata]\workspace\.metadata • There is also a central Eclipse preference store (a tiny bit like Windows registry, but

much better behaved)

▪ OSGi handles plugin lifecycle and caching

The Workspace Folders

▪ Main subfolders under the [notesdata]\workspace folder are: – .config -- OSGi cache, JVM cache, Eclipse startup config – .metadata -- plugin folders, preference files – applications -- third-party plugins you’ve installed – logs -- Eclipse logs, Java core dumps and heap dumps – UDM -- spellcheck files – also a folder for each server you access from DDE

(including “Local”), with subfolder for each database

Deleting the Workspace

▪ Removes caches, configurations, preferences, settings • including Notes/DDE UI customizations

▪ Deletes [most] third-party plugins you’ve installed

▪ Deletes extra settings in rcpinstall.properties

▪ Everything will be rebuilt with default settings

The -clean Option

▪ -clean is a less nuclear option

▪ Rebuilds the plugin caches and some of the Eclipse/OSGi config files

• but you don’t lose your preferences

▪ Make a COPY of your Notes shortcut, change target to:

• notes.exe -RPARAMS –clean

▪ Delete the copy of your shortcut when you’re done so you don’t accidentally do this every time you open Notes

Cleaning a Broken DDE

▪ Files you could delete (or rename) manually – Special workspace folders for each server+db you access

– workspace\.metadata\.plugins\ • org.eclipse.core.resources (additional DDE project cache) • com.ibm.rcp.personality.framework (perspective info) • org.eclipse.ui.workbench\workingsets.xml • com.ibm.designer.domino.ide.resources\wsInfo.xml

Back Up Your Settings

▪ Can’t I just back up my whole workspace folder? • You could, but not always portable between installations/versions

▪What about my workspace\.metadata folder? • Still too much

▪What about this specific list of folders... ? • There is an easier way if you will just

stop asking questions

Back Up Your Settings

▪ Hat tip to Paul Withers • http://www.intec.co.uk/quick-setup-restore-of-domino-designer

▪ Switch to a non-Domino perspective in DDE (like “Java”)

▪ File - Export - General - Preferences • Saves as a .epf file (text file, you can look to see what’s there)

▪ To import: File - Import - General - Preferences

Back Up Your Settings

Bonus: also backs up your SAVED custom Perspectives

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General Settings aka: boxes you can check

File - Preferences

▪ There are so many settings in DDE, you might not have seen them all – here are a few useful ones

• Please don’t be insulted if you’ve seen some of these before • Not everyone is as smart as you • Newer versions of DDE sometimes have new settings

▪ Almost all of the DDE specific preferences (from File - Preferences) map to Eclipse preferences

Default Language Type

Line Numbering

Spellcheck (you shud prolly turn this off)

Colors and Fonts

Basic - Text Font is the default editor font, you can override for Java and JavaScript here,

LotusScript has its own settings under Domino Designer.

Hotkeys

▪ Help - Key Assistor...

▪ Control - Shift - L or...

▪ File - Preferences - General - Keys

Hotkeys

Hotkeys Shortlist

▪ Ctrl + / -- toggle single-line comments

▪ Ctrl + Shift + / -- toggle block comments

▪ Ctrl + i -- auto-format

▪ Ctrl + F6 -- switch between editor tabs

▪ Ctrl + M -- maximize or restore a tab

▪ Ctrl + Space -- all sorts of code-completion things

Other People’s Preferences

▪ http://www.slideshare.net/SocialBizManager/ibm-domino

▪ http://notesin9.com/index.php/2012/02/12/notesin9-043-domino-designer-tips-and-tweaks

▪ http://xpagetips.blogspot.com/search/label/Designer%20Tip

▪ http://nathantfreeman.wordpress.com/taming-ibm-domino-designer

▪ http://www.slant.co/topics/67/~what-are-the-best-programming-fonts

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Working With Code and doing things more easily

Search Tips

▪ Old skool: File - Application - Design Synopsis... – It still exists!

Search Tips

▪ Single code element: Control + F • make sure you use “wrap search” • regular expressions!

Search Tips

▪ Full design search: Search - File... (or Ctrl + H)

Search Tips

▪ Full design search: Search - File... (or Ctrl + H) – Search:

• entire workspace (open databases) • all databases in a working set • all design elements in a database (project) • selected design elements

– File patterns allow you to specify certain design elements (use the “Choose” button for a list), or use * for all design elements

– Non-code elements (forms, views, etc.) have their DXL searched – Regular expressions – Results listed in a Search view (tab) you can leave open

Searching Help - Scopes

LotusScript Tips

▪ Code and Comment Templates

LotusScript Tips

▪ Determining the correct error line number • Navigate - Go to erl line... • Needed in DDE 8.5.x, seems to be less necessary in 9.0

XPages Tips

▪ Changing the local web server port (8.5.3+) • not just XPages, any DDE local web preview • great if you’re running a local web server (on purpose or unknowingly (Skype!))

XPages Tips

▪ Troubleshooting local web server port conflicts • TCPView from sysinternals.com (now Microsoft Sysinternals)

XPages Tips

▪Where do all the print statements go for local debugging? • log.nsf -or- data\IBM_TECHNICAL_SUPPORT\console.log

▪ Extra logging info • config file at: data\domino\workspace\.config\rcpinstall.properties

- see the commented log levels at the bottom of the file

• logs at: data\domino\workspace\logs\trace-log-0.xml - might have to shut down local web preview for logs to flush - notice the “domino” in that path...

XPages Tips

▪ The dreaded “Error 500” on local XPages preview – Turn on runtime error notification (Application Properties, XPages tab) – Test a very basic XPage (is it all XPages, or just that one?) – Add error handling (JavaScript and Java) – Check the logs (see previous slide) – Check for duplicate (previous version) JAR files in notes\osgi:

- Troubleshooting tips in Julian’s April 2012 Clippings Newsletter - http://www.socialbizug.org/communities/community/clippings

XPages Tips

▪ Problems Tab, “configure contents...” – Show only errors “On any element in same project”

XPages Tips

▪ To Build Automatically or Not To Build Automatically

Working Local?

Yes No

Sure, Build Automatically No, Just No

Java Tips

▪ Get stack trace line numbers from Java agents and script libraries • No performance penalty

Java Tips

▪ Save the whole agent when you save a class in the agent

Java Tips

▪ Code templates • Java - Editor - Templates • Ctrl + Space (FTW!) • Default shortcuts to start with:

- for, while, try, new, final, toarray • Make your own for fun and profit!

https://www.socialbizug.org/blogs/2ec5d0ed-d04e-4b18-9610-9819fcebca79/entry/using_code_templates_in_dde?lang=en_us

Java Tips

▪ TODO and FIXME • Eclipse view: Other - General - Tasks

Java Tips

▪ Adding Domino API Javadocs for hover help • Domino Javadoc Generator: http://domino-javadoc.sourceforge.net

https://www.socialbizug.org/blogs/2ec5d0ed-d04e-4b18-9610-9819fcebca79/entry/adding_hover_help_to_domino_designer

Java Tips

▪ Code Snippets • Built-in Eclipse functionality • Right-click code and choose “Add to snippets” • Drag and drop to paste into editors

Java Tips

▪ Scrapbook pages • from Package Explorer: • Right-Click - New - Other

- Java - Java Run\Debug - Scrapbook Page

▪ Use a Console view for output • Highlight code, right-click, execute • System.out.println() goes to console

(Other - General - Console)

Java Tips

▪ Scrapbook Pages • Evaluate String commands,

regular expressions, XML parsing, etc.

http://www.socialbizug.org/blogs/2ec5d0ed-d04e-4b18-9610-9819fcebca79/entry/java_scrapbook_pages

Java Tips

▪ Debugging • you CAN debug Java from DDE

- server or client, although debugging a server is a pretty bad idea !

• see Julian and Mark Myers’ presentation from Lotusphere 2012: • http://londondevelopercoop.com/ldc.nsf/pages/goodies

Java Tips

▪ Eclipse Tips and Tricks page • http://help.eclipse.org/indigo/topic/org.eclipse.jdt.doc.user/tips/jdt_tips.html

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Plugins soup up your ride

Source Control

▪ Even if you aren’t working with a team – Easily roll back specific changes – Track changes (what/when/who) – Simple system for having a backup, while working locally

▪ OpenNTF project for 8.5.2, native in 8.5.3

▪ SVN, CVS, Git, Mercurial

Source Control - Setting

▪ Sometimes DDE hangs (GASP!)

– Turning off On Disk Project syncing can help

▪ Tip! – You have to remember to then manually sync

Source Control - Resources

▪ https://www.socialbizug.org/blogs/articles/entry/setting_up_source_control

▪ https://www.socialbizug.org/blogs/articles/entry/using_source_control

▪ https://www.socialbizug.org/blogs/articles/entry/5_tips_for_source_control_in_domino

▪ http://xpagetips.blogspot.com/2013/04/source-control-good-stuff.html

▪ From Lotusphere 2012: AD102 – Source Control For The IBM Lotus Domino Developer, by Declan Lynch

Extension Library

▪ Depending on version of Domino, no install required – 8.5.3 UP1 or 9

▪ For latest and greatest, go to OpenNTF.org

▪ Install via an Update Site – http://bit.ly/UpdateSite Wiki entry on installing an update site

Extension Library Install Tips

▪ Do NOT install multiple versions – If you’ve got 8.5.3 UP1 and you go get the latest from OpenNTF.org, REMOVE

the library that came with 8.5.3 UP1

▪ Install the Extension Library on DDE AND your server

▪ Get the sample database

▪ Don’t mix and match versions (Server/DDE)

Third Party Plugins

▪ Finding third-party plugins • Looks for plugins compatible with

Eclipse 3.2 - 3.4 (they might work)

▪ Before you install • Completely restart the Notes client • Take a snapshot if you’re using VMWare

Third Party Plugins

▪ File - Application - Install • You might have to be in a DDE (non-custom) perspective to get the Application -

Install menu option • There is a DDE Preference

to allow plugin installs

▪ After you install • Manually shut down and restart the Notes client again

(don’t use the “Restart now” option)

FreeMem

▪ http://www.junginger.biz/eclipse/freemem.html

QuickREx

▪ http://www.bastian-bergerhoff.com/eclipse/features

MultiClipboard

▪ http://www.bastian-bergerhoff.com/eclipse/features

XPath-Developer

▪ http://www.bastian-bergerhoff.com/eclipse/features

Writing Your Own Plugins

▪What you need: • DDE 8.5.1+ • Eclipse 3.4.2 (Ganymede for RCP/Plugin Developers)

- http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages/release/ganymede/sr2 - You should use EXACTLY this version (not 3.2, not 3.5, not 4.2...)

• Lotus Expeditor Toolkit 6.2.x - http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/downloads/toolkits.html

▪ Hints, tips, and instructions • http://bit.ly/pluginredwiki • http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/lewiki.nsf • Tim Tripcony and Maureen Leland’s Lotusphere 2011 presentation

- “AD102: Hacking IBM Lotus Designer (Gently)”

▪ Access Connect Online to complete your session surveys using any: – Web or mobile browser – Connect Online kiosk onsite

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Kathy BrownPSC Group LLCkathy@runningnotes.comTwitter: @runningkathy

Julian Robichauxpanagendajrobichaux@panagenda.comTwitter: @jrobichaux

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Acknowledgements and Disclaimers

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