I've just published a new release of the Mobile Value Picker on OpenNTF. The main reason for the new release is to force resetContent="false" on the Cancel button on the mobilePicker Custom Control, to ensure content is not lost in a new document when using the SSJS approach. The other addition is a Design Definition for the custom control, to make it more user-friendly. In addition there is some minor cleanup on the sample XPages. One note of caution. I've encountered problems using the mobilePicker custom control with CSJS in the latest (June 3rd) release of the Extension Library. Any values entered into ...
Over the weekend, as part of the third XPages contest on OpenNTF and based upon the series on this blog, I contributed the Mobile Value Picker project to OpenNTF. Niklas Heidloff has written a great blog post about the project and also recorded a video demonstrating the control. The control allows you to use a Notes View, a Notes Document or a static list as the source of the list. I did some investigation into using a REST service, but that proved difficult. The reason takes a little understanding, but the REST service data is not generated server-side, ...
I started off this tutorial series on mobile value picker with a discussion about some key differences between desktop browser development and mobile browser development. One of the key differentiators I discussed was connectivity. That was why this series has so far focussed on an approach that predominantly used Client-Side JavaScript and avoided interaction with the server as much as possible. But when I first discussed the approach with David Leedy many weeks ago, his requirement was somewhat different. The users of his mobile application would always be connected; they would not be roaming; so connectivity was not an issue and ...
To support the tutorial on Mobile Controls and client-side value pickers I created a video, which David Leedy has kindly published on NotesIn9. If you would like to see the full video, follow the link above.
From some feedback to yesterday's post, that code works fine if all you want to do is create a new document. So, I've gone away and come up with some amendments and improvements. First of all, I've moved the New User button into the Page Heading control's action facet. Again I use the Move to Application Page simple action, setting targetPage to "user" and setting forceFullRefresh to "true". It's important to do this. Otherwise, the user will be editing the previous contact instead of creating a new one. The code for this button will look very familiar:
In Part One I talked in generic terms about the differing approaches when developing for mobile browsers compared to desktop browsers. Screen sizes make dialog boxes for pickers less desirable than in desktop browsers. Connectivity concerns mean typeahead and partial refresh functionality could perform worse on mobile devices and impact the user experience. Smaller resolutions can also make it harder to select from a standard Edit Box with typeahead enabled or ComboBox. In this part I will demonstrate a predominantly client-side approach, picking options from a view. But the same technique could equally be used to select from a static ...
Over the last week I've come across a couple of requests for some sort of typeahead or Name Picker or Value Picker for mobile. There was a question on Stack Overflow and another query came from an alternate discussion. I will outline my preferred option in my next post, but first I want to add some background on what I consider are the differences between browser and mobile browser development methodologies. Pickers and typeahead functionality work well in a browser environment, which is heavily reliant on server-side functionality. Partial refreshes abound in XPages and one of its major strengths as ...
Last week, when preparing for the XPages Mobile Controls session at BLUG, Eamon Muldoon introduced me to a useful tip when testing on iOS. The problem is that many browsers such as Firefox and Safari use, by default, webkit styling, so use Android stylesheets. But Safari has an option to change the user agent. The first step is to enable the Develop menu. Go to Edit - Preferences. Then on the Advanced tab, check Show Develop menu in menu bar. This will enable the Develop menu. From here you can go to the User Agent submenu and change the user agent to e.g. ...
Lotusphere is over for another year (and the perennial debate about the name also seems to have been put to bed - announcements have always said "Lotusphere 2013"). From the Domino standpoint it's been another step on the road to the Vulcan vision and a reaffirmation of a new deployment model. We've seen in the last couple of months the approach of 8.5.3 base install extended with additional functionality (in this case primarily the Extension Library) by installing Upgrade Pack 1. The Extension Library has been demoed in a number of sessions, not only the base functionality that made it into ...
The dust has settled on the first day of Lotusphere, so time for a quick review. The OGS was spectacular and a huge improvement on last year. Even before the OGS started, as IBM Champions we had a dedicated area at the front right of the stage. Thanks to Joyce and everyone at IBM for that. Amongst the people milling around in that area before the presentations where Sandy Carter (@sandy_carter) and Brian Cheng (@quasifu). It was great to have a brief chat with Sandy, her book 'Get Bold' hit big chords, as I've already blogged. Next up were Ok Go, ...
So I'm at Lotusphere now, my plans for this year are learning and being social. So what do I think will be important for XPages developers over the next year? The first is Java. Server-Side JavaScript is powerful, but Java is something I've embraced over the last nine months because it offered me more. That's why I developed the XPages Help Application, to really cut my teeth with Java. With the new design element in 8.5.3 I think Java code in XPages applications is going to be more prevalent (that is, code actually written in Java by developers, compared to ...
If you've worked with XPages for any length of time you'll probably have used some of the tips on XPagesWiki.com by YouAtNotes. It's a well-categorised resource built on XPages too. Today came the news that it's available on iPhone and iPad as a native app, so you can get the content at any time. Priced at £2.99 it's good value with a nice clean interface, simple navigation and search functionality. Plus all the XPages goodness that comes inside the app. Below is a screenshot of the iPad interface.
I've just completed development of new release of the XPages Help Application. There are a number of enhancements and modifications, including some refactoring of the Java code based on the learning I've gained over the last six months. The most significant enhancement is a mobile interface, accessible via the m_Content.xsp XPage. You can see some teasers of the functionality in the screenshots attached, showing the iPad interface. You'll see that it reproduces all the read-only functionality of the web application - Contents, Index, Search and Bookmarks views as well as the ability to add to and remove from bookmarks. Editability of ...
I'm currently in the process of developing a mobile interface for viewing articles in the XPages Help Application. One of the significant differences is the navigation model. The initial page has links to the relevant views of the data - Contents, Index, Search (if the database is full text indexed) and Bookmarks (for authenticated users). Bookmarks and Search results are simple. It is a single-level hierarchy. My dilemma is the best method for the Index and Contents views, so I'm looking for some feedback. There are two options: 1. Show all Help pages on one page, differentiating entries at a different level ...
