Domino Server for Developers Entitlement Announced

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Today at Engage Ed Brill announced that in Q3 there will be a Domino server licensing entitlement for developers. Yes, you read that correct. There are still some logistics  to be finalised (e.g. access to feature packs to keep up to date), but this is great news.

I’d like to thank Ed, Barry Rosen and Peter Janzen as well as anyone else I’m not aware of who has been involved in making this happen. It’s something I’ve been speaking to Barry and Pete since IBM Connect 2016, it’s been something I’ve been optimistic about, but conscious of the challenges, particularly since the move to Feature Packs.

Yes, developers having a local development server is standard beyond Domino, and that has been one of the points made. But this decision demonstrates some significant positives:

  • IBM are listening
  • Domino app dev is important for the future
  • IBM appreciate Domino Designer is good for previewing Notes Client apps, but as developers have moved into areas like DOTS, plugin development, source control etc, the need for a local server has increased.
  • Development is about more than just Notes Client apps.
  • This will enable developers who are not working for a customer to build their apps for dev as they would for production. Whether they are developing solely on Domino, primarily elsewhere, whatever – there’s no excuse for cutting Domino out of the picture because of challenges setting up a server.
  • This will enable you to build a REST plugin as I and others like Sven Hasslebach have talked about and which will be covered in an upcoming NotesIn9.

This doesn’t change anything for me, I’ve been working with a local Domino server for some time. I hope it will change how a lot of others will develop. It’s not about testing performance with millions of documents, it’s about getting the code right, integrating with ODP to push to source control repositories, developing like you will in production (developing plugins smartly, deploying plugins like in production, security, ID Vault etc).

If you’ve not developed plugins yet and want to, there will be a NotesIn9 hopefully soon, but I’ve also created and delivered training for Java in Domino and developing REST services for Domino. If you want to see sample agendas (training can be tailored), see the area on our website. 

6 thoughts on “Domino Server for Developers Entitlement Announced”

  1. Patrick – I did NOT read this as any kind of “community” edition. Just that there’s a way for developers to legally be able to run a local domino server on their machines to aid in application development. That is not the same thing as a “Community” edition which I would take to mean a Domino server that could be used for small non profit based applications.

    I’d love to see a Community edition, but till more information comes out I do not think that this is what IBM announced.

    I just don’t want there to be an confusion on this announcement.

    Disclaimer: I did not see the announcement I only know what Paul wrote so it’s possibly I am incorrect here.

    1. Yes, my understanding is that this is for non-production use, so a developer edition rather than community edition. I think aspects of it are still being worked out, but if I was managing this, I wouldn’t be offering full support for example. If you hit a problem, I would expects developers to push to their normal centralised dev server (or Bluemix), reproduce, and raise PMRs based on that. This is about ease of development. And if you are interested in Docker as a good delivery / install mechanism for this, I would strongly encourage you to raise that.

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