Improving Domino Designer ICON UK

© Kathy Brown, Julian Robichaux
Improving Your
Domino Designer
Experience
Julian Robichaux :: panagenda
Kathy Brown :: PSC Group

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 DDE 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

Installing
(and Reinstalling)

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

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

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

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 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 workspace.metadata
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 dataworkspace 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 client and 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

Cleaning a Broken DDE
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.workbenchworkingsets.xml
com.ibm.designer.domino.ide.resourceswsInfo.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

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

Bonus: also backs up your SAVED custom Perspectives

General Settings

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 have new settings
Almost all of the DDE preferences (from File - Preferences)
map to Eclipse preferences

Default Language Type

Line Numbering

Spellcheck (or lack thereof)

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 Assist
or...
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://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

Working With Code

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, all databases in a working set, all design
elements in a database (project), or 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)

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- dataIBM_TECHNICAL_SUPPORTconsole.log
Extra logging info
datadominoworkspace.configrcpinstall.properties
see the commented log levels at the bottom of the file
logs to datadominoworkspacelogstrace-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 notesosgi:
*April 2012 Clippings Newsletter -- need to get republished

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?lang=en_us

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 RunDebug
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.

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

Plugins

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

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?lang=en_us
https://www.socialbizug.org/blogs/articles/entry/using_source_control?
lang=en_us
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

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
After you install
Manually shut down and restart the Notes client again
(don’t use the “Restart now” option)
X

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

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

MultiClipboard

XPath-Developer

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

Writing Your Own Plugins
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)”

THANK YOU
Julian Robichaux
panagenda
nsftools.com
@jrobichaux
Kathy Brown
PSC Group
runningnotes.net
@RunningKathy

Improving Domino Designer ICON UK

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