Why I'm less excited about XPages than everyone else
Category XPages catch-up
I've seen XPages and as someone who does Domino development now and again I think they are fantastic and a great leap forward for Domino web apps. However I've also worked with other development environments, and know that they are long overdue and that is probably why I'm less excited about them than others.
It is often the case, that Domino developers know Domino very well, but tend not to know too much about the competition, or believe what they read. XPages is a catch-up feature with the competition, the idea of components on a page that offer great web UI with AJAX etc. have been in other products for at least 5 years, Domino is getting them now (I'm sure if we didn't have Workplace, it would have been there 5 years ago too). ASP.net has lots of components, but like most Microsoft products, the thing that really sells the capabilities to developers is the 3rd party components. If you pick up a copy of Dr Dobbs it is full of component companies with solutions for ASP.net, if you search Google for ASP.net components there are tons of offerings from well know companies like Infragistics.
Want a spreadsheet grid on your web page, no problem there's a ASP.net component for that, want a Gantt chart for your web page no problem, want a stopwatch, no problem, want a menu bar, no problem. You get the idea, Domino is behind and way behind.
There is a huge ecosystem for ASP.net components with many successful business running on the back of it. Lotus a long time ago, knew that partners products sold product, it's what they did in the early days of 1-2-3 and it's what they did in the early days of Notes. Today I'm not so sure IBM gets it, they never really got it with OS/2. IBM understands that Solutions sell product, but they haven't made the connection between partners building those solutions and it helping them be a success. IBM APIs for products, tend to ship after the product ships which to me says IBM doesn't see the value in 3rd party product support. It also makes it really difficult for partners to have products ready to announce on the day of ship, which to me is one of the keys to a successful product launch.
I'm sure there must be a large team of IBMers out there give incentives to all these ASP.net component builders to create similar components for XPages, and I'm sure IBM is providing them with unlimited free technical development assistance to make sure many of them are able to get their products converted so they can announce on the day that XPages ships. Hey we're all allowed to dream aren't we?
I've seen XPages and as someone who does Domino development now and again I think they are fantastic and a great leap forward for Domino web apps. However I've also worked with other development environments, and know that they are long overdue and that is probably why I'm less excited about them than others.
It is often the case, that Domino developers know Domino very well, but tend not to know too much about the competition, or believe what they read. XPages is a catch-up feature with the competition, the idea of components on a page that offer great web UI with AJAX etc. have been in other products for at least 5 years, Domino is getting them now (I'm sure if we didn't have Workplace, it would have been there 5 years ago too). ASP.net has lots of components, but like most Microsoft products, the thing that really sells the capabilities to developers is the 3rd party components. If you pick up a copy of Dr Dobbs it is full of component companies with solutions for ASP.net, if you search Google for ASP.net components there are tons of offerings from well know companies like Infragistics.
Want a spreadsheet grid on your web page, no problem there's a ASP.net component for that, want a Gantt chart for your web page no problem, want a stopwatch, no problem, want a menu bar, no problem. You get the idea, Domino is behind and way behind.
There is a huge ecosystem for ASP.net components with many successful business running on the back of it. Lotus a long time ago, knew that partners products sold product, it's what they did in the early days of 1-2-3 and it's what they did in the early days of Notes. Today I'm not so sure IBM gets it, they never really got it with OS/2. IBM understands that Solutions sell product, but they haven't made the connection between partners building those solutions and it helping them be a success. IBM APIs for products, tend to ship after the product ships which to me says IBM doesn't see the value in 3rd party product support. It also makes it really difficult for partners to have products ready to announce on the day of ship, which to me is one of the keys to a successful product launch.
I'm sure there must be a large team of IBMers out there give incentives to all these ASP.net component builders to create similar components for XPages, and I'm sure IBM is providing them with unlimited free technical development assistance to make sure many of them are able to get their products converted so they can announce on the day that XPages ships. Hey we're all allowed to dream aren't we?
| Permalink | 
Comments
Posted by Ed Maloney At 10:50:22 AM On 06/26/2008 | - Website - |
Though I am hearing complains from .NET programmers that they are confronted with suboptimal components chosen before they entered the projects, like grids which load whole database and which are very slow when they shall cope with larger loads of data.
Of course, those problems can be solved with a more sophisticated component selection process by the customer.
Posted by Axel At 11:48:49 AM On 06/26/2008 | - Website - |
Today Domino is lacking on the web-side a viable way to create "modern" apps.
Version 8.0 solved the problem on the client problem and the Notes 8.0 client made the impossible possible.
Version 8.5 IS solving the problem on the server/web.
We already know that XPages will come to the client (I think sooner than later) so we get "write-once" run on Web/Client.
If we compare this to the competiont (and I know the competition) I can just say Microsoft/Net has NEVER had a real client platform, you can create application but that's not a client platform. With microsoft you end up with a very fragmented set of applications.
We, domino users, are used to take domino/notes as granted but concepts like replication, application security, multi-platform services is something others have to cry before they can see something working.
Back to XPages I'm particulary pleased with the "WAY" it's being built. I've been usin JSF in the J2EE world and know very well how effective/flexible it can be. Way more scalable than ASP.NET (we can digress here) and for sure comparable from a "component system" point of view.
XPages could also mean a new thing.. look ahead... create XPages applications with a domino backend. Export as WAR files and deploy to J2EE AppServer calling back for data to the domino NSF Facility. This will mean unprecedented scalability with Rapid Development and document oriented constructs we're used to.
No ASP.NET can do author/reader fields in a comparable way. So, to me... things are looking bright.
Posted by Daniele Vistalli At 12:31:50 PM On 06/26/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Bruce Elgort At 09:40:51 AM On 06/27/2008 | - Website - |