with the community, share design decisions, get advice, and modify our development plan
dynamically. We had been, and still are, listening closely to the community through many and
varied sources like blogs, wikis, forums, and of course, direct communication. We are most defi-
nitely dedicated to putting our customers in a winning situation. Everything we do is toward this
goal: We truly understand that our success is our customers’ success.
In this area, the XPages development team showed an impressive commitment. For
example, we organized not one, but two workshops in our development lab 6 months before
releasing the product! And it paid off: We introduced happy customers on stage at Lotusphere
®
2009, a mere 15 days after the official release of the Domino 8.5. Their testimonials were encour-
aging and have not been proved wrong since, as the XPages adoption curve moves ever onward
and upward. Many XPages-based solutions were shown at Lotusphere 2010, and Lotusphere
2011 promises to be another great stage with a lot of already mature solutions waiting to be
announced. The team also wrote numerous articles in the Domino Application Development
wiki, recorded many videos, and has been responsive on the different forums. This is also a major
change where the development team is not isolated in its sterilized lab, but interacting positively
with the broader community. The revitalization of openNTF.org is another example. The number
of its monthly hits shows just how successful it is. Many partners have told me that they always
look for already available reusable components before deciding to develop their own, and open-
NTF is just a fantastic resource in this regard.
So, what’s next? Are we done? Certainly not! We have new challenges coming in, particu-
larly with the next generation of browsers and platforms. We need to evolve XPages to generate
applications that can take advantage of the new client capability. We need XPages to be tightly
integrated with the rest of IBM Collaboration Services portfolio (a.k.a. Lotus portfolio). We need
to support the new devices, such as smartphones and tablet PCs. We want to make sure that
XPages plays a leading role with the next generation of Lotus Software (code name Vulcan). But,
beyond the technology, we also have the challenge of transforming the way we create and deliver
software. We want to make the Notes/Domino technology more open. We want to make the
development process more transparent. We want to get feedback earlier, and we even want the
community to contribute to that effort. We’re all here to make it better, aren’t we? The answer, in
my opinion, is to open source some parts of the platform. OpenNTF is becoming our innovation
lab, delivering technology early, breaking the regular release cycles. It allows us to be responsive
to the community needs and then integrate the components later in the core product. Recently, we
successfully experienced this with the new XPages Extension Library. The feedback we received
was very positive, so we want to continue in this direction. Stay tuned...Notes/Domino is the plat-
form of the future!
Finally, this story wouldn’t have happened without a great XPages and Domino Designer
team. For the quality of the work, the innovation path, the willingness to take on new challenges,
the customer focus...well, for many aspects, this team is seen as exemplary in the broader Lotus
organization. I really feel lucky and proud to be part of it. This book’s three authors are also key
members. Each one of them has worked on different areas of XPages; the gang of writers cannot
xxii Mastering XPages