DXFramework - Ok what can it do for me?

I've picked out 4 benefits which I feel are the most important to me and so hopefully may also be the most important to you. These are:

Cheaper option for domino web development

As there are so many 'Domino Issues' ironed out and a central database full of pre-created, configurable components, together with a design structure that encourages code reuse, sharing etc development time for projects is dramatically reduced, therefore reducing costs.

Legacy Notes Application Web Enablement

Typically some older Notes Applications are a pain to 'Web Enable'. Especially if full of non 'webable' design such as Layout regions etc.

Well the unique design of the Framework means you do not need to make any changes to the original database - so that can still be used as normal via Notes. Instead the Framework acts as a layer between that and the browser.

Addresses Web UI issues for domino applications

There are many features requested for the web that Notes developers take for granted. These are things like Dialog Lists, Pick Lists, keywords lists, calendars, tabbed tables, menus etc etc. Well they are all here as 'Components' in a central database ready to be linked into your application via the 'DX Wizards'.

Code Management

One of my many frustrations is how how code is managed - not just with Lotus Notes but also for Web development in general. Pages of scripts dotted around, code in Notes Forms etc - I find it a nitemare!

With the Framework, this is all solved. Code is structured, easy to find, and you can search for functions, bits of code across all your databases at the same time. From experience this saves a lot of frustation and time.

In addition there is full version control, code builds, rollbacks, editing history and automatic backing up.

Further Information on the Framework can be found here.

DXFramework - Introduction

The actual DX Framework has been under development for several years and has been slowly evolving as needs have increased.

The framework consists of a group of Lotus Notes databases, servlets, javascript files that come together to form a consistant and best practice method of developing Lotus Domino web applications.

If you then add this to consistant development methods, team working, design control and a centralised component based structure then we have at last a way of working this beast!

My plans are to very shortly release all the work I have been doing for the last few years - as is. This comprises of a set of Notes Templates, a core of javascript api's, web components and a few servlets. I will also be releasing a few demonstration applications to help you see how things work.

This will then form the first version of a complete framework for developing web applications for domino together with providing a very efficient way of converting old Notes Database systems for web use. The sites direction will then be to provide documents,articles on using this base framework.

The next step will be to create a project section of the site where you the community can suggest Project ideas and these projects can then be managed online from this site. These projects will be open source and freely distributed. The forthcoming mail application will be added to these open source projects.

Features available in the current version of the framework can be found in the articles section of this site.

In addition to the above, tools are currently being created in Java to eventually replace the Notes Database way of creating applications - more information on these will be announced shortly.