Domino Development with Java 2012

Book Description
A tutorial and resource for current and new Domino developers that explains how to use the popular Java language to develop Domino applications instead of Lotus’s proprietary LotusScript.

For any IBM/Lotus Domino developer, the product’s recent support for Java marks an exciting advance. Domino Development with Javaprovides a nicely comprehensive guide to the Java objects and APIs that can be used to build Domino applications using today’s hottest programming language.

This title opens with a quick look at the Domino Designer IDE–a capable enough Java tool–amply illustrated with screen shots. While Domino Developmentdoes not claim to be a comprehensive introduction to Java itself, it does review language basics. After this quick tour, the book dives in with code samples that show off the APIs and simple programming conventions to get at Domino databases, views, items, rich-text items, and collections. Code samples demonstrate the available APIs that are used for each Domino Java object. Nearly every line of code is annotated (by using numbered bullets), with a corresponding comment on the details of each API.

Later sections turn toward activity logging, access-control lists (ACLs) and agents, names, and date-time values; you learn how to combine Java support for dates and calendars with Domino data. Later sections also discuss Domino’s growing Web capabilities–naturally, an important area for developers. There’s also a brief discussion of using the IBM VisualAge for Java tool. One strong point is the comparison of basic application types that are available in Domino, from applets to standalone applications to servlets.

Short sections on JDBC and Lotus connectors, which allow Domino applications to connect to disparate data sources, are covered, too. The book concludes with the full-fledged example of the online store (complete with shopping cart), written with servlets and Domino–a useful and up-to-date example. There also is a brief glimpse at future plans for Domino from IBM/Lotus, centering on growing support for XML and related standards.

As any Domino developer knows, there’s a shortage of good information on this development platform. While you’ll certainly want to look at other sources for learning the Java language itself, this title fills a need by providing in one convenient place a reference on available Domino objects and APIs. Provided that you have some experience with Domino done the old-fashioned way, this book can teach you how to combine that knowledge with Java productively. –Richard Dragan