Hello,I am all new to Domino 8.5 (DDE, xpages, and so on)
From what i understood so far, i see XPages as encapsulating all the complexity (client server - post or get - exchanges, JSF, XML, Domino DOM, and so on).
Now, my customer really wants some state of the art web 2.0 application. One of the prerequisites may be never to have global requests (never see the url change when using application).
Is it easily doable with xpages, without loosing all flexibility?
is there anyway to easily load data sources in ajax and manipulate them in client side javascript encapsulating server side javascript? to get data? to post data?
How about performance?
there must be a way!? (please…)
if xpages means a new request each time you load/submit a document, what about performance? can i sell this to my customer.
XPages is a client/server framework, and automatically handles client requests (get/post) for you. It had been designed to be as simple as possible, so you don’t have to care about the plumbing.
Now, it default behavior posts data to the server, which processes the request and returns another page. This is the default mode of a browser based application. The URL is changing, which allows an easy bookmark and back button processing.
You can certainly generate a single HTML page that connects to the server using REST calls, but this will currently force you to do this manually. We were thinking about automatic REST services out of the data sources, but this is not yet in the product
The question ‘How about performance’ is quite broad And not changing the URL while using REST call might not enhance the performance (this can lead to a lot of XmlHttpRequest, which can be slow due to the network latency).
XPages currently compares well with the ‘classic’ Domino technology, at least as reported by our internal testers or by some customers. It also outbeats the other JSF based frameworks, as we clearly optimized the JSF implementation and our use of it.
Subject: very promising, but will it fit my current need…
Thanks Philippe for your answer.
I must say i feared it. Power versus flexibility, as usual.
providing an easy way to query data sources in Ajax via a XHR request really is something us developpers will want… this will give us flexibility, while still benefiting from the power of xpages.
i know it may not be a good choice when thinking performance… but in many customers mind, it is still better than seeing IE flash because of page reload…
Any hope to see this added soon?
In the mean time, i think the key for me will be to find arguments to convince our customer that we can build on them which means for him dynamic navigation will come next.
And not changing the URL while using REST call might not enhance the performance (this can lead to a lot of XmlHttpRequest, which can be slow due to the network latency).