Recap, Slides and Demo App from my SUTOL 2015 session

Wednesday, November 11, 2015 at 9:00 PM UTC

On Nov 11th I had the pleasure to present my session "Utilizing the OpenNTF Domino API in Domino Applications" at the 7th Czech User Group Conference SUTOL in Prague (CZ). 

The story of how I prepared this session is somewhat unique. I have to admit that I never was that late in preparing a session ever. I started 10 days before the conference (seriously), being very confident of what I wanted to do would work fine and prosper. I also have to admit that I was totally wrong in that assumption. It was the hardest and most exhausting preperation ever.

I submitted my session proposal under the title "Utilizing the OpenNTF Domino API Graph capabilities in your XPages Application" first. I wanted to do a show and tell only about the Graph DB functions I am very interested in. It turned out to be a hassle as this feature (among others) is brandnew and has it's caveats though. I prepared my environment maybe 2 months ago (which also was quite challenging), but even with my environment setup I experienced many troubles in just trying to get the built-in demos and tests working. It was really frustrating.

I decided to change the contents of my session to a more general approach of showing the ODA as an overview, not just the graph stuff.

The result was a show and tell of how to get ODA running on the system, which are most useful elements - and, yes, even the graph features with a "real world" example in XPages. It still has some issues though.

The bottom-line is: ODA is a powerful library and the missing link for every Java developer in the Domino cosmos - but it's hard to learn and currently not documented very well.

I like to say thank you to the guys from the ODA Skype chat who helped to overcome many problems and who always had an ear for my problems. At least I can say that I found some issues that will be fixed in the next version.

To name these guys who helped me: Paul Withers, Jesse Gallagher, Nathan Freeman and Martin Jinoch - you guys rock!

TL;DR;

All went well in the end.

Here are my slides: http://de.slideshare.net/OliverBusse/sutol-2015-utilizing-the-openntf-domino-api

Here is the demo app you can clone and build for yourself: https://bitbucket.org/zeromancer1972/sutol-2015-oda-graph-demo

My Flickr photo album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/132362754@N04/albums/72157660688191570

After the conference

I visited Prague before several time as a tourist. This was (afaik) my 4th visit - and my very first SUTOL. Beside other great conferences and user group events around Europe this is something that I would call "a little gem" - though it wasn't that little at all. We counted about 100 people attending a conference that was held in English for the first time. The other 6 events were held entirely in Czech language with local speakers and attendees. This time also the majority of attendees were from the Czech Republic but we had other countries, too, e.g. Slovakia, USA, Germany, and even Israel. Most of them were invited as speaker, like as I was.

I hope that wasn't my/the last SUTOL held in English to broaden the audience giving us non-local vendors, consultants and providers the chance to reach out to the Eastern European market.

And of course it is always a pleasure to meet all the "guys" from the Yellowsphere. One event more in the "bank" Lächelnd






Latest comments to this post

Oliver Busse wrote on 27.11.2015, 00:52

Patrick,

my demo app should explain everything that is on my slides. Just study the code that is used on the corresponding XPage. I am sure you will understand.

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Patrick Kwinten wrote on 26.11.2015, 15:30

I went through your presentation but I still don't understand how beneficial ODa can be. Perhaps more code snippets in some form of hands-on material to build a real world (to do?) application seems more useful.

For now I am left going through the search demo application and try to understand it's capabilities ...

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Jan Krejcarek wrote on 12.11.2015, 17:44

Oh man, what a story! I can imagine what it must have felt like when You run to troubles. The details behind the session are surprising because on the stage everything was perfect, clear and looked easy. I am glad that You included all the steps to get OpenNTF Domino API up and running in the presentation, people can use that as a step by step guide. Thanks again for the effort.

And thanks for the kind words about the conference. We wanted to go to full english content to attract a broader audience. But it would not had been a success if You and others would not come to Prague to present. 

Take care
Jan

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Martin Pradny wrote on 12.11.2015, 10:19

Thank you for coming. I also hope there will be next SUTOL event in English and also I hope you will be able to show ODA Graph features next time.
 

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