BP207 - Easy as pie creating widgets for ibm connections

© 2012 IBM Corporation

BP207 Easy As Pie - Creating Widgets for IBM Connections

Mikkel Flindt HeisterbergSenior Solution Architect | IntraVision

2 | © 2012 IBM Corporation

Legal disclaimer© IBM Corporation 2012. All Rights Reserved.

The information contained in this publication is provided for informational purposes only. While efforts were made to verify the completeness and accuracy of the information contained in this publication, it is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind, express or implied. In addition, this information is based on IBM’s current product plans and strategy, which are subject to change by IBM without notice. IBM shall not be responsible for any damages arising out of the use of, or otherwise related to, this publication or any other materials. Nothing contained in this publication is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, creating any warranties or representations from IBM or its suppliers or licensors, or altering the terms and conditions of the applicable license agreement governing the use of IBM software.

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About me With IntraVision (makers of the OnTime®

suite of calendar and meeting management products – showcase booth 515), Premier Business Partner from Denmark

Been working with IBM Lotus® technologies since he was a young boy

Recently named an IBM Champion for IBM Collaboration Solutions (ICS)

An all together nice guy!

http://twitter.com/lekkim http://lekkimworld.com


Agenda A bit on IBM Connections architecture and the

infrastructure for widgets i.e. configuration files etc. Introduction to iWidgets – configure, develop and deploy Resources and summary Q&A


IBM Connections architecture


Widgets in IBM Connections Most functionality in IBM Connections is actually widgets You may add widgets in Profiles, Communities and Homepage Widgets are made up of two parts

─ Widget configuration on the IBM Connections server─ The actual widget written to the iWidget specification (JavaScript / XML / HTML / CSS)


Widgets in IBM Connections You may add widgets in Profiles, Communities and Homepage Most functionality in these features is actually widgets Widgets are made up of two parts

─ Widget configuration on the IBM Connections server─ The actual widget written to the iWidget specification (JavaScript / XML / CSS)


View mode

Widget modes There are a number of modes defined (view, edit, fullpage, search) but not all

modes are supported in all features (fullpage and search only in Communities) Widgets may contribute multiple modes Administrator may choose to use some and not all modes contributed

Added by administrator Added by the community owner




Fullpage mode


Search mode




Widget configuration in widgets-config.xml

(unless using extreme care)


Widget attributes makes the widget configurable It doesn't make sense to hard code or at least not supply sensible defaults and

widget attributes can be used for configuration String key/value pairs may be supplied – interpretation of the value is up to the

widget though Some values cannot be specified in widgets-config.xml as they may change

based on IBM Connections configuration (such as context root i.e. “/dogear” / “/bookmarks”) or the ID of the active profile / community

Special values are enclosed in curly braces – i.e.─ {resourceId} profileKey of current Profiles user or communityUnid if in Communities─ {contextRoot} Context root of the current feature (i.e. “/profiles”)


Widget attributes makes the widget configurable (2)


Say hello to iWidgets In IBM Connections 3 the widgets are iWidgets which means that they are

written to the iWidget specification Widgets are described by a widget descriptor (referenced in widgets-config.xml)

and optionally JavaScript to provide dynamic behavior and, also optionally, CSS to style the contents

The widget descriptor describes supported modes, startup mode, “iScope class” (more in a bit) and, optionally, which resources to load

Static widget content for each mode may also be supplied


Widget descriptor – more in depth












iScope class

● Access to dojo version 1.4.1 (highly customized for IBM Connections)● You do not have to use dojo to declare the class...


iContext An iContext instance is automatically set into the iScope class The iContext provides access to the widget markup (e.g. root element), I/O

related functions (i.e. URL rewriting), widget attributes etc. The iContext is easily accessed from the iScope class using this.iContext Important functions include:

─ iContext.getRootElement() : DOM Element─ iContext.getElementById(id:string) : DOM Element─ iContext.getiWidgetAttributes() : ItemSet─ iContext.getUserProfile() : ItemSet─ iContext.io.rewriteURI(uri:string) : string─ iContext.iEvents.fireEvent(name:string, type:string, payload:object)

You retrieve information from an ItemSet using getItemValue(name:string)


Using iContext


Using iEvents


Keeping context JavaScript is single threaded - all requests for web resources are done after the

current method completes The callback is done with another context i.e. “this” will refer to something else

than your iScope class Solution is to

─ use closures i.e. save a reference to “this” before the call─ use dojo.hitch and have dojo apply the correct context












What's your origin? In browsers we have what's called the

“Same Origin Policy” JavaScript running the the browser may

only do XHR's against the same server it was loaded from

Same server means─ Same hostname / IP─ Same port number

To work around this we use an AJAX proxy

IBM Connections supplies us with a proxy which is easy to use from your widget code


Using the AJAX proxy

If running in Profiles the proxy will be http://<host>/profiles/ajaxProxyAbove request will be http://<host>/profiles/ajaxProxy/http/www.google.com/search?q=Lotusphere


IBM Connections AJAX proxy is used for all requests

Easy to see if using Firebug to trace AJAX proxy used for all requests even though widget descriptor and required

JavaScript files are fully qualified and from same hostname / port combination


Proxy security For security access through the proxy is disallowed by default You have to allow access on a per hostname and method

type (GET, POST, DELETE etc.) basis (or open for all hostnames / methods although not recommended)

Do remember to allow access for LtpaToken cookies if authentication should be propagated

Proxy configuration done in proxy-config.tpl on the IBM Connections server

(unless using extreme care)


Using the IBM Connections REST API IBM Connections provide a very comprehensive REST API based on the AtomPub standard

Each feature has full documentation on how to access data using the API in the InfoCenter / wiki – unfortunately examples are hard to come by

Since these requests probably go to the IBM Connections server they may not need to be proxied (unless features are on separate servers)

─ Remember to always use widget attributes (e.g. {profilesSvcRef}) to get URL to the Profiles feature unless you are willing to guess / hardcode

Using the lconn.core.xpath and lconn.core.xslt classes can help you work with the XML based results

─ Loaded by default by the IBM Connections pages─ Probably not supported neither officially or unofficially... :-)

Most important functions:─ lconn.core.xpath.selectNodes(xpath:string, xmldoc:XMLDocument, ns:array) : Nodelist

─ lconn.core.xslt.loadXml(url:string) : XMLDocument


IBM Connections REST API example


Widget title, i18n and resources Unfortunately setting the title of your widget isn't as easy as

one could have hoped :-( Setting the title can be done in one of two ways (well three

actually):1) Using general IBM Connections strings properties file – this one is easy

and only require creating / changing one file2) Using custom properties file – this one is clean as you don't depend on

others files but it does also require change to LotusConnections-config.xml

● Title is set as the value for a property where the key is the widget id from widgets-config.xml

● String resources – e.g. translation – can be done using same approach

OnTime=Calendar by OnTime


Widget title, i18n and resources example


Reading i18n strings from your bundle


Caveats Editing configuration files by hand is prone to error

─ IBM would tell you always use checkin/checkout via wsadmin as it does a schema check :-)

Widgets are running in a shared environment─ Make sure your CSS classes do not clash─ Make sure ID's are unique by prefixing something unique to

them as there may be multiple instances of the same widget on the page (it follows from this that you cannot use ID's for CSS selectors)

Because you have access to the entire page doesn't mean that you should...

Never, never, never, never ever add something like the following to your stylesheet – you may need it but the page as a whole will start to look funny...* {font-size: 7pt; color: red; overflow: hidden}

Start small...


Things I would have hoped someone had told me... Dojo is nasty to troubleshoot due to async loading – all errors seem to come

from dojo.js which is almost never the culprit Logging is really your friend but do add something that indicates which piece of

code is logging─ console.log, console.trace, console.debug, console.info, console.warn, console.error

How to show a lightbox


Things I would have hoped someone had told me... Dojo is nasty to troubleshoot due to async loading – all errors seem to come

from dojo.js which is almost never the culprit Logging is really your friend but do add something that indicates which piece of

code is logging─ console.log, console.trace, console.debug, console.info, console.warn, console.error

How to show a lightbox


Things I would have hoped someone had told me... Network latency kills web application performance – cache as such as possible

and combine multiple files into one minified version Repeat after me: “Latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency,

latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency, latency.....


Summary Most functionality in IBM Connections is actually widgets and you can add your

own Bringing your applications into IBM Connections and thus providing in-context

access is very valuable Widgets are quite easy to develop using JavaScript and CSS although you must

know about asynchronous JavaScript Dojo makes it easy to keep context and it's already loaded iWidgets, iScope, iContext, iEvents... Use asynchronous calls to keep UI snappy and use dojo.hitch to keep context Start small and build from there

Happy coding!!


Related sessions BP121: Performance Programming AD201: Integrate and Customize IBM Connections 3.0.1 AD203: Developing Custom Client Applications using the IBM Connections APIs AD204: Mastering the Art of Social Application Development


The shameless plug...

Social Application ThrowdownWhere: Dolphin, Northern Hemisphere A-CTime: 5.30pm – 6.30pm

Featuring yours truly (and 5 other business partners...)


Resources iWidget specification: http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/mashupswiki.nsf/dx/iwidget-

spec-v1.0.pdf/$file/iwidget-spec-v1.0.pdf IBM Connections iWidget Development Guide: www-

10.lotus.com/ldd/lcwiki.nsf/dx/development-guide iWidget support in Homepage: http://www-

10.lotus.com/ldd/lcwiki.nsf/dx/07072009105437%D8%B5WEBKH7.htm iWidget support in profiles and Communities: http://www-

10.lotus.com/ldd/lcwiki.nsf/dx/10082009050455WEBCNM.htm Common iWidget support in Connections: http://www-

10.lotus.com/ldd/lcwiki.nsf/dx/common-iwidget-support-in-the-lotus-connections-features

In all modesty my blog – http://lekkimworld.com

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/lcwiki.nsf/dx/common-iwidget-support-in-the-lotus-connections-features




Q&A But?, How?, Doesn't that mean... Give it to me! (or come talk to me

after the session or find me in the hallways...)

Twitter: @lekkimEmail: [email protected]: http://lekkimworld.com

Slides will be at http://lekkimworld.com/lotusphere2012

mailto:Mikkel@lekkim

mailto:[email protected]

http://lekkimworld.com/

http://lekkimworld.com/lotusphere2012

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BP207 - Easy as pie creating widgets for ibm connections