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The iPhora Journey - Part 8 - Flow-based Programming

After my last post in this series -- way back in September 2022, several things happened that prevented any further installments. First came CollabSphere 2022 and then CollabSphere 2023, and organizing international conferences can easily consume all of one's spare time. Throughout this same time period, our product development efforts continued at full speed and are just now coming to fruition, which means it is finally time to continue our blog series. So let's get started... As developers, most of us create applications through the conscious act of programming, either procedural, as many of us old-timers grew up with, or object-oriented, which we grudgingly had to admit was better. This is true whether we are using Java, LotusScript, C++ or Rust on Domino. (By the way, does anyone remember Pascal? When I was in school, I remember being told it was the language of the future, but for some reason it didn't seem to survive past the MTV era).  But in the last decade, there a
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The iPhora Journey - Part 7 - Transforming Domino with Microservices

Most of the concepts that we have been talking about in our iPhora Journey are neither new nor revolutionary. Collectively, they merely represent the current state of the art in designing web applications. In other (i.e., non-Domino) platforms, you would need an array of services each running on a separate server, and you would have to build the integration between the different components and maintain security between all of those components. With virtualization and containers all of the necessary services can now bundled into a single installation, which is helpful, but the integration of those components can still be fraught with issues, especially compatibility between different versions of those services. With Domino all of this is taken care for you: authentication, directory services, security, web services, and database services are all tightly integrated in a single server,  which is an advantage that no other technology offers. While Domino has its quirks and does not support
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The iPhora Journey - Part 6 - An Application, Rethinking and Redefining

In our previous articles, we discussed the advantages of using JSON in applications and the importance of being able to effectively process JSON. This leads to the interesting question: what exactly is an application, and the answer to that question may differ depending on who you ask. Most people today would assume you are referring to a phone app, and even then there are wide range of options. A college student might think of apps like Tiktok or WhatsApp, and a person looking for a significant other might automatically think of Hinge or Tinder. All of these people would be able to provide you with multiple examples of apps, and they might be able to list some of the common features of an app, even if they do not understand any of the technical details. In general, a web app today consists of the following four modules, even if the technical details may differ tremendously from app to app: User interface (UI) Database Business Logic Security Now, let's consider what an app is in t
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The iPhora Journey - Part 5 - Dammit Jim, I'm a LotusScripter not a JavaScripter

As often said by Dr. McCoy in the original Star Trek series, he is a doctor, not a ____________ .  However, just like Dr. McCoy, you may sometimes need to work on things that seem very alien to your experience.  One of those things, might be JSON. LotusScript, which was derived from Visual Basic, was written long before JSON existed, and therefore, LotusScript had no built-in capabilities for handling JSON objects. As we mentioned in Part 4, JSON plays a critical role in iPhora.  All data are stored as JSON, and JSON serves as the primary data and communication format between modules, functions and services.  All core components operate using JSON-based configurations.  Therefore, it was extremely important that we are able to fluidity create, read and process JSON.   Creating a JSON string is relatively easy in any programming language. You can create it even using Commodore 64 Basic, and if built sequentially, one line at a time, it is possible to create JSON representations of ve
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The iPhora Journey - Part 4 - JSON is King - The How

  The iPhora Journey - Part 1 - Reimagining Domino The iPhora Journey - Part 2 - Domino, the Little Engine that Could The iPhora Journey - Part 3 - Creating an Integrated UI Framework The iPhora Journey - Part 4 - JSON is King - The Why The iPhora Journey - Part 4 - JSON is King - The How As we mentioned yesterday, in reimagining Domino, we wanted Domino to be a modern web application server, one that utilized a JSON-based NoSQL database and be more secure compared to other JSON-based NoSQL platforms. A Domino document existing within a Domino database is the foundational data record used in iPhora, just as it is with traditional Domino applications. But instead of just storing data into individual fields, we wanted to store and process the JSON in a Domino document.  However, text fields (AKA summary fields) in Domino documents are limited to only 64 KBytes, and that is a serious limitation. 64 KBytes of JSON data does not even touch what the real world typically transfers back and fo
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HCL workshops coming to CollabSphere 2022

As part of CollabSphere 2022, on Tuesday October 18, 2022. HCL will be running three virtual workshops the day before CollabSphere starts. Each workshop will be 4 hours long with breaks and be limited to 12 attendees only. You will be able to sign up for the workshops as part of the CollabSphere 2022 registration process which start next Monday, August 15, 2022. You will be placed on a waiting list if the workshop is full. Below is a list of workshops that will be provided by HCL Digital Solutions Academy: ========================================= Tuesday - 10/18/2022 - Morning Deploying HCL Sametime Premium 12 on Kubernetes We'll cover setting up your own Kubernetes cluster and deploying Sametime Premium, which includes chat and meeting components. In addition to this, we'll use the time to cover network architecture, configurations, best practices, and troubleshooting. Tuesday - 10/18/2022 - Morning HCL Volt MX Development Jumpstart - Domino Developers Edition! Are you a
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