A few weeks ago, HCL released Notes and Domino 12.0.2, bringing with them a number of good features for users, developers, and administrators. To go along with these changes, the community at OpenNTF released new versions of several projects within a few days.

OpenNTF Domino API

The venerable OpenNTF Domino API hadn't had a release for 12.0 or 12.0.1, which hampered the use of new capabilities like QRP and native transactions. To go with 12.0.2, there's a new version that adds proper wrappings for the new classes and methods.

It's also likely that there will be another minor update in the near future, thanks to a patch from Mark Leusink for a bug with newer-era large summary fields.

Open Eclipse Update Site

Shortly after Notes 12.0.2 was released, the community on the OpenNTF Discord server found that the 64-bit version had a bug with the Eclipse Update Site template that ships with the product. This problem doesn't appear in the 32-bit client, but is consistent in 64-bit thanks to a lack of a 64-bit SWT library for the agents used.

Fortunately, Karsten Lehmann has been maintaining the Open Eclipse Update Site project for a long time, taking the base template and improving it in various ways. In short order, he released a new version to work around this problem in the 64-bit client and improving a handful of other aspects. If you use NSF-based update sites, this is the template to use.

XPages Update Sites

Years ago, IBM uploaded the Update Site for Build Management ZIP to aid in building XPages libraries and other OSGi-based Domino projects. However, this release was only for Domino 9.0.1 and didn't cover changes in any newer versions or anything in the Notes client. Additionally, since these components are proprietary, no one in the community can upload a new release.

The Domino Update Site Generator project has existed for a long while to fill the gap, allowing you to build your own update site from newer versions of Notes and Domino, and now it has a project page on OpenNTF. This came with a new release for compatibility with 12.0.2, which made subtle changes to the way that the NAPI is packaged, something with significant implications for a number of projects. Update sites built with this version will include a new wrapper for the NAPI implementation in a similar way to how it packages in the associated Notes.jar version.

Domino Container Updates

Starting in the latter IBM days and continuing in the HCL era, Daniel Nashed has maintained scripts for building Domino container images, resulting in containers that are more flexible and historically more capable than the official ones from Flexnet.

Though this project is not OpenNTF-affiliated, it's one of the primary topics of conversation in the #docker channel of the OpenNTF Discord. There, Oliver Busse was kicking the tires on 12.0.2 and noticed some trouble, which he mentioned there. Before too long, the project had an update to cover some lingering transitional bits, and Oliver was able to report his subsequent success in the channel.

Community Involvement

These updates highlight the value of the community surrounding Domino, both in hosting important infrastructural projects to complement the product and in providing community spaces to discuss our findings and experiences with new versions.

All community members are heartily encouraged to join us in the Discord server and to contribute to OpenNTF projects either independently or helping with existing projects in our GitHub org and elsewhere. The community thrives with participation at every level.




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