using the lotus expeditor toolkit with lotus notes 8 and ... · lotus expeditor toolkit is intended...

Using the IBM Lotus Expeditor Toolkit version 6.1.1 with IBM Lotus Notes 8 and IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5.1

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Using the Lotus Expeditor toolkit with Lotus Notes 8 and Lotus Sametime software

Abstract

This article provides getting started information on how the IBM Lotus® Expeditor

toolkit can be used for development of applications for IBM Lotus Notes® 8 and Lotus

Sametime® 7.5.1. Learn which install options to select, how to configure the toolkit and

how to launch a sample application on your target environment.

Introduction

As you have probably heard by now, the Lotus Expeditor 6.1.1 platform provides a

common foundation for Lotus Notes 8 and Lotus Sametime 7.5. Because of this, many of

the same applications can be built in the Lotus Expeditor toolkit and run on all of these

platforms. For the Java™, Java EE, and Eclipse™ RCP developer, this means you can

use the same tools and skills that you already have to build applications for Lotus Notes,

Lotus Sametime, and Lotus Expeditor using the Expeditor toolkit. In this article we will

see how you can use the Lotus Expeditor toolkit in conjunction with the Eclipse

Integrated Development Environment (IDE) or Rational Application Developer to build

and test Java and Java EE applications for use with Lotus Notes and Lotus Sametime.

For a more general overview of the Expeditor toolkit and development for the Lotus

Expeditor platform, see with “Getting started with the IBM Lotus Expeditor toolkit

V6.1.1” at this link: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/expeditor-toolkit.

Who should use the toolkit?

Lotus Expeditor toolkit is intended for use by Java, Eclipse RCP, and Java EE

developers. (The Eclipse organization is an open source community committed to

implementation of a universal development platform.) Using the provided tools, you can

reuse your existing skills and resources to deploy existing applications or to build new

applications for your target runtime environment. Although the environment is very

different than Domino Designer, existing Domino developers can use the toolkit to write

Java applications which can interface with existing NSF based applications. Existing

Lotus Sametime developers can continue to use their existing projects with the Expeditor

toolkit and take advantage of the simplified configuration and launch provided with the

toolkit.

Download

A free version of the Lotus Expeditor 6.1.1 toolkit is available for download from the

developerWorks® Lotus toolkits page. The downloaded file contains an update site that

can be installed into an existing Eclipse 3.2.2 or later based IDE, such as IBM Rational®

Application Developer for WebSphere Software V7.0.0.2.

Prerequisites

At a minimum, Lotus Expeditor toolkit requires Eclipse 3.2.2. For most functions,

including the sample used in this article, you should also install the Eclipse Web Tools


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Platform (WTP) 1.5.4+. This can be installed from the predefined Callisto Discovery site

available in Eclipse. If you do not already have a version of Eclipse and the Eclipse Web

Tools Platform installed, you can download and install the Java EE project bundle of

Eclipse from the IBM Callisto Simultaneous Release project page (http://www-

128.ibm.com/developerworks/eclipse/downloads/callisto/?S_TACT=105AGX44&S_CM

P=EUROPA). The Java EE project bundle and Lotus Expeditor toolkit together provide

everything needed for development of Java, Web, and Web services applications for

Lotus Expeditor. Most application types can be created using just Eclipse Callisto (3.2.2),

WTP, and the toolkit. If you create embedded transaction applications or portlet

applications, you need to install Rational Application Developer V7.0. If you are not

already a Rational Application Developer customer, you can download and install an

evaluation version of the software. Prior to installing the Lotus Expeditor toolkit in

Rational Application Developer, be sure to update to the latest fix pack of the Rational

software.

Required software

Application type or required

function

Minimum prerequisite software for Lotus

Expeditor toolkit

Standard Java and Eclipse RCP and

eRCP Eclipse 3.2.2

Web Application Java, JSP, Servlet Eclipse 3.2.2 and Eclipse Web Tools Platform

1.5.4

Web Application Portlet Embedded

transaction container

Rational Application Developer V7.0.0.2 or

IBM Rational Software Architect V7.0.0.2

In this section we will discuss the configuration and launch when targeting Notes. If you

are only developing for Lotus Sametime, you can skip to the “Lotus Sametime

Developer” section below.

Lotus Notes 8 Developer

Configuring the Notes JRE

Before installation of the Lotus Expeditor toolkit, you should configure the Lotus

Notes 8 Java Runtime Environment (JRE) for use with the toolkit. Start the IDE

environment (Eclipse, RAD, etc.) you plan to use with the toolkit and follow these steps:

1. Choose Window – Preferences – Java – Installed JREs

2. Click Add

3. In the Add JRE window

a. Set the JRE Type to Standard VM

b. Enter the JRE Name as “Notes 8 VM”

c. Click the Browse button, navigate to and select the jre directory located at

<Notes_Install>\framework\rcp\eclipse\plugins\com.ibm.rcp.j2se.win32.x

86_1.5.0.SR4-200707311521\jre and click OK

4. Click OK and OK again


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Prior to step 4, the completed configuration should appear like Figure 1.

Figure 1

Figure 1

You are now ready to install the toolkit.

Installation

After you download the Lotus Expeditor toolkit “zip” file, unzip the file in a

temporary location. To access the toolkit installation instructions, release notes, and other

documentation, open the autorun.html file in your browser of choice. The Lotus

Expeditor toolkit is divided into four features in two categories as shown in figure 2. The

desktop category includes Lotus Expeditor toolkit 6.1.1.20070731, Lotus Expeditor

Development Runtimes VM 6.1.1.200707311521, and Lotus Expeditor Development

Runtimes 6.1.1.200707311521. The device category includes Lotus Expeditor Tooling

for Devices 6.1.1.0-20070626. When developing for Lotus Notes 8, you only need to

install the Lotus Expeditor Toolkit 6.1.1.20070731 feature.


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Figure 2

When the installation process has completed, you will be prompted to restart the

platform. Click OK.

Configuration

After restarting the IDE platform, you will be presented with the toolkit configuration

dialog. You can configure the IDE environment by following these steps. See figure 3

for the final settings.

1. Select Lotus Notes 8 in the test environment drop down

2. Click Browse and select the <Notes_Install>\framework\eclipse directory

3. Click OK

4. Select the “Notes 8 VM” in the VM Name drop down

5. Click OK

It is also recommended that you select the option "Attempt to configure the toolkit the

first time a workspace opens" in the Auto-Configuration Preference dialog box. This

selection causes the configuration dialog box to be presented only the first time the

toolkit is used in a workspace. You can change this preference later, if needed, by


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selecting Window – Preference – Client Services. When you click OK, the IDE is

reconfigured for development against Lotus Expeditor for Desktop.

Figure 3

You are now ready to begin developing Expeditor and Java EE applications and

components that can be run in Lotus Notes 8.

Import a sample

The Lotus Expeditor toolkit provides many samples that will work in both Lotus

Expeditor and Lotus Notes 8 environments. When you use Rational Application

Developer, you can import the samples using the Samples Gallery. To start the samples

gallery from Rational Application Developer, simply choose Help - Samples Gallery. The

Samples Gallery is displayed in a new window. There are Lotus Expeditor samples under

Showcase samples, Application samples, and the Technology samples sections of the

Samples Gallery.

For our purposes, we will see how to import the samples if you are only using the Eclipse

IDE. The samples are installed when you install the toolkit and simply need to be

imported into your workspace. The steps below will import the Property Broker sample

in your IDE workspace.

1. Choose File – Import – General – Existing Projects into Workspace and click

Next

2. Choose the Select archive file option and click Browse


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3. Use the browse dialog to select the property broker sample. The sample archive

is located at

<toolkit_install>\plugins\com.ibm.rcp.tools.samplegallery2_6.1.1.20070731\archi

ve\propertybroker.jar.

4. Click Open and then Finish

The property broker sample will be imported into your workspace as shown in figure 4.

’

Figure 4

Launch

Lotus Expeditor toolkit provides a custom pre-configured launcher that can be used to

launch Lotus Notes without the need for additional configuration settings. You can

access the launcher by choosing Run - Run from the IDE menu. The launcher is named

Client Services. Select the Client Services launcher in the left pane, and then click the

New button. This creates a new instance of the Client Services launcher as shown in

figure 5. If you select the Target tab (figure 6) of the launch configuration, you will see

that the Lotus Notes 8 target has been selected already. As there can only be one Lotus

Notes instance running at any time, shutdown Lotus Notes before launching from IDE.

Clicking the Run button will launch the Lotus Notes 8 platform.


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Figure 5


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Figure 6

After logging into Lotus Notes, you will see your normal Lotus Notes workspace.

If you imported the Property Broker Sample as shown above, you can now start the

sample from the Notes Open menu. Choose Open – Property Broker Color Sample.

Once the sample is open, double clicking on a color name on the left will update the right

views to that color. The communication between the views is done using the Property

Broker component, which is part of the Lotus Expeditor platform and therefore available

in Lotus Notes 8. See figure 7.


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Figure 7

Lotus Sametime Developer

Installation

After you download the toolkit “zip” file, unzip the file in a temporary location. To

access the toolkit installation instructions, release notes, and other documentation, open

the autorun.html file in your browser of choice. Lotus Expeditor toolkit is divided into

four features in two categories as shown in figure 8. The desktop category includes Lotus

Expeditor Toolkit 6.1.1.20070731, Lotus Expeditor Development Runtimes VM

6.1.1.200707311521, and Lotus Expeditor Development Runtimes 6.1.1.200707311521.

The device category includes Lotus Expeditor Tooling for Devices 6.1.1.0-20070626.

When developing for Lotus Sametime 7.5.1, you should install the Lotus Expeditor

Toolkit 6.1.1.20070731 feature and the Lotus Expeditor Development Runtimes VM

6.1.1.200707311521 feature. This will install the toolkit and the virtual machine that is

required to run Lotus Sametime.


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Figure 8

When the installation process has completed, you will be prompted to restart the

platform. Click OK.

Configuration

After restarting the IDE platform, you will be presented with the toolkit configuration

dialog. You can configure the IDE environment by following these steps. See figure 9

for the final settings.

6. Select Lotus Sametime in the test environment drop down

7. Click Browse and select the Sametime Connect install directory (e.g. C:\Program

Files\IBM\Sametime Connect)

8. Click OK

9. Select the “jclDesktop Win32 x86” in the VM Name drop down (or “jclDesktop

Linux x86” if running on Linux.

10. Click OK

It is also recommended that you select the option "Attempt to configure the toolkit the

first time a workspace opens" in the Auto-Configuration Preference dialog box. This

selection causes the configuration dialog box to be presented only the first time the


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toolkit is used in a workspace. You can change this preference later in any workspace

using Windows – Preferences – Client Services. When you click OK, the IDE is

reconfigured for development against Lotus Expeditor for Desktop.

Figure 9

Import a Sample Although the Lotus Expeditor toolkit provides many samples that will work with

Sametime, let’s use the Recent Buddies sample from the Sametime 7.5.1 SDK. If you do

not already have the Sametime 7.5.1 SDK, it can be downloaded from the

DeveloperWorks Lotus Toolkits page. Download the SDK and unzip it on your local file

system (e.g. c:\st571sdk).

To import the sample, do the following:

1. Choose File – Import – General – Existing Projects into Workspace and click

Next

2. Choose the select archive file option

3. Click Browse

4. Browse to and select the

com.ibm.collaboration.realtime.sample.recentbuddies_7.5.1.jar file located in

<SDK>\ client\connect\samples directory.

5. Click Finish (see Figure 10)


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Figure 10

Launch

Lotus Expeditor toolkit provides a custom launcher that can be used to launch Lotus

Sametime without the need for additional configuration settings. You can access the

launcher by choosing Run - Run from the IDE menu. The launcher is named Client

Services. Select the Client Services launcher in the left pane, and then click the New

button. This creates a new instance of the Client Services launcher as shown in figure 4.

If you select the Target tab of the launch configuration, you will see that the Lotus

Sametime target has been selected already. Clicking the Run button will launch the

Sametime platform with the sample application. See figure 11.


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Figure 11

Moving component between Lotus Sametime, Lotus Notes and Lotus Expeditor

Since many components and applications built using the Lotus Expeditor toolkit can be

deployed to any of the Expeditor based platforms (i.e. Lotus Notes 8, Lotus Sametime

7.5, and Lotus Expeditor 6.1), the toolkit supports moving among the environments. If

you want to change the configuration of the toolkit later, you can access the configuration

preference by choosing Window - Preferences - Client Services. On this page, you can

reconfigure the environment to any of the other supported environments. Click the

Configure button, and modify the IDE using the same dialog box as presented at startup.

After you save your changes in the dialog box, Eclipse is updated with your new

selections. The figure below shows the Lotus Sametime Recent Buddies sample running

in the Lotus Notes 8 sidebar with embedded Lotus Sametime software.


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Conclusion

This article reviewed the process for installing and configuring Lotus Expeditor toolkit

for use with Lotus Notes 8 and Lotus Sametime. It showed how to configure the

environment, import a sample application, and launch the application using your target

runtime environment. For more information on the project types and advanced features

of the Lotus Expeditor toolkit, please see

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/expeditor-toolkit/.


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© IBM Corporation 2007. 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. References in this presentation to IBM products, programs, or services do not imply that they will be available in all countries in which IBM operates. Product release dates and/or capabilities referenced in this presentation may change at any time at IBM’s sole discretion based on market opportunities or other factors, and are not intended to be a commitment to future product or feature availability in any way. Nothing contained in these materials is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, stating or implying that any activities undertaken by you will result in any specific sales, revenue growth or other results.

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Revision History:

Original material produced for IBM Lotus Notes and IBM® Lotus® Domino® Release 8.0.

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Additional IBM copyright information can be found at: http://www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml

This information also refers to products built on Eclipse™ (http://www.eclipse.org)

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