Using Plugins in your XPages Application on Bluemix

Tuesday, September 1, 2015 at 5:05 PM UTC

Thanks Martin Donnelly (again) I managed to get a very simple application running on Bluemix that uses plugins. In this case it's the OpenNTF Domino API (ODA).

If you know how to do it then it's very simple and there are only a few steps to take to get your app running using your favorite plugins and extensions!

How to do that

The first step is to download the plugins you want to use (or which you are used to use in your Domino development). Unzip the downloaded file and locate the folder which contains the updatesite. Usually you are using this to set it up in your local updatesite database. In this case you just navigate to the plugin folder. Copy all files to the clipboard. Then navigate to the deployment folder of your Bluemix application (the one that holds a copy of your NSF and the manifest.yml file). Create a folder called

shared-plugins

Paste all the files from above in this folder. Deploy the application.

This will take a bit longer now as the plugin files are also uploaded to the XSP runtime.

For other plugins you do the same steps. Just copy the downloaded .jar files to that share-plugins folder and upload them, too. You are then able to use also other popular stuff such as Bootstrap4XPages, ViewGrid and the XPages Toolkit.

This is awesome and it opens a wide possiblity to develop on and for IBM Bluemix.

This little app uses the ODA for getting some environment informations: http://nxenv.mybluemix.net/

Here is the bean code that returns the infos: http://notesx.net:8090/obusse/Bluemix_Environment_Demo/blob/master/ODP/Code/Java/net/notesx/Environment.java

Cheers! Grinsend

p.s.: today the new Extension Library (v14) was released, adding even more comfort and options for the Bluemix XSP developer! Check it out!






Latest comments to this post

Oliver Busse wrote on 02.09.2015, 10:14

Wow René, I think that's something to ask the IBM guys. I'd assume that the behavior regarding upgrades is like on-prem when not using an updatesite and just put those libs in the plugins folder - but I don't know. Debugging would be a problem as you cannot issue console commands like the OSGi diag stuff. 

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René Winkelmeyer wrote on 02.09.2015, 09:58

The content of your deployment folder replaces always the contents on the Bluemix side, means the way to update your remote plug-ins is to manage that local folder. Right?

Is there a way to debug the plug-ins? Like issuing an OSGi diag command for checking unresolved constraints?

 

 

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Oliver Busse wrote on 02.09.2015, 09:42

You mean the upscaled instances? The plugins are shared across the instances. If you use another application then you have to deploy the plugins there, too.

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René Winkelmeyer wrote on 02.09.2015, 09:25

What happens when you're running several different instances? Are the plug-ins shared with them or do you have to re-deploy them to every instance separately?

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