For the past several years, OpenNTF has maintained a set of projects (see here) and a code snippet repository (see here). Projects are mostly full blown Notes/Domino applications (databases or templates). OpenNTF provides tools and an infrastructure to manage these projects. Simpler code snippets can be posted in the code bin. These snippets are not subject to any code management or life cycle process.

In the past it has been difficult for consumers to find the right samples and good versions of samples. Because of this a new catalog has been added to OpenNTF (see here). The main purpose of the catalog is to provide a list of high quality samples and to assist consumers in finding samples that best fit the business problem. The purpose is not to replace the projects site or code bin, but instead links to good entries in these repositories can be added in the catalog. The catalog will not contain all code from OpenNTF. For samples to be listed in the OpenNTF catalog they must:

• Use ALv2 (unless an alternative license is approved by OpenNTF)
• Contain the full source code.
• Have been tested at least once by a third person/party.
• Provide good descriptions and screenshots.
• Finally, the owners/originators have to ask the OpenNTF catalog owners to add an entry.
• For projects: Only the last tested releases of projects are included.
• For controls: Only fully compile-able code can go in the catalog.

The catalog is targeted for different types of people:

• Developers: samples including source code.
• Anyone: who wants to understand capabilities and demonstrate the value of Notes and Domino. Some of the web applications/projects can be run live from the catalog. Rich client components can be installed into Notes via drag and drop and then run locally.

You can find samples in various ways:

• Full text search
• Find via views (including user ratings, find by committer, find by most recently added)
• Find via tags

There are three different types of samples:

• Rich client components
• Projects
• Reusable controls

Rich client components

End users can take advantage of the rich client components: Widgets and plugins that can be installed into the Notes client by browsing the catalog and dragging and dropping components into Notes. The components can show up in the Notes sideshelf, as pop up windows triggered by live text or any other more sophisticated Notes extensions (e.g. menu contributions). For developers, the source code for these components is provided.

For example there is a 'new mail notification' component in the catalog that can be installed by dragging an icon onto Notes (see here). The component then shows a configurable new mail notification window.



While the new mail notification component is an Eclipse plugin (that needs to be provisioned) simpler rich client components/widgets can also be installed from the catalog easily. For example the 'search Designer wiki' widget allows to search for selected text in Lotus Notes (see here).




Projects

For developers and people who want to demonstrate Notes/Domino value: Templates (NTFs) and applications (NSFs or Eclipse features) demonstrating sophisticated technical capabilities and value of Lotus Notes/Domino as application development platforms. The projects are managed outside of this catalog. The catalog contains the latest releases of projects and their descriptions.

Some of the projects that are web applications can be run online without installing anything. Some projects host their documentation as wikis on OpenNTF.



For example this project is a wiki application based on Lotus Domino XPages (see here).




Reusable controls

Developers can take advantage of the controls that can be re-used to create custom applications. The source code for these controls can be downloaded and used in IBM Lotus Domino Designer or in any Eclipse based IDE. Reusable controls can be sets of design elements or Eclipse projects.

For example this control is a custom XPage control that can be added to other applications for users to login and display the user name of the authenticated user (see here).