I would say it like this

 

start with 

 

The www.notesin9.com video series

 

Buy the Mastering XPages book 

 

Start learning some basic css setup. You really need the CSS part to make the XPages look good. 

Or use The OneUI from the extlib 

 

And attend a XPages workshop/course that is how I did it. 

 

 

To get started you might also want to try the Xpages 101 series at http://xpages101.net/.

 

Mark

I didn't download the actual pdf to verify it's the one that I read and used in my learning phase, but A LOT of the info that learned and built my rudimentary apps on is based on this Redbooks Wiki link:

 

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/ddwiki.nsf/dx/PDF_Version_of_Redbooks_Wiki_Building_Web_Applications_with_Domino_8.5 

 

I used the example, step by step but substituting my database information, to build a functional XPages application.  Since completion of that task, I've been enhancing my app with other code snippets that I find on webpages or boards.

 

gds 

The answer is they are really not that easy, particularly for those who have lived in @Formulas used in Forms and Views.

 

XPages represents a paradigm shift that takes a while to learn and adapt to. Once you do that they become easier than they were before, but they are (in my opinion) never easier than the prior paradigm. I believe they are not supposed to be.

Here are a couple of suggestions:

 

1. Learn JavaScript and focus on the SSJS object model

2. Learn to read and manipulate the source XML of XPages

 

3. Dabble in Java

All of this is hard work and completely out of your comfort zone. But it will be worth it both in what you can then produce as an app and the value on your resume.

 

Newbs

Thanks for the responses, have been to most of those and purchased mastering Xpages (which I found quite frustrating).

 

Than than winging I've decided to make my own getting started guide, more aimed at us @Forumula guys.. 

@XPages for @Formulas guys. In the same boat, so very interested, yes please, X10. Or is this just not going to happen for the common power users who can do much with forms and views but remains stumped with XPages ... should we just give up and remain old school ... my gut says no, their must be a way to get @formula type power user devs functional ?

Hey there,

I am an old school @Formula/LotusScript girl. I am wading my way through the Mastering XPages book and it has been a life-saver with many a-ha moments. But really you have to have a paradigm shift and accept the fact that XPages is different, but in the long run way better for you and your apps. Yes, you will need to know JavaScript - but some of your @Formula knowledge will transfer and if you also know LotusScript some of that will transfer.

 

There are a lot of resources out there. Start with the cheat sheet - xpagescheatsheet.com - it will also have a number of links and blogs on the sheet to commonly referred learning sources in the Lotus community such as Notesin9.com, XPages.info, etc.

 

While you may not feel you have the time to learn XPages because you may have an app to get out the door, you owe it to yourself and your frustration level to just learn XPages on a knowledge level and not approach it from your current apps point of view. Learn XPages then think about your app and how you could use XPages.

 

HTH,
Kendra

Thought I would add my two cents.

 

- My experience is IBM would have you believe that, but that is, to be uncharacteristically politically correct, "spin".  XPages are not easy and likely they never will be.

 

- Henry summed it up best in his post, imo.  Particularly wrt the XML Source tab.  I've done complex OO development for twenty years and I find the Design tab an incomprehensible click-fest of confusing pop-dialogs, poorly laid out panels, and non-WYSIWYG madness.  The Source tab is none of that and provides infinitely more capability.  CAVEAT: The Source tab also allows you to utterly break your XPage in ways that are not simple to debug, which the Design tab is explicitly intended to prevent.  This is less the case with each iteration of DDE, in my experience, this bustication.  Hack: Copy your XPage often so if you destroy it you can back up to a good version.

 

- XPages are not easy because they are countless light years ahead of the prior web model.  They have a power and flexibility that I've never seen in the Domino world before, where power and flexibility are the norm.  This power comes at a price - it's harder to learn.  The more one dabbles in this power, the harder it becomes, and the intense learning pace doesn't let up, because XPages are a compendium of numerous technologies that all must be learned in order to *fully* exploit their potential.  This isn't improved by IBM's spin that they're so easy, which is just shooting themselves in the foot when so many people smack into that neutronium learning curve without any warning what-so-ever.

- For me, it's perfect.  I can't learn enough.  The primary fly in my XPages ointment is DDE.  It's improving with age, but it was a shockingly low bar to start with, and it's only *beginning* to be what it should have been when 8.5.0 was released.

 

- I don't mean to scare anyone off, but to set *realistic* expectation.  You will not simply load DDE and whip up a XPage that's usable for much of anything, just like the old school one never really whipped up a Form and a View that was usable on the web for much of anything.  Accept that one must learn a lot to build a real world application with XPages, and you will not go wrong.  Also accept that XPages are the future of Domino, and it's going to be wondrous if they ever get DDE to stop being developer hostile.

- I have a mantra.  "XPages, where what used to impossible is simple, and what used to be simple is impossible."  Perhaps I'm cynical, but that's my take and I'm sticking to it.

Hope this helps...

The Basics = notesin9.com or XPages.TV

 

:-)

My take.

 

As someone who has and still is sharing the same frustrations but is slowly making headway I agree, there is a mass of well intended material out there, but it is all over the place so it ends up being quite a frustrating excercise dragging yourself up the learning curve.

 

I recommend. 

Definitely:

David Leady's Notes in 9 and other material, brilliant presentation.

Mastering Xpages Book, probably the best written technical book I have ever come across, pitched just right. This is the one thing that has started to pull it all together for me.

Xpages 101 

 

Be careful with: 

Many (not all) of the tutorials on the Wiki, they seem rushed with mistakes and a 'monkey see, monkey do' approach, where you end up with more questions than you started off with.

 

In any event though I would like thank all those out there who give their time to publish masses of material purely to help others, I take my hat off to you.