Beauty And The Beast

The June issue of PHP Architect is out. My column this month is on dependency injection, a topic which I've been warming up to lately.

First there was CORBA. Then insane complexity of CORBA was supplanted by the intolerable complexity of EJB. Influenced by an agile mindset and the power of Unit testing, a group of java programmers began to construct simpler alternatives to EJB. Thus, the inversion of control frameworks were born. Martin Fowler came along, clarified and renamed the pattern dependency injection. This activity has originated in the Java world, but the pattern applies in PHP as well.

It is heartening to see an industry solve a problem over the course of a decade, moving from complex vendor driven middle-ware to simple patterns. The thing I like most about DI is how dead simple it really is.

Fowler's article is a must read on the topic. However, I have two problems with most of the introductions to dependency injection. One is the use of irrelevant girl kisses boy style examples. The other is the over-emphasis on the container. The whole point of dependency injection is to move away from invasive component architectures, such as EJB. From my point of view, it is far more interesting to explore what impact dependency injection has on your design than what features your container has.

With that in mind, I tried to write an introduction to dependency injection that avoiding talking about DI containers and that tried to use real, relevant examples. For an example, I started with a typical, run of the mill dependency, torn from a popular PHP library that shall remain nameless, but easy to guess. Then I build on that with a plug-able backend in a common PHP style and then again using dependency injection.

For me dependency injection is relatively new territory, but one that I feel is an important technique. I'd like to see this technique become more widespread in PHP, especially in the current crop of frameworks.

I have a significant bias, but I think you should read the article. I hope you find it useful.

This tutorial will step you through the way to building a group of Lego bricks that you can then save as a brush set. Two versions of the set were created to achieve different results while painting over a white or black background. The finished brush set is available for download.

TAGS: photoshop brushes | photoshop downloads | lego | lego art | photoshop lego brushes

Hello Tri-XML and XML-Doc members: If you are interested in xml, DITA, XSLT, RSS, AJAX, ANT, structured authoring, blogging, podcasting, and XML workflow, this

Thanks! That sort of outsourcing takes a lot of courage, or faith in your supplier, or stupidity! Charles Charles Johnston HYPERLINK

<< Mike, thanks for pre-approval to post >> Position: Content Engineer Really Strategies (http://www.reallysi.com/) is looking for a full-time or contract

Stylus Studio announced the immediate availability of Stylus Studio 2006 Release 3 XML Enterprise Edition. The new release includes powerful new XML tools, enhancements to Stylus Studio XML Deployment Components, and support for many widely used data processing components for working with XQuery, XSL:FO, EDI and XSLT technologies.

No Lotus Notes/Domino developer wants to hear the following comment: “Beautiful application, too bad it’s so slow!” In this two-part article series, we explain how you can avoid this embarrassment by building Notes/Domino applications optimized for performance.

Tip: Lotus Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes interoperability: I want my doclinks!
What could be more useful than Lotus Notes doclinks? This tip explains how you can extend Notes doclink functionality to Microsoft Outlook.

Single Sign-on in a Multi-directory World: “Never say login again” Part 2
In this conclusion to our two-part series, we look at several different scenarios you may encounter when implementing single sign-on (SSO) functionality at your site.

The requester side caching pattern specification: An overview
Learn how the requester side caching pattern mediates the interaction between one or more clients and one or more data providers and how it can speed access to the data while reducing costs.

Lotus Notes Out of Office Agent, revisited: Part 1
The Lotus Notes Out of Office agent is one of the most widely-used and useful agents in Notes. In this first of a two-part article series, we take a detailed look at how the agent works and how you can customize it.

Lotus Notes/Domino 7 application performance: Part 2: Optimizing database views
In part two of this article series, we explain how you can build views that are optimized for performance in your Notes/Domino applications.

Building RSS feeds for Lotus Domino Document Manager
Set up an RSS feed for your binders in Lotus Domino Document manager, so users are notified when content is added or modified. Using a new view and modifying existing design elements in the database, you can easily create an RSS feed.

Lotus Domino Web Access client performance improvements
See how significantly your Domino Web Access client performance can improve with the release 6.5.3 hotfix (included in Domino Web Access 6.5.4 and later). Administrators and users learn tips to increase performance and to improve user satisfaction.

Single Sign-on in a Multi-directory World: “Never say login again” Part 1
Learn all about Single Sign-on (SSO) in Notes/Domino from that international man of mystery, Jim Bland. In this first installment of a two-part series, we examine SSO basics and look at issues that arise in multi-directory, multi-identity environments.

The DigestSearch method for Lotus Domino databases
This article introduces DigestSearch, an alternative solution for working with IBM Lotus Notes Profile documents and for performing simple, high-speed searches. For searching server-based databases from a Notes client, DigestSearch is twice as fast as any other search method available, outperforming both full-text search and LotusScript’s GetDocumentByKey method.

Best practices for large Lotus Notes mail files
Learn how you can manage the ever-growing mail files of your Lotus Notes users, conserving your system resources while ensuring your Notes users continue to enjoy high performance and reliability.

Under the hood of IBM Workplace Collaboration Services
Take a peek under the hood of IBM Workplace Collaboration Services and learn about the layers that make up Workplace Collaboration Services, including IBM WebSphere Application Server and IBM WebSphere Portal.

Lotus Domino 7 server performance, Part 1
How does Lotus Notes/Domino 7 perform compared to its previous release? In this first of a three-part series, we discuss testing we performed to determine how the various Domino 7 platforms stack up against the previous release of Notes/Domino.

Manipulating data in Domino Web Access
Read this article to learn how you can customize Lotus Domino Web Access to adapt to the specific requirements of your Notes/Domino data. We describe how Domino Web Access determines the appropriate scene to play for a form type, how data is reflected within the scene, and how updated data is validated.

Troubleshooting Lotus Domino hangs and crashes
Quick — what’s the difference between a server hang and a crash? More important, how do you go about fixing them? In this article, we explain how you can identify Lotus Domino server hangs and crashes, and what you can do to analyze and correct them.

Using Ajax to manipulate Lotus Notes documents
Giving users instant feedback instead of the time-consuming page reloads they re used to is simple when you use Ajax. Discover how a view and an agent can help you build Ajax-driven applications and learn how to define an API for getting the client and the Domino server to collaborate.

Lotus Domino 7 on the IBM zSeries
In this article, we look at IBM’s own implementation of Lotus Domino 7 on the IBM zSeries platform. We focus on the performance improvements we’ve seen, which should bring a smile to the face of all Domino administrators.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA): an interview with IBM Workplace and Lotus developers
Service Oriented Architecture, better known as SOA, has gotten a lot of press lately. But what does it mean, and what can it do for you? In this interview, three members of IBM development talk about SOA, and how IBM and Lotus products are incorporating its concepts.

Introducing IBM Lotus Notes access for SAP solutions
Lotus Notes access for SAP solutions is a new feature in Lotus Notes 7.0.1 that integrates Lotus Notes and SAP, so you can perform some common SAP functions from within Lotus Notes, such as time reporting, vacation and leave requests, and so on. Developers can extend this new feature even further.

Lotus Domino 7 server performance, Part 3
In the conclusion to our three-part article series, we look at test results we obtained by running the new Server.Load Enterprise Mail workload, introduced in Domino 7.

Tip: xsd:any: A cautionary tale
xsd:any is a popular feature for people designing XML schema. But it’s often more trouble than it’s worth. Explore some of the shortcomings of xsd:any, both in XML itself and in the JAX-RPC Java language binding, so that, even if you decide to use xsd:any, you will be more prepared to deal appropriately with it.

Creating hierarchy objects in Lotus Domino Designer
This tip shows you how to create a hierarchy of related objects, using design elements in Lotus Domino Designer. It applies to Domino Designer 6.5 and later.

Lotus Domino 7 server performance, Part 2
In this second of a three-part article series, we review the results of tests we performed to determine how Domino 7 compares with Domino 6.5 for supporting Domino Web Access users.

Building a JSR 168 portal application for Domino
In an earlier article, we described creating a DXL framework for working with a Lotus Domino database over the Web. We now turn our attention to building a JSR 168 portal application as a frontend to a Domino database.

Working with application layouts in the IBM Workplace Managed Client
Learn how to control the way in which your application is displayed in the IBM Workplace Managed Client by understanding the RCPML parameters that control how the application is displayed.

Adding social bookmarking tags to Lotus QuickPlace
Implement social bookmarking tags in Lotus QuickPlace and let users classify their own content for easy retrieval of information. This article shows you a simple solution to enable users to add and to share tags with each other.

Managing IBM Workplace Managed Client applications
Ever wonder what the ‘managed’ means in IBM Workplace Managed Client? Read this article and learn how to manage Workplace Managed Client applications through both the Web browser and XMLAccess interfaces.

Implementing notifications in Web applications using Lotus Sametime
Learn how to add event-driven notification functionality to your Web applications with Lotus Sametime.

Understanding the Lotus Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook Notes.ini file
Following in the footsteps of Professor INI, Nathan Barry highlights some of the settings of the Lotus Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook Notes.ini file to help you troubleshoot common issues and to enable new features in the software.

The History of Notes and Domino
Notes and Domino began in the work of Ray Ozzie, Tim Halvorsen, and Len Kawell, first on PLATO Notes at the University of Illinois and later on DECNotes. Lotus founder Mitch Kapor saw the potential in Ozzie’s collaboration project and the rest is history.

Creating Mail policies in Lotus Notes/Domino 7
Learn how policies, first introduced in Lotus Notes/Domino 6, have been enhanced to include the powerful new Mail Settings policy document that lets you administer calendar and mail settings for your users.

Configuring a redundant ClearCase backup server
If ClearCase availability is critical to your organization, maintaining a redundant replica enables your organization to restore normal operations faster with less data loss.

Discover the power of Calendar Delegation in Lotus Notes
Learn how to setup and use the Calendar Delegation feature in the Lotus Notes client to grant another Notes user access to your mail file and act on your behalf.

New serviceability features in IBM Lotus Notes/Domino 7
Enhancements to the automatic diagnostic collection feature and the new fault analyzer feature make Lotus Notes and Domino 7 more serviceable. See how these improvements can help you with your next server or client crash.

Taking a tour of the new features and technology in IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5
Examine the architectural and design changes planned for IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5, including a new Connect client, a new Web conferencing UI, policies, click to call, click to chat, A/V integration, and a new SIP solution to connect to external communities, including AOL and Yahoo.

Building a Lotus Sametime bot for language translation
Build an IBM Lotus Sametime bot that works with IBM WebSphere Translation Server to translate text strings on-the-fly. Use the Lotus Sametime Java toolkit, the WebSphere Translation Server Java API, IBM’s public Sametime server, and the IBM Community Tools client for development and testing.

Name resolution and searching: Comparing Lotus Notes and Domino Web Access
In this article, we compare how Lotus Notes and Domino Web Access interact with address books to find and resolve mailing addresses.

Lotus Notes Out of Office Agent, revisited: Part 2
We conclude our two-part series on the Lotus Notes Out of Office agent with a look at Out of Office agent administration, using Out of Office features with Domino Web Access, and troubleshooting Out of Office issues.

Configure IBM WebSphere Information Integrator to access a Lotus Notes database
This article introduces the capabilities of IBM WebSphere Information Integrator for integrating and updating data in IBM Lotus Notes databases. You’ll learn how to set up access to the Lotus Notes data sources from IBM DB2 federated database using the DB2 Control Center.

New Rooms and Resources features in Lotus Notes/Domino 7
In this article, we look at all the new Rooms and Resources features introduced in Notes/Domino 7.

Controlling spam: Advanced SMTP settings in Lotus Domino
Find out how to control spam mail using the Server document and Notes.ini variables. Then preview the anti-spam controls in Lotus Notes/Domino 7 and see what s ahead. This article is part two in a series about Lotus Domino methods of spam control.

Lotus Domino on AIX memory usage explained
Learn about IBM AIX segment layouts for the Lotus Domino server and how to configure the Notes.ini file settings ConstrainedSHMSizeMB and PercentAvailSysResources to alter your server memory allocation. Find recommendations for configuring the server.

New features in Lotus Notes 7 mail
People use Notes/Domino in all sorts of different ways, and one of the most popular is email and messaging. With that in mind, Notes/Domino 7 offers significantly enhanced mail functionality, including expanded calendar and scheduling. This article reviews some of the more important and useful of these new features.

Exploiting IBM DB2 in your Lotus Domino 7 application
In this article, we discuss how you can work with the new IBM DB2 integration features offered in Lotus Domino 7.

Wikis, blogs and other community tools in the enterprise
Wikis and Web logs (blogs) make a big impact on the Web, but they can also be useful in an enterprise. A community is a group of people with common interests, goals, or responsibilities, such as a project team or an interest group. Combine wikis and blogs with existing collaborative tools to enhance the productivity and effectiveness of enterprise teams.

Tip: Validating a rich text field in Lotus Notes
This tip offers three ways that you can validate rich text input fields in Lotus Notes.

Integrating Lotus QuickPlace with Lotus Domino Document Manager in real time
This article describes a way to integrate IBM Lotus QuickPlace with IBM Lotus Domino Document Manager (Domino.Doc) in real time. This will allow you to use Domino Document Manager s revision controls on QuickPlace content.

Building PHP-based UIs for IBM Lotus Domino
Discover how you can interact with Lotus Domino databases from Web applications created in the PHP programming language. Learn how to access Domino applications from PHP pages using a COM object, the Lotus Notes API, and XML.

Lotus Domino 7 performance in production at IBM on pSeries servers
In this article, we review the performance improvements we achieved by deploying Domino 7 on pSeries servers in a live IBM production environment.

New workloads and features in Lotus Domino 7 Server.Load
Learn about all the new features we’ve added to the Lotus Domino 7 version of the Server.Load performance testing and planning tool.

Discover how you can interact with Lotus Domino databases from Web applications created in the PHP programming language. Learn how to access Domino applications from PHP pages using a COM object, the Lotus Notes API, and XML.

Lotus Notes/Domino 7 application performance: Part 1: Database properties and document collections
No Lotus Notes/Domino developer wants to hear the following comment: “Beautiful application, too bad it’s so slow!” In this two-part article series, we explain how you can avoid this embarrassment by building Notes/Domino applications optimized for performance.

Exploiting IBM DB2 in your Lotus Domino 7 application
In this article, we discuss how you can work with the new IBM DB2 integration features offered in Lotus Domino 7.

Tip: xsd:any: A cautionary tale
xsd:any is a popular feature for people designing XML schema. But it’s often more trouble than it’s worth. Explore some of the shortcomings of xsd:any, both in XML itself and in the JAX-RPC Java language binding, so that, even if you decide to use xsd:any, you will be more prepared to deal appropriately with it.

Single Sign-on in a Multi-directory World: “Never say login again” Part 1
Learn all about Single Sign-on (SSO) in Notes/Domino from that international man of mystery, Jim Bland. In this first installment of a two-part series, we examine SSO basics and look at issues that arise in multi-directory, multi-identity environments.

Troubleshooting Lotus Domino hangs and crashes
Quick — what’s the difference between a server hang and a crash? More important, how do you go about fixing them? In this article, we explain how you can identify Lotus Domino server hangs and crashes, and what you can do to analyze and correct them.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA): an interview with IBM Workplace and Lotus developers
Service Oriented Architecture, better known as SOA, has gotten a lot of press lately. But what does it mean, and what can it do for you? In this interview, three members of IBM development talk about SOA, and how IBM and Lotus products are incorporating its concepts.

New Rooms and Resources features in Lotus Notes/Domino 7
In this article, we look at all the new Rooms and Resources features introduced in Notes/Domino 7.

Adding social bookmarking tags to Lotus QuickPlace
Implement social bookmarking tags in Lotus QuickPlace and let users classify their own content for easy retrieval of information. This article shows you a simple solution to enable users to add and to share tags with each other.

New features in Lotus Notes 7 mail
People use Notes/Domino in all sorts of different ways, and one of the most popular is email and messaging. With that in mind, Notes/Domino 7 offers significantly enhanced mail functionality, including expanded calendar and scheduling. This article reviews some of the more important and useful of these new features.

Single Sign-on in a Multi-directory World: “Never say login again” Part 2
In this conclusion to our two-part series, we look at several different scenarios you may encounter when implementing single sign-on (SSO) functionality at your site.

Understanding the Lotus Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook Notes.ini file
Following in the footsteps of Professor INI, Nathan Barry highlights some of the settings of the Lotus Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook Notes.ini file to help you troubleshoot common issues and to enable new features in the software.

Lotus Notes/Domino 7 application performance: Part 2: Optimizing database views
In part two of this article series, we explain how you can build views that are optimized for performance in your Notes/Domino applications.

Taking a tour of the new features and technology in IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5
Examine the architectural and design changes planned for IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5, including a new Connect client, a new Web conferencing UI, policies, click to call, click to chat, A/V integration, and a new SIP solution to connect to external communities, including AOL and Yahoo.

Integrating Lotus QuickPlace with Lotus Domino Document Manager in real time
This article describes a way to integrate IBM Lotus QuickPlace with IBM Lotus Domino Document Manager (Domino.Doc) in real time. This will allow you to use Domino Document Manager s revision controls on QuickPlace content.

Lotus Notes Out of Office Agent, revisited: Part 2
We conclude our two-part series on the Lotus Notes Out of Office agent with a look at Out of Office agent administration, using Out of Office features with Domino Web Access, and troubleshooting Out of Office issues.

Best practices for large Lotus Notes mail files
Learn how you can manage the ever-growing mail files of your Lotus Notes users, conserving your system resources while ensuring your Notes users continue to enjoy high performance and reliability.

Using Ajax to manipulate Lotus Notes documents
Giving users instant feedback instead of the time-consuming page reloads they re used to is simple when you use Ajax. Discover how a view and an agent can help you build Ajax-driven applications and learn how to define an API for getting the client and the Domino server to collaborate.

Configuring a redundant ClearCase backup server
If ClearCase availability is critical to your organization, maintaining a redundant replica enables your organization to restore normal operations faster with less data loss.

Working with application layouts in the IBM Workplace Managed Client
Learn how to control the way in which your application is displayed in the IBM Workplace Managed Client by understanding the RCPML parameters that control how the application is displayed.

Building a Lotus Sametime bot for language translation
Build an IBM Lotus Sametime bot that works with IBM WebSphere Translation Server to translate text strings on-the-fly. Use the Lotus Sametime Java toolkit, the WebSphere Translation Server Java API, IBM’s public Sametime server, and the IBM Community Tools client for development and testing.

Creating hierarchy objects in Lotus Domino Designer
This tip shows you how to create a hierarchy of related objects, using design elements in Lotus Domino Designer. It applies to Domino Designer 6.5 and later.

Under the hood of IBM Workplace Collaboration Services
Take a peek under the hood of IBM Workplace Collaboration Services and learn about the layers that make up Workplace Collaboration Services, including IBM WebSphere Application Server and IBM WebSphere Portal.

Implementing notifications in Web applications using Lotus Sametime
Learn how to add event-driven notification functionality to your Web applications with Lotus Sametime.

Lotus Domino 7 server performance, Part 3
In the conclusion to our three-part article series, we look at test results we obtained by running the new Server.Load Enterprise Mail workload, introduced in Domino 7.

The History of Notes and Domino
Notes and Domino began in the work of Ray Ozzie, Tim Halvorsen, and Len Kawell, first on PLATO Notes at the University of Illinois and later on DECNotes. Lotus founder Mitch Kapor saw the potential in Ozzie’s collaboration project and the rest is history.

The requester side caching pattern specification: An overview
Learn how the requester side caching pattern mediates the interaction between one or more clients and one or more data providers and how it can speed access to the data while reducing costs.

Lotus Domino Web Access client performance improvements
See how significantly your Domino Web Access client performance can improve with the release 6.5.3 hotfix (included in Domino Web Access 6.5.4 and later). Administrators and users learn tips to increase performance and to improve user satisfaction.

Tip: Lotus Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes interoperability: I want my doclinks!
What could be more useful than Lotus Notes doclinks? This tip explains how you can extend Notes doclink functionality to Microsoft Outlook.

Managing IBM Workplace Managed Client applications
Ever wonder what the ‘managed’ means in IBM Workplace Managed Client? Read this article and learn how to manage Workplace Managed Client applications through both the Web browser and XMLAccess interfaces.

Introducing IBM Lotus Notes access for SAP solutions
Lotus Notes access for SAP solutions is a new feature in Lotus Notes 7.0.1 that integrates Lotus Notes and SAP, so you can perform some common SAP functions from within Lotus Notes, such as time reporting, vacation and leave requests, and so on. Developers can extend this new feature even further.

Manipulating data in Domino Web Access
Read this article to learn how you can customize Lotus Domino Web Access to adapt to the specific requirements of your Notes/Domino data. We describe how Domino Web Access determines the appropriate scene to play for a form type, how data is reflected within the scene, and how updated data is validated.

Building a JSR 168 portal application for Domino
In an earlier article, we described creating a DXL framework for working with a Lotus Domino database over the Web. We now turn our attention to building a JSR 168 portal application as a frontend to a Domino database.

Controlling spam: Advanced SMTP settings in Lotus Domino
Find out how to control spam mail using the Server document and Notes.ini variables. Then preview the anti-spam controls in Lotus Notes/Domino 7 and see what s ahead. This article is part two in a series about Lotus Domino methods of spam control.

Name resolution and searching: Comparing Lotus Notes and Domino Web Access
In this article, we compare how Lotus Notes and Domino Web Access interact with address books to find and resolve mailing addresses.

The DigestSearch method for Lotus Domino databases
This article introduces DigestSearch, an alternative solution for working with IBM Lotus Notes Profile documents and for performing simple, high-speed searches. For searching server-based databases from a Notes client, DigestSearch is twice as fast as any other search method available, outperforming both full-text search and LotusScript’s GetDocumentByKey method.

New workloads and features in Lotus Domino 7 Server.Load
Learn about all the new features we’ve added to the Lotus Domino 7 version of the Server.Load performance testing and planning tool.

New serviceability features in IBM Lotus Notes/Domino 7
Enhancements to the automatic diagnostic collection feature and the new fault analyzer feature make Lotus Notes and Domino 7 more serviceable. See how these improvements can help you with your next server or client crash.

Lotus Notes Out of Office Agent, revisited: Part 1
The Lotus Notes Out of Office agent is one of the most widely-used and useful agents in Notes. In this first of a two-part article series, we take a detailed look at how the agent works and how you can customize it.

Lotus Domino 7 performance in production at IBM on pSeries servers
In this article, we review the performance improvements we achieved by deploying Domino 7 on pSeries servers in a live IBM production environment.

Lotus Domino 7 server performance, Part 1
How does Lotus Notes/Domino 7 perform compared to its previous release? In this first of a three-part series, we discuss testing we performed to determine how the various Domino 7 platforms stack up against the previous release of Notes/Domino.

Lotus Domino on AIX memory usage explained
Learn about IBM AIX segment layouts for the Lotus Domino server and how to configure the Notes.ini file settings ConstrainedSHMSizeMB and PercentAvailSysResources to alter your server memory allocation. Find recommendations for configuring the server.

Wikis, blogs and other community tools in the enterprise
Wikis and Web logs (blogs) make a big impact on the Web, but they can also be useful in an enterprise. A community is a group of people with common interests, goals, or responsibilities, such as a project team or an interest group. Combine wikis and blogs with existing collaborative tools to enhance the productivity and effectiveness of enterprise teams.

Creating Mail policies in Lotus Notes/Domino 7
Learn how policies, first introduced in Lotus Notes/Domino 6, have been enhanced to include the powerful new Mail Settings policy document that lets you administer calendar and mail settings for your users.

Tip: Validating a rich text field in Lotus Notes
This tip offers three ways that you can validate rich text input fields in Lotus Notes.

Lotus Domino 7 on the IBM zSeries
In this article, we look at IBM’s own implementation of Lotus Domino 7 on the IBM zSeries platform. We focus on the performance improvements we’ve seen, which should bring a smile to the face of all Domino administrators.

Discover the power of Calendar Delegation in Lotus Notes
Learn how to setup and use the Calendar Delegation feature in the Lotus Notes client to grant another Notes user access to your mail file and act on your behalf.

Building RSS feeds for Lotus Domino Document Manager
Set up an RSS feed for your binders in Lotus Domino Document manager, so users are notified when content is added or modified. Using a new view and modifying existing design elements in the database, you can easily create an RSS feed.

Lotus Domino 7 server performance, Part 2
In this second of a three-part article series, we review the results of tests we performed to determine how Domino 7 compares with Domino 6.5 for supporting Domino Web Access users.

Configure IBM WebSphere Information Integrator to access a Lotus Notes database
This article introduces the capabilities of IBM WebSphere Information Integrator for integrating and updating data in IBM Lotus Notes databases. You’ll learn how to set up access to the Lotus Notes data sources from IBM DB2 federated database using the DB2 Control Center.

This tip offers three ways that you can validate rich text input fields in Lotus Notes.

Creating Mail policies in Lotus Notes/Domino 7
Learn how policies, first introduced in Lotus Notes/Domino 6, have been enhanced to include the powerful new Mail Settings policy document that lets you administer calendar and mail settings for your users.

The History of Notes and Domino
Notes and Domino began in the work of Ray Ozzie, Tim Halvorsen, and Len Kawell, first on PLATO Notes at the University of Illinois and later on DECNotes. Lotus founder Mitch Kapor saw the potential in Ozzie’s collaboration project and the rest is history.

Wikis, blogs and other community tools in the enterprise
Wikis and Web logs (blogs) make a big impact on the Web, but they can also be useful in an enterprise. A community is a group of people with common interests, goals, or responsibilities, such as a project team or an interest group. Combine wikis and blogs with existing collaborative tools to enhance the productivity and effectiveness of enterprise teams.

Building RSS feeds for Lotus Domino Document Manager
Set up an RSS feed for your binders in Lotus Domino Document manager, so users are notified when content is added or modified. Using a new view and modifying existing design elements in the database, you can easily create an RSS feed.

The DigestSearch method for Lotus Domino databases
This article introduces DigestSearch, an alternative solution for working with IBM Lotus Notes Profile documents and for performing simple, high-speed searches. For searching server-based databases from a Notes client, DigestSearch is twice as fast as any other search method available, outperforming both full-text search and LotusScript’s GetDocumentByKey method.

Implementing notifications in Web applications using Lotus Sametime
Learn how to add event-driven notification functionality to your Web applications with Lotus Sametime.

Taking a tour of the new features and technology in IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5
Examine the architectural and design changes planned for IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5, including a new Connect client, a new Web conferencing UI, policies, click to call, click to chat, A/V integration, and a new SIP solution to connect to external communities, including AOL and Yahoo.

Introducing IBM Lotus Notes access for SAP solutions
Lotus Notes access for SAP solutions is a new feature in Lotus Notes 7.0.1 that integrates Lotus Notes and SAP, so you can perform some common SAP functions from within Lotus Notes, such as time reporting, vacation and leave requests, and so on. Developers can extend this new feature even further.

Controlling spam: Advanced SMTP settings in Lotus Domino
Find out how to control spam mail using the Server document and Notes.ini variables. Then preview the anti-spam controls in Lotus Notes/Domino 7 and see what s ahead. This article is part two in a series about Lotus Domino methods of spam control.

Lotus Domino 7 server performance, Part 2
In this second of a three-part article series, we review the results of tests we performed to determine how Domino 7 compares with Domino 6.5 for supporting Domino Web Access users.

Working with application layouts in the IBM Workplace Managed Client
Learn how to control the way in which your application is displayed in the IBM Workplace Managed Client by understanding the RCPML parameters that control how the application is displayed.

Discover the power of Calendar Delegation in Lotus Notes
Learn how to setup and use the Calendar Delegation feature in the Lotus Notes client to grant another Notes user access to your mail file and act on your behalf.

Lotus Domino 7 server performance, Part 1
How does Lotus Notes/Domino 7 perform compared to its previous release? In this first of a three-part series, we discuss testing we performed to determine how the various Domino 7 platforms stack up against the previous release of Notes/Domino.

Lotus Notes/Domino 7 application performance: Part 2: Optimizing database views
In part two of this article series, we explain how you can build views that are optimized for performance in your Notes/Domino applications.

Tip: xsd:any: A cautionary tale
xsd:any is a popular feature for people designing XML schema. But it’s often more trouble than it’s worth. Explore some of the shortcomings of xsd:any, both in XML itself and in the JAX-RPC Java language binding, so that, even if you decide to use xsd:any, you will be more prepared to deal appropriately with it.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA): an interview with IBM Workplace and Lotus developers
Service Oriented Architecture, better known as SOA, has gotten a lot of press lately. But what does it mean, and what can it do for you? In this interview, three members of IBM development talk about SOA, and how IBM and Lotus products are incorporating its concepts.

Building PHP-based UIs for IBM Lotus Domino
Discover how you can interact with Lotus Domino databases from Web applications created in the PHP programming language. Learn how to access Domino applications from PHP pages using a COM object, the Lotus Notes API, and XML.

Tip: Lotus Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes interoperability: I want my doclinks!
What could be more useful than Lotus Notes doclinks? This tip explains how you can extend Notes doclink functionality to Microsoft Outlook.

Single Sign-on in a Multi-directory World: “Never say login again” Part 2
In this conclusion to our two-part series, we look at several different scenarios you may encounter when implementing single sign-on (SSO) functionality at your site.

New Rooms and Resources features in Lotus Notes/Domino 7
In this article, we look at all the new Rooms and Resources features introduced in Notes/Domino 7.

Manipulating data in Domino Web Access
Read this article to learn how you can customize Lotus Domino Web Access to adapt to the specific requirements of your Notes/Domino data. We describe how Domino Web Access determines the appropriate scene to play for a form type, how data is reflected within the scene, and how updated data is validated.

Understanding the Lotus Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook Notes.ini file
Following in the footsteps of Professor INI, Nathan Barry highlights some of the settings of the Lotus Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook Notes.ini file to help you troubleshoot common issues and to enable new features in the software.

Integrating Lotus QuickPlace with Lotus Domino Document Manager in real time
This article describes a way to integrate IBM Lotus QuickPlace with IBM Lotus Domino Document Manager (Domino.Doc) in real time. This will allow you to use Domino Document Manager s revision controls on QuickPlace content.

Building a Lotus Sametime bot for language translation
Build an IBM Lotus Sametime bot that works with IBM WebSphere Translation Server to translate text strings on-the-fly. Use the Lotus Sametime Java toolkit, the WebSphere Translation Server Java API, IBM’s public Sametime server, and the IBM Community Tools client for development and testing.

Lotus Notes Out of Office Agent, revisited: Part 1
The Lotus Notes Out of Office agent is one of the most widely-used and useful agents in Notes. In this first of a two-part article series, we take a detailed look at how the agent works and how you can customize it.

Configuring a redundant ClearCase backup server
If ClearCase availability is critical to your organization, maintaining a redundant replica enables your organization to restore normal operations faster with less data loss.

Lotus Domino 7 server performance, Part 3
In the conclusion to our three-part article series, we look at test results we obtained by running the new Server.Load Enterprise Mail workload, introduced in Domino 7.

Lotus Domino 7 performance in production at IBM on pSeries servers
In this article, we review the performance improvements we achieved by deploying Domino 7 on pSeries servers in a live IBM production environment.

Using Ajax to manipulate Lotus Notes documents
Giving users instant feedback instead of the time-consuming page reloads they re used to is simple when you use Ajax. Discover how a view and an agent can help you build Ajax-driven applications and learn how to define an API for getting the client and the Domino server to collaborate.

New features in Lotus Notes 7 mail
People use Notes/Domino in all sorts of different ways, and one of the most popular is email and messaging. With that in mind, Notes/Domino 7 offers significantly enhanced mail functionality, including expanded calendar and scheduling. This article reviews some of the more important and useful of these new features.

Lotus Domino Web Access client performance improvements
See how significantly your Domino Web Access client performance can improve with the release 6.5.3 hotfix (included in Domino Web Access 6.5.4 and later). Administrators and users learn tips to increase performance and to improve user satisfaction.

Troubleshooting Lotus Domino hangs and crashes
Quick — what’s the difference between a server hang and a crash? More important, how do you go about fixing them? In this article, we explain how you can identify Lotus Domino server hangs and crashes, and what you can do to analyze and correct them.

New serviceability features in IBM Lotus Notes/Domino 7
Enhancements to the automatic diagnostic collection feature and the new fault analyzer feature make Lotus Notes and Domino 7 more serviceable. See how these improvements can help you with your next server or client crash.

Lotus Notes Out of Office Agent, revisited: Part 2
We conclude our two-part series on the Lotus Notes Out of Office agent with a look at Out of Office agent administration, using Out of Office features with Domino Web Access, and troubleshooting Out of Office issues.

Configure IBM WebSphere Information Integrator to access a Lotus Notes database
This article introduces the capabilities of IBM WebSphere Information Integrator for integrating and updating data in IBM Lotus Notes databases. You’ll learn how to set up access to the Lotus Notes data sources from IBM DB2 federated database using the DB2 Control Center.

Single Sign-on in a Multi-directory World: “Never say login again” Part 1
Learn all about Single Sign-on (SSO) in Notes/Domino from that international man of mystery, Jim Bland. In this first installment of a two-part series, we examine SSO basics and look at issues that arise in multi-directory, multi-identity environments.

Best practices for large Lotus Notes mail files
Learn how you can manage the ever-growing mail files of your Lotus Notes users, conserving your system resources while ensuring your Notes users continue to enjoy high performance and reliability.

Exploiting IBM DB2 in your Lotus Domino 7 application
In this article, we discuss how you can work with the new IBM DB2 integration features offered in Lotus Domino 7.

Lotus Notes/Domino 7 application performance: Part 1: Database properties and document collections
No Lotus Notes/Domino developer wants to hear the following comment: “Beautiful application, too bad it’s so slow!” In this two-part article series, we explain how you can avoid this embarrassment by building Notes/Domino applications optimized for performance.

Managing IBM Workplace Managed Client applications
Ever wonder what the ‘managed’ means in IBM Workplace Managed Client? Read this article and learn how to manage Workplace Managed Client applications through both the Web browser and XMLAccess interfaces.

Name resolution and searching: Comparing Lotus Notes and Domino Web Access
In this article, we compare how Lotus Notes and Domino Web Access interact with address books to find and resolve mailing addresses.

Creating hierarchy objects in Lotus Domino Designer
This tip shows you how to create a hierarchy of related objects, using design elements in Lotus Domino Designer. It applies to Domino Designer 6.5 and later.

Adding social bookmarking tags to Lotus QuickPlace
Implement social bookmarking tags in Lotus QuickPlace and let users classify their own content for easy retrieval of information. This article shows you a simple solution to enable users to add and to share tags with each other.

Under the hood of IBM Workplace Collaboration Services
Take a peek under the hood of IBM Workplace Collaboration Services and learn about the layers that make up Workplace Collaboration Services, including IBM WebSphere Application Server and IBM WebSphere Portal.

The requester side caching pattern specification: An overview
Learn how the requester side caching pattern mediates the interaction between one or more clients and one or more data providers and how it can speed access to the data while reducing costs.

Lotus Domino 7 on the IBM zSeries
In this article, we look at IBM’s own implementation of Lotus Domino 7 on the IBM zSeries platform. We focus on the performance improvements we’ve seen, which should bring a smile to the face of all Domino administrators.

Lotus Domino on AIX memory usage explained
Learn about IBM AIX segment layouts for the Lotus Domino server and how to configure the Notes.ini file settings ConstrainedSHMSizeMB and PercentAvailSysResources to alter your server memory allocation. Find recommendations for configuring the server.

Building a JSR 168 portal application for Domino
In an earlier article, we described creating a DXL framework for working with a Lotus Domino database over the Web. We now turn our attention to building a JSR 168 portal application as a frontend to a Domino database.

New workloads and features in Lotus Domino 7 Server.Load
Learn about all the new features we’ve added to the Lotus Domino 7 version of the Server.Load performance testing and planning tool.

In this article, we look at all the new Rooms and Resources features introduced in Notes/Domino 7.

The requester side caching pattern specification: An overview
Learn how the requester side caching pattern mediates the interaction between one or more clients and one or more data providers and how it can speed access to the data while reducing costs.

Tip: Lotus Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes interoperability: I want my doclinks!
What could be more useful than Lotus Notes doclinks? This tip explains how you can extend Notes doclink functionality to Microsoft Outlook.

Building PHP-based UIs for IBM Lotus Domino
Discover how you can interact with Lotus Domino databases from Web applications created in the PHP programming language. Learn how to access Domino applications from PHP pages using a COM object, the Lotus Notes API, and XML.

Building a JSR 168 portal application for Domino
In an earlier article, we described creating a DXL framework for working with a Lotus Domino database over the Web. We now turn our attention to building a JSR 168 portal application as a frontend to a Domino database.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA): an interview with IBM Workplace and Lotus developers
Service Oriented Architecture, better known as SOA, has gotten a lot of press lately. But what does it mean, and what can it do for you? In this interview, three members of IBM development talk about SOA, and how IBM and Lotus products are incorporating its concepts.

Lotus Domino 7 on the IBM zSeries
In this article, we look at IBM’s own implementation of Lotus Domino 7 on the IBM zSeries platform. We focus on the performance improvements we’ve seen, which should bring a smile to the face of all Domino administrators.

Manipulating data in Domino Web Access
Read this article to learn how you can customize Lotus Domino Web Access to adapt to the specific requirements of your Notes/Domino data. We describe how Domino Web Access determines the appropriate scene to play for a form type, how data is reflected within the scene, and how updated data is validated.

Single Sign-on in a Multi-directory World: “Never say login again” Part 2
In this conclusion to our two-part series, we look at several different scenarios you may encounter when implementing single sign-on (SSO) functionality at your site.

Tip: xsd:any: A cautionary tale
xsd:any is a popular feature for people designing XML schema. But it’s often more trouble than it’s worth. Explore some of the shortcomings of xsd:any, both in XML itself and in the JAX-RPC Java language binding, so that, even if you decide to use xsd:any, you will be more prepared to deal appropriately with it.

Lotus Domino on AIX memory usage explained
Learn about IBM AIX segment layouts for the Lotus Domino server and how to configure the Notes.ini file settings ConstrainedSHMSizeMB and PercentAvailSysResources to alter your server memory allocation. Find recommendations for configuring the server.

Single Sign-on in a Multi-directory World: “Never say login again” Part 1
Learn all about Single Sign-on (SSO) in Notes/Domino from that international man of mystery, Jim Bland. In this first installment of a two-part series, we examine SSO basics and look at issues that arise in multi-directory, multi-identity environments.

Wikis, blogs and other community tools in the enterprise
Wikis and Web logs (blogs) make a big impact on the Web, but they can also be useful in an enterprise. A community is a group of people with common interests, goals, or responsibilities, such as a project team or an interest group. Combine wikis and blogs with existing collaborative tools to enhance the productivity and effectiveness of enterprise teams.

The DigestSearch method for Lotus Domino databases
This article introduces DigestSearch, an alternative solution for working with IBM Lotus Notes Profile documents and for performing simple, high-speed searches. For searching server-based databases from a Notes client, DigestSearch is twice as fast as any other search method available, outperforming both full-text search and LotusScript’s GetDocumentByKey method.

Working with application layouts in the IBM Workplace Managed Client
Learn how to control the way in which your application is displayed in the IBM Workplace Managed Client by understanding the RCPML parameters that control how the application is displayed.

The History of Notes and Domino
Notes and Domino began in the work of Ray Ozzie, Tim Halvorsen, and Len Kawell, first on PLATO Notes at the University of Illinois and later on DECNotes. Lotus founder Mitch Kapor saw the potential in Ozzie’s collaboration project and the rest is history.

New features in Lotus Notes 7 mail
People use Notes/Domino in all sorts of different ways, and one of the most popular is email and messaging. With that in mind, Notes/Domino 7 offers significantly enhanced mail functionality, including expanded calendar and scheduling. This article reviews some of the more important and useful of these new features.

Taking a tour of the new features and technology in IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5
Examine the architectural and design changes planned for IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5, including a new Connect client, a new Web conferencing UI, policies, click to call, click to chat, A/V integration, and a new SIP solution to connect to external communities, including AOL and Yahoo.

Building a Lotus Sametime bot for language translation
Build an IBM Lotus Sametime bot that works with IBM WebSphere Translation Server to translate text strings on-the-fly. Use the Lotus Sametime Java toolkit, the WebSphere Translation Server Java API, IBM’s public Sametime server, and the IBM Community Tools client for development and testing.

Adding social bookmarking tags to Lotus QuickPlace
Implement social bookmarking tags in Lotus QuickPlace and let users classify their own content for easy retrieval of information. This article shows you a simple solution to enable users to add and to share tags with each other.

Using Ajax to manipulate Lotus Notes documents
Giving users instant feedback instead of the time-consuming page reloads they re used to is simple when you use Ajax. Discover how a view and an agent can help you build Ajax-driven applications and learn how to define an API for getting the client and the Domino server to collaborate.

Controlling spam: Advanced SMTP settings in Lotus Domino
Find out how to control spam mail using the Server document and Notes.ini variables. Then preview the anti-spam controls in Lotus Notes/Domino 7 and see what s ahead. This article is part two in a series about Lotus Domino methods of spam control.

Exploiting IBM DB2 in your Lotus Domino 7 application
In this article, we discuss how you can work with the new IBM DB2 integration features offered in Lotus Domino 7.

Implementing notifications in Web applications using Lotus Sametime
Learn how to add event-driven notification functionality to your Web applications with Lotus Sametime.

Best practices for large Lotus Notes mail files
Learn how you can manage the ever-growing mail files of your Lotus Notes users, conserving your system resources while ensuring your Notes users continue to enjoy high performance and reliability.

Troubleshooting Lotus Domino hangs and crashes
Quick — what’s the difference between a server hang and a crash? More important, how do you go about fixing them? In this article, we explain how you can identify Lotus Domino server hangs and crashes, and what you can do to analyze and correct them.

New serviceability features in IBM Lotus Notes/Domino 7
Enhancements to the automatic diagnostic collection feature and the new fault analyzer feature make Lotus Notes and Domino 7 more serviceable. See how these improvements can help you with your next server or client crash.

Tip: Validating a rich text field in Lotus Notes
This tip offers three ways that you can validate rich text input fields in Lotus Notes.

Introducing IBM Lotus Notes access for SAP solutions
Lotus Notes access for SAP solutions is a new feature in Lotus Notes 7.0.1 that integrates Lotus Notes and SAP, so you can perform some common SAP functions from within Lotus Notes, such as time reporting, vacation and leave requests, and so on. Developers can extend this new feature even further.

Lotus Domino 7 performance in production at IBM on pSeries servers
In this article, we review the performance improvements we achieved by deploying Domino 7 on pSeries servers in a live IBM production environment.

In an xml.com blog, Rick Jelliffe argues that the sorry state of desktop Java should prompt Sun to open-source Swing The poster child for his argument is the utterly inert HTML support in Swing, which is maybe sufficient to render JavaHelp content, or some simple web pages from 1998. It’s certainly not suited to handle arbitrary content on today’s web. But he points out the Flying Saucer project on java.net as an example of a case where the community is picking up where Sun has dropped the ball, and concludes that could be a new model for developing the desktop API’s: So perhaps Sun could consider this: just open source the Swing tree for now. That is a nice doable chunk, and much work on new Swing development, such as SwingX, is being done in public anyway. Let it evolve independently of the rest of Java. Releases of Java can snapshot Swing. Sun has already lost control of the GUI, because of SWT, and the anti-XML partisans involved in Swing development seem determined to allow MicroSoft and IBM to leapfrog Swing as far as ease of generation of user interfaces (why wasn’t SwiXML grabbed and made part of Swing as soon as the idea was released? — a mystery that is an ongoing fumble by codeheads who don’t get declarative specification using XML) I’d temper Rick’s enthusiasm somewhat by noting that Flying Saucer’s project owner (and my co-author on Swing Hacks) never intended it to be a general-purpose, real-world web content renderer, so it only goes so far in replacing Swing’s HTML support. There are similar projects to pick up abandoned Java desktop technologies, such as FMJ’s attempt to provide modern codecs to the flat-lined Java Media Framework (JMF). But there are limits to what can be accomplished — FMJ is working on tying into existing frameworks like jffmpeg and QuickTime for Java, and it’s not clear whether the project would have the skills to implement codecs in pure java or the legal standing to work with royalty-encumbered codecs. So, could an open-source project pick up the ball with Swing, fix the bugs, and add long-requested features like declarative markup or freeze-dried GUI’s? Could its membership handle the tedious pixel pushing of the striving-to-be-native look-and-feels, or achieve focus and consensus on user interface issues? It’s an interesting idea, but even if Sun agreed to open-source Swing, would it work?

The 7 (f)laws of the Semantic Web
When it comes to the Semantic Web, you might call me a disillusioned advocate. I’ve been dipping in and out of the technologies for the last 5 years or so, but am increasingly frustrated by the lack of any visible progress. This entry should be regarded as constructive criticism of the Semantic Web — I still believe in it, but need to bring the flaws (as I see them) in to the open, in the hope that discussion and communication is the first step towards resolving problems. 1. Not all Semantic Web data are created equal. If you do a ball-park estimate with Google, you’ll find about 5-10 million RDF files on the web, in various formats. Many of these are FOAF, most are RSS (the RDF versions). Sounds pretty successful, doesn’t it? On top of that, we have a whole bunch of semantic web data being created by life sciences groups, policing departments, and others. But semantic web data does not necessarily build the Semantic Web (big S, big W) - the (or, at least, my) vision of a Utopian web of data. How come? All of that data being created by the life sciences, and other similar groups, is behind closed doors. It isn’t available to the public, and doesn’t hook into any web. As far as the Semantic Web is concerned, they could be using Turbo Pascal, rather than RDF and SPARQL. And RSS? Well, there are two types of semantic web data - useful, and not so useful (with regards to building the hooked-up ‘Semantic Web’). And I’d guess that 99.9% of RSS data comes under the latter classification. RDF data really needs to have URIs as the three parts of the triple in order to fully enable the ‘joining up’ of data. But the vast majority - in fact, probably all - of RSS data has at least one ’string literal’, e.g. http://www.news.com/news-story has a http://www.metadata.com/property/subject of “Science/Nature” Which isn’t too handy when it comes to hooking this data up to news items about “Science” or “Technology” or “Nature” - or basically any string literal that doesn’t match “Science/Nature”. So the RSS data doesn’t really help. 2. A technology is only as good as developers think it is. Let’s take a look at what developers - and the public - think of Semantic Web technologies. Hmm, so more people search on Google for Prolog and Fortran than Semantic Web topics? Not a particularly good sign, and the trend doesn’t seem to be getting any better, but let’s keep looking… Hmm, so the same number of books on SMIL as on RDF, on Amazon? And AJAX, that’s been around for less then half the time, has really got developers excited enough to write books. (Note that these graphs are not all to the same scale). Ah, the primary measure of how interested developers are in a technology - the amount of blogging on a subject. And the semantic web technologies don’t seem to fare too well. Comparing it to AJAX/Web 2.0 is a bit harsh, but you get the idea - it’s not grabbing any headlines. So why is this? One suggestion I would make is that most successful technologies can be learnt from example files. HTML, CSS, Javascript, even XML - you can take a look, get a basic idea of the syntax, and start hacking around. But RDF/XML is a bit trickier; because there is a model behind the syntax, which isn’t always obvious, creating useful RDF from examples is not that easy. Another reason could be that the semantic web community is (or at least appears to be) academic, inward-looking and uninviting. I’ll take a recent post from the general interest W3C Semantic Web mailing list - this is a mailing list that any of us should go to if we want to discuss semantic web issues (not just technical issues): “IMHO, RDF/RDFS/OWL are not well suited to proving validity, due to the open world assumption. There are usually too many possibilities to prevent any incorrect interpretations. On the other hand, it does just fine with consistency. The only trick is that people are often surprised that many constructs can be considered consistent… again due to the open world assumption. As an example, I first learnt this when I discovered that (under OWL) a predicate with cardinality of 1 for class C can be used multiple times on a single instance of C.” This very technical discussion could certainly be making beginners nervous. Maybe a less technical mailing list should also be made available? As for the academic/inward-looking part, well I don’t think I’m the only one that feels like this. The brilliant Uche Ogbuji has previously stated that: “I get the feeling that in trying to achieve the ontological purity needed for the Semantic Web, it’s starting to leave the desperate hacker behind.” And another brilliant (semantic web) developer, Christopher Schmidt, has said: “I’ve lost a lot of my interest in working with the Semantic Web lately, and I don’t see it coming back anytime in the near future.” “…frustration with evangalizing being part of the process of proceeding in the Semantic Web world. Every time I take a step forward with some code, I find another 5 steps I have to take back in order to defend my position and the way I’ve done it.” We need to win these people back, not brush these complaints under the carpet. 3. Complex Systems must be built from successively simpler systems. I read recently about how - no matter how much resource Microsoft throw at developing a search engine - they can’t beat Google. The explanation given was that Google learnt by basically building up slowly, learning the lessons as they go, and creating an increasingly complex system. You can’t take a short cut and go straight into constructing a complex system from day 1. A similar problem faces the Semantic Web: Web 2.0 applications are pretty easy to build, because most people can pick up the base technologies really quickly - HTML, CSS, XML, Javascript. You can then take a little step up to learn about DHTML and AJAX, and then use these to build a Web 2.0 application. With the semantic web, there’s a much higher first rung to the ladder. Getting to grips with RDF/XML, SPARQL, and the other core technologies is a big ask for most developers. To then get useful semantic web applications out of these takes a couple more exhausting jumps of complexity. And it seems like this complexity is starting to show - Swoogle (http://swoogle.umbc.edu/) estimates that about 1/3rd of the ‘pure’ RDF files that it has harvested contains errors. 4. A new solution should stop an obvious pain. So what kind of thing will the Semantic Web provide? Amongst other things: Finding information/services (search) Metadata An automation infrastructure Annotation Data mining opportunities Although there are minor grumblings with Google, the majority are happy with it for Searching. And nobody lies awake at night worrying about a lack of consistent annotation functionality. The Semantic Web needs to prove what problem(s) it’s going to solve, and not just show that it can create pictures showing you that you know your friends. 5. People aren’t perfect. Creating metadata and classifications is difficult (let’s not get started on Ontologies). People are biased (whether they mean to be or not), and fallible. Metadata, which the Semantic Web relies on, is not always going to be of great quality (anyone remember putting ‘free’ and other dubious key words into their meta HTML tags in the late 90s, when search engines still used them?). Maybe this one isn’t such a big issue though - much of the data will be coming from existing databases (rather than ‘hand created’), and it’s not like HTML doesn’t have problems with noise and signal. But I do worry that solving this problem with “Trust Policies” and other technologies will just add to the suffocating complexity that already surrounds the Semantic Web. 6. You don’t need an Ontology of Everything. But it would help. Sorry, I don’t mean to go all Clay Shirky, but the Semantic Web would be a lot easier if we did have a central ontology. All the semantic web developers and groups will disagree with me, but from my experience in trying to implement Semantic Web technologies in the real world, it would be a great enabler. My clients don’t want to create ontologies. They don’t want to map one set of data to another. They want to use something that’s out there and ready for them to use, and will give them the maximum benefit (so if the Imperial War Museum say that they have a tank from “World War One” and the Science Museum has a video of the firing mechanism from a gun from “World War One”, they can both use the same term/URI). I know - it’s an authoritarian, top-down view that’s next to impossible, but maybe we should try it, rather than thinking that we don’t need it because it’s hard to achieve? I’m guessing people had the same doubts over Wikipedia, but that seems to be doing OK. 7. Philanthropy isn’t commercially viable. We need organisations all over the world to buy into the Semantic Web vision, and to start exposing their data in a compatible format (actually, getting them to expose their data is going to be pretty tricky…). But why should they? What reason has any organisation currently got to invest in RDF, SPARQL or any Semantic Web enabling technology? We need that killer application! Anyone got any bright ideas?

Articles, FAQs, tips, tools, components, and other resources.

Amazon.com: Web Services: Books: Gustavo Alonso,Fabio Casati,Harumi Kuno,Vijay Machiraju
… Like many other incipient technologies, Web services are still surrounded by a tremendous level of noise … and of a lack of clear understanding of how Web services came to be …

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