Domino's Relevance and the Modern Web
Monday, November 13, 2006Here's my dirty little secret, the only certification I ever got was for Lotus Notes Domino development. And I still develop in Notes to this day at my job. Domino was one of the first database driven frameworks for website applications. The cool thing about Domino, you got an application framework with a GUI application designer client, document database backend, full text indexing (including file attachments!) and security infrastructure where you could specify security down to the paragraph level. Problem is Domino hasn't changed that much since 1997.
While the rest of the world is releasing frameworks for the modern day web, Domino, by default, still makes web pages like it was 1999. The problem is IBM is still in love with the idea of Notes & Domino as an Exchange beating Enterprise Messaging/Groupware platform. And as such the Notes client gets a lot of attention. And while that love affair continues it's value as a web software platform is shrinking.
Yes a lot of people get it to do spiffy things. But they all do this DESPITE the framework. And when you see things like Ruby on Rails you wonder is it really worth all the trouble?
Lotus, quite smartly, saw the web as the application platform of the future back in '97 when they created Domino but where is that vision today? Notes & Domino has been given help by all the die hard fans pushing it into this century's Web while IBM hasn't shown anything more than a passing interest . Domino still outputs HTML4; spacer gifs and font tags, templates, or 'forms', are restrictive and web processing is limited to 'Web Query' macros that are resource hungry.
Meanwhile in Ruby on Rails I can add this to a controller:
in_place_edit_for :item, :title
and this to a template:
<%= in_place_editor_field :item, :title,{}, :rows=>10 %>
and I have an inplace field editor using AJAX. All the HTML and Javascript is written for me. That is how a modern web framework should work.
It's a double shame that IBM have let the web side of Domino slip because I think we are also seeing (or will see) a return of the document database (as opposed to relational) as the storage for web software . Domino has a document database with over a decade of development and improvement.
Unfortunately I don't see much changing in the future. IBM seems to have tunnel vision with the perception that Notes equals Enterprise Messaging. I suspect this is because it's the only way they can compete with Microsoft in that market. And while they are hell bent on competing in that pissing match other web software frameworks will gain the same feature set as Domino and leave it in the dust.
5 Comments
Thanks Andrew. That is a almost perfekt summary of my opinion regarding IBM and the path Lotus Domino/Notes has been and is still going.
Well, you have commented on my blog a few times in tha past few years, so I though I'd return the favor. While I agree somewhat about it being nice to have AJAX enablement "out of the box" with Domino, I can also see some reasons why IBM does not chase every current development fad, since those remnants would clutter up the product for years to come whether the fad turned into accepted design methodology or went the way of the dodo. Ruby is too new to have to worry about such things. Having said that though, I am considering cluttering up my own product with such remnants, and happened to mention this post in that regards. I'd be happy if you came over and read my post at GeniiSoft [ed: click his name] and gave me any feedback on whether you thought Midas should make AJAX enablement a part of its feature set. In any case, keep up the good fight.
Andrew,
I think that you have not quite understood what IBM is sitting on. Look what IBM has been pushing as a web development platform, Websphere.
I think that IBM are finding it very hard to actually have 2 web development platforms out there in the market place. Now we all know that Websphere is designed for the mega big stuff and Notes is not, but until someone tells IBM that there is a massive market at the bottom end for people who do not want to spend $100,000 or so on a web development tool, they will not develop Notes to fill that market.
I run a Notes development company in Thailand, and Websphere is beyond the pocket of all but the very largest companies here. Consequently IBM have only sold a very small number and there are hardly any IBM product based websites.
Who whilst I agree with your dig at IBM the Notes development community have to get IBM to understand that not all websites are going to be built in Websphere. This is where they have tunnel vision.
Hi Nick, although I didn't state it above I too believe that is one of the main factors (so I certainly do understand the situation). And if you throw Workplace into the mix that makes 3 web products.
But I still maintain that IBM has decided to focus Notes as a messaging app.
Well
WebSphere costs more than Domino
and
The development cycle is longer
not only IBM but a lot of people are earning money with WebSphere so why would IBM push Domino more than WebSphere ?
:)