Here at Teamstudio Towers we’re getting pretty excited about the upcoming release of IBM Lotus Notes/Domino 10. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that this is the first major release of the Notes and Domino platform since Notes 9 (aka Social Edition) shipped in March of 2013. That means we’ve been waiting 5 years for this moment, which is coming up on October 9.
IBM’s marketing engine is solidly behind this launch. For one thing, everything’s turned yellow, which would have been pretty much unthinkable back in 2013 when Social Edition shipped. IBM’s using the Credly platform for tracking credentials relating to Domino 10 and IBM Acclaim badges are popping up all over LinkedIn.
IBM and HCL have set up a new product ideas forum to gather feedback. They have introduced live chat as a support option to help deal with simple queries that don’t warrant opening a case. And, there’s a general sense of excitement and anticipation in the Notes/Domino community, rallying itself around the #domino2025 hashtag.
But what about the product itself? Many, many announcements have been made about a product roadmap that is pretty well fleshed out across two promised releases (V10 this year, V11 next) and beyond. We’ve blogged before about the roadmap from a Notes/Domino developer’s perspective, and we’re pretty excited about what’s coming.
Long story short:
A Domino database connector for Node.js is coming in V10. So you’ll be able to build apps in JavaScript on Node that can easily access Domino data.
Mobile app support, including extensions to LotusScript to access mobile device features (camera, GPS etc) and a new client for the iPad that will run Notes apps natively.
More LotusScript extensions to enable easier web app development.
Features in Domino to reduce total cost of ownership, including auto repair of corrupted databases and other things that sort of go over the heads of developers like us.
HCL Places is a client app that looks like it was originally put together as a proof of concept to show what could be done using Node and Domino but seems to be acquiring a life of its own.
As for us here at Teamstudio, we’re in the process of putting the V10 beta through its paces or, more accurately, putting our own suite of tools running on V10 through their paces. And so of course we hope soon to be proudly displaying our “IBM Domino 10 Verified Solution” badge!
If you are planning your own upgrade to Notes and Domino 10, then Teamstudio Adviser is a great starting point. It’s an easy-to-use analysis tool which will give you a lot of useful information about how many users you have and how they are accessing your servers (Notes client or web browser, etc). For example, it can show you which of your applications are being used the most, which is where you want to focus your upgrade compatibility testing before an upgrade.
We’ve been supporting IBM Lotus Notes and Domino Developers with our suite of productivity tools since 1996. We’re committed to supporting our customers on this platform and will be for the foreseeable future. We’re super-excited about the upcoming release and we’re thrilled that HCL is breathing a new lease of life into Notes.
To chat with us about this, or any aspect of the IBM Lotus Notes and Domino platform, click below. We’re always happy to talk!