What is Lotus Expeditor?
by Volker Weber
Here is Kevin Cavanaugh's explanation:
- Lotus Expeditor is a tool kit for building and supporting client runtimes.
- Expeditor built runtimes are based on Eclipse
- Expeditor built runtimes can add many additional services to Eclipse
- Sametime 7.5 and Notes 8 utilize runtimes created by Expeditor
- Applications built on Eclipse run on Expeditor built runtimes
- Applications built on Eclipse, Expeditor built runtimes or Sametime 7.5 run in Notes 8
So it is a tool kit, that developers use to build applications. Not at the business level that template developers work at, but at the same layer as people who write a Sametime Client. You won't install Expeditor, but you build applications with it, which other people will install.
It adds stuff to the Eclipse Rich Client Platform, both above and below the Eclipse layer. It does Java profiling for instance, so that you can tailor your application to work on devices like mobile phones. It does not start with Java Enterprise Edition, not with Standard Edition, but with Micro Edition.
Comments
Thanks for the information!
"Apps built in Eclipse, Expeditor runtimes and Sametime run in Notes 8" :
Just a few questions regarding this:
- Where does an by 'Expeditor' created application/service store it's local data, or is is only an exposed service?
- Does an application composed by 'Expeditor' allow client and server replication?
- A 'Expeditor' application can run, as you mentioned, within Notes 8, but can
a _native_ Notes 8 application interact/access an 'Expeditor' service/application ( simple dumb example: Make SOA calls or a dumb @dblookup to that service layer , starting from Notes 8)
Notes 8 is not Notes 8
Two Versions will be shiped:
-> Notes 8 Tradintional Client
-> Notes 8 as Expeditor Version
The Expeditor and the Eclipse apps will be run in the Expiditor Version only. The native Notes apps will be run in both versions.
You have many liberties to store and to "replicate" date in the Expeditor version. :-)
Native Notes apps can send property change events to an Expeditor app and reverse. This event can be fired by a new Lotus Script class or in a view when the selection is changed.
In Java you can fire the event as a normal Eclipse event.
Additional interacting will be worked about the known API's (HTTP, Corba, etc.)
Here is a link to the Expiditor page on the IBM site.
"You won't install Expeditor, but you build applications with it that people install."
müsste es nicht heissen:
You won´t install Expeditor, but you install applications that people build with ist
?
@Andreas, you mean that two installation configurations will be available -- they are both still Notes 8 and run all Notes applications.
Ed, Andreas is an architect. You can't fool him with marketing. :-)
Aaargh. Here we go again. ;) Ed, are we gong to get some marketing approved terminology?
"they are both still Notes 8 and run all Notes applications"
All *legacy* Notes applications, because there will be Notes 8 apps that won't run without Expeditor support, correct?
I'd prefer the word "current" or maybe NSF-based to "legacy".
Are you going to get some marketing-approved terminology? Yes. When? I don't know yet. This is the risk of having the conversation in public. Please bear with me on this. I assure you that the last round of discussions on this has been most helpful internally in framing the discussion.
Ed correction make sense: "two versions" can be read as "you can buy one or another" while "two installation configurations" makes clear that you will be able to choose what to deploy
To hear NSF being described as legacy doesn't sound positive to me. But maybe that's just me.
Back to the original post. This sounds about right. I had thought that Expeditor was likely to be a layer of extra services on top of Eclipse RCP. From what you've said here it sounds like it's more of the Eclipse RCP on steroids.
"You won't install Expeditor, but you build applications with it, which other people will install."
I'm not quite sure what you mean here. As an application developer do I assume that Expeditor is already deployed in one form or another, e.g. Sametime or Notes 8? Clearly in the context of writing a composite Notes application I will assume that Notes (on Expeditor) is installed. The Lotus Expeditor page seems to suggest that some businesses might deploy Expeditor as an empty shell for the businesses own applications.
@ed, cheers, I'm sure you're just as keen to have us stop using 'questionable' terms ;)
So Expeditor = Eclipse RCP+, correct? And will other Eclipse plugins run in the Expeditor environment? Say, for example, I wanted to put a CSS editor plugin into Expeditor. Will that work?
Bruce, I previously read through the Expeditor site and I was still wondering where/how/why it fits into Notes. Volker's description helps because it's bite-sized and easier to swallow and digest. I would like to think I'm not so different from the mainstream Notes developer out there, but maybe I am actually a little further behind. Compared to the Domino blogosphere I feel like a retard most of the time. :-P
Ed, I don't envy you for having to explain this in terms both techies and PHB's will understand.
RCP+? Yes. In your example, you could take your CSS editor plugin, and then use Expeditor to build the runtime around it. This would give you a deliverable much like a standalone editor.
But yu are touching on one aspect that I do not understand yet: Does Expeditor help you deliver a plugin for Sametime? My current understanding is, that it does not. But I want to leave that to somebody more qualified to explain.
What I meant was, do I have to do anything to Eclipse plugins to make them work with Expeditor. Your response seems to indicate that there is additional work to be done so I can't just go to eclipse.org, download a plugin, and drop it into Notes 8/Expeditor. It's mostly an academic discussion to me, I don't intend to actually do it. I'm just curious to see how much the two (Expeditor and Eclipse RCP) are interchangeable.
@charles, I think we'll have to wait and see some more specifics, but I don't see why not. Now this might not be something joe user will be authorised to do via policy, but if you had sufficient access I don't see why not.
So is the long and the short of it that Expeditor is the Workplace Rich Client minus some of the centrally managed stuff, or with the centrally managed stuff optional, or with the centrally managed stuff built differently? Or something else entirely?
-rich
Another take on it:
Note that they link to the Websphere Everyplace Deployment 6 trial downloads. So if you want to know more about Expeditor itself, you can get your hands on it and play around a bit. It's not (I assume) the version we'll eventually see with Notes 8, but it's the foundation.
Charles, an Eclipse plugin works in an Expeditor built runtime.
Richard, Expeditor is not a client. It is a tool kit which you use to build a client.
Marrying the pre-built IBM components and tools with the rest of the Eclipse ecosystem was/is the killer appeal for me.
Volker, I hope your right this is what ships .. because the sum will be infinitely greater than the parts. Very cool in a business value way - not just a geek way.
Since everything is a Plug-in in Eclipse, Expeditor is "just" another plug-in. So it coexists with all the other Plug-ins. However you would want to - once you get your head around the functions - build your own plug-ins (a.k.a. applications) with an Expeditor dependency. (Like several development tools depend on the EMF plug-in). This allows you to focus on your application's functionality and leave the "plumming" like persistence, replication, security etc. to Expeditor. No more wheel reinventing. (OK -- at least not so much)
:-) stw
Are there any screen shots, demo's or the like ? I mean it's all getting a bit confusing with all these nontransparent names and branding IBM uses for their products.
- Workplace Collaboration Services
- Websphere Portal
- Workplace Forms
- Lotus Forms
- Workplace Managed Client
- Lotus Expeditor?
- Websphere Application Server
- Rational Application Developer
- Eclipse Rich Client Platform
You know what they say a picture is worth a thousand words.
@Volker, could you expand on your comment "Expeditor is not a client. It is a tool kit which you use to build a client."
My understanding is that Expeditor is basically an enhanced version of Eclipse RCP. The exact details of that are unclear. Does it replace parts of the core RCP or does it just add extra features via the standard plug-in architecture. My guess at the moment is that it is the latter, given that it has been stated that a straight Eclipse plug-in will run on Expeditor.
By saying "Expeditor is not a client" do you just mean that it's an empty shell that doesn't do anything? To some extent that is the same as the Notes Client without any databases.
You say "It is a tool kit which you use to build a client." Is it a toolkit or a framework? I say that a toolkit is a suite of tools used in building something; compilers, modellers, layout tools, packagers etc. A framework on the other hand is a set of facilities that I want in the running system that I don't have to write myself.
One point that might be part of your statement is that the user will not see and launch an application called Expeditor. Rather, they will launch a named application that sits on top of Expeditor. There may be many such applications on the user's desktop.
Volker, what you're saying contradicts the developerWorks Lotus team blog:
* Lotus Expeditor is a family of products: client, server, and toolkit.
* Lotus Expeditor is also a platform. With Lotus Expeditor, you can create mobile applications, composite applications, and mashups.
I think I'm going to stop reading until IBM comes out with more information. This is just insane.
@Charles Robinson
You are absolutely right. We should wait for more info. dW definition is definitely assembled in marketing department.
You could also say
* Sharepoint is a family of products: client, server, and toolkit.
* Sharepoint is also a platform.
* Oracle is a family of products: client, server, and toolkit.
* Oracle is also a platform.
Feel free to continue the list...
Hello, mi question is about the Windows Service “mgmtservice” in Whesphere Everyplace Deployment 6.0, Lotus Expeditor 6.1.x, have this service?, because We have a application en WED and we like to migrate to Lotus Expeditor Client 6.1.2, but in the documentation don’t found anything about it, we need it because we have a application J2EE and use it with a Internet Explorer in laptops (http://localhost/myapp/)...
Thanks...
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