I do a lot of work with many IBM technologies.  You would not know this from reading my blog since it is focused on XPages....but I'm branching out today.

I recently passed my Websphere Portal 6.1 Administration and Deployment certification (LOT-955) with a score of 97, and passed my Websphere Portal 6.1 Application Development (LOT-959) with a score of 100.  

Now, the high scores are not exactly a reflection of my portal skills, but more a reflection of my study skills.  These products are very deep and you could study for months without uncovering all there is to know about them.  Having the correct resources can help you by isolating the topics that the tests focus on most.

Of course no amount of studying can take the place of hands on skills.  If you want to learn Portal, Portlet Factory, or Rational Application Developer (RAD) and do not have access to the software, you can download trial versions of these products from IBM.  Or even join their beta programs to learn the latest versions.

Some folks do not believe in the merits of certifications, but I do...not for the reasons most might think,  i.e. increased job opportunities.  For me, studying for my certification forces me to study topics of a product that I might not have learned in my normal day-to-day work.  This increases the depth of my skills.  Then of course comes the "Ah Ha" moment when one day you solve a problem, or suggest a solution, with some knowledge you only learned because of studying for your certification. That makes it worth it to me.

Here's a list of resources that helped me:

Websphere Portal 6.1 Administration and Deployment certification (LOT-955)
-  Websphere Portal 6.1 info center
-  Wiki - Step by step cluster guide
-  Websphere Portal 6.1 955 sample questions (many of these questions were almost identical to the ones on the test!)
-  Wiki - WebSphere Portal V6.1 Configured with Multiple LDAP's and Multiple Realm's

Websphere Portal 6.1 Application Development (LOT-959)
-  IBM - Websphere Portal Training resources (There are numerous links on this page)
-  Lot 959 FreeExamKing sample questions (again, these sample questions were very similar to what I saw on the test)
-  IBM's Virtual Innovation Center courseware (this requires a partnerworld login..but it's excellent!)

I also used certFx sample tests.  They cost around $90, and you usually can find a promotion code for a discount.  However, the above links to the online sample questions were very similar.  One advantage of buying a certfx test is that they guarantee you will pass the test, and will reimburse for the testing fee if you do not pass.  That's $200 dollars now. (I think it went up recently)

My study approach is to read the material, then take a sample test.  If I do not know the answer to a sample test question I go to the info center or google and research it.  Then I take the sample test over again (a couple of times) before my scheduled test date, this way it's all fresh.

Good luck on your tests!

-John

Technorati: Websphere Portal Websphere Portlet Factory
(0)

I'll be speaking at The View's Lotus Developer 2010 in Boston on May 12th to the 14th.  If you see me there, please stop by and introduce yourself.  That's the best part about conferences....meeting new people.

I have 2 sessions.  Currently, both are being scheduled to repeat, so I'll be busy.  Here's the descriptions:

XPages: Write once, run everywhere!
With the latest release of Domino Designer, the platforms for running your XPages applications have been significantly expanded. Attend this session for a deeper understanding of the new XPages features in version 8.5.1 and how to leverage them in your applications. See how XPages now runs in the Notes client including the settings you’ll need for client launch and themes as well as customizing your XPages based on the client type using JavaScript or @commands. Take a deep dive into the Component Design Element to learn step-by-step how to create components as well as how to produce Actions and Events for wiring in composite applications. See how to simply include XPages components in composite applications as well as iWidgets for both the IBM Mashup Center and WebSphere Portal. Take home a copy of the applications used in the presentation with full access to the code.

Building Rich Internet Applications in Domino using AJAX, JSON, and the Dojo toolkit
Are your Domino Applications so yesterday? Bring your apps into the Web 2.0 world with a Rich Internet Application (RIA) facelift utilizing JSON, AJAX, and Dojo. Get an explanation of JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) — what it is, how it works, and why you want to use it. Get an understanding of the advantages of JSON over XML for building RIA applications with Domino. Learn how Domino can natively serve up JSON as well as how to generate JSON with agents and views. Explore the Dojo toolkit, an AJAX framework that now ships with Lotus Domino, and learn how you can leverage Dojo to build Rich Internet Applications. Walk away with an understanding of JSON, how to utilize JSON in AJAX frameworks, the Dojo toolkit, as well as a sample database with code.

Hope to see you there!

-John
Technorati: None
(0)

In the Dynamic View Custom Control I built, and is available on OpenNTF, I noticed that the pager control does not reset when I switch datasources.  The Pager control does not reset because the custom control is not reloaded in the demo I put together.  So I was looking for a way to reset the control programmatically and I came across this article from Matt White on the XPagesblog and then also came across the same answer on IQJam (both are great resources!).

The article shows you how to get a class in JS in the Designer so that you can browse the methods that are available to you.  So for example if you want to jump to a certain page for a View control or Pager control you can use this "gotoPage()" method.

For a Pager:
var pager:com.ibm.xsp.component.xp.XspPager = getComponent("pager1");
pager.gotoPage(1);  //0 is first page etc.,.

For a View:
var view1:com.ibm.xsp.component.xp.XspViewPanel=getComponent("viewPanel2");
view1.gotoPage(1);

Here's a screen shot of the script editor and some of the methods available for a View control.  As you can see there is also gotoFirstPage(), gotoLastPage(), gotoNextPage(), gotoPreviousPage(), and gotoRow().




-John
Technorati: Domino 8.5 XPages
(6)

I created an XPages custom control that dynamically builds a view based on a series of passed in parameters.  Normally with XPages, if you want different views to be displayed on your XPage, you would create the multiple view controls and hide the ones that should not be displayed.  This custom control allows you to drop a single CC on your XPage and it can generate the views for you.  Cick here to open the OpenNTF.org project.

Overview

I included a sample page and test data so you can try the Custom Control out.

When you first launch the database, click on a view to generate: Projects, Customers, or Orders.





When you click on one of the view links I set session scope variables for the view parameters.  You can pass these parameters anyway you like or compute them too. For the demo I chose session variables. You can even build an interface so the users can tailor their own views.  Here's a sample of setting the parameters for the Project view:





On the Custom Control, you can see how I pick up the Session Variables and pass them to the control:





To further demonstrate how you can change the view dynamically, I added a custom control that has input controls bound to the session variables.  This allows you to change any of the parameters and click the "Build View" button to regenerate the view.  So you can change the order of the fields, the width of the view, link column etc.,  

*Note: the fields do not have to be physically in the view.  I grab the fields from the backend document:




The ccDynamicView control is actually very small.  It consists of 2 nested repeat controls with a pager control:



I used Paul Calhoun's example Creating a Dynamic HTML Table on an XPage to add the columns to the tables as it iterates through the field list.  By adding the <xp:td> tags around the repeat controls the Outline palette seemed to object to this and will not let me select the repeat control anymore with my mouse. This makes it difficult to edit the custom control through the interface. If you need to make changes, you need to use the source view.

This repeat control builds the columns and the view header by exploding the list of columns and iterating through them:

        <xp:tr>
                        <xp:repeat id="repeat2" rows="30"
                                value="#{javascript:@Explode(compositeData.columns)}" var="colName"
                                indexVar="colIndex" first="0">
                                <xp:td>

                                        <xp:text escape="true" id="computedField1"
                                                value="#{javascript:colName;}"
                                                style="color:rgb(0,0,128);font-weight:bold">

                                        </xp:text>
                                </xp:td>
                        </xp:repeat>
                </xp:tr>


The next repeat control retrieves the data set for the view depending on the fulltext and category parameters, and then retrieves the field values for document.  Along the way it formats the rows for alternating color and builds the href links.


Cons
On the downside to using this custom control, the view cannot be expanded and collapsed.  Nor is their the ability to click a column heading and sort the data.  If anyone knows how to add that feature please comment!  

-John

Technorati: None
(6)

The folks over at TLCC are providing a "free" introductory level Domino Designer 8.5 course.  If you have some newbie Domino developers in your group, Domino developers that want to start learning XPages, or administrators that want to get up to speed on development, you should check out this course.  

From my past experience, TLCC provides high quality courses with a focus on details.  It is delivered within the Notes 8.5 client, which you can also download for free from IBM.  Using the Notes client allows you to learn at your own pace and perform the corresponding exercises in the Designer.  I had the opportunity to review their full blown XPages course last year and would recommend it to anyone wanting to learn XPages.  Click here to read that review.

Here's an overview of the course modules:

• What is Notes and Domino software?
• The role of the Notes client and Domino server
• Domino Application Architecture
• Using Domino Designer software
• Creating a Domino Application
• Creating Forms and adding fields
• Designing Views
• Creating XPages for your application
• Programming options in Domino Designer applications
• Deploying a Domino application

For more details visit the TLCC site.  Nowadays, everyone could appreciate free courseware....
Technorati: Domino 8.5 XPages
(1)