Lotus Expeditor Quickstart Guide

Lotus Expeditor Quickstart Guide

This guide should help you to quickly setup and develop applications for the IBM Lot us Expeditor platform 6.2 (2009-08-04). The guide describes the setup for the desktop as well as the device runtime. Just follow the steps below.

Keywords: Lotus Expeditor, Eclipse, OSGi, Java, Equinox, DB2e, Windows Mobile, J9, Embedded

Required Knowledge

Java, JavaME
OSGi, Eclipse Equinox, eRCP

About Lotus Expeditor

The client integration framework provided by IBM Lotus Expeditor software assists developers in integrating a wide variety of client and server applications in composite applications. Client integration can be used to optimize the information that your employees need to accelerate your business processes. Lotus Expeditor is used in production by bank tellers, call centers, government employees, insurance adjusters and in other customer care applications, worldwide. Use it to extend your IBM Lotus, IBM WebSphere, Eclipse or legacy applications, such as Microsoft .NET applications. Lotus Expeditor software supports client integration on laptops, desktops, kiosks and mobile device clients. It also provides an integration hub for transactional messaging for satellite locations of an enterprise such as retail outlets or remote offices. Lotus Expeditor software provides the flexibility of service oriented architecture (SOA) and a standards-based programming model from the OSGi alliance and the Eclipse foundation.[1]

Step 1: Download required software

Eclipse for RCP Developers (3.4 or higher) (download)
Lotus Expeditor Toolkit (download)
Lotus Expeditor Client for Devices (download)
Lotus Expeditor Client for Desktop (download)

Eclipse is needed to develop applications for Lotus Expeditor. Lotus Expeditor Toolkit is an Eclipse plugin that is also required for development. The clients are needed to run your application, either on the desktop or on a device.

Unzip all files and follow the steps below to install and setup Lotus Expeditor on your machine. Installing Eclipse only requires unzipping.

Step 2: Install and setup your environment

Client for Desktop
Within the desktop sub-folder execute setup.exe. The following screenshot shows the desktop client. On first launch you will be prompted to set a password for Expeditor. Don't forget it!

Client for Devices
Within the device sub-folder there are several clients available to install on your device. Choose the CAB file from the wm folder. On a device without touchscreen use the client in the wmstd folder. Install the cab file on your mobile device and launch Lotus Expeditor.

Eclipse Development Toolkit
Install the toolkit via the Eclipse update mechanism (update-site). Launch eclipse.exe and go to Help->Software Updates->Find and Install.. and add a local site that points to the folder from the downloaded zip file.

If the plugin has been installed sucessfully, a dialog pops-up on every Eclipse startup prompting some Expeditor configurations.

Before developing your first application you will have to configure the toolkit. First, you have to choose if you want to develop an application for the desktop or the device client. Then, the Target Location has to be configured:

Desktop Client:
- INSTALL_FOLDER_OF_DESKTOP_CLIENT\\rcp\\eclipse
Device Client:
- FOLDER_OF_DEVICE_CLIENT\\toolkit-platforms\\device\\win32\\eclipse

Step 3: Develop your first application

In order to implement a new application for the Expeditor platform you have to create a new Client Service Project: File->New->Project->Client Service Project

Select all required features. For example, if you like to develop an application that uses DB2e you will have to select the feature here:

If this is your first Expeditor application it is recommended to choose an example project before finishing the New Project wizard. When launching your application you have different options:

Launch on the desktop client (WinXP)
Launch on the device client (WinXP)
Launch on the device client (Windows Mobile)

In this tutorial we focus on the device client(s).

For launching the device client (WinXP) you have to create a new Eclipse launch configuration: Run->Open Run Dialog

When launching your application you will see the following workbench:

The toolkit also provides an Eclipse launch configuration for the device client (Windows Mobile) which requires a working Active Sync connection to the device:

In case of any troubles with this method, there is an alternative method to deploy and launch your application on the mobile device:

Create a feature project
Create an update-site project
Copy the update-site to your device
Launch Expeditor on your device and install your app from the update-site:

Click Install New Application Features:

Add a Local Update Site:

Select your feature and install:

To start your application click on the newly created icon:

Step 4: Setup DB2e support

In this step we would like to discuss how to enable DB2e within your application.

The device and desktop client for WinXP already include DB2e out of the box.

On the Windows Mobile device DB2e has to be installed manually via the update site. The update-site should be located in a folder ..\device\updates\site.xml. In order to install from an update-site you will have to use the Application Manager on your mobile device.

Frequently Asked Questions

Lotus Expeditor applications always restart the whole Expeditor, can I keep Expeditor running in the background ?

Yes. Start RunBackground within the Expeditor folder.

Is it possible to launch my application with a custom launcher using custom icons ?

Yes!

110#"\SD-MMC Card\Expeditor\hWorkbench.exe" -launch org.eclipse.ercp.update ?\SD-MMC Card\Expeditor\icons.dll,-106

Does Expeditor support AWT ?

AWT is not supported by Expeditor. There is only the SWT GUI toolkit available. However, it is possible to integrate AWT. There have to be made some modifications of the expeditor installation to get pproui.jar & co loaded automatically.

Download demo code

The following demo application uses SWT and DB2e features: demo-expeditor.zip (1MB)

Further Information

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Tags: Technical Resource