Developers who use FlowBuilder 3.0 have told me that they are captivated most by two unique characteristics: the ability to convert Domino applications and preserving the RAD (Rapid Application Development) culture found with Lotus Notes. So, naturally, I became interested in whether or not FlowBuilder 3.0 can keep all of its promises.

Because I provide both training and consulting services with IBM/Lotus products, I'm very aware of the skill set and interest of Lotus programmers, who I would divide up into three categories: maintenance developers that make UI (user interface) adjustments (such as form layouts), business developers who create applications for specific needs using only Domino, and career developers who build complex applications in Domino using Java/LotusScript and integrate them with other systems.

Rather than examine FlowBuilder as a J2EE solution against the backdrop of WebSphere, JBoss, Oracle, and WebLogic solutions, I was interested to learn whether or not this tool can translate the structure of Lotus databases into J2EE applications as well as keep the programming spirit of Domino that works so well for all of its core developers.

Lotus Notes applications are notoriously difficult to migrate (just ask those who have worked through a Microsoft Exchange migration and bravely tried to rework some additional Notes applications). Lotus Notes uses an all-in-one approach, where data, the user-interface layout, and application logic are all stored in a single file. This structure makes the distribution of data, design, and authentication through replication much simpler. But, sifting out the layers of a Notes program into a different architecture is daunting, and for complex applications, the effort is probably better put to simply rebuilding from scratch.

So, when FlowBuilder 3.0 performs a conversion, this is a dramatic achievement -- especially because I believe they have improved on the data store. Instead of merely translating the data into an RDBMS (relational database) that mimics some of the uniquely Notes field data types (e.g., text lists, author, formula, and rich text), FlowBuilder 3.0 reconstructs all the data into an XML (eXtensible Markup Language) format. While writing this article, I had the opportunity to listen to Trilog's President Alex Homsi's explanation of text list manipulation to understand some of the concrete benefits using an XML structure to the data store.