One of the coolest displays of the capabilities of XPages I saw at Lotusphere 2011

02/18/2011 08:44 AM by Chris Toohey

While the on-stage demos at Lotusphere 2011 were great, it was obvious that this year was a rebuilding year for the Lotus portfolio. We have major releases coming out, which promise advanced features that our users demand... but at the same time IBM has given us Lotus Notes and Domino professionals the tools to -- if it's not already in the product -- address any functionality gap ourselves should we feel inclined to </bitching><doing>.

There were a few amazing takeaways from Lotusphere 2011 however... but one of the ones that I found most inspiring and certainly telling of the capabilities now available to the IBM Lotus Notes Domino XPages application developer wasn't something that I saw on stage or even at the Product Showcase.

It's Elguji's TSAzr iPhone app.

From the app's website:

Put TSAzr (pronounced "TAY-zer") on your iPhone or iPod Touch and join the ongoing debate about the TSA. We built this app to shed some light on what's really going on at our airports. Rate, describe and share your own TSA experience right at the airport after it happened. Post your results on your Facebook wall, and see what others said. See which airports suck the most, and which ones are civilized and treat you with respect. Get instant news and videos about TSA incidents.

A native iPhone application, TSAzr relies on over-the-air connectivity to -- you guessed it -- a Domino Server, where it uses XPages as Web Services and stores all application data in App Scope.

And it. just. works!

But the true beauty of this application is that it uses XPages (and thus IBM Lotus Notes Domino) in a non-traditional way, and in doing so, is possibly the best initiative to take a Lotus product beyond the yellow bubble and certainly beyond the enterprise environment that I've seen to date.

It's showcasing the possibilities of the technology we all hold dear.

And while the typical user has no idea what the backend technology is behind this app - every single Lotus professional should realize that the platform that they work with day-in and day-out and the skills that they've mastered over the years can be easily extended far beyond creating silo'ed business applications.

Taszr was absolutely worth the purchase price ($1.99) if for nothing other than to be able to show my family and non-techie friends what I do for a living:

Yeah... well I didn't write this, but this is the type of stuff I do. Yes dad, I know I should do something cool like invent the next Facebook... but this is some seriously awesome stuff right here!

-- but as of right now it's free (for a limited time), so there's no excuse to not have this app on your iOS device.

There's also no excuses for you not to extend [double-negative, FTW!] your own products beyond the enterprise and direct to the consumer marketplace, taking cues from Elguji, who with TSAzr have not only delivered what I think is an absolutely brilliant (and brilliantly-timed) solution, but have given us like-minded app developers a path to showcasing our skillz far beyond the previously-perceived boundaries.

On a side note, I had to share this screencap I came across while using the application on my trip back from Lotusphere 2011: