Xpages - History

History

The origins of XPages technology can be traced as far back as year 2000, when Trilog Group, an IBM Business Partner, invented a component-oriented rapid web application development model, called XSP, similar to the Domino RAD model, but based on J2EE, XML and open standards. In August 2004, IBM acquired the XSP technology assets from Trilog Group in an effort to offer a RAD tool for IBM Workplace that is similar to Domino Designer.

The XPages technology, based upon JSF and J2EE, started life at IBM, from 2005 to 2007, inside the now discontinued IBM Lotus Workplace Designer and subsequently IBM Lotus Component Designer under the code name 'XFaces'. In mid 2007, the XFaces technology became 'XPages' and adopted by IBM Lotus Notes Domino, incorporated in the development cycle for the 8.5 release. XPages was previewed at Lotusphere 2008 (AD303 Transforming IBM Lotus Domino Web Apps with IBM Lotus Domino Designer Speakers: Rocky Oliver, Martin Donnelly). IBM Lotus Notes Domino 8.5 was released in December 2008 and in time for Lotusphere 2009 where it was one of the many highlights of the show.

IBM Lotus Notes Domino 8.5.1 continued the development of the XPages technology including the running of XPages applications inside the Notes Client. This release also included several improvements to performance and UI which helped XPages applications perform and scale better. IBM Lotus Notes Domino 8.5.2 contained many more improvements and additions to the feature set of XPages.

The 'XPages' name was inspired from the original XSP naming idea, where XSP was actually an acronym for 'XML Server Pages'. After a first rebranding of XSP to 'XFaces', IBM chose 'XPages' as the project code name for the pre-release technology included in Domino Designer. With a catchy alternative being hard to come by, the project name stuck.