LotusSphere/IBM Connect/IBM ConnectED have always been great events. And it's absolute natural to expect the same for this years edition. A first dive into the session list let you proof the expectation. But for me as a developer, there was always something missing at this events. The hands on experience. Yes there where labs (which I enjoy), but try to do something cool and crazy. Work together with other developer and do something special.... There was no time, to many good sessions, to many good opportunities to talk with friends, customers, experts and executives.

This release is the seventeenth IBM Notes Domino 9.0.1 version of the XPages Extension Library (ExtLib) to OpenNTF. It contains updates to the Bluemix tooling to support new environmental variables. It also contains a number of community developer contributions. Thanks go out to Paul Withers, Csaba Kiss, Nathan Freeman, Patrick Kwinten and Christian Guedemann.

Two weeks ago a new version of the XPages Extension Library was released live on stage during a session at IBM Connect 2016 in Orlando (slides available here). This release is a substantial one, containing many important updates, enhancements and fixes. Described below are the most notable changes, including an upgrade of Bootstrap, an ExtLibX update, responsive dialogs & pickers, new Bluemix utilities, accessibility enhancements and community contributions.

The time has come, IBM Connect 2016 started today! It's pretty obvious that OpenNTF is on site and delivers high quality content in several sessions around open source and software development in general. If you want to meet the guys in person to have a chat and want to learn about latest technologies and pratices, just visit their sessions.

Teamstudio XControls is a new set of Controls for IBM Domino XPage developers working on new XPages apps and on app modernisation projects. It is effectively a re-write of the Teamstudio Unplugged Controls project, but adding full support for PC browser-based user interfaces as well as mobile interfaces. XControls is built with Bootstrap 3.x and the Bootcards project.

As was recently announced, Bootstrap is now part of the OpenNTF XPages Extension Library, added in release 10. The ExtLib includes a new plugin that contains Bootstrap 3.2.0, providing new renderers for the XPage core controls, the ExtLib controls, and two new Bootstrap themes. An added benefit of supporting Bootstrap is that the ExtLib now includes jQuery 2.1.1, giving XPages developers the power to use jQuery in their apps as well.