Yes indeed, it's been a year since CodeStore started in its current format. Whether it feels that long or not I can't decide. Certainly a lot has happened! Here is the first article I decided to publish. Little did I know then that I would write another article a little less than a year later than would render it useless. Such is the nature of the business we work in that sites like this can warrant their existence. Sometimes I think I might run out of ideas for new content. Then a new technology arrives and a myriad of new situations and applications arise. This is one of the things I like about the Lotus Domino platform; we are never restricted to any one language to address any particular problem.

You may notice a distinct difference between the two articles above. As I have written more and more for the site I have tried to get away from the "here's some code, go use it" approach and tried to move toward articles that discuss the method and its drawbacks and implications. Occasionally I reach a point where I have wondered why I bother at all, then along come the visitors who let me know they appreciate all the hard work and that's normally enough to keep me at it (plus it looks pretty good on the résumé!!).

So why am I writing this, you may well be asking yourself. Well it seems a good time to take stock and look forward to the next year. I need your help to make this site what you want it to be. I get a lot of positive feedback but very rarely do comments include "it would be better if..", "have you thought of including...", "why can't you add.." etc. So, come on, let me know what I can do to the site to make it the Domino resource that we've always been missing (in my opinion). Use the usual methods of communication although I prefer that you use the Comments form in this instance so that everyone else can read what you think.

Looking back:

Not sure what I expected CodeStore to turn in to when I started. Ideally I suppose for it to be the place for Domino developers to come where they know there will be fresh, relevant content that they can actually utilise in everyday situations. Hopefully I am some way toward that.

I often wonder how many Domino developers there are in the world and how long before they have all visited. I constantly receive mail from people who have "just found your site". Most people seem to have found there way over following a trip to the Notes.net Café forum or after a friend tells them to. Other main referrers include a link the About Domino page on Notes.net, being Domino Power's "Site of the Month" a while back, SearchDomino.com's write up and Google.com's high ranking of the site.

Looking forward:

I think it is time that you guys took part too. After all, I can't do all the work myself can I!?. CodeStore needs people who know what they are talking about to write articles for it. Let me know if you are feeling up to it. You don't get paid but you can get a few of your fifteen minutes of fame... as have Bob Mattler, Johan Känngård, Patrick Ransom and co.

I used to think I would run out of things to discuss on the site. How silly I was! Publishing at a rate of about one a week I currently have enough "ideas" jotted down to keep me going for rest of the year. This doesn't account for the things that I constantly seem to learn and get told. Nor does it account for me learning Java in depth and planning lots of articles on both things like JSP and Servlets. All of which will put us in a better position for the release of R6 (Call me a cynic but I refuse to call it RNext. Who really cares what it will end up as?). Who knows maybe it will turn in to a WebSphere developer's site this time next year ;) Or maybe "IBM DominoSphere"...

On a final note (if you actually read this far) what do you all think to a new look? Personally I tend to adopt the old adage "If it isn't broken, don't fix it". But then it's always nice to have a change every now and then isn't it.