When signing an application, sign ALL elements

I installed and tested the xTalk forum application written by Declan Lynch and available for download at OpenNTF.

A great application and a great piece of open source to learn about XPages.

I ran into an error and tried to figure out, why the error occurs. I thought it is a good idea to share my findings.

When you install the application, you have to sign the template with an appropriate ID that is allowed to run XPages on your server. I used SignEZ from YTRIA to sign the template.

After I’ve created a new application from the template on the server and did the initial setup, I tested with different user accounts and created a couple of sample entries. Then I switched back to my own identity and tried to open one of these entries.

Here is, what I saw on the screen:

Well, obviously something is missing. So I opened the Designer and looked for the “HashMaster” code. The code is a custom JAVA class that is not listed under any of the standard categories in designer. You will see this code only by using the Package Explorer. And it really is in the application. So, what else …

I then opened the application in ScanEZ and looked at the Designs section. Here I also found the files in question.

Looking closer at the design I saw that these files were still signed by Declan Lynch.

SignEZ seems not to sign these elements in the application design. I then resigned the application using the Admin Client and this solved the issue.
So if you run into a similar issue, look at the signature of any suspect design element.