We're happy to announce the release of EPlug 1.2.7. This minor update comes with a big performance improvement!

Major performance improvement

The most notable and important feature of this release is the major speed improvement when checking files. We've revisited how the build pipeline works and could determine quite a few bottlenecks which did not only encumber the build process, but also the live checks of databooks. After fixing these bottlenecks the databook live checks are blazing fast and one does not notice any more that these are active.

While reviewing the code, we also saw the possibility for a few more tweaks which we will incorporate into the next major release, to squeeze even more performance out of this.

Improved DataBook View

The DataBook view has also received some much needed attention. There is now a toolbar button which allows to sort the columns by their name (instead of their order as returned by the datasource). Additionally the view does no longer flicker when refreshing and will also clear itself when the last editor closes.

Other fixes

1. There is no longer a sleeping EPlug job in the Progress View.
2. The EPlug preferences are now only available on Java projects.
3. If there is no screen lifecycle object, the session object is now used.
4. Removed raw HTML in tooltips.

How to get it?

Simply update EPlug via Eclipse!

We're happy to announce that JVx 2.7 is available. It's a bigger bugfix release with a small number of new features.

What's new?

• Tibero Database Support
• boolean support

  Our DBAccess implementation now supports boolean as parameter.

• SimpleJavaSource

  It's now possible to create java objects from java source code, see our REST interface

• Struct support

  Struct support for Oracle DB in procedures and functions.

• Session timeouts

  We fixed the problem of session timeouts with long up/downloads.

• WorkScreen

  It's now possible to open a work-screen with additional parameters. A new (optional) Parameter class is available.

• Mac OS

  We fixed the problems with internal frame borders.

• Many improvements

The full changelog is available here.

Start with JVx

We're happy to announce VisionX 2.4 Update Release 2. It's another milestone for us.

The new version is a bugfix release with some important features for all our customers. The top bug was a missing license check for our HTML5 implementation. With older versions it was possible to use our HTML5 application without valid license. This wasn't a hidden feature, it was a real bug. The new version has a clean license check and some of you will need a new license. This is no problem, simply contact us.

What's new?

• Full-Screen mode

  Press F12 to maximize VisionX without frame border.

• HTML5 Live preview options

  It supports "application per session", custom UI factory, custom Application setups, main, config and externalCss URL parameter.

• VisionX is now http session ready

  It will be possible to use VisionX on server-side as backend for remote application development.

• Fixed Copy/Paste for DnD fields

  It's now possible to Copy/Paste into field with DnD support.

• Automatic UI tests

  VisionX now supports automatic UI tests with an optional AddOn. The mechanism isn't limited to our AddOn. It's also possible to create custom Modules/AddOns.

• Tibero Database support

  VisionX has built-in support for Tibero Database (tested with version 6).

• Auto-restart feature

  VisionX got a Preloader. This allows custom libraries without manually changing the classpath. The old classpath mechanism is still available, but we use the Preloader by default.

• Action Editor with custom editor support

  It's now possible to add custom editors in the action editor via action.xml and/or a custom module.

• GridLayout support

  It's now possible to use panels with GridLayout, if set in Source Code.

• Custom vaadin widgetsets and themes

  It's now possible to create custom vaadin widgetsets, e.g. add an AddOn from the Vaadin Directory. It's super easy to create a custom theme and setting your custom css attributes.

• Performance improvement

  We reduced the fetch calls during screen creation. This will improve performance with big tables and complex views.

• New modules, AddOns and demo applications (optional)

  The VaadinAddon can be used to create a custom widgetset or theme. The AppTeste is an automatic UI test tool. There is a new demo application for testing Validators. The new reporting demo application will show all features of our reporting engine.

• Configurable EPlug ports

  It's now possible to configure the EPlug communication ports via system properties.

• Better Application signing

  Our signing mechanism now supports TSA Urls, Proxies, signing algorithms and much more.

• Service module merging

  Newly created applications will automatically merge service modules. This is an important bugfix for e.g. the profiles module.

The new version is available in your download area or as Trial version.

VisionX 2.4 update release I is out. The exact version number is 2.4.544.310.
It's a powerful update release becasue it contains latest versions of relevant opensource libraries and frameworks.

What's new?

• Thumbnails

  If application contains a thumbnail, VisionX won't add a random thumbnail anymore.

• HTML5 Theme

  It's now possible to change the HTML5 theme via web settings: Standard, Valo, Mobile

  

  Web settings

• Live preview

  Live preview does now work if you apply external changes or if you change the source code in Eclipse (with installed EPlug).

• GridLayout is now supported

  The GridLayout of JVx is now officially supported in VisionX' Designer.

• Vaadin 7.7.9

  VisionX updates contains Vaadin 7.7.9.

• Solution store update

  The solution store now shows available solutions based on your VisionX version.

• New demo solutions

  We have awesome new demo applications for licensed users.

  

  Demo applications

• New Reporting demo

  The reporting demo is a complete documentation about VisionX reporting features and the reporting API.

  

  Reporting

  

  Report overview

• Smaller bugfixes

All customers will find the new version in their download area!
The trial version was updated as well!

Our Open Source PDF converter (toPDF) server is available in version 1.3

It contains some smaller bugfixes and very useful new features.

What's new?

• BCL easyPDF SDK 8.0 support

  Convert via native Java API or COM interface. We've introduced EasyPdfNativeOperator which is now the default operator for PDF conversion.

• Bookmark option

  This option creates bookmarks in your PDF document for headlines/sections in Word. Simply set the X-BOOKMARKS header parameter or use the REST API.

• Additional attributes

  Set additional attributes for the conversion to PDF via Request parameters or REST API.

Get the current version from the project site

We're happy to announce the release of EPlug 1.2.6. Again this small version bump does not only yield important bug fixes, but also new features which will make your life a lot easier.

Fixes

This release includes bug fixes along with new features. One of the most notable problems fixed was that compile time checks might not be run if the communication with VisionX was active.

Cleaner context menu with more actions

We have restructured our approach to the context menu entries and introduced a new menu item which holds all EPlug related actions:

As you can see we've also added new actions to jump to the configuration files.

Resources outside of source folders

We do support autocompletion and compile time checks for resources, like images. But we only supported resources inside of source folders, with this version we do now also support resources anywhere in the project.

Improved DataBook handling

DataBook handling has been improved once more. There are now additional checks which make sure that a RemoteDataBook receives the correct DataSource and there for if the MetaData can reliably be determined.

Additionally, the type of flag issued if no MetaData could be determined is now a configurable build option on the project.

An example:

This would have been flagged as warning, because no MetaData could be determined for pDataBook. Now the check determines that determining MetaData for this DataBook is impossible and flags it accordingly. You can configure whether you want to see this flag or not in the project settings.

EPlug does also recognize if a "foreign" datasource has been set:

Usernames for sessions

Last but not least, there is now a project setting which allows to set the username which is used by EPlug for the session it creates.

A little background, to acquire the MetaData (and some other information about the application) EPlug creates a session of the application and executes the server side code. It could be that projects do have checks and manipulations on the username somewhere in their code on the server. Previously EPlug would set null as username, but now it does either use the configured autologin username or the username configured in the project settings. That allows server side code which does operate on the username of the session to run without a problem, which means that there are no checks necessary if the session was initialized by EPlug or not.

How to get it?

Simply update EPlug via Eclipse!

We're happy to announce that JVx 2.6 is available.

What's new?

• Configuration via ServiceLoader

  It's now possible to use the ServiceLoader to configure an application (IApplicationSetup). It's enough to add a library to the classpath. It's not needed to extend anything.

• Save bounds

  The Swing launcher now restores last frame bounds. The size and position of your application will be automatically saved and restored after an application restart. This feature takes care of multi monitor environments.

• Better XmlNode API
  public XmlNode get(int pIndex)
  public XmlNode getFirstTextNode() // Getting the root node in xml file
  public void addAll(Collection<XmlNode> pNodes)
  public void insertAll(int pIndex, Collection<XmlNode> pNodes)
  public void setNodes(List<XmlNode> pNodes) // replaces setSubNodes
  public List<XmlNode> getNodes() // gets sub nodes never null and readonly
  public List<XmlNode> getNodes(short pType) // Gets sub nodes of given type
  public XmlNode remove(int pIndex)
• Session states

  It's now possible to detect whether a session is initializing or destroying/expiring.

• Message class improvements

  Simple support for Yes, No, Cancel messages.

• preAuthentication support

  It's now possible to configure your sessions before authenticating without custom security managers.

• BFILE and lazy loading

  New support for BFILE database columns and improved lazy loading mechanism.

• Many Bugfixes

The full changelog is available here.

VisionX 2.4 was released yesterday! It's the biggest update since 1.5. We've spent more time for developing and testing than ever before. The new version has power under the hood. It contains everything which is needed to customize VisionX for your needs. It's possible to create your own VisionX. We have a great set of AddOns which will improve the quality of your applications and some very useful new Features.

What's new?

• HTML5 Live Reload

  It's now possible to update the application in the browser automatically after design changes. The live preview wizard got a new option for this feature:

  

  Live reload option

• One-click HTML5 live preview

  The application menu got a new icon. A single click is enough to show the application in the web browser.

  

  One-click live preview

• VisionX Menu

  The VisionX menu in the application has two new items:

  

  VisionX application menu

  The modules screen is a complete new feature and the Live preview is now available without leaving the application.

• Module management

  It's now possible to manage application modules. Simply install a module from the solution store or create your own re-usable application modules. The installation is super easy with our new modules screen:

  

  Super easy module installation

• Data Links

  The Designer got a new group with the name Data Links:

  

  Data Links

  All elements in the Data Links group depend on data and will update the shown value automatically on data changes.

  • The Label Control will show the current value of a specific column, as Label instead of an Editor.
  • The Selection Button will show a popup with possible values for a specific column.
  • The Filter Control requires the Profiles AddOn and allows an application user to apply and save custom filter settings, e.g. filter custom columns
• Application frame automatically saves the last position and your application will be shown at the same position after a restart.

  The Profiles AddOn makes it possible to save also the frames within the application. Your users will love it because they can save their own desktop and continue the work after an application start.

• Remove HTML5

  It's possible to create smaller application bundles if you remove the HTML5 feature from the bundle, via Deployment Wizard:

  

  Remove HTML5

• Customize screen generators

  It's super easy to use your own screen generators:

  

  Custom screen generators

• Multiple storages with same database table

  It's now possible to add multiple storages for the same database table. This was a limitation in earlier versions of VisionX.

All customers will find the new version in their download area!

We're happy to announce the release of EPlug 1.2.5. Even though the change in the version number is quite small, the changes which have gone into this version are very interesting.

Better hover information and improved DataBookView

The biggest visual change in this new version is the new hover information for columns:

As you can see it has been vastly extended, with nearly all information about the column which you might want to know about, including its type, the label and all other properties.

Also the image preview is now more useful and is displaying the complete image but scaled to fit the hover:

Additionally the DataBookView has been restructured to display the information in a more easily digestible way, structured by variable name and source of the columns:

Improved DataBook support

The support for DataBooks/DataRows has been greatly improved and the plugin does now support a lot more variations on how to achieve the metadata. For example cloning of ColumnDefinitions, assigning of RowDefinitions and even getDataRow(...) and similar methods are now processed to acquire the metadata and column information.

Objects in server calls

One of the build-time checks is the type-check of parameters in server calls. Let's look at a simple example:

While this compiles completely fine in pure Java (because callAction(...) does accept an Object vararg), EPlug would flag it with an error because getValue(...) returns an Object but the server-side expects a BigDecimal. With this update there is now a build option available in the Project/EPlug settings to ignore such errors, allowing to pass Objects to the server side without checks.

Misspelled a column name? No problem!

We do now offer QuickFixes for column names with typos:

Automatic check of complement files

There is now a new build option in the Project/EPlug settings which allows to enable the automatic check of complement files. A "complement" file is simply the "other side", for example for the lifecycle-object the complement file is the workscreen, and vice versa. That means that now workscreens are automatically checked if the lifecycle object changes.

Preliminary String array support

There are various functions which do accept a String array of column names, for example getValues(...). Because of limitations coming up from the JDT infrastructure which we are using, we've been unable to provide autocompletion for column names in such circumstances:

We are still unable to determine the exact databook in such circumstances, but we do now simply provide all columns as completion suggestions. What we can do is provide full hover and build support for these functions.

Improved VisionX/EPlug communication

VisionX is now a lot more talkative, it informs EPlug about file changes. If "Auto Reload" is enabled in EPlug, all files that have been changed by VisionX will now be reloaded and checked automatically. The same accounts for changed metadata.

Changes

• Updated JVx version
• Cached MetaData is now correctly invalidated and refreshed
• DataBookView is now not constantly refreshed
• Markers (Errors, Warnings) are now only placed on the names of the columns, instead of the whole statement
• Inserted methods (from quick fixes) should now always be correctly formed
• Fixed "phantom" markers which could pop up during build
• Fixed that the DataBookView might not display all metadata
• Fixed that folding nodes in the DataBookView made the child-nodes vanish
• Various bug fixes

Simply update EPlug via Eclipse!

We're happy to announce that JVx 2.5.1 is available.

What's new?

• Push-light

  Our push support has nothing to do with Websockets. It's a technology independent solution for JVx. The Push-light mechanism is available on server-side and enables you to send objects from the server to the client. If you use a direct connection betwenn client and server, the objects wil be sent immediate (e.g. vaadin UI). If you use a serialized connection, the objects will be sent with next client call or alive check.

  The API is simple:

  SessionContext.publishCallBackResult("MESSAGE", "Please logout!");

  or, in a Thread

  final ICallBackBroker broker = SessionContext.getCurrentInstance().getCallBackBroker();

  Thread th = new Thread(new Runnable()
  {
      public void run()
      {
          try
          {
              int i = 0;

              while (isMessageLoopEnabled(i))
              {
                  Thread.sleep(200);
                 
                  broker.publish("MESSAGE", getMessage(i++));
              }
          }
          catch (InterruptedException ie)
          {
              //done
          }
      }
  });
  th.start();

  It's also possible to publish to all clients, via ICallBackBroker.

  The client code is short and simple:

  connection.addCallBackResultListener(new ICallBackResultListener()
  {
      public void callBackResult(CallBackResultEvent pEvent)
      {
          if ("MESSAGE".equals(pEvent.getInstruction()))
          {
              showMessage((String)pEvent.getObject());
          }
      }
  });

  More details: Tickets #25, #1635

• H2 DB support

  We support H2 with a custom H2DBAccess. The auto detection works with URLs: jdbc:h2:.

• SQLite DB support

  We support SQLite with a custom SQLiteDBAccess. The auto detection works with URLs: jdbc:sqlite:.

• MySql limit support

  Read more...

• Life-cylcle object method inheritance
• Pie control
• Set individual cells of a table readonly
• Connection retries

  We try to re-send requests, if errors occur during transmission. This feature will be available for serialized connections only.

• Security improvements

  see Tickets: #1605, #1606, #630.

• Session validator

  We introduced ISessionValidator interface. It allows you to cancel the session after successful authentication. You don't need a custom security manager for this!
  Simply configure the validator in your config.xml:

  <lifecycle>
    <mastersession postAuthClass="com.sibvisions.apps.server.MySessionValidator">
  com.sibvisions.apps.demo.MySession
    </mastersession>
  </lifecycle>
• API changes

  ICellFormat got a Style attribute and the createCellFormat of IFactory got one more parameter.

The full changelog is available here.