Yesterday, we've released JVx 2.4, VaadinUI 1.4, HeadlessUI 1.1 and JVx vert.x 3.0.

Headless UI and JVx vert.x are maintenance updates because of JVx changes. JVx 2.4 is a bugfix release with some new cool features and VaadinUI is a performance tuning and bugfix release.

JVx and VaadinUI are available on Maven central. The other releases are hosted on SourceForge.

What's new in JVx 2.4?

• Thread safety

  DataBook (MemDataBook, RemoteDataBook) are now Thread safe. It wasn't guaranteed before 2.4.

• Support for Boolean and Arrays (Oracle)

  JVx' OracleDBAccess supports Boolean DataTypes via JDBC calls and Arrays as well. We wrapped the functionality in our existing API and it makes no difference for you. Arrays are wrapped as List of IBeans.

• Parameter changed event in WorkScreen

  The WorkScreen class got a new event: eventParameterChanged. It enables notification about parameter changes.

• New AbstractFactory

  We introduced AbstractFactory and changed all factory implementations. With AbstractFactory, it's possible to set custom factory properties. We use this new feature for vaadin UI. With new Vaadin UI it's possible to use the old Table or the new Grid implementation. Simply set a property for that.

• API change: IFactory

  The invokeInThread method now returns the Thread instance.

• FontAwesome support
• Automatic Record translation

What's new in Vaadin 1.4?

• Based on vaadin 7.5.7
• FontIcon support
• Grid support (experimental)

  Set the factory property: vaadin.component.legacy_table to true (via web.xml as init parameter or as URL parameter).

• Lazy loading of LinkedCellEditor

  Before 1.4, all LinkedCellEditors were loaded immediate. This was a performance impact. With 1.4 this was changed and data will be loaded, when needed.

• Performance tuning

  The performance is now about 5 times faster than before. We improved the performance because we reduced our CssExtension and reduced the database calls. You can feel the new performance

What's new in JVx vert.x 3.0?

It's based on Vert.x 3 and works with JVx 2.4.
(JVx vert.x is hosted on GitHub)

You can find all changes in the project Changelogs.
Happy coding!

JVxEE version 1.2 is out!

The good news

JVxEE is now available from Maven central, that means that you can add it as dependency to your Maven projects:

The first of the two major changes are that we fixed possible exceptions that might be thrown by JPAStorage.getEstimatedRowCount(ICondition), it should now work under all situations.

The second change is the handling of foreign key columns. Previously, foreign key columns where named with the pattern "REFERENCEDTABLE_REFERENCEDCOLUMN", which can lead to collisions if there is more than one column referencing the same table and primary key. So it was possible that you would end up with two columns with the same name, which of course can't be handled by the storage and databook correctly. We devised a new naming scheme and from now on the foreign key columns are named with a combination of the referencing column and the referenced column.

An example:

With 1.1 the generated columns would look like this, for entity "A":

And with 1.2:

This is definitely an improvement!

The bad news

There is always a downside

The changes in the foreign key column naming scheme, to avoid collisions, also mean that most foreign key columns do now have a different name. You'll have to check your code for usages of the now differently named columns.

But there is also an upside! With EPlug you will find those easily.

Usage example

JVxEE provides the possibility to utilize the Java Persistence API (JPA) as backend for storages and databooks. JPA is powered by POJOs, like these:

This is an extremely simplified model for airline flights.

There is an aircraft that can be used, airports that can be flown to and from and the flight itself. Flight is referencing both, the aircraft and the airport. Now we only need to tell JPA about these classes by placing a persistence.xml in the META-INF directory, like this one that we use for our unit tests:

(Sure, it's also possible without manual XML mapping)

Now all that is left is creating a new storage that uses the JPA:

And that's it! From here on there is only JVx code.

The next release of our JVx' vaadin UI is available. It's not a big update but an important one because vaadin was updated to 7.5.0 and we support CORS out-of-the-box. We also have some annotations for easier application deployment.

The best thing for most of you is that starting with 1.3 our vaadin UI can be found on maven central.

Simply add the dependency:

We also upload snaphsots of vaadin UI, starting with current 1.4 branch
Simply configure the repository:

and use following dependency:

The release files are also available on SourceForge.

The complete Changelog.

What a day!
Our final release of VisionX 2.2 is out and it's the best piece Software we've ever released.

We worked very hard during the last 5 months to reach our goals and to make it happen. The new version brings many new productivity features and contains many bugfixes. The focus was and is still on end-users. But in VisionX 2.2, we have many new features for Software developers and Oracle Forms users as well. It depends on your license if you see more or less options.

So what's new? First, VisionX is compatible to Java 8 and can handle Lambda expressions without problems. This isn't relevant for end-users but for all developers. VisionX 2.2 still runs with Java 7 but it's no problem to switch the Java version to 8.

VisionX 2.2 has our brand new JavaFX UI integrated. If you have Java8, it'll be possible to start your applications as JavaFX applications or to export JavaFX standalone applications.

The new release is based on JVx 2.3.

So let's talk about Features

• Java 8 support

  VisionX reads Java 8 syntax and if your project was set to target version 1.8, VisionX will create action listeners with lambda syntax. VisionX got new global configuration options:

  <options>
      <java>
        <source>1.8</source>
        <target>1.8</target>
        <compliance>1.8</compliance>
      </java>
    </options>

  It's also possible to configure single applications via Eclipse settings, for Java 8. The configuration will be read from VisionX automatically.

• Vaadin 7.5.0

  VisionX 2.2.403 includes our current vaadin UI and it's based on vaadin 7.5.0.

• OpenShift

  VisionX supports application creation for OpenShift. You'll need a special license for this feature. The integration contains a new wizard and is available as new option in new application wizard.

  OpenShift

  OpenShift - New application

• Multi-IDE support

  VisionX 2.2.403 creates project files for Eclipse, NetBeans and IntelliJ. Simply open existing projects and start coding.

• Config file encryption

  It's now possible to encrypt configuration files.

  Config encryption

• Corporation style

  VisionX applications have a new UI style for web mode. It's the corporation style for applications with many screens and big menus. Simply switch the style via VisionX.

  Corporation style

• Edit JDBC Url

  VisionX supports custom JDBC Urls (Developer feature). This feature could be relevant if you have an Oracle RAC or complex JDBC parameter.

  Edit JDBC Url

• JavaFX UI

  VisionX got support for JavaFX applications. Simply start the live preview or create a desktop JavaFX application in three clicks.

  JavaFX Live Preview

  JavaFX desktop application

• New deployment modes

  VisionX supports WildFly 9, IoT applications and latest Tomcat versions.

  Deployment modes

• Edit panel (aka Morph panel)

  The Edit panel is a brand new component. It's also called Morph panel because it changes the style.

  Inline mode		Popup mode		Split mode
  Tabset mode

  You can use this panel to show e.g. a table of records and open detailed information as popup, as replacement of the table or show the details as split or tabset. Don't change the screen to show different modes.

• More features

  Use custom css files for your web application,
  Use mobile preview applications available for Android and iOS,
  Spreadsheet reports will be created as XLSX instead of XLS,
  Full CORS support for your web application,
  Full CORS support for application logic called via REST, ...

Simply try out our new VisionX.

If you're already customer, please check your download area!

Have fun with our new VisionX release - it's really powerful.

A new version of EPlug is available. It's a smaller bugfix release.

Changes:

• Fixed that all dialogs (including trial) would not be displayed
• Resource detection for Maven projects should now work correctly
• Fixed NullPointerException, if "check databooks while typing" was active and a file was edited that was not a Java file
• Fixed possible NullPointerException in the DataBooksView
• "Auto Reload" and Auto Select" are now properly disabled if EPlug is not active on the project

Simply "Check for updates" in your Eclipse IDE.

We're happy to announce that JVx 2.3 is available. The minor version update is more than a small update. It
comes with a bunch of new features. We think it's an update worth:

Here's the list of changes

• Support linking with RoboVM

  It wasn't possible to create iOS applications with JVx because it had an internal problem. With 2.3 it will work.
  There's still a problem with RoboVM because JVx contains swing UI but if you remove the UI from the jar, everything
  will work!

• Download via REST

  It's now possible to call actions which will return instances of IFileHandle, via generic REST services. The content
  will be sent back as binary stream (download).

• CORS for REST

  Simply set the parameter: cors.origin to the allowed domain names (a comma separeted list).

• Connection pooling

  It was possible to use connection pooling with JVx but with some limitations. The current support is an official solution without demand for additional source code. The only thing you should consider is that the initialization of the database should be moved to an event. The DBAccess class got new methods: eventConfigureConnection and eventUnconfigureConnection.
  Use configure to prepare the database session before you

• Server-side hooks for event processing

  JVx 2.3 got invokeLater for server-side calls and we introduced the new interface ICallHandler.
  It has some very useful methods for better server control:

  public CallEventHandler<IBeforeFirstCallListener> eventBeforeFirstCall();
  public CallEventHandler<IAfterLastCallListener> eventAfterLastCall();
  public CallEventHandler<IBeforeCallListener> eventBeforeCall();
  public CallEventHandler<IAfterCallListener> eventAfterCall();

  public void invokeAfterCall(Runnable pRunnable);
  public void invokeAfterLastCall(Runnable pRunnable);
  public void invokeFinally(Runnable pRunnable);

• Better Deployment support for VFS

  We had some crazy tweaks especially for some application servers with virtual file systems like JBoss. We removed the dirty code and replaced it with a more generic approach and now we have nice support for VFS and no more problems with WildFly.

• Filter/Sort events added to IDataBook
  public DataBookHandler eventBeforeFilterChanged();
  public DataBookHandler eventAfterFilterChanged();

  public DataBookHandler eventBeforeSortChanged();
  public DataBookHandler eventAfterSortChanged();

• Integration of external property files

  It's possible to include external property files into your application' config.xml:

  <application>
     <include>/configuration.properties</include>
     <securitymanager>
        <accesscontroller>dummy value</accesscontroller>
     </securitymanager>
     <property name="property.value" value="${value}"/>
  </application>

  The property file (configuration.properties):

  securitymanager.class = com.sibvisions.SecurityManager
  securitymanager.accesscontroller = com.sibvisions.AccessController
  value = value1

  The virtual result for reading values:

  <application>
    <securitymanager>
      <accesscontroller>com.sibvisions.AccessController</accesscontroller>
      <class>com.sibvisions.SecurityManager</class>
    </securitymanager>
    <property name="property.value" value="value1"/>
    <value>value1</value>
  </application>
• Autodetection of tnsnames.ora

  It was possible to set the system property oracle.net.tns_admin for an oracle JDBC driver. New JVx tries to find the location automatically and sets the property if path was found.

• API changes

  We did two smaller API changes. The first one:

  LoggerFactory.destroy is now public

  The class AbstractSessionContext was removed without replacement. The only method, getMasterSession, was moved to ISessionContext. It's now easier to access the current master session in life-cycle object. It shouldn't be a problem for you because AbstractSessionContext was meant as internal class and not for public use. If you had a cast to AbstractSessionContext, simply remove the cast and everything will be fine.

We also have some smaller changes and bugfixes for you, but above list only contains the most important changes. For a full list of changes, please read the Changelog

Great news for everyone who uses, or plans to use our Eclipse plugin called EPlug, a new version  is available! Version 1.2.0 brings a whole truckload of new features and bug fixes.

Changes (Pro and VisionX)

• Completion for resources is now more reliable
• Sped up the time it takes for VisionX to reload a file if a change was made in Eclipse
• MetaData changes are now properly handled
• When selecting from VisionX to Eclipse it will be made sure that the server and client class both show up
• Added the "Checkl File (EPlug)" command, which allows to easily re-run all checks on the current file
• The hyperlinks for server calls/actions are now "fuzzy", which means that if there is no function with that signature, the next best function will be the target
• Improved the error messages if there was a problem when checking databooks
• Added completion for generic resources, which means you now can get completion for any resource in your project
• The call to UIImage.getImage(String) is now checked at compile time if the resource exists
• By default, databooks are now checked while you're typing for instant feedback. This can be disabled in the project properties
• Added a view that displays all databooks in the current file, including column name and type
• Added support for the constructor of UIEditor
• Dramatically increased the speed of compile time checks

Eclipse Mars

Also we have tested and developed EPlug with Eclipse Mars, which means that you can use it in the latest and greatest Eclipse release version. Of course we haven't dropped support for older versions, EPlug should continue to work even on Eclipse Juno.

Download

You can install EPlug directly from the Eclipse Marketplace.

Since last year we are offering an Eclipse Plugin that integrates  the JVx workflow into Eclipse. Now that EPlug 1.2 has been released, we believe it's long overdue to give you a guided tour of the experience that EPlug is offering.

Trial

We offer a free trial period so that you can test EPlug without any problems. The first time you start Eclipse with EPlug you will be asked if you'd like to only test EPlug, or if you'd like to select an already purchased Pro license.

When clicking the Trial button, a new trial license will be issued and you'll be able to evaluate EPlug with all features for 30 days.

'First Run' Wizard

One of the biggest usability improvements compared to previous versions is discoverability of how to use and activate EPlug. With the new version we have added a "First Run Wizard" which allows to directly activate EPlug on selected projects.

Usage

EPlug integrates seamlessly into Eclipse, but to use most of its features it has to be activated on each project you want to use it with. This can be done in the previously shown First Run Wizard, or by right-clicking a project and selecting "Activate EPlug" under "Configure".

From there on you will be able to use code completion, compile time checks and all the other features on this project.

Better and extended commands

A handful of commands are added by EPlug, which make it faster to navigate in JVx projects.

Go to complement class

It's often the case that you want to go from the server to the client class, or from the client to the server class. Most of the time in Eclipse this involves expanding trees and looking for the correct class in the Package Explorer. That is why we've implement the command "Go to complement class", which enables you to quickly jump from the server to client, or the other way round.

As you can see the command is available from the context menu, but you can also bind it to a key in the "Keys" preferences.

Open Declaration

The "Open Declaration" command, sometimes known by its key binding "F3", allows you to jump to the declaration of whatever is currently under the cursor. We've extended this command with the possibility to jump to the declaration of event handlers (actions), server methods and storage's. If the item underneath the cursor is not handled by our extension, the default "Open Declaration" command will be invoked.

The declaration:

Because we've extended the "Open Declaration" command, you can bind the "Open Declaration (EPlug)" command also to "F3" and enjoy faster navigating in your JVx files without any downsides.

DataBooks

The biggest and most important feature of EPlug is its support for data books. EPlug offers code completion, compile time checks and more for column names on remote and local data books.

Code completion

Everytime you want to get or set a value, or wire up an editor you will receive code completion suggestions with all column names that are in the databook, it doesn't matter if those are remote or added locally.

Compile time checks

Of course we also added compile time checks, which means that you can never mistype a column name ever again.

With the newest version, these compile time checks are even active while you type!

Text hovers

When hovering above a column name, a simple text hover will inform you about the type of the column.

Storage support

RemoteDataBooks require to have the correct name set so that the server side storage is found, of course we do also offer code completion, compile time checks, text hovers and hyperlinks for this.

The DataBook View

And last but for sure not least, with the newest version a feature has been added which I've been looking forward to for quite some time: The DataBook View. A view similar to the Outline view, which displays all databooks in the current file and all of its columns.

Actions/Events and server calls

Support for actions, events and server calls is the second big EPlug feature. For events and actions we support a very Lambda-like system that uses reflection and strings. Obviously the compiler was never able to understand this system and provide feedback or support for it, but with EPlug this has changed.

Code Completion

Whenever you want to wire up an event, you'll now receive code completion for all fitting methods in the used class.

Action methods:

Remote calls:

As you can see in upper image, we also provide a fast and convenient way to create methods if necessary.

Compile time checks

During compilation the actions, events and server calls are checked for their correctness, and if there is a problem it'll be reported to you.

You can also see the quick fixes for this problem, which do not only offer to create the missing method, but also suggesting methods with similar names in case a typo happened.

Text hovers, hyperlinks and refactoring support

Additionally EPlug provides text hover and hyperlink support, that means that you can now jump to the methods by using your mouse (Ctrl+Left Click) or the "Open Declaration (EPlug)" command. Refactoring support has also been added, which means that you can now rename action/event handlers without having to manually search for all uses and change those.

Resources

Dealing with resources can often be a pain in the neck, especially if you constantly have to look up the path and check if you're now using the correct image. Because we also felt these pains, we've added functionality to EPlug to make sure that working with resources becomes easy and painless.

Support for UIImage

Whenever you use UIImage methods, you can now enjoy code completion, previews of the images and compile time checks.

Preview:

Compile checks:

Generic resource completion

For all other resources, we do only offer a "generic" code completion system and no preview. Still, this is a huge help.

Comments

One of the more simple and not so obvious features of EPlug is that it allows to have code completion of the current class in comments, and also provides the JVx category separators.

Separator:

Action/call completion in comments:

VisionX support

Now we've arrive at the big final, support for VisionX. For all of you who do not know VisionX, it is our product for rapidly building applications from scratch or migrating already existing systems. It allows to build GUIs and the respective database backend within a matter of minutes. Even though VisionX allows you to build whole applications, from time to time you'll want to do something by hand and this is the great thing about VisionX, all projects and applications are automatically and by design already Eclipse projects. So all you need to do is import the project into Eclipse and start working on it. To improve this workflow further EPlug does offer various features.

Selection synchronization

The selection in Eclipse and VisionX can be automatically synchronized, so that whatever you're working on in the one application is also visible and selected in the other

Automatic applying of changes

VisionX will also automatically refresh its current view if you change a sourcefile in Eclipse, allowing to rapidly and verify changes in a workscreen without the need to manually reload the workscreen.

How and where to get it?

EPlug comes in two flavors, EPlug for JVx and EPlug for VisionX, both are available from the Eclipse Marketplace and can be installed and used freely for 30 days. Afterwards a license is necessary to keep using all features.

We're happy to announce that our JavaFX UI 1.0 was released.

The release contains all planned features and some more. We have the complete MDI implementation, Zoom support for windows and the scene, a custom scene style, custom comboboxes and much more.

MDI control		Combobox

Styled Scene

Table format (cells)

Zoom

Master/Detail with Tables and Tree

All custom controls are available as separate library, JFXtensions. This library will work without JVx because it has no dependency to JVx. Simply use our MDI implementation or zoom feature for your own JavaFX application without using JVx.

Jar files are available at SourceForge or Maven central.

Our next steps?

We'll integrate the UI in our product VisionX to allow Live Preview with JavaFX. The first update release with version number 1.1. will contain smaller bugfixes and improvements based on user feedback.

So, send us your Feedback if you use our library.

First, we've released version 1.1 of our Demo ERP application. The full source code is available on SourceForge. It doesn't have more features than 1.0 because it's a simple lib upgrade release with improvements for developers.

The DemoERP.zip now contains the whole project structure and not only the source files. Simply unzip the archive, import the project in your Eclipse IDE and start the DemoERP.launch file (sure, DB must be configured manually). The archive contains small README files with additional information.

We fixed code signing problems and you shouldn't have any problems with DemoERP.war. So, simply deploy the war and open http://localhost/DemoERP/web/ui in your browser (see README).

The release contains our latest vaadinUI based on 7.4.5 and our latest JVx.mobile lib. The mobile lib was needed for our updated mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Yepp, we've new apps in the stores (still native but not based on JavaFX). The apps have a buch of new features like custom view styles (based on style property of JVx), image viewer/editor or the new Form view. But the biggest improvement was offline support. It's now possible to switch to offline mode and back to online mode. Sure, we sync your offline data!

It's an awesome feature because it's a generic solution and you don't have to change anything in your application. It simply works!

Both applications have the same features but system specific.
Here's the iOS link.
The Android app via Google Play.

Both apps work great with latest VisionX releases and simply use it to test your VisionX application - LIVE - without redeployments - on your mobile devices!