VisionX 5.3.2 is available!

It's a minor update release with big changes.
The release got updates of open source libraries like JVx and Vaadin UI.

But the biggest changes are the integrated Java 12 support. VisionX 5.3 comes with and runs under Java 12 (openJDK).

What's different?

• Performance improvement of Designer
• Performance improvement of HTML5 UI
• New App Elements

  Save All Changes, Reload All Changes, Advanced Panel and Advanced Group Panel

• REST documentation contains admin services
• Bundled open JDK 12
• Support for latest Workflow AddOn (1.5)

The download area already contains links to latest VisionX binaries.

Please report any problems as usual and have fun with VisionX.

VisionX 5.2.27 is available!

It's a small bugfix release with an update of open source libraries like JVx and Vaadin UI.

What's different?

• Group Panel visibility now working in Browser
• Group Panel text color now working in Browser
• Set additional css class names for labels and checkbox editors
• It's now easier to extend search behavior of NavigationTable
• Checkbox alignment fixed in Browser
• Support for latest Workflow AddOn

The download area already contains links to latest VisionX binaries.

Please report any problems as usual and have fun with VisionX.

We're happy to anounce that VisionX 5.1.221 is available!

It's a bigger update release of VisionX 5.1.8 with with some new "visible" features and many awesome new features under the hood.

Let's start with important bug fixes

• Popup Menu in Browser application

  A custom Popup Menu in Browser applications was always empty. This problem was fixed in an OpenSource library and is now available in VisionX applications.

• Timeout with customizer changes

  If VisionX timeout while a customizer with changed values was open, the timeout operation failed and VisionX was unusable.

• Element selection not always working

  Sometimes it wasn't possible to select elements if they where behind other elements.

• Database procedure and function calls with more than 10 parameters

  It's now supported to call database procedures and functions with max. 100 parameters.

• External CSS file detection

  VisionX had some path problems with Linux and MacOS to find the external CSS file for browser applications.

• Fixed painting of overlays (MacOS)

  The position of e.g. VisionX Guides wasn't correct. The small numbers were wrong positioned.

• Workflow integration

  The workflow engine wasn't always started correctly and not in the correct window.

• All bugfixes of JVx, VaadinUI and other OpenSource libraries

What's new?

• A new Workflow AddOn
• Swagger documentation

  The documentation now contains information about sub storages (used in drop down boxes) and default admin services. It's now easier to grant access to external applications based on the REST API of your application.

• Java 9+

  It's now possible to use e.g. Java 11 as runtime for VisionX.

• Storage editor for Developers

  Out storage Editor was only available if you bought the Forms license. Now all users with Development license will be able to use the Storage Editor. The storage editor is a feature which allows you to change the database query of a table, directly in VisionX.

• Prompt/Placeholder support
• Better layouting in browser application

  We improved the layouting in our browser applications and also improved scrolling of panels.

• Experimental (Early Access) Features

  We added some experimental features in this release: QR code authentication, Spnego (Active Directory) authentication base support (needs an additional AddOn), SSO authentication feature for REST services (bypass option).

  This features are available for interested developers. Simply talk to your contact person.

The download area already contains links to latest VisionX binaries.

Please report any problems as usual and have fun with VisionX.

Our VisionX solution store got a new demo application. It's a demo for calculated columns. A calculated column is a virtual column, filled with custom content.

Simply install the application from our solution store:

Demo application - Solution store

The application has 3 workscreens. One demonstrates client-side calculated columns, the second one server-side calculated columns and the third screen demonstrates calculated columns directly in the database. You have different options to use calculated columns, simply check what you prefer.

We have some great Videos for new VisionX users on our YouTube channel.

Here are the links:

Getting started
How to create your first application
How to use Eclipse & VisionX in real time

Check them out!

These Videos will help new users learning VisionX

I'm happy to announce that our Workflow Engine will work with Oracle Forms.

The current state is beta but we'll release our Workflow engine in the next days. We found some time to test the integration in Oracle Forms and the result is soo cool. It works like a charm.

So it will be possible to embed our Workflow engine in your oracle Forms. It'll be possible for your users to design custom flows and processes. The engine itself is database driven and will work with your Oracle Forms application.

More details will follow in the next days, but here's a first impression:

Workflow Engine - Oracle Forms

It's a standard Oracle Forms window/canvas with our Workflow Designer, embedded as Java Bean.

Feel free to ask your questions

We improved the support for standard MacOS LaF in our Swing UI and VisionX. The LaF has a lot of rendering problems. We tried to use another LaF implementation but had other problems. So we decided to keep the standard Java MacOS LaF.

The problems

• The InternalFrame border problem
• The field border problem
  

  Field border problem

  A simple JTextField has a 5 pixel focus border. This is horrible because the focus is about 2 pixel. The other problem is that a JTextArea wrapped in a JScrollPane doesn't have the 5 pixel border. This makes it hard to create nice looking layouts.

  We fixed this problem:

  Field border without gap

  Looks better. One problem is that the JScrollPane doesn't paint the focus if the JTextArea has the focus. This is a LaF problem and we didn't find a workaround for this problem.

• Application Menubar

  Standard Java appliacations show the menubar in the same frame

  Application menu

  If you set the system property:

  System.setProperty("apple.laf.useScreenMenuBar", "true");

the menu will be placed in the menu bar of MacOS:

macOS Menu

We fixed the problem that setting the menu to null will keep the menu as it was.

• Comboboxes

  The height of Standard Comboboxes is wrong:

  Combobox wrong

  We fixed the problem as good as possible:

  Combobox fixed

• VisionX Toolbar height

  The toolbar height was wrong because of layout calculation problems:

  Wrong Toolbar height

  We fixed the problem and the toolbar height is correct:

  Toolbar fixed

• VisionX Wizard gaps

  The image gaps in VisionX wizards was not recognized:

  Wrong gaps

  It looks better without gaps:

  No gaps

• Wrong button rendering

  If you had a button without an image and a button with an image, the height of the button without image was higher than the button with an image. This is a LaF rendering bug:

  Wrong size and font

  The fonts are also different. We didn't know why there has to be such a difference, but we fixed the problem in Swing UI:

  Button with correct size and font

All changes are available in our nightly JVx builds

This article is a short introduction of our brand-new product. It's a super simple workflow engine. Our workflow engine is database driven and can be configured and extended for your needs. The engine itself contains a simple board which allows you to create workflows. The configuration will be read from and saved into a database. The workflow steps are configured in the database and the engine simply executes the configured steps.

We tried to find a workflow solution for our needs or a simple product which supports drawing workflows. We found a lot of complex workflow engines and tools but not a simple one. We didn't like complex solutions so we started with our own workflow enigne.

And here are some impressions

Workflow Designer (loop)

Workflow Designer

The left area contains the list of available workflows and all used steps for each workflow. The search option is a full-text search for workflows and contained steps.

The right area contains all available/configured steps. The steps are configured in a database. We offer a simple Java interface which makes it possible to implement your own workflow steps. The area also contains a mini version of the board. This makes it smooth to search through the workflow.

The middle area, the board, contains the workflow designer. It supports Drag and Drop.

The created workflows can be used from any JVx based application. With next VisionX release, it'll be possible to use the new workflow engine.

The workflow engine will be available as AddOn for VisionX and as standalone version for product bundeling.

VisionX 5 is available It's an awesome version with so many new features and new possibilities. We had some hard months but now it's done and it's available for everyone. We made the decision to wait a little bit longer with VisionX 5 because of changes in used frameworks.

The new Version is more web centric than any version before, but it's not a web tool. VisionX 5 still supports Desktop application creation.

So what's new?

• Default Stylesheet

  All new applications will contain an empty application.css. This file could be used to add custom HTLM5 application styles.

• New CSS Editor (Web settings)

  The new CSS editor makes it possible to change the style of the application directly within VisionX. The Editor supports Search/Replace/Goto line. It's also supported to reload the application in the browser. Simply test your style changes immediately.

  

  CSS Editor

  It supports syntax highlighting and auto completion. Read more...

• New default Theme for HTML5

  Newly created applications will use the new default theme "valo" as standard theme. It's possible to change the theme in web settings wizard.

• Additional Themes

  VisionX 5 is shipped with following themes: Standard, Valo, Valo (small), Mobile

• Navigation

  The page navigation is now enabled by default. It support Back/Forward Browser navigation for the application.

• New Tabset navigation

  It's also possible to enable tabset navigation. This feature enables Back/Forward navigation for tab sheets. This feature is disabled by default. It can be found in the web settings.

• Favicon

  It wasn't easy to change the favicon for your application because it is stored in different locations. VisionX 5 solves this problem because it's possible to change the favicon directly in VisionX.

  

  Favicon support

  It's also possible to use the favicon as icon for desktop applications. VisionX will extract the image directly from the favicon.

• New GUI element: Menu Button

  The Menu Button is a simple button which shows a popup menu if you click the button. The component itself also supports a default action, but this is a new feature of JVx' UIPopupMenuButton. The component is available in the elements area.

  

  Menu Button

• New Web Elements

  The web elements is a new element area. The elements are preconfigured components like an Insert Button. This Button simply inserts a new record in a table. This web elements will work for desktop applications as well, but are often used in web applications.

  

  Web Elements

• New web element: Table Menu Button

  The Table Menu Button is a Menu Button with preconfigured menu items like Delete, Export. It's also possible to add custom menu items via menu customizer.

  

  Table Menu Button Items

• Menubar Image

  It's now possible to configure the web menus independent of the desktop menu. Every screen has a menu icon and a toolbar icon. The menu icon will be used for the menubar and the toolbar icon for the toolbar in Desktop applications.

  The HTML5 application has different layout modes. The standard, the corporation and the legacy mode. The standard mode shows the menu in a sidebar on the left or right of the browser frame. This sidebar was used as toolbar in versions before VisionX 5. If you did configure a toolbar image, the screen was shown as image in the toolbar of your Desktop application and in the sidebar of your HTML5 application. It wasn't possible to configure an image, only, for the HTML5 sidebar. This feature is now available in the menu settings wizard.

  

  Web Menubar

  The toolbar image will be used for the toolbar in the corporation mode, as usual.

• New Edit Panel Customizer

  The Edit Panel now supports a Navigation mode: Single click, Double click and No navigation.

  

  Customizer

  It's also possible to morp an Edit Panel into a Tabset, a simple Panel or a Group Panel.

• All/No columns

  It's now possible to show/hide all columns of a table via customizer. It wasn't nice to click through e.g. 50 columns. Now it's easy to show only 2 columns of e.g. 50 columns.

  

  Show/Hide all

• Default image mapping for HTML5

  It was possible to map desktop images for e.g. HTML5. It's better to use simple/flat images in web applications compared to desktop applications. The web style should be or is different to standard desktops.

  With VisionX 5, we did the default mapping for you and a standard web application will show different standard images.

  

  Image mapping

  Same application, no changes necessary. Only some image mappings!

• FontAwesome support

  JVx has FontAwesome support for a while, but this feature wasn't integrated in VisionX. The new image chooser supports FontAwesome.

  

  FontAwesome

• Custom image libraries

  It's now supported to extend VisionX with custom image libraries. We have different commercial AddOns in our Solution store.

  

  Image library AddOns

The libraries will extend the image chooser.



Extended Image chooser

It's also possible to integrate your own offline image libraries.

• New tutorials

  We have new tutorials and new Tutorial Applications in our Store.

• New Edit Panel features

  The integrated edit panel has new features like Tab Navigation by Buttons. The edit dialog now has OK and Cancel. It supports single our double click navigation.

• Server actions and DB functions

  Our action editor now supports (Oracle) database function calls and server-side function calls.

  

  Server Actions

• Better Action Code Editor

  The source code editor now supports syntax highlighting and code folding.

  

  Action Code Editor

• New Button options

  It's now possible to change the button border behaviour.

  

  Button options

• New Search Options

  The search field now supports Contains and Starts with.

  

  Search options

• Better HTML5 default styling

  We improved the Split Panels and fixed some problems with focus.

  

  HTML5 Styling

  The split handle is now small.

• Vaadin 8

  Our HTML5 GUI is now based on Vaadin 8.1 instead of Vaadin 7. With Vaadin 8, the UI is faster and supports all modern AddOns from the Vaadin Directory.

  We offer a Vaadin AddOn for VisionX to integrate AddOns from the directory.

• New HTML5 layouting mechanism

  We rewrote the layout mechanism of our HTML5 UI because our Form Layout didn't support all available features. Now it's possible to overlap elements or to work with Anchors directly. The new layout mechanism can be disabled if necessary. In this case, the old mechanism will be used.

• Documentation

  The online documentation is now available.

  

  Documentation

• Library updates

  JVx changes, VaadinUI changes

VisionX 5 still contains Applet and Webstart support, but with VisionX 6 we will remove Applet support because the technology is EOL.

The new Version of VisionX will require a new license. Simply ask your sales contact to get a new one. The download area already contains links to VisionX 5 binaries.

Please report any problems as usual and have fun with VisionX 5.

We showed you the upcoming CSS edit feature of VisionX. This feature was used in our new tutorial Style Invoice application.

The standard Invoice application was more or less a standard VisionX application with some standard colors and icons. Not super fancy.

The Styled Invoice application demonstrates how easy it can be to apply your own Style to an application, created with VisionX.

The new tutorial is available in our documentation system.

The standard application:

Standard Invoice application

The styled application:

Styled Invoice application