Java Gui Builder / News: Recent posts

This release is now under the LGPL instead of the GPL. Also, tabbed pane support was added. Enjoy !

Well, this is good news ! The project's unit tests now cover over 95% of the implementation code. There are still a few rough spots to go over, but once these are done, it is estimated over 98% of the code will be covered.

Expect a new Java Gui Builder release very soon !

With a bit more work, current Clover coverage is over 90%. So, the unit tests cover quite a bit of code.

95% should not be quite so hard to reach, as the BuildWindowFromXmlFile tests are not implemented. Once that is done, it is expected the coverage will increase to 95%.

After that, 100% will be reachable !

See the coverage information at http://jgb.sourceforge.net/developers/coverage/current/index.html
or historical data at http://jgb.sourceforge.net/developers/coverage/historical/historical.html

Well, due to ease of testing, the Builder implementation is now an interface. The concrete implementation is now in DefaultBuilder.

This eases testing and allows us to test the ValidateFile and BuildWindowFromXmlFile.

The changes are in CVS and will be released shortly in JGB 0.7a.

The Java Gui Builder project is sorry for the inconvenience. Many of you probably experienced HTTP error code 404 when moving about the web site.

The problem was due to an error on the part of the developer while modifying the XSLT that generates the website.

Anyway, as of June 20th, 2003 11:30 PM EDT, the problem has been corrected.

After more than nine months of no work, the Java Gui Builder is pleased to announce it's latest release.

This new release finally provides an implementation for event handling, based on the Mediator pattern. It also has a marked increase in the quality of the documentation for the individual elements. Clover coverage statistics reporting was added, and website usage statistics reporting has been added too.... read more

In the end, it took an evening's work to do it.

After many months of thinking, I implemented a functionnal event handling scheme. This means that the last roadblock the the 0.6 release has been lifted !

A new example explaining how to use the new event handling scheme will be posted to wet your teeth on while waiting for the 0.6 release.

Expect a new release soon !

Well, after more than four months of absolutely no work on the project, I am back. Real life intruded on the project.

Anyway, I have been doing major refactorings for the documentation. The whole JGB elements documentation now comes from a single XML file. This file is used to create the JGB DTD as well as the elements documentation. The new web site docs will be posted shortly.

We are in the progress of updating the CVS repository with all new packages. The package hierarchy will be flattened. It currently was very deep.

A deprecated compatibility layer will be added to ease the transition to the new package hierarchy. Once bugs and omissions are corrected on the new hierarchy, the compatibility layer will be removed.

This latest version brings a much needed boost... New menu implementation - Create menus easily. Multiple internal refactorings.

Look forward to improved event handling in the next release.

You may download this new release from the following address: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=50316&release_id=102160

The Java Gui Builder project is searching for help in relation with it's event handling portion. If you would like to help, join the discussion in the jgb-devel mailing list.

After discussion, it was decided that only one window per XML file was more realistic for a typical use-case than multiple windows.

Effects that this decision have on the system are that the windows element is not the root of the tree anymore, window is. Second, you must now instantiate all of your general objects in the window instead of outside.

This change might break some of your existing XML files. We apologize for this, but it was a necessary evil.

A new mailing list was created to help coordinate efforts among multiple developpers: jgb-cvs.

As usual, this list will receive messages whenever a commit is done on the repository.

You may subscribe to this list at: http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/jgb-cvs

You may now search the Java Gui Builder's Web Site using Google. A new page has been opened for this. Google will even index the API documentation, so when it will be more fleshed out, it will be even more useful.

For other news, the project's documentation was updated yet again. Some omissions and corrections were made to the dependencies section, as well as the building with ant section.

The elements documentation was updated today. Parent and child links were corrected/updated, and all attributes are documented.

Unit Tests were added to the build process to ensure that all documentation stays in synch.

For more information, read the jgb-general list's archive at http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_id=9025.

The full implementation for menus is progressing quite well. Missing is the separator bar :( As soon as that is done, a new version of Java Gui Builder will appear !

In the mean time, you can read the documentation for the new items at http://jgb.sourceforge.net/documentation/elements/

New documentation and tests are available for download through the CVS repository. You may also read the new documentation at http://jgb.sourceforge.net/documentation/elements/

Hey ! This is very nice ! This project has generated enough interest to generate 2000 downloads. Keep them coming !

A "Links" section has been added to the Java Gui Builder's web site. The listing of competing products has also been moved to this new page.

You may access this page at http://jgb.sourceforge.net/links/

Reducing the XML file's verbosity was one of the primary goals for this release. I think this has been attained. You may check the simplewindow2.xml example to see the effects of this reduced verbosity.

You can download this new release at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=50316&release_id=95488

In the previous news, Java Gui Builder's web site had seen the addition of new documentation for the XML elements defined in it's DTD.

I am happy to report that this first phase has been completed ! The second phase will see improvements in the documentation, as well as description for the newest elements that are not part of the DTD yet.

The Java Gui Builder project can be reached at http://jgb.sourceforge.net/.

The JGB elements now have documentation. Not all of it has been created, but it will be expanded as time goes by.

Read this new documentation at http://jgb.sourceforge.net/documentation/elements/

This new version brings layouts using GridBagLayout. It also adds struts and glue, as well as a beginning implementation of borders.

Comments are welcome on the border implementation as I am running out of ideas.

You may download this latest version at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=50316&release_id=94432

I updated the Trove Categorization status to include Beta as well as Alpha. The second to next release of Java Gui Builder should be a beta version.

Most required features will be implemented. I will provide shortcut implementations for many commonly used controls: JLabel, JButton, JPanel, JList and a few other ones. This will reduce the verbosity of the finalized XML file.

Look forward to the next version in less than three weeks time !

Please note that JDK 1.4 is required to use the version in the repository. Release 0.3.1a will not have this requirement.

I am using JDK 1.4 for it's LinkedHashMap. I use in in my MockXmlAttributes to provide consistent navigation of the attributes set by index.

I will find another way to implement this before releasing again, promised !