The Symbol Compiler is a point-and-click
interface to manage the lifecycle of code-based symbols. Taking
existing palettes of symbols, it manages code generation, code
review, compilation and testing. It also keeps track of your
previously generated and compiled symbols to allow you to compile
new versions of your symbols.
The symbols that are designed with the Symbol Editor can be used
directly in JViews Diagrammer applications to create live diagrams
and dashboards. Internally, these symbols are fully described using
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) directives and are executable at run
time without any compilation. However, in some cases, it can be
interesting to use a slightly different approach, that is, have Java™ code available instead of
interpreted versions of symbols.
Here are a few cases of interest:
- Improving the performance. With the compiled version of a symbol, the design and internal logic of the symbol are directly written in Java code, the execution is faster and the footprint smaller.
- Using symbols for object-oriented programming. You can derive and specialize the symbols using your own Java code.
- Using symbols within the pure JViews Graphic Framework, when the added abstraction level of JViews Diagrammer is not required. This is not possible with interpreted CSS-based symbols.
The following picture illustrates how CSS
symbols as well as generated and compiled symbols can be used in
applications:
