Symbols created with the Symbol Editor can be used directly
in JViews Diagrammer applications for dashboards and diagrams. Internally,
the symbol definition is based on CSS directives that can be dynamically
interpreted at run time.
In some cases, it is interesting to select a slightly
different approach which is to generate Java™
source code from the symbols you have created with the Symbol Editor.
This Java code uses simple graphics primitives managed by the JViews
Framework APIs. Each symbol becomes a JavaBean™
that you can instantiate and manage from your JViews application.
Every single parameter you defined in the Symbol Editor becomes a
bean property, accessible through traditional set/get methods. The
tool that allows you to produce this Java code is the Symbol Compiler.
What are the benefits of using compiled symbols:
Performance is usually better with compiled
symbols. The time to create the symbol is slightly improved and the
initial display time of a diagram or a dashboard is reduced. The animation
time can be reduced too, and sometimes quite significantly. As a consequence,
you may experience faster animation or save CPU for other important
tasks. Lastly, memory footprint can be reduced which makes your application
more responsive. Since performance improvements can vary depending
on the kind of symbols you design, it is recommended to perform some
dedicated tests to decide whether this approach is suitable for your
particular case.
You can generate and compile your symbols
at the end of your development. For example, you can tell SDM to use
compiled symbols, if they exist, rather than CSS-based symbols. In
the same way, you can dynamically load and animate dashboards using
either interpreted or compiled symbols.
When symbols are available as source
code and usable as regular beans, you can specialize them by adding
specific Java code. You can also create derived classes implementing
domain-specific logic.
These cases are further discussed in Using the Symbol Compiler.