JViews 5.0 Stylable Data Mapper Release Notes

Incompatibilities
General Changes
Library Changes
Changes in CSS
Changes in the Workflow Modeler
Examples Changes

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Incompatibilities

Graph Layout Properties

The names of the bean properties of the graph layout algorithms have been modified. In JViews 4.0, some of these properties started with upper-case letters. For a better consistency, all the bean properties now start with a lower-case letter.

In addition, the values of enumerated properties can be specified using the names of the static final member variables of the IlvGraphLayout objects.

These changes make it much easier to find out the valid property values from the JViews Reference Manual.

These modifications have an impact on the SDM style sheet files (CSS files) that contain declarations affecting the properties of graph layout objects. For example, the following style sheet was correct in JViews 4.0, but will cause a warning message to be printed in JViews 5.0:

//-----------------------------------------------
// JViews 4.0 syntax for graph layout properties:
//-----------------------------------------------

SDM {
    GraphLayout : "Hierarchical";
    LinkLayout : "true";
}

GraphLayout {
    FlowDirection : "Bottom";
    GlobalLinkStyle : "Orthogonal links";
}

LinkLayout {
    LinkOffset : "5";
}

This style sheet must be modified to work with JViews 5.0, as follows:

//-----------------------------------------------
// JViews 5.0 syntax for graph layout properties:
//-----------------------------------------------

SDM {
    GraphLayout : "Hierarchical";
    LinkLayout : "true";
}

GraphLayout {
    flowDirection : "Bottom";
    globalLinkStyle : "ORTHOGONAL_STYLE";
}

LinkLayout {
    linkOffset : "5";
}

Note the following changes:

1. The bean properties flowDirection, globalLinkStyle, and linkOffset now start with a lower-case letter.
2. The value of the globalLinkStyle property is now ORTHOGONAL_STYLE, as documented in the JViews Reference Manual for the class IlvHierarchicalLayout.

To ease the transition from JViews 4.0, JViews 5.0 automatically translates old-style (capitalized) property names into new-style (lower-case) property names, and a warning message is printed. In future versions of JViews, this convenience will be removed, so we recommend that you modify your style sheets as soon as possible.

Expand/Collapse Renderer

The implementation of collapsible groups in SDM has been changed in JViews 5.0 (see explanations below).

This change should be transparent to most applications, since the behavior and the API of the new class IlvSubGraphRenderer are the same as those of the previous implementation, IlvExpandCollapseRenderer. However, applications that rely on the implementation details of the JViews 4.0 expand/collapse mechanism will have to be modified. For example, if an application assumes that all the graphic objects are in the same manager, this is no longer true in JViews 5.0, since each subgraph is implemented as a separate submanager.

If your application relies on the old expand/collapse implementation, you can still use the JViews 4.0 class IlvExpandCollapseRenderer by specifying the compatibility option ExpandCollapse40 in your style sheet, instead of ExpandCollapse, as follows:

SDM {
    ExpandCollapse40 : "true";
}

Note that, for best performance, we recommend that you migrate your application to use the new implementation.

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General Changes

Expand/Collapse Renderer

The implementation of collapsible groups in SDM has been completely changed in JViews 5.0. The new implementation relies on the new "submanager" feature of the JViews 5.0 Graphics Framework. For every SDM subgraph, an IlvGrapher object is created and added to the parent IlvGrapher as a graphic object. This new implementation is supported by a new renderer class, IlvSubGraphRenderer.

This new implementation takes advantage of all the optimizations done in the Graphics Framework for submanagers. In particular, expanding and collapsing subgraphs is now much faster for large graphs, and the layout algorithms take the subgraphs into account more efficiently.

The ExpandCollapse declaration in the SDM style sheet now creates an instance of IlvSubGraphRenderer, which has the same API as the previous implementation IlvExpandCollapseRenderer, so most applications should work correctly without any modifications.
 

Label Layout

A new LabelLayout renderer is available. This new renderer allows a label layout algorithm to be performed on the labels contained in a graph generated by SDM. This renderer is implemented by the class IlvLabelLayoutRenderer.

The LabelLayout renderer is specially tailored to arrange the labels of IlvGeneralNode and IlvGeneralLink objects.

This new feature is available in the Workflow Modeler application.

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Library Changes

ilog.views.sdm.renderer.graphlayout.IlvLabelLayoutRenderer

The class IlvLabelLayoutRenderer is a filtering renderer that applies an "annealing" label layout algorithm to the labels of a graph.

The class IlvSubGraphRenderer is a filtering renderer that displays subgraphs of the SDM data model as submanagers, that is, IlvGrapher objects added as graphic objects in the parent IlvGrapher.

A bean to handle Color, GradientPaint, or IlvTexture, which is compatible with SDM style sheets.

A bean to handle java.awt.BasicStroke, which is compatible with SDM style sheets.

ilog.views.sdm.graphic.IlvGeneralNode

• Icon now displays with high-quality rendering.

ilog.views.sdm.graphic.IlvGeneralLink

• New mode to handle custom arrows, with smart rendering when the arrow lies at the end of the link.

• New property backgroundFile to load an arbitrary .ivl file.

• New methods:
• nodeGraphicAdded(IlvSDMEngine, Object, IlvGraphic, boolean)
• linkGraphicAdded(IlvSDMEngine, Object, IlvGraphic, boolean)
These methods are called immediately after addNodeGraphic /addLinkGraphic by the SDM engine. They allow you to perform additional processing in a renderer when an object is added, without redefining the addGraphicObject method.

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Changes in the CSS / Style Sheet renderer

• New @+ operator (alternative to @#), to customize property values on the fly without creating them, when they are already defined.
• Graph layout properties now accept Java constant names defined in the reference manual, in addition to the bean values (for example, "ORTHOGONAL_STYLE" and "Orthogonal links" are both valid).
• Improved error messages.
• Bad property warnings are now reported by default, like bad class names.
• Many speed improvements, especially during object creation.
• Networked applet environment improved, to minimize server round trips while creating beans.

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Changes in the Workflow Modeler

• MDI dockable windows.
• New SDM object inspector (class IlvSDMInspectorView) with CSS support (visibility, color, editing of the properties, and so on).
• New tree representation of the SDM model (class IlvSDMTreeView), with dynamic generation of the icons according to the style sheet.
• Management of pop-up menus (class IlvSDMPopupSelectInteractor).
• Layout progress bar.
• SVG exporting of the grapher view contents.
• Label layout control.
• Incremental layout (works when layout is performed while some nodes are selected).
• Revert document command.
• Multipage printing.
• New controls during the closing of a modified document.
• Additional "factory" methods to increase flexibility when subclassing the IlvSDMEditor, IlvSDMViewer, and WorkflowPalette.

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Examples Changes

New Workflow Monitoring Example

• This demo is located in directory <installdir>/demos/sdm/wf-monitor. It demonstrates how SDM can be used to monitor the instances of a workflow process. The example shows graphic feedback on the number of active instances of an activity, possible bottlenecks in the process, and so on.