Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Drombler FX: Version 0.5 released

I recently released Drombler FX v0.5. Drombler FX is a modular Rich Client Platform for JavaFX based on OSGi and Maven (POM-first).

With this release the Docking Framework becomes more lightweight. You don't have to extend any particular Drombler specific class anymore but can extend from any Node such as a layout pane. The DockablePane has been removed from the API.

With this release also icons in Editor Dockings are supported:

@EditorDocking annotation

Editor tab icon


The Action Framework has been moved from the OSGi-based RCP Drombler FX to the Drombler Commons library collection, which can be used inside and outside of an OSGi platform.

This allows you to use this framework even if you don't want to use Drombler FX, yet, for some reason.

The Action Framework, keeps the state (enabled/ disabled, selected/ unselected etc.), the information (texts, image etc.) and the logic between menu items and toolbar buttons in sync.

Note that the declarative, annotation based programming model is still only supported by Drombler FX. But there is a sample, which shows how to use this framework from Drombler Commons programmatically.

Please note that because the framework has been moved, some packages have been renamed.


The new Wiki page Logging explains how you can replace the SLF4J binding. The sample application provided by the Drombler FX archetype uses the java.util.logging (JUL) binding by default, because the required jar is very small since java.util.logging is part of the JRE.
The Wiki page shows as a sample how to configure the Log4J 2 binding.


You can find the complete list of fixed issues here: http://issues.drombler.org/milestone/0.5

There's a Getting Started page which explains how to create, build and run a Drombler FX sample application with a few simple steps.

Drombler FX uses Apache Felix as its OSGi container by default.
As an application framework it makes sure JavaFX and OSGi will get started properly and it provides the main window.


The following table provides you an overview of the different Drombler components, links to the modules, which are available from Maven Central, and links to the Javadocs.
 

Name Modules
(incl. Maven Coordinates)
Javadoc Description
Drombler FX Modules Javadoc Drombler FX is a modular Rich Client Platform for JavaFX based on:
Drombler ACP Modules Javadoc Drombler Abstract Client Platform (ACP) is an abstract, GUI-toolkit agnostic, modular Rich Client Platform based on:
Drombler Commons Modules Javadoc Drombler Commons is a collection of reusable libraries and frameworks. They ship with OSGi meta data but don't require an OSGi environment.

You can use the Drombler Forum for questions and discussions.

If you find issues or have enhancement requests, you can file a ticket here: http://issues.drombler.org.