ZWT V0.2.1 JavaScript framework for Rich Internet Applications

Zeleos Web Toolkit V0.2.1 - New and Noteworthy

Here are some of the major noteworthy things available in release V0.2.1 (2010-05-14) which is now available for download.

Core API
Rendering algorithm

The rendering algorithm has been completely reviewed. The refresh method has been split into redraw and draw methods. The redraw method detects if a Widget needs to be redrawn based on the container dimension, the visibility of the Widget and some other parameters.

The redraw method calls the draw method which resizes the Widget's element. In case of a container Widget, it should also resize the container element of the descendant Widgets and call their redraw method. It is then up to the descendant Widgets to determine whether they need to be redrawn.

Dimension object

The zwt.ui.Dimension class was one of the main reasons for the bad rendering. Now dimension properties are cached in the object to improve performances (more than 50%).

UI Components
Tab bar

There was some bugs impacting Opera and Webkit with the Tab bar. Basically Opera didn't positioned the lines correctly on vertical Tab bar and text was selected when selecting multiple tabs with Webkit. These issues has been fixed in this release.

Stack Panel

The rendering algorithm of the Stack Panel wasn't perfect and some CSS settings wasn't taken correctly into account when displaying the panel. The panel is now correctly displayed.

What's next

Performances have been greatly improved with this V0.2.1 release, we can now focus more on stability and the addition of new components.

New components like a calendar should also be added to the list of available Widgets.

The Animation API can also be improved with the support of animation plans.

The drag and drop support should also be included in the API.