NetBeans Visual Library in NetBeans Platform 6.0
The Visual Library is the next generation of the original Graph Library. Now it is designed for a general visualization with support for graph-oriented modeling. Its focus is to become a part of the NetBeans platform and unify the visualization (UI and API) used in NetBeans Platform based applications.
Run ShowMind using WebStart - a demo of the Visual Library with NetBeans Platform (downloads 11MB, requires Java 5 or later). Contributed by JinBing Zhang.
Visual Library 6.0 Tutorial - how to integrate library with the NetBeans Platform. Contributed by Geertjan Wielenga.
Visual Database Explorer Tutorial - making a visual database explorer. Contributed by Anton Epple.
XML Multiview and Visual Library Tutorial - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 - integration of XML Multiview with Visual Library. Contributed by Vadiraj Deshpande.
Javalobby.org demo - a demo of the Visual Library features. Contributed by Roman Strobl.
Javalobby.org article - How to Create Visual Applications in Java? (Part 2) - how-to use Visual Library as a standalone library outside of NetBeans. Contributed by Geertjan Wielenga.
If you have questions, comments or would like to contribute, visit users@graph.netbeans.org mailing list (archive).
News
- March 15th, 2007 - The Visual Library 2.0 is a part of NetBeans Platform 6.0.
- March 14th, 2007 - The third and the last official build of Visual Library 2.0-pre3 has been released.
- March 8th, 2007 - The Visual Library 2.0 API has been accepted with TCRs by the review committee. For details, see opinion document.
- February 6th, 2007 - The release551 branch has been created for stabilization of Visual Library 2.0 for NetBeans 5.5.1.
- January 31st, 2007 - The second official build of Visual Library 2.0-pre2 has been released.
- October 2nd, 2006 - The first official build of Visual Library 2.0-pre1 has been released.
Screenshots
The following screenshots are implementations of the Visual Library API:
Versions
Distributions
From now on, the Visual Library is a part of NetBeans Platform 6.0 which is distributed with Milestone releases. You can use the library by setting a dependency on org.netbeans.api.visual module.
The Visual Library 2.0-pre3 (the third official "pre" version) build is available here (Visual-Library-2.0-pre3.zip).
The Visual Library 2.0-pre2 (the second official "pre" version) build is available here (Visual-Library-2.0-pre2.zip).
The Visual Library 2.0-pre1 (the first official "pre" version) build is available here (Visual-Library-2.0-pre1.zip).
The Visual Library 2.0-dev is built weekly and is available at Project Files.
The GraphLib 1.0 is available at Project Files too.
Roadmap for Visual Library in NetBeans 6.0
Currently the Visual Library is stable and it is a part of NetBeans Platform 6.0. Therefore all requested changes are following standard or fast API review. For details, see API review guidelines.
The plan is to release the library stable in NetBeans 6.0 FCS. Therefore the main focus is going to be on stabilization assured by higher coverage with automated visual tests and implementing additional requested and planned features.
Features in Visual Library in NetBeans 6.0
- General visualization
- Support for graph-oriented models
- Widget based UI appearance definition
- Action based UI behaviour definition
- Pre-defined high-level actions
- Layouts
- Visual Feedback
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- Zoom in/out
- Level-of-details widget
- Animation support
- Object states
- Selection/focus model
- Satelite view
- Bird view
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- In-place editing
- ReconnectAction
- ScrollWidget
- Action tools
- ComponentWidget - AWT/Swing components on scene
- Collapse/expand API
- ConvolveWidget
|
Features of Visual Library after NetBeans 6.0
Following features has not been implemented in NetBeans 6.0:
- Graph-oriented layout - hierarchical - check
graph/experimental module
- Pre-defined high-level widgets - there is just one implemented so far -
IconNodeWidget
- CurveConnectionWidget
- WidgetAction performance optimalization
- SVGWidget
- Large-scale visualization
- Printing support
Bugs and Enhancements
The list of currently known issues for the Visual Library is tracked by Issuezilla.
If you find a bug, please, enter an issue on graph module into Issuezilla.
If you have a request for an enhancement, please, enter an issue on graph module into Issuezilla.
Build and Try
For building and executing, visit setup page.
Mercurial
NetBeans has switched to Mercurial - see Developers' NetBeans Mercurial How-To wiki page for more details.
- The Visual Library project is stored in api.visual directory in http://hg.netbeans.org/main/ repository.
- Examples are located in visual.examples directory in http://hg.netbeans.org/main/contrib/ repository.
- NetBeans Integration sample project is located in visual.examples.shapes directory in http://hg.netbeans.org/main/contrib/ repository.
- Visual Library Experimental project is located in visual.experimental directory in http://hg.netbeans.org/main/contrib/ repository.
- Web-pages are not stored in the Mercurial repository. They are still located in graph/www directory in original NetBeans CVS repository.
CVS
The Visual Library development is no longer available in the main trunk. We are using Mercurial for sources. Only graph/www is used for storing current web-site page.
The Visual Library 2.0-pre1 version is marked with the graph2pre1 tag.
The Visual Library 2.0-pre2 version is marked with the graph2pre2 tag.
The Visual Library 2.0-pre3 version is marked with the graph2pre3 tag.
The Visual Library 2.0 for NetBeans 5.5.1 is available in the release551 branch.
The Graph Library 1.0 is available in the graph1 branch.
New features are going to be introduced in the main trunk only.
The release551 branch is in stabilization mode. Only bug fixes can be integrated there.
Contribution
If would you like to contribute, send us your ideas to the users@graph.netbeans.org mailing list.
Please, read Policy Statement Regarding the Contributor Agreement document.
Documents and Links
