Release Notes

June 6, 2008

 

About UltraLightClient 6.3 Release Candidate 1

Release 6.3 Release Candidate 1 includes the following new features:

Feature	Description
ULC Application Development Guide	A document that instantly gets you productive. Learn from experienced UltraLightClient developers instead of your errors.
Data Types Improvements	Data types are now able to provide error feedback. The number based data types provide an API to configure the rounding mode.
Project Wizard	UltraLightClient comes with an ant based project wizard that generates a ready to use Eclipse project for you. The generated project contains a sample application that uses all the new new features of UltraLightClient. So using the generator is an easy way to explore these new features. No more need to manually setup your UltraLightClient project. Get productive quickly and avoid common pitfalls. No more need to setup Server deployment, as you can start the generated application in development as well as in client-server mode. For more informations have a look at the tutorial in the ULC Application Development Guide that comes with the release.
Application Framework	UltraLightClient now comes with a simple application framework that provides the following features: Easy to use application skeletons Easy to use internationalization Easy to use skinning Easy to use actions For more informations have a look at the Always at your service blog post.
Form Model	This release now includes a high-level components to ease the development of forms. For more informations have a look at the It's all about the form... blog post.
Sortable Table	Tables are now sortable out of the box. For more informations have a look at the The invisible model blog post.
Table Binding	There is now an easy mechanism to bind beans to tables. For more informations have a look at the The invisible model blog post.
Easy Configuration	The whole application configuration has been simplified. You now are able to configure all aspects of your application (e.g. look and feel, client services to use) at one central place. This configuration is respected by all deployment options (development, Applet, JNLP, Standalone, Servlet). For more informations have a look at the One file to rule them all blog post.
Easy Deployment	UltraLightClient now comes with convenience Servlets that return default HTML pages and JNLP files that start your application. No more need to write custom HTML/JSP pages and JNLP files.

For more informations on the new features have a look at the

• Screencast.
• The big easy blog post.
• Tutorial in the new UltraLightClient Application Development Guide.

Please see the ULC 6.2.2 release notes for previous release notes.

The sections Fixed Bugs and Implemented Feature Requests give an overview of the most important differences between UltraLightClient 6.2.2 and UltraLightClient 6.3.

To migrate from UltraLightClient 6.2.2 to UltraLightClient 6.3, please see the migration notes.

 

Version Notes

UltraLightClient 6.3 requires the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.4.2 or later on the server and on the client. The application framework add on requires JRE 1.5 or later.

To deploy an UltraLightClient application in a J2EE server the server needs to support either at least the Servlet 2.4 specification or at least the EJB 2.1 specification.

 

Modules, Parts and Release Structure

The UltraLightClient release includes all components required to successfully develop and deploy UltraLightClient applications. The UltraLightClient modules, parts, packages, and the structure of the current release are described in the following sections.

 

Modules

The UltraLightClient release is split into modules. Each module belongs to exactly one of five categories:

• Base
  The UltraLightClient core.
  Always needed, for development and deployment.
• Container
  Server-side integrations into containers, e.g. Servlet, EJB.
  Only needed for server deployment.
• Environment
  Client-side integrations into environments, e.g. Applet, JNLP.
  Only needed for client deployment.
• Addon
  Utilities and extensions, e.g. test framework, QTP integration.
  Only needed on demand.
• Sample
  Samples demonstrating the usage of UltraLightClient, e.g. Hello, ULCSet, OnlineShop.
  Not needed during development or deployment.

The category and module names are reflected in the directory structure of the release, e.g. environment/applet for the applet module that belongs to the environement category.

A module directory contains subdirectories with the following contents:

• lib
  Jar files that contain the module classes.
  For sample and add-on modules the required libraries.
• resource
  Only for sample modules: the required resources, e.g. images, property files
• src
  Either complete source code or source stubs.
  The source stubs are used to enable code completions in IDEs.
• webapp
  Only for sample modules: ready to deploy web application, i.e. war files

 

Parts

Each of these modules can contain up to four parts:

• Client
  Contains classes to be deployed on the client side.
  Runs inside the sandbox.
• Trusted
  Contains classes to be deployed on the client side.
  Does not run inside the sandbox. The additional permissions required depend on the module.
• Server
  Contains classes to be deployed on the server side.
• Development
  Contains all classes needed during development, i.e. the client, trusted, and server parts plus some additional development classes.

The part names are reflected in the filename of the jar files in the lib and src directory of the corresponding module, e.g. ulc-applet-client.jar and ulc-applet-client-src.jar for the classes and source stubs of the applet module that have to be deployed on the client side.

 

Release Structure

ulc-6.3	UltraLightClient 6.3 home directory
addon       testframework       qtpintegration	Add-ons to the UltraLightClient base framework
base	UltraLightClient base framework
container       ejb       servlet	J2EE server integration including EJB container integration and Servlet container integration.
doc       addon        ULCQTPIntegrationGuide.pdf        ULCTestFrameworkGuide.pdf       apidoc       ULCArchitectureGuide.pdf       ULCApplicationDevelopmentGuide.pdf       ULCDeploymentGuide.pdf       ULCEssentialsGuide.pdf       ULCExtensionGuide.pdf       ULCInstallGuide.pdf       ULCReferenceGuide.pdf       ULCTestFramework.pdf       ULCWhitePaper.pdf	UltraLightClient documentation
environment       applet       jnlp       standalone	Client environment integration for applet deployment, JNLP deployment, and standalone deployment.
license	the jar file with the deployment license key
previous_releasenotes	Previous release notes
sample       hello       onlineshop       pie       teammembers       tomcat       trusted       ulcdndset       ulcset	Sample applications with ready to run Tomcat Servlet container
build.txt	Contains the build number
LicenseAgreement.pdf	The license Agreement
releasenotes.html	This document

 

Fixed Bugs

PR	Description	Comments
UBA-7285	Input is not blocked for heavy weight popup menus
UBA-7351	UITextComponent.setValue() does not respect default value of associated data type
UBA-7363	MemoryLeak in DefaultModelAdapterProvider	The list of frames (ULCFrame.getFrames()) and the list of owned windows (ULCWindow.getOwnedWindows()) have the same issue. Fixed these two places as well.
UBA-7392	The source stub for ULCLazyLoadingContainer is corrupt
UBA-7411	AllPermissionsFileService.chooseFile() does not throw a ServiceException
UBA-7412	setText and setMnemonic on ULCLabel and ULCAbstractButton do not update the displayedMnemonicIndex property
UBA-7413	UIScrollPane.BasicScrollPane.setCorner() breaks with recent JRE6
UBA-7414	ULCComboBox should not trigger an model event on client-side while synchronizing state
UBA-7416	UISession.waitForIdle() may lead to a dead-lock when invoked from multiple threads
UBA-7417	Editable combobox does not function properly as an enabler	The enabling condition for combo boxes now depends on the combo box being editable or not: editable => same condition as for a text field => editor empty or not non editabl => is an element from the drop-down list selected or not The has changed behavior of an editable combo box has been adapted accordingly. As soon as the user starts typing the editable combo box is considered as "has changed".
UBA-7423	Possible deadlock when UISession is created on EDT
UBA-7426	Cell based popup menus do not work correctly in ULCTableTree if the selection is not set before the popup is triggered
UBA-7427	ULCScrollBar should report positon 1 if knob has reached maximum
UBA-7439	getInvoker() on ULCPopupMenu of a ULCTableTree returns null.
UBA-7442	ULCList.setSelectedIndex() does not clear previous selection
UBA-7444	Editors are not loaded to the client side
UBA-7446	The textual representation of a ULCTable / ULCTableTree drag operation takes model indexes instead of view indexes
UBA-7452	Session serialization is broken for round trip listeners that reference frames

 

Implemented Feature Requests

PR	Description	Comments
UBA-6840	Creating a custom cell renderer without an empty constructor does not work and no error message is displayed
UBA-6879	I18N for ULCPercentDataType	New API: ULCPercentDataType(Locale locale, int fractionalDigits)
UBA-6961	ULCNumberDataType does not round correctly	New API: ULCNumberDataType.roundMode property ULCPercentDataType.roundMode property
UBA-7034	JNLP integration should not manage cookies in JRE 1.5
UBA-7054	ULCTable should provide an API to sort / filter rows as JTable in Java 6	New API: TableRowSorter class TableRowFilter class IRowSorterListener listener and RowSorterEvent event ULCTable.rowSorter property ULCTable.autoCreateRowSorter property ULCTable.updateSelectionOnSort property ULCTable.convertRowIndexToModel(int) ULCTable.convertRowIndexToView(int)
UBA-7286	Improve support for ULC applications that do not provide their own root	New API: InputBlocker.addRootPaneToBlock(UISession session, JRootPane rootPane) InputBlocker.removeRootPaneToBlock(UISession session, JRootPane rootPane)
UBA-7367	Add missing documentation for the following extension APIs
UBA-7387	Provide support for forms	New API: Classes in the com.ulcjva.applicationframework.application.form package
UBA-7388	Provide simple application framework	New API: Classes in the com.ulcjva.applicationframework.application package
UBA-7389	Simplify Servlet deployment	New API: ClientAppletTagDownloader Servlet JNLPDownloader Servlet ClientJarDownloader Servlet
UBA-7390	Provide default bindings for table models	New API: TableBinding class
UBA-7391	Provide template generators	New API: Generate project wizard Generate bean views wizard
UBA-7415	Provide a way to avoid the caching of renderer components for specific cases	New API: INonCachingEditorComponent tagging interface INonCachingRendererComponent tagging interface
UBA-7418	Make Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getMenuShortcutKeyMask() available on Server Side	New API: ClientContext.getMenuShortcutKeyMask()
UBA-7419	Provide an API to enable / disable user interaction verification	New API: AWTOperator.verification property
UBA-7420	Provide application API to get the type of the client environment and the type of the server container	New API: ClientContext.getClientEnvironmentType() ApplicationContext.getServerContainerType() See migration notes .
UBA-7428	ULCTable should provide a fillsViewportHeight property	New API: ULCTable.fillsViewportHeight property
UBA-7430	Provide ClientContext.getLookAndFeelSupportsWindowDecorations() API	New API: ClientContext.getLookAndFeelSupportsWindowDecorations()
UBA-7431	Provide ClientContext.setLocale() API to set client locale	New API: ClientContext.setLocale()
UBA-7443	UITextComponent should provide access to the most recent DataTypeConversionException	New API: ULCAbstractErrorManager class ULCDefaultErrorManager class IErrorVisualizer interface DefaultErrorVisualizer class ULCDateDataType(ULCErrorManager) ULCNumberDataType(ULCErrorManager) ULCPercentDataType(ULCErrorManager) ULCRegularExpressionDataType(ULCErrorManager) ULCStringDataType(ULCErrorManager)
UBA-7450	Simplify application configuration	New API: ULCApplicationConfiguration.xml configuration file ULCApplicationConfiguration.xsd XML scheme
UBA-7451	Add cookbook style document to the release	New API: ULC Application Development Guide document

 

Migration Notes

ApplicationContext.getContainerAdapterClassName()

Replacement ApplicationContext.getContainerAdapterClassName() with ApplicationContext.getServerContainerType(). The new API returns an int that identifies the server container type the application is deployed into:

• DEVELOPMENT: Development container type
• EJB: EJB container type
• LOCAL: Local container type
• SERVLET: Servlet container type
• UNDEFINED: unknown container type

 

Known Problems and Limitations

You can find known problems and limitations in our issue database.

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