I am pleased today to announce the availability of release candidate for version 4.1 of Flamingo component suite (code-named Guenivere). It is a stabilization release that adds a few minor features and fixes all known bugs.
Here is the list of minor features added in release 4.1:
- Multi-row controls in ribbon bands
- Rich tooltips for ribbon band expand buttons
- Horizontal alignment for wrapped ribbon components
- Internal tracking of disabled state of popup / action areas on command buttons for selecting the correct displayed icon
- Tree breadcrumb adapter class is now abstract to enforce applications to provide the segment caption
To see the Flamingo ribbon component in action under core look-and-feels, run the following WebStart demo:
To see the Flamingo ribbon component in action under Substance look-and-feel, run the following WebStart demo:
If you want to test the ribbon in your applications, you would need the following (the last two only for applications running under Substance look-and-feel):
You are more than welcome to take Flamingo 4.1RC for a ride and report any problems in the project mailing lists, forums or issue tracker. The final release is scheduled for May 25. Only bugs will be fixed until that date.
With the latest addition of multi-row functionality in the Flamingo ribbon bands, it is now possible to circumvent the deliberate restriction that was enforced previously. One of the main ribbon tenets states that UI controls should never be hidden or redisplayed (except contextual tasks) – you should rather disable / enable controls as necessary.
While it has been possible to hide / show controls before by wrapping a JPanel in a JRibbonComponent and changing the visibility state of the panel children, it has now become even easier under the new multi-row mode. I most certainly do not want to see such usage, and i do not have any plans to make code changes for scenarios that involve such usage.
However, i am a realistic person, and i understand that a determined developer armed with enough knowledge of Swing will find a way to circumvent restrictions that i place in the code. Even such draconian measures as tracking all hierarchy events in all JRibbonComponents and throwing exceptions when visibility changes are detected can be thwarted by ignoring / uninstalling the hierarchy listeners registered by the Flamingo UI delegates. I certainly do not want to go down that route, but i do want to ask you to respect the philosophy behind the ribbon and to not try cheating the APIs and the implementation. Doing so will make me even less open to provide additional ribbon APIs in the future.
I am extremely pleased today to announce the official release for version 4.0 of Flamingo component suite (code-named Fainnear). As detailed in the roadmap for this release, the goal was to provide the missing functionality from the Office 2007 Command Bar, and the journey that has started in September 2005 has arrived at its most important milestone so far.
I can finally say that the Flamingo ribbon can be used to create Swing ribbon-driven applications. While some of the minor functionality will have to be postponed to the next few releases, Fainnear provides all the major building blocks to create sophisticated ribbon content and wire it to the custom application logic. The release notes for version 4.0 contain the detailed information on the contents of this release which include:
To see the Flamingo ribbon component in action under core look-and-feels, run the following WebStart demo:
To see the Flamingo ribbon component in action under Substance look-and-feel, run the following WebStart demo:
If you want to test the ribbon in your applications, you would need the following (the last two only for applications running under Substance look-and-feel):
You are more than welcome to take Flamingo 4.0final for a ride and report any problems in the project mailing lists, forums or issue tracker.
I would like to thank all the early adopters that have tried the early development drops of Flamingo 4.0. Special thanks go to Andrey Eremchenko for extensive reporting and verifying of complex usability scenarios, especially for minimized, shrinked and popup functionality.
Sample screenshots of Flamingo 4.0 in action:
I am extremely pleased today to announce the availability of release candidate for version 4.0 of Flamingo component suite (code-named Fainnear). As detailed in the roadmap for this release, the goal was to provide the missing functionality from the Office 2007 Command Bar, and the journey that has started in September 2005 has arrived at its most important milestone so far.
I can finally say that the Flamingo ribbon can be used to create Swing ribbon-driven applications. While some of the minor functionality will have to be postponed to the next few releases, Fainnear provides all the major building blocks to create sophisticated ribbon content and wire it to the custom application logic. The release notes for version 4.0 contain the detailed information on the contents of this release which include:
To see the Flamingo ribbon component in action under core look-and-feels, run the following WebStart demo:
To see the Flamingo ribbon component in action under Substance look-and-feel, run the following WebStart demo:
If you want to test the ribbon in your applications, you would need the following (the last two only for applications running under Substance look-and-feel):
You are more than welcome to take Flamingo 4.0RC for a ride and report any problems in the project mailing lists, forums or issue tracker. The final release is scheduled for February 6. Only bugs will be fixed until that date.
Sample screenshots of Flamingo 4.0 in action:
