The third volume of Substance sightings series highlights three gaming applications powered by Substance look-and-feel. The purpose of this series is to highlight the capabilities that Substance brings to Swing applications, and you can visit the first volume published in August ’07 that featured four Swing media-oriented applications, and the second volume published in April ’08 that showcased three open-source audio players.
The first application is WarForge which is a template builder for Warhammer Online. Here is a screenshot of WarForge under the dark Magma skin (click to see full-screen image):
The next application is OGame Automizer – an automated bot for the OGame intergalactic conquest online browser game. Here is a screenshot of WarForge under the Nebula skin (click to see full-screen image):
The last game is the Darkside turn-based strategy game. Here is a screenshot of WarForge under the dark Raven Graphite Glass skin (click to see full-screen image):
If you haven’t tried Substance in your application, you’re more than welcome to do so. The current stable release is 5.1, and the next 5.2 version is available in early development drops.
In addition to bug fixes and performance improvements in Substance 5.2 (code-named Quebec), i’m planning to introduce a few new skins. The first is Dust which is based on the artwork done by Rico Sta Cruz and Kido Mariano for Ubuntu. If you want to take it for a spin, click on the WebStart button below and change the skin to Dust from the “Skins” menu:
To use it in your application, you have the following three options:
-Dswing.defaultlaf=org.jvnet.substance.skin.SubstanceDustLookAndFeelUIManager.setLookAndFeel(new SubstanceDustLookAndFeel())UIManager.setLookAndFeel("org.jvnet.substance.skin.SubstanceDustLookAndFeel");
Here are a few screenshots that show this new skin. A small frame with a tabbed pane and a few different controls:
A frame with menu bar, tool bar and status bar from SwingX project:
A thumbnail of the main Substance test application (click for full-size view):
As with all Substance core skins, this is work in progress and will be polished over time. Dust is also the first skin that is using the experimental color schemes definition file. While the existing Autumn and Nebula skins have been moved to use such files as well, this functionality is planned to be officially supported in the next major Substance release.
In the meantime, you’re more than welcome to take the latest 5.2dev drop for a spin and leave your comments.
I am very pleased today to announce the official release for version 5.1 of Substance look-and-feel (code-named Panama). The release notes for version 5.1 contain the detailed information on the contents of this release, and the migration guide describes two application-facing binary incompatibilities introduced in button shaper and highlight painter APIs.
This release includes the following:
Click on the button below to launch a signed WebStart application that shows the available Substance features.
The following sub-projects are also available as official releases:
You are more than welcome to take Substance 5.1final for a ride and report any problems in the project mailing lists, forums or issue tracker.
Sample screenshots of Substance 5.1 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:
