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Extended components

Extended components are the featured in Web Look and Feel library components that are not included in standart Swing but are very useful in many common situations

News and v1.28 release

 

About news and site updates

As you might have noticed – it was a really long time since last post here, I were still releasing new library versions in background but I didn’t post here due to time constraints and since I didn’t actually find anything specific worth noticing. I have taken all that time to think about structuring information on the site better and improving the library itself. So today’s post will bring a few important news and v1.28 release notes.

If you were tracking GitHub updates you might have already seen some of this post parts in the README file on the home WebLaF page on GitHub, but this post contains some extended comments and notes, so make sure you don’t miss anything!

Let’s now continue to the interesting part…

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WebLookAndFeel and Nine-patch

 

Library got a large bunch of updates and upgrades since last version and i today i will tell about the main one – new Nine-patch editor and styling hidden within the library. 
First of all i will tell a bit about nine-patch format for those who still don’t know anything…

Nine-patch

Nine-patch is an image format that holds some additional information inside png-format image meta-data or inside the picture itself.

Here you can see a simple example of nine-patch image (it is also set as default image in editor):

 

As you can see there are four black-colored lines on the image sides – that is additional data that nine-patch format provides.
Each line on the left and top sides presents stretchable image areas – those parts of image will be sized with the component they are used on.
Each line on the right and bottom sides presents content areas (they might also be empty) – in those parts of image component content will be placed (for example – button text and icon).

That is basically all you need to know about that format to make it useful inside you application with WebLookAndFeel library!
If you want to know more – you might find this post and official Android dev guide useful.

I will tell you about nine-patch files usage a bit later – let’s check the format editor first…

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Nine-patch editor within the library

 

It have been a long time since last post here, but from now on i will also inform you about upcoming features with separate posts.

Today i will tell you some news and interesting information about upcoming features and would love to see any kind of feedback in the comments or on email!

9-patch

There was a small announce of a new visual editor for Android 9-patch format on HabraHabr which is now a part of  Web Look and Feel library (and could be found in upcoming release or in the post on HabraHabr). If you are Android developer – that might be interesting for you since it is much more comfortable and easy in use than a basic editor that is offered to Android developers.

Also with upcoming release there will be a cross-platform installer available on downloads page for desktop 9-patch editor version so Android developers can quickly install and use it.

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WebLookAndFeel v.1.2 released

 

So here we go! Second big update since the release of alpha-version.
It took me almost a month and lots of effort to finish this release.
It is still in alpha-state but since next (1.3) version it will become beta.

Also, hopefully, 1.4 version will already be stable and since that version there will be a lot of changes coming in library and on this site aswell.

So, let’s get back to new 1.2 version and see what is new in it…

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WebLookAndFeel v.1.1 released

 

First large update is here!
You can download new library version from Download page.

Some of new features/improvements are:

– A bit new JButton and JToggleButton styling:

– Improved buttons rollover reaction:

– New custom-shaped tooltips:

– And also custom-content tooltips:

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Extended components set

 

I want to describe the “extended components” part of the library a bit more in this post, so let’s see what is that exactly and how You can use it.

You might find similar components in lots of other libraries, but i assure You – some of them are presented only here. And even more – the whole library is presented in the same design concept as the standart Swing-components UI’s from WebLookAndFeel.

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