New & Noteworthy

1.1.2

Annotation Processor for linkki

The annotation processor previously developed separately from linkki has become part of linkki core. The Maven artifactId has been changed to linkki-apt to mark this inclusion. The documentation can now be found at linkki-apt. If you have been using the old annotation processor before its 1.0-RC01-Release, please also consider the changes documented in the corresponding New&Noteworthy.

New Annotations for Layouts

In addition to @UISection, linkki now provides @UIHorizontalLayout, @UIVerticalLayout and @UIFormLayout. These annotations can be used for PMO classes in the same way as @UISection. In those layouts, labels are presented in the Vaadin default way. In a HorizontalLayout, for example, labels for fields are displayed above the field and not beside the field. For more information on the Vaadin layout components, consult the Vaadin docucmentation on VerticalLayout and HorizontalLayout as well as FormLayout.

@BindStyleNames for Sections

The aspect annotation @BindStyleNames can now also be annotated on classes to use it for sections.

New Apsect: @BindCaption

Section and field captions can now be bound via @BindCaption. In preparation for this, the AbstractSection was refactored to allow setting (and removing) a caption after construction.

Selection of Table Rows

Table PMO classes can now implement the SelectableTable interface to receive callbacks when the user selects a table row. Updating the current selection programmatically is also possible. Example can be found in the section Row Selection in Tables.

Defaults for Labels and Captions

Previously, a value had to be set for all @UI~ annotations' label/caption attributes. Now, the default value is "derived.by.linkki", which prompts linkki to use the capitalized property name as a label/caption. This is especially useful for rapid prototyping scenarios.

When using linkki with Faktor-IPS, the IpsPropertyDispatcherFactory can now be used. It creates a IpsPropertyDispatcher for Faktor-IPS model objects and uses the labels defined in the Faktor-IPS model for labels/captions marked with "derived.by.linkki". Note that this feature is not yet supported for component labels in row PMOs that are used as table columns.

The documentation has been expanded with a new section about the Faktor-IPS extension module.

LinkkiConverterRegistry for UILabel

The LabelValueAspectDefinition now uses the LinkkiConverterRegistry to find converters for non-String values before defaulting to Objects#toString.

Localized Captions with ItemCaptionProvider

DefaultCaptionProvider now supports localization by calling getName(Locale) to determine the caption, falling back to getName() or toString() (in order) if the method is not present. Additionally, IdAndNameCaptionProvider has been moved to the Faktor-IPS-specific linkki module (now org.linkki.ips.ui.element.IdAndNameCaptionProvider in org.linkki-framework:linkki-ips-vaadin8), due to there being no general use-case if linkki is not used with Faktor-IPS. A deprecated version is still available, but will be removed in a future version.

Inherited aspects

Aspect annotation types can now be annotated with @InheritedAspect to indicate that the aspect should also apply to subclasses (for classes) or implementing classes (for interfaces). Only one aspect of each annotation type can apply to a class, additional aspects are ignored. If the same aspect annotation appears in the super class as well as in an interface, only the annotation coming from the super calls will be respected.

This feature can be used when creating your own aspect, but also serves as documentation on aspects provided by linkki.

Custom PropertyDispatcherFactory in DefaultBindingManager

The DefaultBindingManager provides a new constructor that allows to set a custom PropertyDispatcherFactory. If set, the DefaultBindingManager uses this custom PropertyDispatcherFacotry for all BindingContexts that are created by using 'getContext()'. Read the section about PropertyDispatcher to get more information.

VaadinUiCreator in linkki-core-vaadin8

Obtaining a Vaadin Component from UiCreator#createComponent requires an additional cast and method call. The new VaadinUiCreator directly returns a Component, but works the same otherwise.

New Navigator Configuration Concept

View changes in Vaadin are handled by the navigators. Previously, the linkki application framework provided an ApplicationNavigator which extends the Vaadin Navigator with convenient methods such as showView(String). The navigator of a LinkkiUI is then configured by the ApplicationConfig to use an ApplicationLayout to display the views.

However, the concept of ApplicationNavigator turns out to be inconvenient when using linkki with CDI or Spring, as both injection frameworks provide their own Navigators that automatically discover views. In those cases, the linkki user is in the dilemma that the navigator must extend both ApplicationNavigator and SpringNavigator/CdiNavigator.

To solve this problem, ApplicationNavigator is now deprecated as well as the method ApplicationConfig#createApplicationNavigator. Instead, a new method configureNavigator(ViewDisplay) is provided in LinkkiUI to configure the Navigator. To make the API of LinkkiUI more consistent, the existing method createErrorHandler is also deprecated in favor of the new method configureErrorHandler.

Navigating using Navigator
Until now New

applicationNavigator.showView(viewName)

navigator.navigateTo(viewName)

applicationNavigator.refreshCurrentView()

navigator.navigateTo(navigator.getState())
Configuring Navigator

To configure the navigator to use ApplicationLayout, override LinkkiUi#configureNavigator(ViewDisplay), e.g.

@Override
protected void configureNavigator(ViewDisplay applicationLayout) {
  setNavigator(new MyNavigator(this, applicationLayout));
}
Using CDI
@Inject
private CDINavigator cdiNavigator;

@Override
protected void configureNavigator(ViewDisplay applicationLayout) {
  cdiNavigator.init(this, applicationLayout);
  setNavigator(cdiNavigator);
}
Using Spring
private final SpringNavigator springNavigator;

@Autowired
public MyUI(SpringNavigator springNavigator) {
  super(new MyApplicationConfig());
  this.springNavigator = springNavigator;
}

@Override
protected void configureNavigator(ViewDisplay applicationLayout) {
  springNavigator.init(this, applicationLayout);
  // no need to set the navigator as that is done by Vaadin-Spring
}
API Changes in LinkkiUi
Until now New Notes

static ApplicationNavigator getCurrentApplicationNavigator()

static Navigator getCurrentNavigator()

Old method is directly removed as it is no longer guaranteed that the configured navigator is an ApplicationNavigator.

createErrorHandler

deprecated

The error handler should be created and set in configureErrorHandler instead.

Setter Calls in Model Object

Previously, linkki was also using the setter of the property in the model object even if the PMO property had no setter. This is no longer considered valid, as omitting the setter is a conscious decision of the PMO creator. If you want to use the setter (and getter) from the model object, use a void method in the PMO for Binding to the Domain Model.

Cases where the old behavior was implicitly used can be detected with the linkki-apt compiler option SETTER_ONLY_IN_MODEL_OBJECT.

Allow ApplicationLayout#showView for Views that are not Components

Previously, ApplicationLayout#showView threw an IllegalArgumentException if the given View was not itself a Component. Now, a View overwriting View#getViewComponent() can also be used. A View that is neither a Component nor overwrites getViewComponent() will lead to an IllegalStateException.

Fix notification of UiUpdateObservers

In cases where a UiUpdateObserver modified the list of bindings, for example by adding a binding, the validation messages were not propagated to the new bindings because the observers were notified after validation messages were propagated. Now all UiUpdateObservers are correctly notified first, after which the validation messages are propagated to all BindingContexts.

Update Vaadin to 8.9.2

linkki now uses Vaadin version 8.9.2 to include the latest bug fixes and patches.