X-Designer 5.0 - Advanced Technology Edition
This page describes the exciting new features of
X-Designer 5.
You should refer to both the
X-Designer: Java Edition (4.6) Product Overview
and the X-Designer 4.5 Product
Overview for more information on the great features
of X-Designer that have not changed in Release 5.0, and look
at
the screen shots.
Overview
X-Designer 5: Advanced Technology Edition is a major upgrade to X-Designer, the
award winning graphical user interface (GUI) builder for Motif, Windows and Java.
It enables users to keep their investment in Motif applications by allowing them
to take full advantage of the Internet and Java.
Leading the list of new features are Thin-Client Partitioning, Tri-platform Interface
Portability and Internet Connectivity. Users can build the same GUI for Motif, Windows
or Java thin clients and have the same client interface to the application server.
A toolkit-independent 'smart code' GUI layer ensures portability without the use
of proprietary libraries. The application interface can also be Internet and Intranet
aware, accessing resources on local or remote web HTTP servers. X-Designer 5 has an
enhanced Legacy Application Migration Path which enables existing Motif applications
to be 'captured' by the tool, optionally pre-structuring the interface for generation as a Java GUI.
In addition its Java capability has been extended, and its Windows support has been
upgraded to support the latest MFC toolkits. Many other areas have been improved
including usability, working with third party software, and there is new support
for writing directly to the X interface.
Thin-Client Partitioning
X-Designer 5 has all the necessary facilities to enable you to partition your application
into a thin client and application server. You can now choose to generate a thin client
front end in Motif, Java or Windows MFC, and have it talk to the rest of your application
sitting as a C or C++ server anywhere else on the Internet or your Intranet.
X-Designer uses the toolkit independent layer to pass the application specific data
between the client and server. Hooks are provided to allow you to perform processing on
both the client and server ends.
Tri-platform Interface Portability
X-Designer 5 introduces a portable interface to user interface controls. Instead of having
to write your code using the toolkit's programming interface, and writing it again for other
toolkits you support, X-Designer 5 allows you to set up and retrieve values for any control
using a standard interface. So for example the code to set the contents of a text control is
the same in Motif, Windows MFC, and Java AWT. This is done in the tradition of X-Designer
with straight forward source code, not with the use of proprietary libraries.
Internet Connectivity
Direct Internet access is supported from the X-Designer generated code, with MIME handling,
HTML reading and URL manipulation. X-Designer uses private MIME types for its client-server
communication and gives you the ability to write your own MIME handlers for any data available
across the Internet. X-Designer 5 has an HTML reader that allows you to pick important data
from web pages without having to write a parser. Also included is a small footprint URL library
to give you the ability to perform sophisticated web access with minimal programming.
Migration Path for Legacy Applications
With X-Designer's Capture tool, you can grab the interface from any Motif application, even
if you do not have the source, and bring it into X-Designer 5. Using the Capture tool's
'Java ready' flag, the imported design is already pre-structured for best Java code
generation. With the latest support for Java 1.1 and Windows MFC 4 and 5, together
with the Visaj export facility, X-Designer 5 gives you the ideal path to convert old
Motif applications into Internet and Intranet applications.
Instantly Live
With X-Designer 5 you do not have to generate, compile and run to check out your thin
client applications, the new 'Go Live' feature allows you to see the results immediately
in X-Designer's dynamic display.
Java 1.0 and 1.1
Generate 100% Java source code in either Java 1.0 or 1.1 flavors. Both 1.0 and 1.1 event models are supported.
With X-Designer 5.0 you can generate Java for a Motif design and you can design with Java
in mind. X-Designer maps Motif's constructs over to Java's Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT),
and uses an additional class library, the Motif Windowing Toolkit (MWT) for anything with no
direct equivalent. For Java layouts, such as the GridBagLayout, support is provided on the
Motif side with a set of Motif Java Layout emulation widgets. This lets you design layouts
that will map directly to Java.
X-Designer can generate either Java Applications or Applets.
Visaj Export
Visaj is a Visual Application builder for Java from Imperial Software Technology Limited.
It is written in 100% Pure Java, and generates 100% Java source code.
Take any X-Designer design and export it as a Visaj bridge file. This gives you a migration
route for moving Motif interfaces over to Java. Whereas X-Designer's Java code generation
allows you to maintain your design for both Motif and Java code generation, the Visaj export
gives you the option of moving your designs over to a 100% Pure Java development tool to take
advantage of JavaBeans and other Java only technologies.
MFC 4 and 5 through Windows Resources
Windows support in X-Designer has been greatly improved. The MFC code generation now generates
code to the latest MFC APIs, and all configurable resources can now be generated as Windows resources
for easy adjustment over on the Microsoft Windows platform.
AppGuru Designer
Advanced 3rd Party Widget Support
Over 20 widget sets are now supported with pre-configured integration kits. These include popular
commercial widgets such as XRT, INT, OpenGL and Epak, as well as many public domain widgets.
X-Designer 5 gives full access to composite 3rd party widgets, and allows you to configure which
abstract children of a widget are made available to users.
X Procedure Support
You can now add any of the standard X procedures (e.g. Work Procedures, Timeouts, and Event Handlers).
With Event Handlers, most events will map through to the equivalent Java.
Fast Find
Fast Find is a neat short cut - pointing at any widget in the dynamic window causes the corresponding
widget in the design heirarchy to become the currently selected widget.
Other Features
All the other great features of X-Designer 4.6 and earlier versions are included in X-Designer 5.0. These include:
- Design Capture
- Record/Replay
- Layout Editor
- Pixmap Editor
- Font Editor
- Help
- Reusable Components
- Structured Code Generation
You should refer to both the
X-Designer: Java Edition (4.6) Product Overview
and the X-Designer 4.5 Product
Overview for more information on these and other features
of X-Designer that have not changed in Release 5.0.
|
 |
