invesdwin-context-client

This project provides frontend modules to create desktop and web clients for the invesdwin-context module system.

Maven

Releases and snapshots are deployed to this maven repository:

https://invesdwin.de/repo/invesdwin-oss-remote/

Dependency declaration:

<dependency>
	<groupId>de.invesdwin</groupId>
	<artifactId>invesdwin-context-client-wicket</artifactId>
	<version>1.0.2</version><!---project.version.invesdwin-context-client-parent-->
</dependency>

Swing Modules

The invesdwin-context-client-swing module provides some tools to simplify building swing applications. The following frameworks have been integrated to function as a platform:

• DockingFrames: this is a lightweight docking framework that provides a flexible container for your views.
• BetterSwingApplicationFramework: this provides a framework to handle the application lifecycline, internationalization and action binding. It is an improved version of the reference implementation for JSR-296.
• AssertJ Swing: to write unit tests for your swing views by automating actions.
• There are also a few more dependencies added which provide some more swing components you can use in your views (SwingX, Jide OSS, Spring Rich Client, JCalendar, JGoodies-Forms, JGoodies-Looks) and some icon sets (Tango, Silk).
• WindowBuilder: this is the recommended WYSIWYG editor for creating panels for your views. Alternatively if you prefer Netbeans over Eclipse, you can still use Matisse (or any other preferred IDE/editor).
• invesdwin-norva: this provides an optional annotation processor that generates constants classes for your models, so you can reference bean paths directly to be refactoring safe instead of hardcoding strings for them everywhere. Also the generated binding is based off this framework, so you can use everything available here.
• invesdwin-aspects: this includes a nice PropertyChangeSupportedAspect that fires the update events for your model properties as required by the beans binding framework according to the java bean specification. Also it includes an EventDispatchThreadAspect and a utility class that simplifies working with the EDT.

To build your own swing applications, the following tools are available:

• ARichApplication: implement this as a spring bean to provide an entry point for your application, define a menu, handle startup parameters and do some lifecycle configuration. The application can be started with de.invesdwin.context.client.swing.Main which will use your provided bean to initialize the GUI. You can provide application properties files as resources for your implementation of this bean (reusing the functionality of JSR-296). Be aware that only one such can be active in your application context. You will have to use customized context loading to load the correct one if you have to integrate multiple ones. Or you could provide a master implementation that integrates multiple applications (delegating to the other implementations and creating a combined menu and so on). Mostly you won't need something as complicated as that and one implementation should suffice in your distribution. You can also roll your own solution by deactivating the included main application handling via RichApplicationContextLocation.deactivate().
• AModel: this is the base class for your model objects. This base class provides access to the corresponding org.jdesktop.application.ResourceMap and javax.swing.ActionMap via getters for convenience in working with JSR-296.
• AView: this is the base class for your panels. AView extends AModel itself since it accesses the same JSR-296 classes, but additionally provides a panel (override initComponent) and a binding for it (override initBindingGroup if the GeneratedBinding does not suffice). You could in fact define the view itself as your generic model parameter, but it is best practice to keep the model class separate from your view class, so you follow the separation that MVC encourages. But it is useful to know that you don't have to create a model class if you don't need one (e.g. for simple components that you want to integrate into other views). Set the names of your swing components to the appropriate bean paths of your model properties to make clear what you want to get the binding generated for (which is handled by the default implementation of initBindingGroup via GeneratedBinding). This follows the binding principles of the Naked Objects Pattern without being a full implementation of that, because the UI is built manually and not generated from the model. The binding operates mostly under the same rules as documented in invesdwin-nowicket. There is even a familiar GuiService class.
• ATask: this class can be used to define asynchronous tasks you want to track in the status bar of your main window. Start them from your button actions via Application.getInstance().getContext().getTaskService().execute(task).
• IGuiExceptionHandlerHook: define a bean implementing this interface or register it manually via GuiExceptionHandler.registerHook(hook) to override the default error dialog that occurs for uncaught exceptions on a case by case decision.

Add the module invesdwin-context-client-swing-test (preferable in test maven scope) to your dependencies to access:

• FrameFixtureStub: write automated tests for your swing frames by injecting this bean into your test and retrieving the fixture via getFrameFixture(). This testing stub will also register a validation hook that throws exceptions when EDT violations occur in your code. These features are provided by assertj-swing.
• SwingExplorerStub: annotate your test case with @SwingExplorerTest to debug your swing frame component tree with a helpful analyzer next to your frames. This feature is provided by SwingExplorer.

For some examples you can have a look at the test cases and implemented components/views inside the module itself. For more fundamental documentation it is best to seek the documentation that is directly provided by the referenced frameworks.

Other interesting frameworks:

• BetterBeansBinding: this allows to easily keep models in sync with view components. It is an improved version of the reference implementation for JSR-295. Though after a while we decided replace that with a different binding mechanism that works better with invesdwin-norva annotations, component lifecycle (visible, enabled), validations and formatting.
• jGAF: which provides interesting concepts for securing a licensed application and to integrate better into macOS.

invesdwin-context-client-swing-jfreechart

This module provides an InteractiveChartPanel which is a financial chart implementation that supports interaction via mouse and keyboard. It supports zooming, panning, series style configuration, moving series by drag and drop, hiding, removing and adding series. It allows the user to resize plots by drag and drop of the dividers of a CombinedDomainXYPlot. Also a crosshair is implemented with values being displayed in the legends of series. You can also export the chart as an image and to the clipboard. It offers many more features and an improved usability compared to the JFreeChart included ChartPanel. You can even add providers for custom indicators and expressions which can then be added as customizable series to the chart by the user.

invesdwin-context-client-swing-rsyntaxtextarea

This module provides integration for RSyntaxTextArea with extensions to edit invesdwin-util expressions in the most convenient way. Though this component can also be used for other programming languages.

Wicket Modules

The invesdwin-context-client-wicket module provides support for writing wicket web applications with invesdwin-nowicket. For fundamental documentation, please have a look at the respective documentation provided by the frameworks themselves. The module here provides the following simplifications:

• IWebApplicationConfig: this class can now be defined as a spring bean and will be automatically picked up during application startup. The web.xml is also already configured as required, so no additional steps are required. From your IDE, the web application will be automatically started in development mode (with additional stack traces and debug options). When deployed the application will automatically run in deployment mode. Set the wicket.configuration system property to disable this automatic configuration.
• IWebApplicationInitializerHook: your hooks will be picked up as spring beans as well, so we achieve inversion of control here as well.
• AnnotatedGeneratedMarkup: use this markup generator to reuse the base package definitions already present in invesdwin-context to search the classpath properly for @GeneratedMarkup annotated models. You can also use the invesdwin-context-client-wicket-maven-plugin in your pom.xml to handle markup generation during your build phase (maybe invoking it from the command line via a maven build profile).
• There are also some modules for simplified integration of invesdwin-context-security modules into wicket:
  • invesdwin-context-client-wicket-kerberos: which allows you to register a SPNEGO authentication filter for token based single sign on and redirect to the signin page as a fallback. The signin page can then try to match the credentials given by the user against a kerberos server.
  • invesdwin-context-client-wicket-saml: this provides alternative signin (SamlLoginPage) and signout (SamlLogoutPage) pages which allow to delegate authentication to a SAML Identity Provider like Active Directory via ADFS (though Kerberos should work with that too) or some other solution.
  • invesdwin-context-client-wicket-cas: this module provides support for single sign on via CAS. This module is currently in an experimental state and is not yet fully tested. Work needs to be done in the invesdwin-context-security-web-cas-server module to provide an embedded server to test against.

See the invesdwin-context-client-wicket-examples module for some test cases and examples for the security modules. There is also a sample application (see granatasoft-remotelist-parent) available that demonstrates how to create a web application with invesdwin-context-client-wicket as a platform provider for invesdwin-nowicket (which itself is platform neutral).

Support

If you need further assistance or have some ideas for improvements and don't want to create an issue here on github, feel free to start a discussion in our invesdwin-platform mailing list.