Vaadin – thinking of U and I

Version @version@ built on @builddate@.

Release Notes for Vaadin Framework @version@

• Package contents
• Enhancements in Vaadin @version-minor@
• Complete change log for Vaadin @version@
• Migrating from Vaadin 6 to Vaadin 7
• Vaadin @version@ dependencies
• Upgrading to Vaadin @version-minor@
• Supported technologies
• Vaadin on the Web

Package Contents

Vaadin is a Java framework for building modern web applications that look great, perform well and make you and your users happy. Vaadin is available under the Apache 2 license (see license.html).

Vaadin is distributed as a single JAR file. Inside the JAR you will find:

• Vaadin server and client side classes (/com)
• Vaadin server and client side sources (/com)
• The default widget set (/VAADIN/widgetsets)
• Themes: Runo, Reindeer and Chameleon (/VAADIN/themes)
• Release notes (/release-notes.html)
• Licensing information (/license.html)

Enhancements in Vaadin @version-minor@

@version-minor@ is the first beta release release of the upcoming Version 7 of the Vaadin Framework. It introduces the final major set of new features in Vaadin 7, for the purpose of receiving feedback about the changes.

The major changes in this first beta release are:

• Applications are now written by extending the UI class
  • UIs use heartbeat to detect closing
• The Application class is removed altogether
• ApplicationServlet is replaced with VaadinServlet
• ApplicationResource is replaced with ConnectorResource
• Themeing with SASS in addition to CSS
• Add-ons can modify the startup page
• All addListener() methods have changed to listener-specific methods, such as addClickListener(), addValueChangeListener(), etc.
• Packaging has changed, now in a ZIP package (again)

The following major changes were first introduced in the alpha releases:

• GWT is now built into Vaadin Framework
  • New SuperDevMode allows debugging client-side Java code in the browser without any plugins
  • Navigation API for view navigation
    • View navigation with bookmarking/linking with URI fragments and browser history support
    • Access control for views, view change confirmation
  • Component and root extensions
  • Resource loading (JS/CSS) by the framework
  • Complete overhaul of the client-server communication architecture
    • All add-on components that have widgets need to be ported to Vaadin 7
    • Integration of a GWT widget is done in a connector class
    • Component-to-widget mapping now defined on the client-side, in the connector
    • No more Paintable or VariableOwner
    • Server-side component and client-side widget can have a shared state object which is automatically synchronized
    • Both client-side and server-side can make RPC calls to the other side
      • Communicated in the next request/response
      • No return values
      • Typically for communicating events
    • Support for JavaScript components - GWT integration code not required
    • Handle JavaScript callbacks on the server-side
    • UIDL is deprecated
    • Compatibility layer for Vaadin 6 included for easy migration
  • Form is deprecated and form hand is replaced with the FieldGroup
  • Get computed style of a component from the browser
  • Support for border, padding, and margin in core layout components

  There are many other enhancements. Most of them are described in more detail in the mini-tutorials in the Vaadin Wiki.

  Please see the release notes for alpha1, alpha2, and alpha3 for the lists of where the major enhancements were introduced.

  ChangeLog

  For a complete list of changes in this release, please see the list of closed tickets.

  Migrating from Vaadin 6

  All Vaadin 6 applications need some changes when migrating to Vaadin 7. The most obvious changes are in the application/window API and require extending either Root or Root.LegacyApplication instead of Application.

  Vaadin 6 add-ons (ones that contain widgets) do not work in Vaadin 7 - please check the add-ons in Vaadin Directory for Vaadin 7 support.

  Any custom client-side widgets need to be changed to use the new client-server communication API or the Vaadin 6 compatibility API.

  A detailed list of migration changes are given in the Vaadin 7 Migration Guide.

  Vaadin @version@ Dependencies

  Bean Validation

  If you want to use the bean validation feature in Vaadin 7, you need a Bean Validation API implementation. You need to install the JAR in the WEB-INF/lib directory.

  Upgrading to Vaadin @version-minor@

  Upgrading the Eclipse Plugin

  This release requires that you use the experimental Vaadin Plugin for Eclipse. Its update site is http://vaadin.com/eclipse/experimental. Please see the installation instructions for more details.

  General Upgrading Instructions

  When upgrading from an earlier Vaadin version, you must:

  • Recompile your classes using the new Vaadin JAR. Binary compatibility is only guaranteed for maintenance releases of Vaadin.
  • Recompile any add-ons you have created using the new Vaadin JAR.
  • Recompile your widget set using the new Vaadin JAR and the newly compiled add-ons.
  • If you have extracted a theme from the Vaadin JAR, you need to update it with the theme provided in the new Vaadin JAR.

  Remember also to refresh the project in your IDE to ensure that the new version of everything is in use.

  Using the "?debug" URL parameter you can verify that the version of the servlet (JAR), the theme and the widgetset all match.

  Eclipse users should always check if there is a new version of the Eclipse Plug-in available. The Eclipse Plug-in can be used to update the Vaadin version in the project (Project properties » Vaadin).

  Maven users should update the Vaadin dependency version in the pom.xml unless it is defined as LATEST . You must also ensure that the GWT dependency uses the correct version and recompile your project and your widget set.

  Liferay and other portal users must install the new vaadin-@version@.jar as ROOT/WEB-INF/lib/vaadin.jar in the portal. Additionally the contents of the VAADIN folder from the JAR must be extracted to the ROOT/html/VAADIN directory in the Liferay installation. If your portal uses custom widgets, install the latest version of Vaadin Control Panel for Liferay for easy widget set compilation.

  Notes and Limitations for Google App Engine

  The following instructions and limitations apply when you run a Vaadin application under the Google App Engine.

  • Applications must use GAEApplicationServlet instead of ApplicationServlet in web.xml.

  • Session support must be enabled in appengine-web.xml:

        <sessions-enabled>true</sessions-enabled>

  • Avoid using the session for storage, usual App Engine limitations apply (no synchronization, i.e, unreliable).

  • Vaadin uses memcache for mutex, the key is of the form _vmutex<sessionid>.

  • The Vaadin WebApplicationContext class is serialized separately into memcache and datastore; the memcache key is _vac<sessionid> and the datastore entity kind is _vac with identifiers of the type _vac<sessionid>.

  • DO NOT update application state when serving an ApplicationResource (e.g ClassResource.getStream()).

  • AVOID (or be very careful when) updating application state in a TransactionListener or a HttpServletRequestListener - they are called even when the application is not locked and won't be serialized (e.g ApplicationResource), and changes can thus go missing (it should be safe to update things that can be safely discarded later - i.e valid only for the current request)

  • The application remains locked during uploads - a progress bar is not possible

  For other known problems, see open tickets at developer site dev.vaadin.com.

  Supported Technologies

  Vaadin 7 is compatible with Java 6 and it is also compatible with most other operating system supporting Java 6 or newer.

  Vaadin 7 is supported on the following operating systems:

  • Windows
  • Linux
  • Mac OS X

  Vaadin 7 requires Java Servlet API 2.4 but also supports later versions and should work with any Java application server that conforms to the standard. The following application servers are supported:

  • Apache Tomcat, version 5.0-7.0
  • Oracle WebLogic® Server, version 9.2-10.3.5(11gR1)
  • IBM WebSphere® Application Server, version 6.1-8.0
  • JBoss Application Server, 4.0.0-7.0
  • Jetty, version 5.0-7.0
  • Glassfish, version 2.0-3.1

  Vaadin 7 supports the JSR-286 Portlet specification. All portals that implement either of the portlet specifications should work. The following portals are supported:

  • Liferay Portal 5.2-6.0
  • GateIn Portal 3.1
  • eXo Platform 3

  Vaadin also supports Google App Engine.

  Vaadin supports the following desktop browsers:

  • Mozilla Firefox 12-14
  • Internet Explorer 8-9
  • Safari 5
  • Opera 11-12
  • Google Chrome 19-21

  Additionally, Vaadin supports the built-in browsers in the following mobile operating systems:

  • iOS 4-5
  • Android 2-4

  Vaadin on the Web

  • vaadin.com - The developer portal containing everything you need to know about Vaadin
  • demo.vaadin.com - A collection of demos for Vaadin
  • vaadin.com/learn - Getting started with Vaadin
  • vaadin.com/forum - Forums for Vaadin related discussions
  • vaadin.com/book - Book of Vaadin - everything you need to know about Vaadin
  • vaadin.com/api - Online javadocs
  • vaadin.com/directory - Add-ons for Vaadin
  • vaadin.com/pro-account - Commercial support and tools for Vaadin development
  • vaadin.com/services - Expert services for Vaadin
  • vaadin.com/company - Information about the company behind Vaadin
  • dev.vaadin.com - Bug tracker
  • How to get the source code of Vaadin

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