Vaadin – thinking of U and I

Version @version@ built on @builddate@.

Release Notes for Vaadin @version@

• Overview
• General Upgrade Notes
• Instructions for Upgrading from IT Mill Toolkit 5
• Package for the experimental GWT Out-of-Process Hosted Mode
• Important known problems in Vaadin @version@
• Change Log
• Requirements

Vaadin @version@ is an update release for Vaadin 6. In addition to various fixes, it contains a number of significant enhancements.

• Widget set definition and component-to-widget mapping has been redesigned
• Reuse of widgets is now much easier, as it is easier to package and use widget set JARs and otherwise combine widget sets.
• A widget set definition class is no longer used. The Java code needed for widget instantiation and client-server mapping is now automatically generated by the GWT compiler. For the basic Vaadin user, a widget set is now defined only in a GWT module definition file (.gwt.xml).
• Server-side component is mapped to a client-side widget with an annotation:

  @ClientWidget(com.vaadin.demo.colorpicker.gwt.client.ui.VColorPicker.class)
  public class ColorPicker extends AbstractField {

• The getTag() method is no longer needed
• The Vaadin Plugin for Eclipse can create new widget stubs, define the mapping, and create widget set definition files (.gwt.xml).
• See WebContent/docs/example-source/build-widgetset.xml for an example on how you can compile widget sets and widget set JARs with Ant.
• A widget set builder allows automatic generation and maintenance of widget configurations, making use of widget set JARs easier.
• See notes below for upgrading widget set definitions and widget mappings from earlier version of Vaadin 6.
• Other enhancements to development of new components
• On the server-side:
• Listeners for custom client side events are now easier to implement with ReflectTools.findMethod() and addListener(String eventIdentifier, Class<?> eventType, Object target, Method method) methods. The latter automatically informs the client-side that a listener is registered on server side)
• On the client-side:
• Ability to check if a listener is registered on the server-side
• Typed arrays and maps can now be sent to server with updateVariable()
  • Note! This change affects existing custom components that send object arrays to the server. Previously, an Object[] sent from client to server was converted into String[] on the server-side. This invalid behavior is now fixed and an Object[] sent from client-side is an Object[] on the server-side.
• Portlet 2.0 (JSR 268) support
• A separate servlet for each portlet is no longer needed. (no separate servlet, no session problems, portlet-to-portlet communication, etc)
• OSGi support
• Vaadin now works as a OSGi bundle.
• Enhanced sorting of IndexedContainer and BeanItemContainer
• Custom sort methods can now be used to sort container contents.
• Improved event support
• Client-side events are sent to the server only when a listener has been registered for the event
• All built-in layouts (AbsoluteLayout, CssLayout, HorizontalLayout, GridLayout, and VerticalLayout) now support click listeners.
• Click events for Panel and Embedded.
• Focus and blur events for DateField, TextField, and Select
• JavaScript execution with Window.excecuteJavaScript()
• You can execute JavaScript directly from the server-side with the new excecuteJavaScript() method. You can use it, for example, for integration with other systems or for implementing print functionality (window.print()).
• Additional Maven archetypes
• vaadin-archetype-clean with a dependency to Vaadin and a minimal application skeleton, no client-side widgets
• vaadin-archetype-widget for creation of Vaadin 6.2 widget packages
• vaadin-archetype-sample has been updated for Vaadin 6.2 - use version 1.0.x for earlier versions of Vaadin
• Maven Vaadin plugin
• vaadin-maven-plugin can automatically update Vaadin 6.2 widget sets based on Maven dependencies using the goal update-widgetset
• HttpServletRequestListener
• Similar to TransactionListener, but only related to a single Application. Called before and after every servlet request and provides access to HttpServletRequest and HttpServletResponse.
• PortletRequestListener
  • Similar to HttpServletRequestListener, but for portlets. Called before and after every portlet request and provides access to PortletRequest and PortletResponse.
• Enhancements for the Portlet 2.0 support (#3918)
• Support for the edit and help modes
• Support for custom modes and changing modes programmatically
• See com/vaadin/demo/portlet/PortletModeExample.java in the demo source code in the installation package for an example
• Enhancements to various components:
• Window: Additional control over a sub-window: close and drag prevention.
• Tree: Item style generator enabling styling of individual tree items. Rendering optimizations.
• Tabsheet: Tabs can be marked as closable. The new CloseHandler can be used to ask for confirmation, prevent closing etc.
• SplitPanel: Double-clicking the splitter sends an event which can be handled on server-side.
• MenuBar: Many enhancements: individual items can be styled, support for separators, disabling of items, visibility of items.
• DateField: Support for lenient/non-lenient mode. A DateField is now by default in non-lenient mode (only accepts valid dates).
• Automatic integration tests
• All Vaadin builds are now automatically tested on all supported servers.
• Dozens of other small enhancements and bug fixes

Problem fixes and enhancements planned for upcoming releases can be found from the Vaadin Roadmap in Vaadin Trac.

As always, when upgrading from an earlier version, you should recompile any custom widget sets and refresh your project in Eclipse. If you are upgrading from earlier than 6.2.0, notice that Vaadin 6.2 uses GWT 1.7.0 (included in the installation package). See General Upgrade Notes for more details on upgrading.

Upgrading from an Earlier Version of Vaadin 6

The way how widget sets are defined has been simplified in Vaadin 6.2, as described above. Existing projects, where custom widgets (a custom widget set) are used, must be migrated when upgrading to Vaadin 6.2. Projects where the default widget set is used do not need migration. For most projects this should be a quite painless upgrade.

For applications where custom widgets are used (also applicable to widget projects):

• Remove the getTag() method from all components and replace it with a @ClientWidget(VClientSideWidget.class) annotation. Tag names are no longer used to map the server-side and client-side part of the component. This is done automatically using the @ClientWidget annotation.
• Remove the WidgetSet.java file. This file is no longer needed as the mapping between the server- and the client-side is done automatically using @ClientWidget.

If you are using widgets from another project (typically in a separate JAR file):

• Acquire a new JAR which is compatible with Vaadin 6.2 and add it to WEB-INF/lib. The widget set compilation will automatically include the JAR in your .gwt.xml during compilation if you use the Eclipse Compile Widget Set button. For Ant/Maven you need to specify the location of the widget set JARs that you want to include in the application widget set.

If you package a widget set as a JAR for use in other projects:

• Replace getTag() with @ClientWidget and remove the -WidgetSet.java as described above.
• Add a "Vaadin-Widgetsets: <fully qualified name of widgetset>" (e.g. "Vaadin-Widgetsets: com.example.widgetset.mywidgetset") row to the META-INF/MANIFEST.MF of the JAR file. This enables the widget set builder to automatically detect and include the widget set in other projects.

General Upgrade Notes

When upgrading from an earlier version of the Vaadin library, you should always do the following:

1. Install the new Vaadin JAR to your project
• If using the Vaadin Plugin in Eclipse, download and select the new version in project preferences.
2. Install new GWT JARs if the GWT version has changed
• The Eclipse plugin will automatically download the new GWT and update launch configurations and the project build path when you update the Vaadin version.
3. If you have custom widget sets, recompile them with the new Vaadin library using the included GWT compiler
4. If using the Eclipse IDE:
   1. Refresh the Eclipse project by selecting the project folder and pressing F5
   2. Restart the application server

Using the Vaadin project facet in the Eclipse IDE does the steps 1 and 2 automatically.

Instructions for Upgrading from IT Mill Toolkit 5

While the Vaadin 6 API is otherwise mostly backward-compatible with IT Mill Toolkit 5.4, the change of the product name has made it necessary to reflect it in the Java package names, some name prefixes, and some other details.

Server-side Upgrade Instructions

• Java Package names have changed:
• In all Java files using IT Mill Toolkit, rename package prefix com.itmill.toolkit → com.vaadin
• You also need to update the web.xml deployment descriptor:
• The servlet class is now com.vaadin.terminal.gwt.server.ApplicationServlet.
• Changes in themes:
  • Rename WebContent/ITMILL → WebContent/VAADIN
  • If you have extracted the built-in themes and widgetsets in IT Mill Toolkit JAR to the folder to have them served statically by the server, remove the old content and re-extract from Vaadin JAR.
  • This may require changes to build scripts for custom widgetsets, as well as to any code that relies on the old naming (it is discouraged but possible).
  • The new "reindeer" theme is the default theme in Vaadin; the old "default" theme in IT Mill Toolkit 5 has been renamed as "runo"
  • There is no longer a theme with name "default"
  • In your custom theme, replace:

    	@import "../default/styles.css";
    →	@import "../reindeer/styles.css";	if you wish to use the new default theme,
    or →	@import "../runo/styles.css";	if you wish to use the old default theme.

  • Use the new default theme with setTheme("reindeer") and the old one with setTheme("runo").
  • CSS class names now start with "v-" prefix instead of "i-"
  • Search and replace ".i-" → ".v-" in custom themes
• Embedding Vaadin applications in web pages:
• The name of the JavaScript variable used for launching applications has changed from "itmill.toolkitConfigurations" → "vaadin.vaadinConfigurations"
• Other changes in naming:
• Rename references to translateToolkitUri() → translateVaadinUri() method in ApplicationConnection class.

Client-side Upgrade Instructions

The following changes are relevant only if you have developed or integrated custom client-side widgets with Google Web Toolkit (GWT).

• GWT 1.7 is required for compiling custom widgets (optional)
• You need to upgrade GWT
• The GWT Compiler class name has changed:
• Replace com.google.gwt.dev.GWTCompiler → com.google.gwt.dev.Compiler in your widget set build script (Ant) or launch configuration (Eclipse).
• Replace the output directory argument for the compiler with the new WAR output argument: -out → -war. The directory parameter for the argument remains unchanged.
• The "I" (IT Mill) prefix in client-side widget classes has been changed to "V" (Vaadin), for example: IButton → VButton.
• Rename IToolkitOverlay → VOverlay

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

Package for the experimental GWT Out-of-Process Hosted Mode

We provide a separate (platform independent) installation package (vaadin-oophm-@version@.tar.gz) for the experimental Out of Process Hosted Mode (OOPHM) of GWT, which allows debugging client-side code in GWT Hosted Mode with a regular web browser. Using the OOPHM requires installing a browser plugin (available for Mozilla Firefox, IE, and WebKit). See the manual section on OOPHM for more details.

The Linux version of GWT Hosted Mode Browser is no longer compatible with Vaadin (#2299), so the OOPHM is the only option for debugging in hosted mode in Linux.

The GWT 1.7.0 version included in the OOPHM package is a custom build from GWT trunk and is not 100% compatible with the official GWT 1.7.0 release (#3270).

As the OOPHM package is experimental and because there are differences between the version packaged with Vaadin and the official version of GWT, you should use it only for debugging purposes during development. For production use, and generally when you absolutely do not need to debug using OOPHM, you should compile your custom widget sets with the regular Vaadin package for your platform.

Important known problems in Vaadin @version@

• #1155: Uncompressing the installation package fails in Windows if using the default Zip uncompression. Uncompression gives (in Windows Vista) an error message about too long filenames, and a more obscure message in other versions of Windows. Workaround: use 7-Zip or some other good unzip program for Windows.

• #2299: The Hosted Mode Browser does not work in Linux for debugging client-side GWT code. You need to install the experimental OOPHM package instead (see above) for development. For production, you should use the regular package for Linux.

• #3716: OOPHM Hosted Mode browser does not work in Firefox 3.0 with vaadin-oophm-6.x.x/gwt/plugins/firefox3/oophm-xpcom-ff3.xpi. As a workaround, the old oophm.xpi plugin provided in the IT Mill Toolkit 5.3.0 package works just fine with Vaadin OOPHM 6.1.4 and later.

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

Change Log

The following closed issues have been included in this release:

• #1595: Close button on TabSheet control
• #2594: Add support for native JSON evaluation in UIDL parsing
• #2632: Notifications should not be wider than the screen
• #2821: Sumbenu icon is not aligned with the menu item's text
• #2849: Deprecate MenuBar.setSubmenuIcon method, and provide the same functionality via CSS
• #2854: Paintable should be an appropriate variable type
• #2918: Same application is loaded in different portlet instances
• #3070: Tree's Items should be easily styled
• #3088: ComboBox, If only one item is listed, pressing Enter should choose it, not discard
• #3117: Portlet 2.0 (JSR-286) support
• #3120: Window.setClosable(boolean)
• #3133: Window draggability disabling feature
• #3175: Date Field "too big" date handling
• #3185: Add possibility to specify application CSS class name (Patch to make it easier to use Vaadin with Jython)
• #3230: Sub window should not be dragged or resized when the cursor is outside the browser window
• #3234: Component Event Listener Framework for all widgets/components
• #3259: Removing all action handlers
• #3277: MenuBar.MenuItem could have setVisible() method
• #3298: Split sources to several folders
• #3332: Redesign how widgets are packaged and how the widgetset is built
• #3338: Create a Maven archetype for creating a widget project
• #3367: It should be possible to specify parameters for embedded flash
• #3416: Theme should contain Vaadin version
• #3433: BeanItemContainer's sort is not overridable
• #3434: IndexedContainer's compare is not overridable
• #3451: ComboBox causes internal error when changing page too fast
• #3472: Give better error message if widgetset can not be loaded
• #3473: Detect if UIDL request returns 404 and show an error message
• #3479: Embedded applications should not change the page title
• #3483: PopupView rendering style inside a layout is unspecified
• #3498: Window doesn't get focus correctly
• #3499: PopupView CSS style is broken
• #3526: SplitPanel collapse and expand with doubleclick
• #3541: VerticalLayout//HorizontalLayout/GridLayout/AbsoluteLayout/CSSLayout should support click events
• #3544: Implement support for focus/blur events in TextField
• #3565: CommunicationManager is not serializable
• #3580: MenuBar stylenames aren't added to the submenu overlays
• #3589: Window.executeJavaScript()
• #3603: No DTD in generated GWT descriptor
• #3605: Patch to avoid concurrent modification exceptions in EventRouter
• #3631: LoginForm login button is too wide in IE6/IE7
• #3654: Decide on final PaintTarget.paintReference(Paintable, String) API
• #3655: ApplicationRunner logs unnecessary java.lang.ClassNotFoundExceptions
• #3678: MenuBar needs a separator item
• #3683: TextField.setRows() API needs reworking
• #3688: ContainerHierarchicalWrapper should stay ordered by the wrapped container
• #3715: Sub windows are shown as VView in debug console
• #3717: Parameterize BeanItem and ComponentContainer.getComponentIterator
• #3721: ComboBox can insert only new item without losing its focus
• #3731: Implement a simpler alternative to ApplicationContext.TransactionListener
• #3740: Tabsheet no longer fully serializable, doesn't work in GAE
• #3754: Add data.util.TextFileProperty
• #3755: Select throws IllegalArgumentException when browsing pages quickly
• #3756: Add support for passing a typed Object[] from client to server
• #3757: Add support for passing a typed map from client to server
• #3759: Cannot scroll to the last tab in a Tabsheet
• #3760: Scrollbars are missing in Safari/Chrome
• #3761: MenuBar breaks the application completely
• #3762: Dependency to javax/portlet/PortletRequest, won't work with GAE
• #3763: Add javadoc to public methods in ApplicationConnection
• #3772: Add notifier interfaces for focus and blur events
• #3775: Optimize Tree rendering
• #3782: ClassCastException when adding Window via addComponent
• #3783: ClickListener in Panel does not work
• #3784: Panel.setScrollTop does not work with invalid values
• #3785: Style names for MenuBar.MenuItem
• #3786: Add focus and blur events to Select/VFilterSelect and DateField/VTextualDate
• #3788: Typo in setWriteThrough's parameter name
• #3807: LoginForm doesn't work when multiple windows are used for the same application
• #3817: Upload: Browsers send different filenames
• #3819: Document that widgetset compiler loads classes
• #3820: DefaultItemSorter is not serializable
• #3824: Make sure build generates theme version
• #3825: AbstractComponentThrows NPE when both visible and enable is set to false
• #3828: TextField inside a layout inside a Table is clipped
• #3835: Portlet 2.0 does not support the "style" parameter
• #3843: Form caption is blue in IE
• #3845: Twincol select buttons are missing right border in IE6
• #3849: Undefined wide menubar is 100% wide in IE6
• #3850: Submenu icon is placed outside the menu in IE7
• #3859: Application contains mysterious deprecated methods
• #3874: Two click events is sent for a middle click in a layout
• #3879: Removing portlet leaks memory
• #3881: MenuBar collapsing slightly broken with Reindeer theme
• #3883: Extra white space at top when navigating in sampler with IE8
• #3884: Menubar with collapsed menus does not handle resize events properly
• #3885: Menubar with collapsed menus does not show arrow for showing collapsed items
• #3886: InputPrompt of TextField/Combobox does not change until refresh

Requirements

Vaadin is available for the following operating systems:

• Windows (see the Zip installation notice above)
• Linux
• Mac OS X Tiger (mac) or Leopard (leopard)
• Other UNIX operating systems, such as Sun Solaris, using the installation package for Linux.

Vaadin supports Java Servlet API 2.3 and later versions and should work with any Java application server that conforms to the standard. It supports the following application servers:

• Apache Tomcat, version 4.1 or later
• BEA WebLogic® Server, version 9.2 or later
• IBM WebSphere® Application Server, version 6.1 or later
• JBoss Application Server, version 3.2.8 or later
• Jetty, version 5 or later
• Glassfish, version 2 or later

Vaadin supports the following browsers for using the applications made with it:

• Mozilla Firefox 3
• Internet Explorer releases 6, 7, and 8
• Safari 3 and 4
• Opera 10

The support for browsers follows the support by GWT. The browsers are supported on both Windows and Mac, if available. Firefox is supported also on Linux (Opera 10a1 works also on Linux). There may be differences between the exact versions of the supported browsers that may cause incompatibility with applications made with Vaadin.

The following browsers are not supported but have been found to work to a large degree:

• Safari 2, and 4 beta
• Firefox 2
• Google Chrome 1.0.x (available only for Windows)
• iPhone (firmware 2.2)
• Midori (0.1.2)
• Epiphany (2.22.3), Galeon, and other Gecko-based browsers. Also WebKit-based Epiphany (2.22.3) works.
• Konqueror 4.2 (3.5.x does not work)
• Nokia Internet Tablet N800 and N810 (ITOS 2008, Opera-based browser).

The reported versions are those that have been tested, though other versions may work as well.

Nokia E-series phones, such as E90, have been known to work with older versions, but not with Vaadin 6. Links, Lynx, and other text-based browsers do not work.

Vaadin – thinking of U and I