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 the first update release for Vaadin 6. In addition to many bug fixes, the most significant additions are:

• Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is upgraded to version 1.7. You should recompile custom widget sets using the new version.
• Performance improvements (general, Table caching)
• Google App Engine (GAE) support.
• Maven support
• New NativeButton component that always uses the native button in the browser
• New CssLayout layout component
  • A fast low-level layout where the contained components are rendered as trivially as possible under a single div element.
  • Result can be similar to VerticalLayout or HorizontalLayout, depending on CSS, but is noticeably faster.
  • No spacing, alignment or expansion rations, unlike with the more feature rich layouts.
  • No abstraction of browser differences; you need to make sure the CSS supports all the browser that you want your application to support.
• Full support for Internet Explorer 8

See the Change Log below for a more detailed list of closed issues in this release.

Vaadin @version@ uses Google Web Toolkit 1.7.0, which is included in the gwt folder of the installation package.

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
2. Install new GWT JARs if the GWT version has changed
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.
• Possible problems when building widgetset using Windows and JDK 1.5. See Known Problems #2891 below.
• The "I" (IT Mill) prefix in client-side widget classes has been changed to "V" (Vaadin), for example: IButton → VButton.
• Rename IToolkitOverlay → VOverlay

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 compilation of OOPHM widget sets uses a large amount of stack memory, so if the JVM default is too small, you should set it explicitly in compile-widgetset.xml with the following parameter for the Java process (currently included in the example build script): <jvmarg value="-Xss1024k"/>.

As the OOPHM package is experimental, you should use it only for debugging purposes during development. For production use, 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.

• #2523: GWT Compiler 1.7 uses more stack space than 1.5 and can result in stack overflow errors. You can prevent the problem by giving the Java process more stack space with the -Xss parameter, such as: -Xss1024k. You can give the parameter in your widgetset build script with a <jvmarg value="-Xss1024k"/> parameter for the <java> task.

• #2891: As there is a bug in J2SE 5.0 that prevents setting the stack size for the main thread, widgetsets cannot be compiled using the standard GWT compiler of GWT 1.7 and JDK 1.5.0 (see #2656 for more details on the JDK bug). This bug primarily affects Windows users as other operating systems have a larger default stack size.

  Before that fix is available in a published GWT version, we provide a wrapper for the GWT compiler that runs the compiler in a separate thread, thus using the user-specified stack size settings also on JDK 1.5.0. Use com.itmill.toolkit.launcher.WidgetsetCompiler instead of com.google.gwt.dev.Compiler. You need the wrapper if you use a build script to compile custom widget sets; the Eclipse plugin uses the wrapper automatically. You can also avoid the problem by using JDK 1.7.

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

Change Log

The following issues have been fixed in this release:

• #1862: Add Vaadin to central Maven repository
• #2085: Tooltip for disabled button
• #2824: Full IE8 support
• #2931: URI Fragment broken in IE with empty fragment
• #2943: Reindeer theme button broken
• #2998: Table rendering in Firefox is very slow when the table contains components
• #3003: Table headers do not move in IE6
• #3065: Inactive accordion tab keeps width
• #3066: OptionGroup value changes to null if option label is clicked
• #3079: Button (reindeer) visually broken in Safari (Win)
• #3091: Table should iterate container using getIdByIndex if container is indexed
• #3096: Analyze layouts does not check sub windows
• #3110: Disabled buttons rendered wrong in IE7
• #3111: OOPHM hosted mode does not work in FF3.5
• #3122: Liferay session extension
• #3132: Refresh fails when moving components between layouts
• #3143: Table column expanding bugs if table has columns with defined size
• #3146: table selection : clearing selection is impossible
• #3147: Modal WIndow cannot be positioned
• #3148: CommunicationManager should not keep a reference to ApplicationServlet
• #3157: Spring Security form login does not work with Vaadin
• #3160: Regression: DateField stylenames are not added to the DOM
• #3164: DateField addStyle does not add information to DOM.
• #3166: "Use of the cached instance of VTabsheet clears the ""hidetabs""-flag and style-names"
• #3167: IllegalStateExcepton when session expires
• #3169: Removing first/second components from SplitPanel
• #3172: rendering-flag not cleared when cached version of VTabsheet is used
• #3177: PropertyFormatter NPE
• #3179: Application unresponsive after load on IE and Liferay
• #3180: Icon is misplaced when button width is relative
• #3181: Browser attributes should be non-null at Application.init()
• #3182: Label does not repaint on property changes
• #3183: Hidden HorizontalLayouts render wrong when set visible again.
• #3186: Add a close icon for Notification.ERROR (Reindeer)
• #3187: ComboBox shows all the choices again after selecting
• #3190: ComboBox looses its selection if value set by server before focus
• #3191: Split and open private writeAjaxPage for extension
• #3193: Button visually broken in IE8
• #3194: Test reindeer buttons in all configurations
• #3195: ReplaceComponent causes NPE in ChildComponentContainer
• #3199: Preventing tab change in a tabsheet hides the current tab
• #3206: VFilterSelect: Using arrow keys + enter to select an item does not always work
• #3208: Bad table performance when HorizontalLayout is used as a generated column base
• #3209: Table needs a method to adjust the caching programmatically
• #3213: Pecularities in accented character handling
• #3215: Popup shadow doesn't resize with panel
• #3222: Add functionality for embedded Vaadin application to resize parent frame
• #3229: IE6 has extra padding-top in VerticalLayout with spacing enabled
• #3231: VUpload depends on VNativeButton internal implementation
• #3232: Implement new default look for Runo theme button
• #3237: "New Button component does not react to ""click"" events"
• #3241: Parameters and URIs sometimes end up in the wrong window
• #3244: Empty screen when table.setPageLength(0) used (IE7)
• #3247: "VPopupView contains hard coded text ""Loading..."""
• #3249: NPE in CommunicationManager.getApplicationWindow
• #3251: Mac FF 3.5 renders obsolete scrollbars for table
• #3256: Compile Firefox 3.5 OOPHM plugin for Mac
• #3257: Button in a table is too wide in IE7

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 release 3
• Internet Explorer releases 6, 7, and 8
• Safari 3
• Opera 9.6

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 though also suffers from #2652). 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