Like other Swing components, the Diagram's
modular construction
incorporates subcomponents to handle layout, rendering, view and
selection functions, as described below. Additional diagram features
include:
- background color and image
- scrolling, zooming, tooltips and mouse events
- user preferences popup menu
- optimized repaint management
- printing support
- image file generation in a normal or headless environment
Data Modeling. The diagram is
designed to work with data objects identified by keys and
characterized by attribute name/value pairs. The toolkit supports a
variety of ways to access application data to accommodate different
application and legacy architecture requirements with a minimum of
effort.
- Enable access to data attributes through property accessor methods,
a toolkit interface, or application code.
- Manage data using a data model and data events or
directly through the toolkit's API.
- Implement data models using a support class included in the
toolkit.
- Mock up data in XML for GUI development.
The TableModelAdapter is a data model that obtains its
data from the rows of a JFC/Swing TableModel and synchronizes
selection in the table and the diagram. The TableModelAdapter is a
separate component.
The Rendering configuration
determines how data objects and attributes are
displayed. Applications can configure and combine the toolkit's
renderers to achieve the desired display style for each data
object.
- Select renderers based on data object class and data or display
attribute values.
- Supports Java 2D[TM] primitives (outlined or filled shapes, text and
images) and drawing attributes.
- Multi-pass rendering.
- Customize renderers with plugins for data object
specific rendering, or implement custom rendering via the
javax.swing.Icon interface.
- Align renderers to a point or to the bounds of another renderer,
or apply coordinate transformations to renderers.
- Configure rendering in XML or application code.
The Element Model is a display
model that manages the content and layout of the diagram using
display elements to hold display and layout parameters for the data
objects, and processes data events to maintain the layout and update
the diagram. The toolkit provides a number of ways to handle layout
to suit different types of applications.
- Initialize display and layout parameters interactively in
the toolkit's design editor, or in XML, HTML image maps,
or application code.
- Match display information to data objects automatically by key.
- Obtain layout parameters from data objects.
- Implement a layout manager for custom layout strategies using the
toolkit's supporting classes.
The Selection Model manages selection
operation and maintains the set of selected elements.
- Select objects, areas within objects, or areas in the
background.
- Selection modes include single or multiple, shallow or
deep selection, new selection augments or replaces current
selection.
- Control selection by object or by rendered graphic.
- Event notification and API access.
The View maps modeling coordinates
to the display.
- Calculate view and diagram size automatically based on
diagram contents, or
- Optionally specify an anchor point or view rectangle
- Alignment, scale, margins, and resize policy parameters
- Support for dynamic layout based on the size of the diagram
The following Framework components
are included in the toolkit:
- Logging and tracing support
- Converters for application values read from text files
- Catalog for named graphic style attributes
- Toolkit configuration through properties files
Geo, to toolkit's design editor,
enables you to
- Interactively position objects and set display
attributes
- Test rendering configurations and style choices
- Import your plugin and customization classes as you develop
them
- Import data and toolkit configuration parameters to
simulate your application runtime environment
The toolkit's Design Tools enable
interactive configuration in IDEs:
- 8 property editors and a customizer
- Compatible with major IDEs
Toolkit Contents
- Toolkit class library, including the
Diagram and TableModelAdapter JavaBeans
- Design tools: property editors and
customizer for use with IDEs
- Geo, the toolkit's design editor
- 11 demos and 45+ example programs all with
commented source code
- 7 tutorials covering Geo, configuring
renderers, and programming with the toolkit
- 70+ page Developers' Guide
- API documentation
The toolkit is compatible with Java 5.0 and 6.0.
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