 |
Q: Why
was this project started?
The project was started as
a necessity, when you have 50+ Delphi application developers
it is difficult to get every one up to speed to Java
and at the same time maintain the current Delphi projects.
So we chose to write utilities to facilitate the transition
for our developers and thus, the starting point for
our GUI builder.
Most application
developers care about three things, the business rules,
the User Interface and the interaction between UI interface
and business rules
Q: What makes the product
different?
There are two major differences between our GUI builder
and others, we do not produce code for the developer
and we have a simple XY layout.
First, the XY Layout makes it extremely easy for the
application developer to create an application screen
as well as a running application, similar to Delphi
or Visual Basic. Second, we chose to isolate the user
from the Java code, sort of a big box concept. In fact,
the developer has a great deal of control via all the
events, n addition the developer adds his/her code in
the event functions but no need to fool around with
messy listeners.
Q: What are the advantages?
We remove the application developer from two the biggest
complications: one the layout complexity and two the
listeners(s) complexity and, we handle them internally.
|
|
Q:
How and where is XML used?
The XML is used to store the object properties.
Q: How does it attach to different
databases?
We decided not to include any database connectivity
for version 1.0 there but we are currently developing
a database connector for JDBC, we should have a
beta for release 1.1.
Q:
What are the future plans?
Include a JDBC connector.
Provide database visual objects based on the open
source SwingSet project.
Easy include/import external classes and create
metadata on the fly.
Q: Can I use my standard Swing
classes?
We have created a basic metadata the represents
encapsulates almost of all the events and Swing
objects.
Q: How can I add other classes?
Currently, you may import classes via the "Import
Class" menu item, however, this version does
not produce the necessary GUI builder metadata.
On our next version, the import option will add
an metadata creation phase, so it will be transparent
for the user.
|
|
Q:How proprietary is this solution?
In fact, the solution is very open and not proprietary
at all. Apart from being open source, we have made sure
that we could include class from other open source projects,
for example our JDBC UI classes use the open source
SwingSet classes.
Q: What exactly is the Renderer?
The AbaRenderer engine uses the AbaGUIBuilder projects
and it redenders fully functional Java applications.
The AbaRenderer reads the meta-data from a XML file
or a compressed AbaGUIBuilder project to create Java
GUI components on the fly.
|
|
|
|
