Exadel Bloggers

Exadel Tiggr - a web-based tool for creating, sharing and collaborating on application mockups just got a new feature: upload your own image assets. It’s now possible to upload your image and use it in a mockup.

To upload an asset, select Project/Assets… and you will see the following screen:

You can upload one or more images to be used later.

When you need to insert your image, drag and drop Image widget into the scene:

Click the image and from image properties (on the right) click Change… to open the assets windows (from above). Then just select the image you want to use.

Let’s say you wanted to create a page that searches RichFaces user guide that looks like this:

Pretty cool, right?

I will be teaching and presenting at Herbstcampus conference in Nuremberg, Germany next week. There is still time to register for my RichFaces workshop on Sunday, September 12th.

Discount
Get 25% discount by using this URL. Alternatively, you can use this booking code: ceHioRcpiD.

I also have two general sessions (one of them has changed):

Ajax Applications with JSF and the two New RichFaces 4
Monday, September 13, 2010
More info >>

I was going to do a session on JavaFX in the enterprise but decided to change it and do a session on Mobile Development Choices: Native Apps vs. Web Apps. It should be a very interesting session.

Mobile Development Choices: Native Apps vs. Web Apps
Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 11:20
Recently, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of smart phones and tablet-like devices. This has forced organizations to meet a new requirement that their applications have to work with mobile devices. At same the number and variety of platforms for mobile applications has also increased greatly (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows 7, webOS and Symbian). This has made it hard for organizations to know how to choose the right development path. That’s where this session comes in. In this session, we will explain the specific options available today, looking at the pros and cons of the two main approaches for mobile development: native apps or mobile-targeted Web apps.

Links for 2010-09-07:

• Exadel Tiggr gets another mention at Top 21 blog
• Check out this beautiful application built with RichFaces

RichFaces 4 is one more milestone closer to GA. This week JBoss and Exadel teams have released RichFaces 4 Milestone 2. This milestone includes:

• New components: accordion, autocomplete, inplaceInput, and inputNumberSlider
• Large scale stabilization to our core and CDK modules.
• The RichFaces Showcase Demo now includes all the components
• Support for cloud deployment is coming

For more details, head to this post by Jay Balunas. There is more information on Milestone 3 plans as well as final release.

If your team considering RichFaces 4, to get them up to speed faster, consider on-site RichFaces training or 1-day RichFaces 3 to 4 workshop.

Two other RichFaces events coming up:

• Workshop: RichFaces 4 workshop at Herbstcampus in Nuremberg
• Webinar: Ajax Applications with JSF 2 and the New RichFaces 4

One of the neat features in Exadel Tiggr mockup creation and sharing tool is dynamic widgets. Let me explain. Let’s say you have a tab panel with three tabs. Different content goes into the three tabs. When designing mockups, there is no simple way to show what content/widgets go into the first tab, the second and so on. With Tiggr is very simple because the tab widget is dynamic. In other words, you can click on the tab and switch between them. This way you can place different content into the tabs during design as in real application.

First tab:

Second tab:

Third tab:

To edit tab label, just double-click on the text. And, to add/remove tabs, click on the tab and invoke the context-menu as shown:

Exadel Tiggr links for 2010-08-31:

• Exadel Tiggr Mockups (via Hobione’s Weblog)

• Interview with Andrey Komolov

Exadel Tiggr is an online hosted application for creating and sharing mockups. It’s in a free beta right now. We’ve been excited at the interest and feedback, and we want more feddback. Try Exadel Tiggr and give us your opinions to help shape it into the perfect online collaboration utility. Here is a blog entry [...]

RichFaces 3 webinar series with slides and actual webinar recordings (at the end of this post).

Introduction to RichFaces View more presentations from Max Katz.

RichFaces: more concepts and features View more presentations from Max Katz. RichFaces: rich:* component library View more presentations from Max Katz. RichFaces skins View more presentations from Max Katz.

Webinar recordings:
Starting with RichFaces
March 24, 2009
More RichFaces Features and Concepts
April 21, 2009
RichFaces UI Components (rich;* tag library)
May 20, 2009
RichFaces Skins
June 16, 2009

Internet Retailer will be holding it’s first Mobile Commerce Forum on October 12th and 13th in Chicago. Donna Burke and Toni Toy from Exadel will be there in our booth #110. Thay will be available to talk about Exadel mobile commerce solutions for putting “your store in a pocket” either through mobile enablement of Web [...]

If you are working on mockups for your application, then drop your pencil and try Exadel Tiggr. Tiggr is a web-based collaboration platform for creating and sharing mockups online. If you are working with a customer or a remote team, it’s the perfect tool to collaborate on UI design. If you need any help or have questions, head to http://getsatisfaction.com/exadel.

Interesting write-up on present and future of JavaFX by Osvaldo Pinali Doederlein. I had two posts on this topic JavaFX… does it have a future? (mentioned by Osvaldo) and JavaFX… it does have a future.

If you are planning to attend Herbstcampus conference in Nuremberg, September 12-15, use this URL to get 25% discount. Alternatively, you can use this booking code: ceHioRcpiD.

I’m will be doing a RichFaces 4 workshop as well as two regulation session during the conference. More information.

M-commerce has strong features that can affect the way we look at traditional retail. Here are a few: Electronic coupons Customized promotions In-store research In-store product location Payment Let’s look in more detail at how these features can change retail today and how companies can adapt to them. Electronic coupons: Several apps are already doing [...]

JSF 2 now has basic Ajax support via f:ajax tag. RichFaces 3 has a very popular a4j:support tag (in fact, f:ajax was inspired by a4j:support). RichFaces 4 comes with a4j:ajax which is based on f:ajax but upgrades the tag with more features and advanced functionality. The table below show the attributes available in both tags and how RichFaces upgrades the core Ajax functionality in JSF 2 (I’ll cover a4j:ajax extra attributes in the future).

In addition to a4j:ajax, RichFaces upgrades JSF 2 with tags such as a4j:commandButton, a4j:commandLink, a4j:poll, a4j:jsFunction, a4j:outputPanel and more (covered in future posts).

Attribute f:ajax a4j:ajax event Works the same Works the same execute @all
@this
@form
@none
Id’s
EL @all
@this
@form
@none
Id’s
EL (different behavior, id’s are resolved in current request)
@region (when a4j:region is used) render @all
@this
@form
@none
Id’s
EL @all
@this
@form
@none
Id’s
EL (different behavior, id’s are resolved in current request) listener Works the same Works the same onevent Works the same Works the same onerror Works the same Works the same immediate Works the same Works the same disabled Works the same Works the same onbegin n/a JavaScript to execute before Ajax request onbeforedomupdate n/a JavaScript to execute after response comes back but before DOM update oncomplete n/a JavaScript to execute after DOM update bypassUpdates n/a Skips Update Model and Invoke Application phases, useful for form validation limitRender n/a Skips all a4j:outputPanel ajaxRender=”true” areas. Only renders what is set in current render status n/a Status to display during Ajax request focus n/a Sets focus on component after Ajax request (not yet implemented)

Exadel released new JavaFX Plug-in for Eclipse version 1.3.5. The two major features are:

• Setting VM parameters for JavaFX application
• Option to specify custom JNLP arguments

To download the latest version or install via Eclipse update, go to http://exadel.org/javafxplugin.

There are also a number of bug fixes and more improvements to the application launcher. You can see what else changed in the Release Notes (make sure to read changes about launch configuration).

To see what features and bug fixes or even suggest your own are making it into the next version, click here. Don’t forget the forum for any other questions/comments.

Exadel Flamingo now has support for CDI (JSR299) and Bean Validation (JSR303). You can try the features from a nightly build.

The following features are supported so far:

• Calling CDI bean methods
• Support for EL (Expression Language). Bind to values and invoke methods with EL in JavaFX
• CDI conversations
• Bean Validation (JSR303)

To download a nightly build, go to http://exadel.org/flamingo and click on Nightly builds on the right.

To get started with JavaFX and CDI/Bean Validation, you can look at these examples as reference. The client side code is the same, the only difference is instead of Seam components, you now use CDI beans on the server (and the appropriate annotations).

We are also planning to add CDI events. If there is anything else we should add, please let us know.

RichFaces 4 is not only JSF 2 based, but also undergoing a major upgrade on the framework level. Many components are being rewritten to increase performance, reduce markup size, and make them consistent across the board. RichFaces 4 is a major upgrade and brings many improvements:

• All JavaScript is now based on jQuery
• Ajax framework improvements extending the JSF 2 specification
• Component review for consistency, usability, and redesign following semantic HTML principles
• Both server-side and client-side performance optimization
• Strict code clean-up and review
• New and easy to use CDK (Component Development Kit)

Although core Ajax concepts are staying the same, RichFaces 4 brings many new changes because it is now based on JSF 2. RichFaces 4 adds many new features on top of JSF 2 through its advanced features, tags, customization, and flexibility. If you have been using RichFaces, this 1-day training will bring your team up to speed with everything new in RichFaces 4. If you have questions, please contact me at:

I will be presenting and teaching a RichFaces workshop in Nuremberg, Germany during Herbstcampus conference, September 12 – September 15, 2010.

With the upcoming RichFaces 4 release, the workshop will cover RichFaces version 4. This is a great opportunity to learn standard JSF 2 Ajax features and how RichFaces 4 advanced features, tags, customization and richness add on top of JSF 2. RichFaces 4 is a major upgrade. A lot of core functionality is being rewritten to make RichFaces faster and better. Many components are being rewritten to make them simpler, perform faster and consistent across board.

Discount
Get 25% discount by using this URL. Alternatively, you can use this booking code: ceHioRcpiD.

RichFaces workshop (full day)
Sunday, September 12, 2010
More info >>

I also have two general sessions.

Ajax Applications with JSF and the two New RichFaces 4
Monday, September 13, 2010
More info >>

Enterprise Applications with JavaFX and Flamingo
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
More info >>

As a reminder, we are also doing a webinar on September 8, 2010:
Ajax Applications with JSF 2 and the New RichFaces 4
Register >>

With the upcoming release of RichFaces 4, we are doing a webinar on new RichFaces 4. Register and learn what’s new in RichFaces 4.

When:
Wednesday, September 8, 2010 | 2pm EDT (GMT-4 New York) / 18:00 GMT / 8pm CEST (GMT+2 Paris)

Abstract:
RichFaces is a JSF framework with AJAX components (over 100), skins, themes, and a component development kit. Although JSF 2 now offers basic AJAX functionality (which was, in fact, greatly inspired by RichFaces), a broader rich component library is still needed to build most real-world JSF AJAX applications. This webinar will first cover JSF 2 AJAX features and then the extra value the new RichFaces 4 adds on top of JSF 2 through its advanced features, tags, customization, and flexibility. Whether you are new to using JSF for developing AJAX applications or you can already show your JSF battle scars, this webinar has something to offer to you.

Click image to view larger version

As the creators of RichFaces, Exadel is involved in a large number of projects where RichFaces is being used. In most cases, the development is done by remote teams where the customer is working with Exadel’s teams in Eastern Europe. In some instances one or more developer could be at the customer site as well.

One of the challenges that we always faced is how to create page mockups when working with remote teams. The usual approach is for a designer to create mockups in some format and then email them to the team or the manager for feedback and review. Of course this approach presents a number of challenges such as time delay, and difficulty in providing feedback to the mockups. You end up writing on the graphic with arrows and text suggesting where to place or move various visual components.

Image if you could create and share mockups with any number of remote users instantly? Any changes you made to the mockups would instantly be seen by every one else viewing the session. Let’s say you need to move the Login component slighty to the left, you move it to the left and everyone viewing the session sees the change. No more going back and forth via email. Considers this as a “live whiteboard” where any number of remote users can create mockups in real time. Think of it as Google Docs for mockups.

Exadel has created an online application called Tiggr to let’s you do just that. Create and share mockups online with any number of designers, developers, project manager or anyone you want. The best way to see and learn what Tiggr can do is to create an account (we only ask for your email), then create and share some mockups with your team.

Try Tiggr Now

Tiggr features

• Hosted

  • Nothing to download

  • Keep your work online, access from anywhere
  • Create mockups in minutes
• Collaborative
  • Invite your friends/colleagues/clients
  • Share and edit your mockups

  • See updates in real-time

  • User chat
• Visual editor
  • Drag-and-drop
  • Fast and easy
  • Components tree

  • Properties editor

  • Multiple scenes (screens)
  • RichFaces components as UI design elements (Tiggr is the only design tool offering RichFaces support.)
    • Containers with various layouts (vertical, horizontal, flow, absolute)
    • Tab panels
    • Most popular JSF/RichFaces components
    • Data table with cols/rows span/split
• Export
  • Make screenshots and save on your computer

Roadmap Release 1.1.2

• Images as project assets
• Standard editing tools(copy/cut/paste)

Release 1.1.3

• Project skins and default styles for UI components

Release 1.1.4

• Markup palette
• Project preview and export in HTML