Sections

Introduction to XUI
Should I use the XUI libraries or the Kalideoscope editor
What libraries should you use
Building your first XUI application
Further documentation

Introduction to XUI

If you haven't used the XUI platfom you may be wondering what exactly it is and how it can help to improve and speed up the development process.

• This short introduction to XUI gives a quick overview of the platform.


• The screenshots section shows the type of applications which can built with XUI.


• There are a number of demo applications which can be run via Java WebStart.

Should I use the XUI libraries or the Kalideoscope editor

XUI applications can be built with the core libraries in the IDE of your choice. You may however want to use the Kalideoscope editor which is a plugin for the Netbeans IDE in order to visually edit your XUI applications. Screenshots of the Kalideoscope editor can be found under the Kalideoscope zone on this site.

The Kalideoscope editor has been designed to be used in conjunction with the latest version of the Netbeans editor. Version 5 of the Netbeans editor can be downloaded from the Netbeans site and the Kalideoscope plugin can be downloaded from the SourceForge site.

What libraries should you use

The latest XUI version is 2.0.6 as of 15 February 2006 and the jar files can be downloaded from the SourceForge site.

There are XUI libraries built with versions 1.1.8, 1.4 and 1.5 of the JDK. Each of these in turn have debug and non-debug builds available. The debug libaries are for use during the development of your XUI applications and will provide you with useful console information.

The non-debug versions are for deployment with the release versions of your applications and have the debug information compiled out. These release versions contain no console information, they are considerably smaller and will run more quickly than their debug counterparts.

There is an optional jar available which will give you access to additional helpers and extensions to the Core XUI package

In addition to the different JDK versions, there are different versions for building applications with AWT or Swing. The 1.1.8 version of XUI is intended for use with the Microsoft JVM built into Internet explorer.

In summary, the XUI releases are...

JDK	Widget set	Debug	Non-Debug
1.1.8	AWT core Swing core	XuiCore_debug_v2_0_6_jdk1_1_8.jar XuiCoreSwing_debug_v2_0_6_jdk1_1_8.jar	XuiCore_v2_0_6_jdk1_1_8.jar XuiCoreSwing_v2_0_6_jdk1_1_8.jar
1.4	AWT core Swing core Optional	XuiCore_debug_v2_0_6_jdk1_4.jar XuiCoreSwing_debug_v2_0_6_jdk1_4.jar XuiOptional_debug_v2_0_6_jdk1_4.jar	XuiCore_v2_0_6_jdk1_4.jar XuiCoreSwing_v2_0_6_jdk1_4.jar XuiOptional_v2_0_6_jdk1_4.jar
1.5	AWT core Swing core Optional	XuiCore_debug_v2_0_6_jdk1_5.jar XuiCoreSwing_debug_v2_0_6_jdk1_5.jar XuiOptional_debug_v2_0_6_jdk1_5.jar	XuiCore_v2_0_6_jdk1_5.jar XuiCoreSwing_v2_0_6_jdk1_5.jar XuiOptional_v2_0_6_jdk1_5.jar

The source code for the XUI project is also available for download if you want to make customisations to the core library.

Building your first XUI application

Using the Kalideoscope editor

Building your first application with the Kalideoscope editor is very easy. You simply select File | New Project from the Netbeans menu and the XUI wizard will guide you through the setup process.

A tutorial for getting started with the Kalideoscope editor can be found under the tutorials for Kalideoscope editor. If you want to use the tutorial offline you can download the stepsintroeditor.zip file from the Samples & Documentation package on SourceForge.

Using the libraries alone

If you have decided not to use the Kalideoscope editor, you can build XUI applications with the core libraries listed above. There are a number of tutorials available which will get you started with building your first XUI application.

• The introduction tutorial can be found here or can be downloaded for offline use from the Samples & Documentation package on SourceForge. The file for this tutorial is called stepsintro.zip
  
  
• An advanced tutorial can be found here or can be downloaded for offline use from the Samples & Documentation package on SourceForge. The file for this tutorial is called stepsadvanced.zip.

If you do not want to follow a tutorial, you can download a number of sample applications which will show you how XUI applications are created.

• The Sudoku sample application is a fully working application which can run as an applet or can be Java WebStarted
  
  
• The Carousel Components application can be Java WebStarted and the source can also be downloaded.
  
  
• There are several knowledge base articles which contain the stubs of basic XUI applications. Look for the articles with the Files subheading at the bottom.

The basic requirements for a XUI application

A sample XUI application can be downloaded from here. If you extract the archive you will see three files which are required as follows.

startup.properties	This file contains some basic information about the application and it's startup properties such as the application title. The frame width and height and the startup page.
styles.xml	This is a stylesheet file which works in a similar way to CSS in HTML. Components can be styled easily with the styles which are defined in this file.
Welcome.xml	The startclass as defined in the startup.properties file above specifies this file as its startup class. There are two components, a label and a button which are declared in this file.

The application will run with the XuiCore library and the page will display, however without the class specified in the class attribute of Welcome.xml there will be errors in the console. This can easily be remedied by introducing the Welcome.java class. This class extends the XPage class and implements the btnClicked method which was declared in the Welcome.xml file.

Further documentation

Tutorials

As mentioned above the tutorials for XUI can be browsed from the website or downloaded from the SourceForge website under the Samples & Documentation package.

Introduction Tutorial	This tutorial introduces XUI and the basic elements required to build applications with it.
Advanced Tutorial	This tutorial follows directly from the introductory tutorial and shows how to customise and extend the core XUI functionality.
Kalideoscope Tutorial	Introduction to the Kalideoscope editor.

Manual

The manual provides a more technical overview of the XUI platform and assumes some basic understanding of the way XUI applications work and are built. The PDF version of the manual can be downloaded from SourceForge under the Samples & Documentation package. It can also be browsed on the XUI Zone.

Articles

New articles are posted on the articles section on a regular basis. These articles give previews of upcoming features as well as case studies of applications which have been developed using the XUI platform.