Visual Library API
Official

Overview of Visual Library API module

VisualLibraryAPI

The API provides a set of reusable pieces - widgets. By composing them you are creating a visualization. Each widget has various properties including layout, border, assigned actions, ... The library contains a set of pre-defined widgets that can be extended. All pluggable pieces are declared as interfaces or abstract classes - WidgetAction, Anchor, AnchorShape, PointShape, Animator, Border, GraphLayout, LookFeel, Layout, SceneLayout, Router, CollisionsCollector. Also they all have their built-in implementation.

What is New (see all changes)?

• Sep 27 '17 States for non-registered objects

  When the scene is incrementally rendered, it may be possible that a model object becomes selected before some widgets are registered with the scene. Hover, select, focus flags can be attached even to unregistered objects.

  Implemented in PR #308

• Jul 24 '13 Pan action allows change of invoking mouse button Built-in pan action is using button from Scene.getInputBindings().getPanActionButton() method. Default value remains MouseEvent.BUTTON2, i.e. mouse wheel, which is compatible with the previous implementation.
• Nov 29 '12 Widget Implements Lookup.Provider Class Widget implements interface Lookup.Provider. It already contains method getLookup().
• May 17 '10 Enhancement of the old layout and adding the possibility of minimizing the gaps between nodes. The old layout was improved in a way that nodes in a subtree are vertically aligned by the center of the super nodes. Also the possibility of overlapping in the old layout was removed by adding an approach based on the envelope of the (sub)trees. The second improvement was done by adding the possibility of minimizing the gaps between nodes. If a tree was very wide, the old layout used a lot of space. To prevent this the new algorithm with the possibility of minimization of gaps is based on the envelope. Therefore subtrees move as close together as possible.
• Sep 7 '08 Support for contiguous selection action added (factory method+provider+event) ActionFactory.createContiguousSelectAction creates contiguous selection action. ContiguousSelectProvider provides logic for selection action. ContiguousSelectEvent is an event for ContiguousSelectProvider.

Use Cases

See documentation for complete set of use-cases.

Exported Interfaces

This table lists all of the module exported APIs with defined stability classifications. It is generated based on answers to questions about the architecture of the module. Read them all...

Group of java interfaces

Group of java interfaces

Interface Name	In/Out	Stability	Specified in What Document?
VisualLibraryAPI	Exported	Official	The API provides a set of reusable pieces - widgets. By composing them you are creating a visualization. Each widget has various properties including layout, border, assigned actions, ... The library contains a set of pre-defined widgets that can be extended. All pluggable pieces are declared as interfaces or abstract classes - WidgetAction, Anchor, AnchorShape, PointShape, Animator, Border, GraphLayout, LookFeel, Layout, SceneLayout, Router, CollisionsCollector. Also they all have their built-in implementation.

Implementation Details

Where are the sources for the module?

The sources for the module are in the Apache Git repositories or in the GitHub repositories

What do other modules need to do to declare a dependency on this one, in addition to or instead of a plain module dependency?

No. Just set a normal project dependency on org.netbeans.api.visual (spec no.: 2.0) module.

Read more about the implementation in the answers to architecture questions.

Visual Library API

Package	Description
org.netbeans.api.visual.action	This package contains ActionFactory class which is factory of all built-in widget-actions provided by the library.
org.netbeans.api.visual.anchor	This package contains Anchor interface which is used by ConnectionWidget for defining its source and target point.
org.netbeans.api.visual.animator	This package contains SceneAnimator classes which is used for controlling animations on a scene.
org.netbeans.api.visual.border	This package contains Border interface which is used for supplying a border graphics for a widget.
org.netbeans.api.visual.export	This package contains the class necessary to export a Scene to an image file and get the coordinates from the exported image to create an HTML image map
org.netbeans.api.visual.graph	This package contains built-in graph-oriented models.
org.netbeans.api.visual.graph.layout	This package contains built-in graph-oriented layout algorithms.
org.netbeans.api.visual.laf	This package contains LookFeel class with style definition for colors and borders.
org.netbeans.api.visual.layout	This package contains Layout interface which defines a widget-layout.
org.netbeans.api.visual.model	This package contains ObjectScene class which is a scene with ability to register model-objects with widgets on the scene.
org.netbeans.api.visual.print	This package contains a single class ScenePrinter used to print a Scene according to various constraints.
org.netbeans.api.visual.router	This package contains Router interface which defines a router for ConnectionWidget.
org.netbeans.api.visual.vmd	This package contains a VMD visualization style.
org.netbeans.api.visual.widget	This package contains Widget class.
org.netbeans.api.visual.widget.general	This package contains general high-level widgets.