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KIELER Pragmatics 0.11.0

We are happy to provide release 0.11.0 of the KIELER Pragmatics Project! It is a framework for enhanced user interaction in graphical modeling that builds on the Eclipse platform. This document describes how to install the release and highlights the most exciting new features.

As a bonus, we are co-releasing our KLighD-based KIELER Ptolemy Browser. The KIELER Web Service for Layout (KWebS) will be updated to the new release soon as well.

 

Installation

KIELER Pragmatics 0.11.0 is provided as a set of features, available to be added to your Eclipse installation via an update site. KIELER Pragmatics 0.11.0 was tested on Eclipse 4.3 "Kepler", but may also be compatible with other versions of Eclipse.

  • See the KIELER Downloads site for download details.
  • KIELER Pragmatics requires an installed Java Runtime Environment >= version 1.5.
  • The layout components of KIELER can make use of the layout algorithms provided by the GraphViz library. You may want to install that.

See the KIELER Tools and Libraries page to download the KIELER Ptolemy Browser and the KIELER Web Service.

Release Notes

The 0.11.0 release of KIELER Pragmatics is mainly an effort to redesign our core APIs, KIML and KLighD. It includes a number of API-breaking changes, so beware of upgrading to this release if you currently do not have time to adapt your code accordingly. You can find a list of solved tickets for this release at our issue tracking system. Release notes of older releases can be found at our Release Notes page.

If you're wondering where components have gone that were traditionally a part of KIELER, you might not know yet that the KIELER was split into two separate projects, KIELER Pragmatics and KIELER Semantics, which release pretty much independently.

API Changes in 0.11.0

This is a summary of the API changes introduced with version 0.11.0:

  • KIELER Light-Weight Diagrams

    • IViewer<?> now provides the method getViewContext() as the view contexts contain the source/diagram elements mapping information.

    • IViewer's method getModel() is marked deprecated and will be removed soon.

    • ContextViewer's method getCurrentViewContext() is deprecated and will be removed soon.

    • The dedicated internal interface ILayoutRecorder now provides startRecording() and stopRecording(...). These method's are not supposed to be called by application code.

    • Diagram outline pages must now implement IDiagramOutlinePage (internal as well), viewer implementation providing outline pages must implement the related Provider interface.

    • The base plug-in de.cau.cs.kieler.klighd does not provide and support for KIVi (KIELER Infrastructur for Viewmanagement) anymore;

      • include the new plug-in de.cau.cs.kieler.klighd.kivi in order to use the established effects.

    • The DiagramViewPart, DiagramEditorPart, DiagramViewManager implementations moved to de.cau.cs.kieler.klighd.ui, which has been introduced with the last release.

    • The ViewContext, which is a record of all data required for building up a diagram, now provides a reference to the workbench part the diagram is shown in (was available via ContextViewer as yet).

    • IDiagramWorkbenchPart's getContextViewer() has been marked deprecated, simply use getViewer() (in case really need to access the ContextViewer call getViewer().getContextViewer())
  • KIELER Infrastructure for Meta-Layout

    • A new base feature for KIML was created, containing only the API, but no UI (use this feature if you don’t want the KIELER UI contributions in your application)

    • A generic type check was added to the method setProperty(...) in IPropertyHolder

    • DiagramLayoutEngine moved from kiml.ui plugin to kiml.service plugin

    • Added layout options for animation, zoom-to-fit, and progress bar display

    • Modified DiagramLayoutEngine methods to use these new options

    • IDiagramLayoutManager and LayoutMapping moved from kiml.ui plugin to kiml.service plugin

    • LayoutDataService implementation moved from kiml.ui plugin to kiml.service plugin

    • LayoutInfoService implementation moved from kiml.ui plugin to kiml.service plugin and renamed to LayoutConfigService

    • Extension point layoutInfo renamed to layoutConfigs, element option renamed to staticConfig, element semanticOption renamed to semanticConfig, element config renamed to customConfig

    • Created base class for LayoutConfigService in kiml base plugin

    • Layout configurators now reference domain model elements as Object instead of EObject

    • AnalysisService moved from kiml.service plugin to kiml.grana plugin

    • TransformationService moved from kiml.service plugin to kiml.formats plugin and renamed to GraphFormatsService

    • Extension point layoutManagers moved from kiml.ui plugin to kiml.service plugin

    • Removed support for IGraphLayoutEngine implementations from layoutManagers extension point

    • Created new class LayoutManagersService in kiml.service from code that was previously hidden in kiml.ui

    • Removed KWebS client for Eclipse (kwebs.client) and removed special code for that client from KIML

    • Moved content of KWebS base plugin to kwebs.server

    • Using IFactory interface for lazy creation of KIML service classes

    • Moved LayoutContext class to kiml.config

    • Modified ILayoutConfig methods: getAffectedOptions(..) instead of transferValues(..)

New Features Included in 0.11.0

Here's a few highlights of what's new in version 0.11.0:

  • KIELER Light-Weight Diagrams
    • In order to support early prototyping further, the KLighD Project Wizard (introduced with the 0.10.0 release) registers simple menu contributions if corresponding item is checked.
      Besides, the compiler settings of the created projects are locally set to Java 1.5 compliance level in order to avoid conflicts in combination with Java 1.7 runtime environments.
    • KLighD diagrams may be clipped in order to reduce depicted content.
    • In diagram synthesis implementations colors may now be set by means of the Colors enumeration in de.cau.cs.kieler.core.krendering package and corresponding methods in the KColoring classes.
    • The selection highlighting of diagram elements may now be specified by means of selection-specific KStyles with the related selection flag set to true. Find also related helper methods in the KRenderingExtensions. The sequence of a KInvisibility style with invisible = true (the initial value) and a selection-specific KInvisibility with invisible = false allows to uncover additional figure components in case of selection (smile)
  • KIELER Layout Web Services (KWebS)
    • We added a 'Live' section to the supporting server where you can play around with different graphs and options.
    • A new format (JSON) was introduced.
    • Besides the SOAP-based web service we know also support HTTP-Post requests, e.g. allowing a lightweight use from JavaScript.

Quickstart

Diagram Layout

One of the core features of KIELER Pragmatics is the KIELER Infrastructure for Meta-Layout (KIML). It provides the glue between diagram editors and layout algorithms. If you have installed layout support for GMF editors, you may want to try the following:

  • Open a diagram using a GMF editor.
  • Press the Layout button in the toolbar:
  • Open the Layout View by clicking Window -> Show View -> Other... and choosing Layout from the KIELER Layout category.
  • Change some of the values and press the Layout button again.

Viewing Ptolemy Models

If you have a Ptolemy installation, try the following:

  • Save a Ptolemy model as a .moml file somewhere.

  • Download and start our Ptolemy Model Browser.

    Note for Mac OS Users

    Starting with Mac OS X Mountain Lion, trying to start the Ptolemy Model Browser may give you the following error message:

    The problem is not that our application file is damaged in any way. Much rather, we have not invested the money to obtain a proper developer certificate with which this error would not be generated. The solution is to open your system preferences and navigate to the Security & Privacy settings. Therein, make sure to set Allow apps downloaded from to Anywhere:

    Start the Ptolemy Browser again. This will result in the following warning:

    Simple click "Open" and you're good to go at last.

  • Open your moml file.
  • Double-click actors that have further models inside them. Also double-click modal model states that have refinements. Use the sidebar on the right to influence how your model is displayed.

Known Problems and Limitations

  • The Layout Hierarchy option of KLay Layered does not work with center labels of edges that cross hierarchy boundaries. There may also be further problems.
  • The Ptolemy Model Viewer can properly display only a limited set of actors. Other actors may look a lot different than they do in Ptolemy.
  • Currently there is no full-blown user documentation integrated. See our KIELER Project for more information.

Bug Reports, Comments

We're working hard to make the graphical modeling user experience as convenient as possible. However, bugs can still remain in the code and some things might not be as you would expect them. Please don't hesitate to send in bug reports or give other comments like feature requests.

Send bug reports to kieler@…, please. For news or general questions subscribe to the rt-kieler mailing list.

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