Smart GWT 3.1 / SmartClient 8.3 Feature Roadmap

While it’s only been a short while since our last product announcement, we certainly haven’t been sitting idle. We’re very excited to share a few of the great things we’ve been working on for the next release of Smart GWT and SmartClient. If there’s a feature you’ve been wishing for and it’s not on this list, please keep in mind that it’s always possible to influence our roadmap through Feature Sponsorship.

So, without further ado, here are the new features committed for Smart GWT 3.1 / SmartClient 8.3 that are coming soon.

New features

• Improved HTML5 Charts

• Printing with PDF export for all desktop browsers (except IE8 and earlier).
• Automatic handling of negative and discontinuous values (gaps in lines).
• New ‘skinning’ APIs to enhance control over fonts, colors, shadows and more.

• Cell-Level Selection

  the ListGrid now supports cell-level selection by setting canSelectCells:true. Click and drag to highlight blocks of cells, and select or deselect individual cells in the grid.

  

• Gauge Widget

  Speedometer-like display with configurable sectors, tick marks, labels, needle position and colors based on the Drawing module.

  

• Excel Copy and Paste

  Copy and paste tabular data between Grids and Excel (or similar spreadsheet applications). Grid to Excel, Grid to Grid, and Excel to Grid copy and paste are all supported.

  

• Timeline

  a Calendar widget for visualizing schedules, assigning tasks, or other horizontal displays of time-based information. Timeline supports drag to move or re-size events, hover for more detail, and editing by clicking events in the timeline.

  

• Component XML improvements & Documentation

  Component XML allows you to define screens or parts of screens in XML, including on-the-fly loading from dynamic storage such as a database.  Smart GWT 3.1 / SmartClient 8.3 also offers simplified APIs and more comprehensive documentation.

  

• More Powerful SimpleTypes

  SimpleTypes previously allowed you to define a reusable atomic field type such as a zipCode or emailAddress.  New in 3.1/8.3, the SimpleType API can now define custom sorting and filtering behaviors, and the underlying stored value can be a custom object rather than just an atomic type such as String.

• Simplified Localization for Server-Based DataSources (.ds.xml files)

  Directly configure localized field titles and error messages in your .ds.xml file. This is an improvement over the previous process that involved treating .ds.xml files as .jsps.

Coming soon

In addition, here is another new feature just on the horizon that is committed for a future release of Smart GWT 3.x/SmartClient 8.x:

• RTL Support

  RTL stands for “right-to-left” and is a key component when delivering an application in a language such as Hebrew or Arabic. RTL mode will horizontally flip the content layouts and ordering so that layouts reverse stacking order and show scrollbars to the left of every window. Astute users may have noticed that nightly development builds already have greatly improved RTL support. Official RTL support will be announced later this year.

Previously announced

• CSS3 skins

  Existing skins have been upgraded with a ‘CSS3 mode’. CSS3 skins have the same look and feel as current skins on modern browsers, but use radically less media, have a simpler Document Object Model (DOM) for faster rendering, and are easier to modify.

• Server Script Blocks

  Embed code snippets directly in .ds.xml files for server-side business logic. Use Java or any other language that can run in a Java Virtual Machine (JVM); including Groovy, server-side JavaScript, Python, Ruby, Scala and Clojure.

• *Workflow System

  Loadable XML workflow definitions that can handle multiple steps of user interaction and server contact, making multi-step wizards entirely declarative (*This feature is committed for inclusion in SmartClient only).

Although many of these features are functional now, if you’d like to begin working with them we recommend signing up for a Jump Start program. As always, please send us any bug reports or feedback in the Forums. Please be clear about what product and version you’re using when reporting issues.

These features are nearly complete and can be evaluated now in our Smart GWT 3.x and SmartClient 8.x nightly builds complete with samples and documentation. Download Smart GWT 3.x or SmartClient 8.x to get started using our new features today!

A Note for Smart GWT customers with 2.x Licenses

Smart GWT 3.x is a paid upgrade for Smart GWT 2.x license holders, and upgrade prices are based upon the date of your previous purchase. If you bought recently you may be eligible for a discount. Get access to the entire 3.x series by upgrading now! For a quote, please contact sales.

Enjoy!

The Isomorphic Team