Ultra Light Client Guide and Reference


What's new in ULC for Version 5.5.2

The ULC feature of VisualAge Smalltalk Version 5.5.2 has changed since Version 5.5.1. VisualAge Smalltalk Version 5.5 and Version 5.5.1 supported ULC 3.0. VisualAge Smalltalk Version 5.5.2 supports ULC 3.1. Here is a list of what is new for ULC 3.1 in Version 5.5.2:

UI Engine
  • The UI Engine supports JRE 1.2.2 and JRE 1.3. Previous releases of the JRE are no longer supported.
  • The API for requesting UI Engine properties has been enhanced by the following methods which will be executed synchronously:
    • getUIAvailableFontFamilyNames
    • getUIScreenHeight
    • getUIScreenResolution
    • getUIScreenWidth
    • getUISystemProperty
    • getUISystemProperties
  • Column renderers now honor the following properties (where available):
    • background color
    • foreground color
    • horizontalAlignment
    • verticalAlignment
    • font
  • All ULC enabler parts i.e. subclasses of UlcEnablerAbstract (ULCEnabler for ULC Java) now offer the setter property. This property holds the name (String) of a boolean setter method. If this property is set (i.e. not nil) the enabler will not send setEnabled(state) to its targets but will dynamically invoke the specified setter method with the current state as parameter on them. This is done using the Java Reflection API.
    Note:
    Normally you only specify the setter property on terminal enablers.
  • The visible content of an ULC shell can now be printed via the printScreen API.
  • The UI started in client mode can now also be requested to auto-reconnect by specifying the -autoReconnect parameter when starting the UI.
  • UITree and UITreeTable have been improved.
  • The date validation now supports the specified format (as described by Java's SimpleDateFormat class) correctly but will no longer filter the input (i.e. all characters can be entered and validation is done when the field is left).

ULC Smalltalk API
  • A dialog box will be displayed when the connection to the UI gets lost if the class method getConnDownErrorMsg is implemented in the class which is registered in the ULC system (see registerInUlcSystem).
    Note:
    When using IIOP connection the dialog box will not appear until the next event will be sent to the ULC server.
  • The profiler API has been simplified by removing the enabled/disabled state. The API is now simply start/stop.
  • An optional feature enables ULC applications started in server mode to keep the contexts (i.e. state) if a connection fails. This allows the UI Engine (started in client mode) to reconnect to those contexts (which would normally have been terminated). See ULC Client Reconnect feature for more details.
  • A ProgramStarter part has been added which allows to execute programs on the UI side
  • ulcWhenLookAndFeelReceivedSend: has been deprecated and should no longer be used. As of R3.1 getLook directly returns the result.


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