Talk at EclipseCon Europe 2016, Ludwigsburg, Germany

1. Alexander Nyßen, itemis AG
Project Lead
Image courtesy of Stefan Rimaila/ flickr
The next generation
Graphical Editing Framework
GEF(4) Dot Oh Dot Oh

2. GEF 3.x
• Provides framework components for Eclipse-integrated
graphical editors and views
• Based on SWT as underlying rendering technology
• Initial contribution by IBM in 2002 and Chisel Group in 2007
• In pure maintenance mode, but remains on the ‚train‘
Image courtesy of Hamad Aziz/ flickr

3. GEF4
• Provides end-user tools and framework components for
graphical rich-client Java applications, Eclipse-
integrated and standalone
• Based on JavaFX as underlying rendering technology
• Graduation release (1.0.0) with Neon
• Bugfix release (1.1.0) with Neon.1
Image courtesy of NASA

4. The next generation has (finally) taken over…
GEF „Generations“
GEF4
GEF
GEF-Legacy
GEF
0.1.0/0.2.0 1.0.0/1.1.0
5.0.03.10.0/3.10.1 3.11.0
3.10.0/3.10.1
(Mars)
4.0.0/4.1.0
(Neon)
5.0.0
(Oxygen)
?
[Draw2d, GEF (MVC), Zest]
[Common, Geometry, FX, MVC,
Graph, Layout, Zest, DOT, Cloudio]
Project Releases
Image courtesy of zeitfaenger.at / flickr

5. https://github.com/eclipse/gef
https://github.com/eclipse/gef-legacy
GEF@GitHub
GEF-Legacy@GitHub
GEF „Generations“

6. Cloudio
GEF(4) Components
Image courtesy of Michael Stern / flickr
DOT
Common Geometry FX MVC
Graph Layout Zest
• GEF(4) provides nine loosely coupled components.
• Cloudio and DOT provide end-user features
• The other components form two basic framework stacks:
• Common Geometry FX MVC
• Graph Layout Zest

7. Cloudio -TagCloudView

8. DOT - Editor & GraphView
AbstractBehavior

9. Neon
• Disclosure of preliminary API
• Validation for style, splineType, point, arrowType, shape
• Rendering of decorations, splines, and labels
• Native layout integration
DOTCloudio
Oxygen
• Further editing (validation & proposals) and rendering
capabilities
• HTML-like labels and subgraphs

10. Undeployed Examples

11. GEF - Components
UI ≃ Eclipse UI
FX ≃ JavaFX
Geometry
FX.JFace
Layout
MVC.FX.UI Zest.FX
MVC.FX
FX
Graph
Zest.FX.UI
DOT
Common
Cloudio.UI
FX.SWT
Zest.FX.JFace
DOT.UI
Geometry.Convert.FX Geometry.Convert.SWT

12. DEMO - MVC Logo Example

13. NeonOxygen
• Connection Decoration Clipping
• Orthogonal Router & Orthogonal Bending
• Palette Support
Common Geometry FX MVC
• Snap-To-Geometry Support
• Major API revision (Merge MVC & MVC.FX)

14. GEF - Components
UI ≃ Eclipse UI
FX ≃ JavaFX
Geometry
FX.JFace
Layout
MVC.FX.UI Zest.FX
MVC.FX
FX
Graph
Zest.FX.UI
DOT
Common
Cloudio.UI
FX.SWT
Zest.FX.JFace
DOT.UI
Geometry.Convert.FX Geometry.Convert.SWT

15. DEMO - Zest Graph Example

16. NeonOxygen
• Enhanced builder API
• Layout now Graph-based (I/O model)
• JFace-API cleanups
Graph Layout Zest
• Live vs. Background Layout

17. • Java-9 compatibility
• API cleanup/revision (MVC)
• Support for HTML-like labels, subgraphs
• Bundling of Graphviz executable (CQ 11140)
• Snap-To-Geometry Support
• Background Layout
• JSON Persistence
OxygenThemes