Hi everyone!
I am delighted to bring you another update. The main theme of the new version is refactoring support. This is one of those features that I love the most: it makes the product much more helpful while keeping things unchanged on the surface. Read on for more details.
Refactoring
From the very start WireframeSketcher worked with multiple files which could reference each other in different ways. Screens can reference images and master screens, and storyboards are just a collection of pointers to other screens. Since the introduction of links the number of ways screens can point to each other simply exploded.
All these cross-file references create a difficult problem: what happens when a file is moved or renamed? Well, links are broken and must be fixed by hand. This is just not practical when you have a large number of mockups.
One of the most amazing things Eclipse gives you is its support for refactoring. You can safely make complex changes in your projects and Eclipse is smart enough to propagate those changes where needed. Today I am happy to announce that WireframeSketcher joins the ranks of plugins that support refactoring!
You can now seamlessly move files and directories around. Rename your images and screens and just reorganize your projects in the way you see fit. WireframeSketcher will kick in and magically update all the references in screens and storyboards that require it.
If you choose to preview the changes made by a move or rename here’s what you’ll see:
I hope you’ll find it as amazing as I do!
Hotspot widget
One other change in this version is a new Hotspot widget. The aim of this widget is to let you place links in places that do not have a link property. Like table cells, trees and text paragraphs. A particularity of the Hotspot widget is that it only stays visible in design mode.
Other changes
Here are some other small changes and bugfixes in the latest version:
- Added an ‘eye’ icon to the icon library
- Improved the support for auto-scrolling on widget resize
- Fixed a refresh issue in ‘assets’ directory
Updating
As usual to update to the latest version of WireframeSketcher just use the Eclipse update manager.
Enjoy!
Hi everyone!
As promised I am working on extensible palette and I have a first version ready for you. I intentionally kept this version simple so that we can build on it together. Please try it and let me know how it works for you and how we can improve it. Read on for more details.
Extensible Palette
The extensible palette adds a new “Assets” section where you can place your own elements. The palette can host both master screens and images. To add something to the palette, create a directory named “assets” in your project and place your files under it. You can use sub-directories to group related elements.
Here’s an example how the “assets” directory can look like:
And here’s how it’s rendered in the palette:
Note how the “icons” sub-directory was transformed into the “Icons” category which you can filter upon.
Each project can have it’s own assets in the palette. I think it might be interesting to be able to have global assets and I’d like to hear your opinion on this.
So please give the extensible palette a try in your own projects and lets see how far we can take it.
Other changes
Here are some other small changes and bugfixes in the latest version:
- Fixed drag & drop from the palette
- Added text alignment properties for Button, Rectangle and Circle widgets
- Fixed the issue with image resizing
- Added a filter icon to the icon library
- Decreased the minimum width required by Properties View
- Added font properties to Checkbox, Combo, Spinner, Radio button, Tabs and Tabbed Pane widgets
- Added disabled state toggle to Slider widgets
Swing2mockup
I’d like to point you to a new open-source project created by Sivasamy Kaliappan: swing2mockup. Swing2mockup lets you capture your Swing application UI and transform it into WireframeSketcher mockups. This project is in its early stages but it’s already quite functional. If you find it useful you can contribute back by giving Siva some much needed feedback.
Updating
As usual to update to the latest version of WireframeSketcher just use the Eclipse update manager.
Enjoy!