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ForeUI Blog

ForeUI V2.72: New Events, Actions and Properties

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Hello everyone, today we just released ForeUI V2.72!  This version provides some new events, actions and properties.

New Actions and Properties for Table

We have implemented 3 new actions to append, insert or delete data row for the Table element, as shown below:

Also there are two new properties available for Table  element:

What’s more, we made an enhancement on the “Table Cell Values” property, thus you can use variable (property) as the row or column index for the array.  With all these new facilities, we could use Table element as data reposition, to read/write real data in the prototype.  Thank Alan Finger’s suggestions on these.

Here is an example to make use of these facilities, you can also review it here:

New Event and Properties for Accordion

We added a new event named “Section Expanded/Collapsed” for the Accordion element.  This event will be triggered when you clicked on the header of section and expand/collapse the section.  Thank Tim’s suggestion on this.

What’s more, 2 new properties are available for Accordion.  They are “Section Count” and “Section Expanded Flags”.

Using these newly added event and properties, you could find out which section is expanded or collapsed.  The animation below is an example and you can also review it here:

“Note” Property for All Elements

Now with this new property, you can access the note for element during the simulation.  This property exists in all elements.  Thank Tim’s suggestion.

“Loaded as Master Page” Event for Pages

Any page can be used as master page.  However the “Page Loaded” event will not be triggered if the page is just loaded as master page.  So we add the “Load as Master Page” event for page.  It will be triggered when the page is loaded as master page.   Thank Tim’s suggestion.

Fixed Bugs:

  • Bug_0295: Reduce the height of a table row and make it smaller than the default value, the change could not take effect in simulation.
  • Bug_0296: When Table has no selected row, its “selectedIndex” property value should be 0 instead of -1 in simulation.

ForeUI V2.70: Accordion Element

Hello everyone, ForeUI V2.70 is now available!  This update brings you a brand new Accordion element and some other enhancements.

Accordion Element

This element is requested by Jeffrey Werner about 1 year ago, Audrey Taylor and Tim have the same suggestion recently.  We are so glad that we finally have this done.

The accordion element is actually a set of partly overlapped panels (sections), each panel has a header on top.  Clicking on the header of panel will expand/collapse the panel thus the content in panel will be show/hide as well.  It is a container element, so you can drag element into it with right mouse button hold.

There are many options for accordion element in the floating tool pane.  The “Multiple Expansions” checkbox can control whether the element support multiple expanded section.  You can specify the border color and the header background color, set the icons for collapsed/expanded sections etc.  Here is a tips: if you like to use different icons on different sections, try dragging icon from image dock and drop to the header for sepcific section.

Here is an example for accordion element usage.  There are two accordion elements in the plot.  The accordion on the left supports multiple expansions, and it is simulating an expandable menu; The accordion on the right only allow single expansion, and it is simulating a set of sliding contact groups.  This example is uploaded to the community site and can be reviewed here.

Enhanced “Set Table Cell Value” Action

From now on you could use properties (variables) in the row/column indices for “Set Table Cell Value” action.   Thus you can use two text input boxes in prototype and accept the row and column indices input by user in the simulation.

Fixed Bugs:

  • Bug_0286: For button with icon only, turn on the ‘underline’ decoration, then error happens and current action will halt.
  • Bug_0287: If table’s actual row height is different than default value, the alternate color filling is incorrect in Hand Drawing, Windows XP and Windows 7 themes.
  • Bug_0288: Hide the default icons for tree element, the icons are still visible in simulation.
  • Bug_0289: Lock the position of the element and unselect it, the element become invisible if you drag it.
  • Bug_0290: Can not directly click specific regions of element to change selection if zoom ratio is not 100%. (Tree, Table, Tabs, VerticalTabs and MultilevelMenu)
  • Bug_0291: Hold SHIFT to resize element with aspect locked, the aspect is not accurate when any snap action is performed.
  • Bug_0292: Select user-defined category in ‘Manage Category’ window, all buttons hover on element in the category are not clickable until restarting ForeUI.
  • Bug_0293: Add custom element with duplicated name, should update its reference in the list instead of adding new reference.
  • Bug_0294: In image dock, if the image ids are not sequential, dragging image to plot may not work correctly.

ForeUI V2.67: Add Note in Action Editor

Hello everyone,  we are back from vacation so it is time to roll out a new version 🙂

Comparing to previous updates, it one is not so big and it contains one new feature and three enhancements, as we need some time to warm up after the long vacation.

Input Note in Action Editor

This feature is scheduled for quite long time.  It is very useful to explain the actions associated with element or page, just like the comments on source code.

In V2.67, when you open the action editor for element or page, you will see a new sub view on the right, which can list all notes for the actions.

To add or edit the note for entity, just choose the “Edit Note” item from the context menu, or just double click the row in the not view.

The note view is resizable and you can hide it by dragging it to rightmost border.  The note can still be shown in the floating tooltip.

Multirow Note Editing

Now the note editing can support multirow, no matter for element’s note or action’s note.  Just click the “Multirow Note” checkbox to toggle the single/multiple row modes.

Other Enhancements:

  • Allow selecting previous/next entity with UP/Down arrow in action editor.
  • Show warnning message if the plot to load does not exist.  (Thank Mario Gonzalez’s suggestion)

Vacation for Chinese New Year

The Chinese new year (Spring Festival, i.e. 3rd Jan 2011) is coming!  On the traditional Chinese calendar, year 2011 is called the year of rabbit, while the previous year is the year of tiger.  Spring Festival is the biggest holiday in China.  Chinese people usually will take a long vacation and come back to hometown, stay with the family, make delicious food, set off firecrackers and visit friends etc.

We are going to take one month vacation from next Monday.  During the vacation, we will still be there to provide forum/email support.  So the only difference is that we don’t release new version during the vacation.

Happy Spring Festival!

PS: I just noticed that ForeUI has been listed as “Featured Download” item on Apple.com (in the “Development Tools” category).  That’s wonderful!

ForeUI is Listed as "Featured Download" in Apple.com

ForeUI is Listed as "Featured Download" in Apple.com

ForeUI V2.65: Animated GIF Support and More

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Happy New Year to you all!

Today ForeUI’s first release in Year 2011 is out!  Want to know what’s new in V2.65?  Please read on.

Animated GIF Support

Now you can insert animated GIF files into your prototype, and they will be really animated in simulation!  So far there are four types of elements support this feature: Image Box, Window, Tree and Multilevel Menu.  With our on-going effort, more elements will support this.

Use Animated GIF in ForeUI Elements

Change  Window Title in Simulation

The Window element supports a new “Set Window Title” action, which allows you to change the window title in simulation.  The new title supports property, so you can include some dynamic value in the window title.

Set Focus in Simulation

The TextEditBox and Spinner elements now support a new “Set Focus” action, which will set focus on the specific element.  This can be used to set the default focused element when page is loaded.

Some Enhancements:

  • Show image button on floating tool pane for MultilevelMenu element.
  • Enable hotkeys for cut/copy/paste/delete on embedded element.

Fixed Bugs:

  • Bug_0271: “Mouse Out” event for Multilevel Menu is triggered when mouse is hovering on the element.
  • Bug_0272: The delay value in “Pause a while” window should be selected by default.
  • Bug_0273: Can not start selecting from above of plot.
  • Bug_0274: The title of Window element does not respect the default font settings.
  • Bug_0275: Table column become wider in simulation.
  • Bug_0276: Table column widths should be synchronized in edit/view modes.