ForeUI is an easy-to-use UI prototyping tool, designed to create mockup / wireframe / prototypes for any application or website you have in mind.

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ForeUI V2.42: Export/Import Element Library File

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Hello dear friends, ForeUI V2.42 is out today!  This version focus on simplifying the way to share custom element library internally, and has 6 bugs fixed.

Export/Import the .fcl File

Actually the .fcl file is a ZIP archives that contains one or more custom elements (.fce files).  When you submit your custom element library into our community site, your library will be packed into an .fcl file, which can be downloaded and extracted into a new category.  However we realize some companies need to share their libraries internally, so we accept the suggestion from Ari and Mark, and provide some facilities for this. As you can see we have added some new items in the popup menu for the button in “Custom Elements” category.  They are:

  • Load Elements from .fcl file…: Pick an .fcl file and then load all its elements into the “Custom Elements” category.
  • Load Elements from Directory…: Specify a directory and then load all elements inside into the “Custom Elements” category.
  • Clear Listed Elements: Remove all elements that listed in the “Custom Elements” category, will not delete the .fce files for them.
  • Export Listed Elements as .fcl File…: Export all elements that are currently listed in the “Custom Elements” category.

So the .fcl file becomes the reuseable file for internal library sharing, you can share it with your colleagues or friends via email, USB Disk etc.  Also the .fcl file can be loaded to any element category you created, the figure below shows how:

Resize Scrollable Container in Simulation

This is a small feature requested by purplebluegreen.  Now you can change the size of scrollable container during the simulation.  This may be quite useful when creating  interactive prototype.

Fixed Bugs:

6 bugs are fixed in this version.

  • Bug_0230: Can not export plot to images with command line if the plot contains element group. (V2.40 only) (Tim reported via email, Thanks)
  • Bug_0231: Use arrow keys to move embedded element, the wrapper group is not updated as well.
  • Bug_0232: Copy element and paste into different pages in the same plot, the location of element should not be changed. (Thank Ari for reporting)
  • Bug_0233: Embedded element may be positioned incorrectly at the first time that launch the simulation.
  • Bug_0234: Embed two or more ComboBox elements into Tabs container and then run simulation, only the first ComboBox has correct position.  (Thank Ed for reporting via email)
  • Bug_0235: Embed ComboBox element into Scrollable Container, the ComboBox’s popup should be displayed over the container.

ForeUI V2.40: Easier Container Usage & Element Path Links

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Hello everyone, after one month holiday, we release V2.40 today.  This release includes some important new features and enhancements to ease the container usage, 7 bug fixings are also included.

Easier Container Usage

We have implemented some useful new features for Group container, including:

  1. Allow moving member within element group.
  2. Allow adding member to existing element group.
  3. Allow extracting member from existing element group.

Also we have made two related enhancements:

  • Auto grouping multi-selected elements before embedding into non-group container.
  • Can embed element into nested container.

All these together provide a much better experience on container usage.  You can embed multiple elements into container a time; you can embed more element into a container even it has embedded element already; you can extract any embedded element from its container; you can move or resize the embedded element…  The animation below shows the example of container usage, which has become much more flexible.

Element Path Links

If you use container a lot in your plot, sometimes you may feel difficult to select a specific container or embedded element.  From this version you can find the “Element Path Links” in the floating tool pane if you select an embedded element or a non-empty container element.  These links can help you to quickly select the container, the sibling or child element for current selected element.

Fixed Bugs:

  • Bug_0223: “Manage Categories” window (not pinned) will be hidden time by time if floating tool pane is translucent.  (Thank Mark for reporting)
  • Bug_0224: Multiple instances of custom element may have duplicated ids for embedded element.
  • Bug_0225: Element is not valid after being embedded into ScrollableContainer, until moving the container a bit.
  • Bug_0226: Copy a Tabs (or Vertical Tabs) element that contains image elements, then paste it to another plot, the images are not migrated to the plot.
  • Bug_0227: Can not click to switch tab in edit area for Tabs or Vertical Tabs if they are embedded.
  • Bug_0228: Element chooser: select an embedded element, then select a non-embedded element, the embedded element should be unselected.
  • Bug_0229: Newly created, unsaved plot can not use the display controller to show/hide elements.

ForeUI V2.37: Enhanced Tabs and Embedded Elements Listing

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Dear friends, since we will start our summer holidays from next Monday, we decide to release this version today.  The most interesting feature is to allow using Tabs or Vertical Tabs element as a container, which is reqested many times.

Enhanced Tabs & Vertical Tabs

Prior to this version, we need to define quite complex logic to show / hide content according to the current selected tab.  Now we can use tabs much easier.  Just like other containers, you can press right mouse key to drag an element into the Tabs or Vertical Tabs.  Each tab can accept an element, if you want to embed multiple elements into a tab, just group them together before embedding.  What’s more, you can directly click on the tab to select it.

Also you can specify the padding of the container (supported by Tabs, Vertical Tabs and Scrollable Container):

List Embedded Elements in Selector

If you are working on a complex mockup, you may feel hard to pick an embedded element from nested containers.  From this version, the embedded elements are listed in the Element Selector window.  Thus you can pick any embedded element from the element tree:

As you can see the text color of  embeded elements are blue.  You can click on the item and select/unselect the element.  Some embedded elements are gray and not selectable, that’s because it is hidden by its container.  For example, an element in the non-current tab are hidden by the Tabs container, it will become selectable once its owner tab become the current tab of the Tabs container.

Action to Set Spinner Value

It is a small feature, a new action that can set the value of Spinner element in simulation.

Bug Fixings:

  • Bug_0221: Clicking the “ok” button to close inline editor for any element, hotkeys can not work for this plot. (Thanks Tim, Jason.Gaudette and Craig for reporting)
  • Bug_0222: Copy and paste any element, then right click the empty area of the plot, the context menu for page is now shown.  (Thanks Tim for reporting)

ForeUI V2.35: Interactive Spinner and New Hotkeys

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Hello everyone, ForeUI V2.35 is available now 🙂  This new version makes the Spinner (or say: stepper) element interactive, which allow you to specify its value in simulation.  Also this version introduces some new hotkeys to accelerate the manipulation.  7 bugs are fixed.

Interactive Spinner (Stepper)

This element existed from the first version of ForeUI, but it was not interactive until now.  You can enter all allowed values of the spinner (one row one value), and specify the current value in editing mode.  Then you can really interact with the spinner in simulation, you can click the small up and down buttons to change its value, you can also retrieve its current value via the “value” property of the element.

Interactive Spinner

You will find a new property for the current value of the spinner:

New Hotkeys

From this version ForeUI supports the hotkeys below:

  • Ctrl+W (Command+W in Mac OS): Close the current editing plot.
  • Ctrl+I (Command+I in Mac OS): Show/hide image dock.
  • Ctrl+L (Command+L in Mac OS): Show/hide display controller.
  • Ctrl+E (Command+E in Mac OS): Show/hide element selector.
  • Ctrl+G (Command+G in Mac OS): Show/hide global property manager.
  • Enter or F2:  Start editing the selected element.

New ComboBox Property

Like the spinner, the ComboBox element supports the “selectedText” property now.

Fixed Bugs:

  • Bug_0214: Some hotkeys (PageUp, PageDown, Left/Right/Up/Down etc.) do not work if any element editor is opened in another plot tab. (Thank Tim for the reporting)
  • Bug_0215: Table Editor: the highlighted table cell should not accept newly input content without double clicking the cell (JRE 6 only).
  • Bug_0216: Dragging LineChart, BarChart or PieChart element to the editing area, no semi-transparent preview is displayed.
  • Bug_0217: Table element is not using “Comic Sans MS” as the default font in “Hand Drawing” UI theme.  (Reported by Jota Eme)
  • Bug_0218: Wrong page titles in Slid Show when using excluded folders. (Thank Jota Eme for the reporting)
  • Bug_0219: Error happens when selecting the last item and then remove the item. (exist in list, tree, menu, menu bar and tabs)
  • Bug_0220: Should allow specifying icon of Vertical Tabs in the floating tool pane.

ForeUI V2.32: Scrollable Container and More

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Hi everyone, new version again 🙂  This release bring us a new “Scrollable Container” element which can make things scrollable.  Also there are more new features and enhancement, please read on.

Scrollable Container

ForeUI provides the scrollbar element from the first version, however the scrollbar is not interactive and you could not really scroll content.  From V1.90 the table element supports content scrolling, and the table can be used as a container from V2.22, thus you can use the table element as a scrollable container, however the table element does not support vertical scrolling yet.  So we implement a new scrollable container element in this version, which allow you to make any element scrollable.

Just like the table element, you can hold the right key and drag element into the scrollable container.  Please remark that only one element can be embedded into the scrollable container, if you want to make complex content scrollable, you can group the content together and then add the group into the container.

Rounded Corners for Rectangle

The rectangle element supports rounded corner from V1.45.  From this new version, you can show/hide each rounded corner of the rectangle, like this:

It seems like a small feature but it is really useful, as you can create more new shapes now:

New Example Plot: Fwitter

From this version we include a new example plot named “Fwitter”.  It is a complex, high-fidelity prototype which simulate the UI and behavior of Twitter.  You can sign up, sign in, browse, search or even “post” new content.  This example is so big that will take some time for loading if you like to preview it online.  So it is recommanded to download and run it locally, you can find it in the community site.  This example is also included in the latest install package.

Other Enhancements:

  • Holding right mouse key to drag elements can ignore the snapping system.
  • Pressing the region out side of the plot can clear the current selection.

Fixed Bugs:

  • Bug_0206: Can not select group member if the position of group is locked.
  • Bug_0207: Select an embedded element and move mouse over its border, the cursor should change to suggest resizing.
  • Bug_0208: Can not select embedded element if the zoom ratio is not 100%.
  • Bug_0209: Dragging embedded element should not move the container element.
  • Bug_0210: Vertical aligned text label element with mutirow content has wrong layout in editing mode.
  • Bug_0211: Pressing the “Auto Sizing” button for text label element, the size should be calculated according to current element width.
  • Bug_0212: Custom element with 45×45 size takes 100×100 space in the element categories.
  • Bug_0213: Set text with contains continuous spaces to Text Label in simulation, only one space will take effect.