ZK 3.0 Released

Dietrich Kappe, Thursday, November 8, 2007 @ 5:38 am

It's been a bit over a month and a half since ZK 3.0 RC was released and the ZK team has sure been busy. The list of new features is long, but has a surprisingly large number of them are new from RC1 to final:

• The performance of ZK is much improved - four ~ five times faster.
• Server push (really polling) is enabled which allows you to update client’s information actively and the usage is simple and intuitive.
• The ZK Layout component which simplifies the job of UI designer.
• Customize layout of ZK components using CSS definitions.
• Add forward and apply properties to realize MVC approach more easily.
• SimpleListModelSharer - integrates server push and ListModel allows you to update data of clients based on the same data automatically.
• New expression of annotation is ease of use, and easy-to-read.
• TreeModel is introduced which simplifies the job of Tree rendering.
• Flash components allow you to play audio and video files. (including youtube clip)
• Native namespace is implemented to speed up the performance while integration with HTML.
• To speed up the performance of ZK, EL evaluator is pluggable, and a new way to render ZK components is introduced.
• More integration with other frameworks, ZK has integrated with JSF, JSP, and Ext-JS.

I find the addition of the layout component interesting. It seems that everyone from GWT, Tibco GI, Ext JS, etc., is moving toward the programmatic model of layout, i.e. DockPanel and so on. In fact, several of the Web 1.0 frameworks have been doing this for a while now, and of course the desktop GUI frameworks have been doing that since the stone age, so the wheel does seem to get reinvented again and again.

I do think that CSS, while giving you fine-grained control, can be a bit unwieldy for day-to-day use. Being able to stuff widgets into containers and have them handle layout is very tempting and convenient. But note the presence of fine-grained layout managers (GridBag anyone?). In my many years of developing applications, I've seen projects sink under the weight of getting everything within a pixel of perfect. Under those circumstances, fighting with CSS through the damp blanket of a layout manager is torture indeed.

P.S. ZK Mobile 0.8.7 was also released and is now compatible with ZK 3.0.

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