NetBeans Visual Library in NetBeans Platform

The Visual Library is the next generation of the original Graph Library. Now it is designed for a general visualization with support for graph-oriented modeling. Its focus is to become a part of the NetBeans platform and unify the visualization (UI and API) used in NetBeans Platform based applications.

Examples - Download and Run a large set of Examples.

Visual Library Tutorial - how to integrate library with the NetBeans Platform. Contributed by Geertjan Wielenga.

Visual Database Explorer Tutorial - making a visual database explorer. Contributed by Anton Epple.

XML Multiview and Visual Library Tutorial - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 - integration of XML Multiview with Visual Library. Contributed by Vadiraj Deshpande.

Javalobby.org demo - a demo of the Visual Library features. Contributed by Roman Strobl.

Javalobby.org article - How to Create Visual Applications in Java? (Part 2) - how-to use Visual Library as a standalone library outside of NetBeans. Contributed by Geertjan Wielenga.

How to Create Visual Prolog Modeler (Improving Diagram) - how-to use Visual Library to create visual modeler for Prolog. Contributed by Mark Hull.

If you have questions, comments or would like to contribute, visit users@graph.netbeans.org mailing list (archive).

News

March 15th, 2007 - The Visual Library 2.0 is a part of NetBeans Platform.
March 14th, 2007 - The third and the last official build of Visual Library 2.0-pre3 has been released.
March 8th, 2007 - The Visual Library 2.0 API has been accepted with TCRs by the review committee. For details, see opinion document.
February 6th, 2007 - The release551 branch has been created for stabilization of Visual Library 2.0 for NetBeans 5.5.1.
January 31st, 2007 - The second official build of Visual Library 2.0-pre2 has been released.
October 2nd, 2006 - The first official build of Visual Library 2.0-pre1 has been released.

Screenshots

The following screenshots are implementations of the Visual Library API:


NetBeans Mobility Pack 6.0 (home page)	JasperReports Visual Designer (home page)	Light Table (blog entry)

Robot Control System	NetBeans Enterprise Pack 6.0 (home page)	NetBeans Enterprise Pack 6.0 (home page)	More >>

Versions

Visual Library 2.0 - part of NetBeans Platform, see Visual Library 2.0 API Documentation.
Graph Library 1.0 - not maintained anymore - its home page was moved here.

Distributions

From now on, the Visual Library is a part of NetBeans Platform. You can obtain the library at:

Download any version of NetBeans IDE 6.0 or later. The library is included there. If you developing a NetBeans plug-in within NetBeans IDE, then open your Project Settings and add a module dependency on org.netbeans.api.visual module.
Download the source code of NetBeans (search for a "download source code" link at NetBeans download page). The library is located at api.visual directory. See the setup page for building instruction.
Note that source code of examples are neither distributed in NetBeans Platform nor included in source code of NetBeans IDE. There are available in visual.examples directory in http://hg.netbeans.org/main/contrib/ Mercurial repository (see online).

Versions before the integration with NetBeans Platform are listed here:

The Visual Library 2.0-pre3 (the third official "pre" version) build is available here (Visual-Library-2.0-pre3.zip).
The Visual Library 2.0-pre2 (the second official "pre" version) build is available here (Visual-Library-2.0-pre2.zip).
The Visual Library 2.0-pre1 (the first official "pre" version) build is available here (Visual-Library-2.0-pre1.zip).
The Visual Library 2.0-dev is built weekly and is available at Project Files.

The GraphLib 1.0 is available at Project Files too.

Roadmap for Visual Library in NetBeans 6.0

Currently the Visual Library is stable and it is a part of NetBeans Platform 6.0. Therefore all requested changes are following standard or fast API review. For details, see API review guidelines.

The plan is to release the library stable in NetBeans 6.0 FCS. Therefore the main focus is going to be on stabilization assured by higher coverage with automated visual tests and implementing additional requested and planned features.

Features in Visual Library in NetBeans 6.0

General visualization
Support for graph-oriented models
Widget based UI appearance definition
Action based UI behaviour definition
Pre-defined high-level actions
Layouts
Visual Feedback

Zoom in/out
Level-of-details widget
Animation support
Object states
Selection/focus model
Satelite view
Bird view

In-place editing
ReconnectAction
ScrollWidget
Action tools
ComponentWidget - AWT/Swing components on scene
Collapse/expand API
ConvolveWidget

Features of Visual Library after NetBeans

Following features has not been implemented:

Graph-oriented layout - hierarchical - check graph/experimental module
Pre-defined high-level widgets - there is just one implemented so far - IconNodeWidget
CurveConnectionWidget
WidgetAction performance optimalization
SVGWidget
Large-scale visualization
Printing support

Bugs and Enhancements

The list of currently known issues for the Visual Library is tracked by Issuezilla.

If you find a bug, please, enter an issue on graph module into Issuezilla.

If you have a request for an enhancement, please, enter an issue on graph module into Issuezilla.

Build and Try

For building and executing, visit setup page.

Mercurial

NetBeans has switched to Mercurial - see Developers' NetBeans Mercurial How-To wiki page for more details.

The Visual Library project is stored in api.visual directory in http://hg.netbeans.org/main/ repository.
Examples are located in visual.examples directory in http://hg.netbeans.org/main/contrib/ repository.
NetBeans Integration sample project is located in visual.examples.shapes directory in http://hg.netbeans.org/main/contrib/ repository.
Visual Library Experimental project is located in visual.experimental directory in http://hg.netbeans.org/main/contrib/ repository.
Web-pages are not stored in the Mercurial repository. They are still located in graph/www directory in original NetBeans CVS repository.

CVS

The Visual Library development is no longer available in the main trunk. We are using Mercurial for sources. Only graph/www is used for storing current web-site page.

The Visual Library 2.0-pre3 version is marked with the graph2pre3 tag.
The Visual Library 2.0-pre2 version is marked with the graph2pre2 tag.
The Visual Library 2.0-pre1 version is marked with the graph2pre1 tag.
The Visual Library 2.0 for NetBeans 5.5.1 is available in the release551 branch.

The Graph Library 1.0 is available in the graph1 branch.

New features are going to be introduced in the main trunk only.
The release551 branch is in stabilization mode. Only bug fixes can be integrated there.

Contribution

If would you like to contribute, send us your ideas to the users@graph.netbeans.org mailing list. Please, read Policy Statement Regarding the Contributor Agreement document.

Documents and Links

Visual Library 2.0 API Documentation
Visual Library 2.0 - FAQ
Javalobby.org demo - a demo of Visual Library features on javalobby.org
Geertjan's Weblog about Visual Library 2.0
Toni's Weblog about Visual Database Explorer - step by step tutorial about making a visual database explorer
Javalobby.org article - How to Create Visual Applications in Java? (Part 2) - how-to use Visual Library as a standalone library outside of NetBeans
XML Multiview and Visual Library Tutorial - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 - step by step tutorial about integration of XML Multiview with Visual Library
NextBridge - ShowMind - examples of integration of Visual Library 2.0 with NetBeans Platform (Window System, Node, Lookup APIs)
JavaOne2006 slides of TS-8943: NetBeans Common Framework for Information Visualization
How to create a visual modeler for Prolog - how to use Visual Library to create visual modeler (whole tutorial for Prolog support as NetBeans module)
Obsolete - Common Usages of Visual Library 2.0 API