Hi all,

Some news of UIHierarchy, the AWT/Swing containement hierarchy helper
library.

-- Release 1.2.1 is out --

* What is UIHierarchy:
The UIHierarchy library enhances AWT and Swing for Java 1.2 and later.
It aims at simplifying the development of user interfaces as well as their
manipulation.
It simplifies code syntax to match the mental picture of containement
hierarchy,
which makes it easier to develop and maintain small to complex user
interfaces.
License terms are Sun Public License 1.0.

* Project pages:
The homepage is: http://chrriis.brainlex.com/projects/uihierarchy.
The SourceForge project: http://sourceforge.net/projects/uihierarchy.
The Proposed dowloads are:
- UIHierarchy.zip: contains the library "UIHierarchy.jar"
- UIHierarchySrc.zip: contains the sources of the library, and the javadoc.
You
   probably need the NanoXml parser to compile the XML helper class, and
JDK
   1.4 for SpringLayout related classes.

* Documentation:
Some documentation is available in the project homepage, along with
examples,
and a downloadable demo.

* Changes in Release 1.2.1:
- Some JDK 1.2 support issue is fixed.
- Removed "com.sun.java" support.
- Base package name is changed.
- Addition of XmlUIH as the XML module, that uses UIH.
- Removal of UIHierarchy and XmlUIHierarchy. Use UIH and XmlUIH instead.
- Demo program is created, which displays editable sources that can be run.
- Debug print now shows some information about the hierarchy itself.
- Fixed a problem with case sensitivity of "inherit" in GridBagLayout
handler.
- Static configuration is moved to the centralized UIHConfig class.
- Configuration per instance is added, in addition to global configuration.
- Automatic realization of the hierarchy can be turned off.
- Accessors are heavily extended to allow operations on mapped levels.
- Names can map several levels at once.
- getComponent(String) is removed: use accessors to get it instead.
- Accessors are extended to modify a hierarchy.
- Accessors allow disabling of a part of the hierarchy, or just a component.
- Accessors allow getting the state of the components and their visibility.
- Accessors allow to run custom actions on all their levels.
- A factory for the accessors is added and can be replaced by a custom one.
- Accessors may be used to add (move) their levels to another hierarchy.
- A hierarchy may be used to complete another hierarchy.
- A hierarchy may declare some nodes and leaves instead of just a root.
- NullHConstraints allow to specify width and height as constraints.
- Tags handled by XmlUIH are case sensitive (was not with XmlUIHierachy).
- Recent changes are added to the XML module when applicable.
- uih.dtd replaces uihierarchy.dtd.
- ComponentResolver do not add names to mappings anymore.
- ComponentResolver accept Objects instead of Components for component
creators.

* Some features, up to now:
- Really small library.
- Ease of use.
- Support for implicit declaration of intermediate panels and labels.
- Flexibility to add some easier custom layouts constraints handlers.
- Access to the levels of the hierarchies, which allow their manipulation.
- Possibility to declare the hierarchy in an XML document (using the small
NanoXML parser)

Have fun!
-Christopher
chrriis@brainlex.com