Tensegrity Application Framework

While the core part of the Tensegrity Graph Framework contains functions for the actual visualization and interactions, the Tensegrity Application Frame provide a general platform for rapid development of applications and prototypes.

The purpose of the Tensegrity Application Frame is to speed up development of new products and prototypes by providing a number of commands, views and dialogs that are often needed in applications.

The Tensegrity Application Frame can be used whenever a Swing- or SWT-based application is to be developed. The Tensegrity Application Frame provides not only a user-friendly application frame, but also many customizable components.

The Application Frame offers a Docking GUI for both SWT- and Swing-based applications. Such applications can contain different GUI elements (views) that can be positioned and docked by the user.

New applications can create their own specific views, or use pre-defined views. All views can be customized in content and appearance. Following are some of the most common views:

Attribute View: This view shows all attributes of currently selected objects. The attribute view allows editing of attributes. Validation and restriction mechanism ensure that only valid values can be entered. It also allows applications to hide specific attributes. Furthermore, the existing editors for different attributes can be replaced.

If more than one object is selected, the attribute view merges similar attributes to keep the overview compact . The attribute view provides a set of editors for different items like color, border, font, fill style etc. All provided editors are customizable.

Navigator View: The navigator view, a miniature view of the whole graph in the current document, is an essential part of every graph application that deals with large graphs. It enables the user to keep the overview and to navigate through the graph. The user is able to scroll and zoom using the mouse. The application can define the level of details that should be displayed (text, fill color, edge marker etc.)

Repository View: The object repository view shows all graphical objects that are defined in XML configuration files for use in the application. The object repository shows these items automatically. It allows the user to drag and drop the objects into the document. Dropped elements will be created automatically. Elements in the repository view can be assigned to separate categories for a better overview. Furthermore, tooltips can be defined to give the user details about each element.

Layout Commands View: This view allows the user to apply layout more quickly and easily. The layout commands view furnishes a shortcut to all pre-defined layout algorithms provided by the Tensegrity Graph Framework. The layout commands reflect the current settings of the layout algorithms. This view also allows the user to set the layout domain so that the layout can be applied to the whole graph, or just to the elements in a selected group.

Finally, many more... useful dialogs and commands are provided by Tensegrity Application Frame such as dialogs for opening, saving, printing and previewing the graph documents, and dialogs for layout, preferences and rules configuration.

Please try out our demo applications Graph Designer and Workflow Designer to discover features and functions that are provided by Tensegrity Application Frame. All components and commands used in these applications are part of the Tensegrity Graph Framework and ready to be customized and used in your application.