Kirill Grouchnikov's Blog

Animating layouts part II - a real application

The first part introduced the TransitionLayout. This layout is set "on top" of the existing layout manager (delegating all the regular work to it) and handles the changes in component visibility and bounds. The technical implementation will be discussed in the next parts (it is being actively worked on to provide a robust out-of-the-box support and can be accessed right here).

This part shows the transition layout manager applied to a "real-world" application that has been detailed in the series about SVG integration. The application shows thumbnails of all images in a selected folder and allows resizing them using a slider. While the usual version jumps from the old thumbnail size to the new thumbnail size, the new version makes the experience more interactive:

Note the following effects (with no changes to application code except setting the layout manager):

• The thumbnails are faded-in when they first appear.
• The thumbnails are moved and resized on changing the global thumbnail size. The original layout manager is responsible only for the final location
• During the move / resize, the thumbnails are part-time translucent to allow for smoother visual feedback.

Stay tuned for more (until the baby in the picture gets back next week from the overseas trip and the free time is over :)

Comments

• Hello Kirill.

  It looks good. I was going to ask if this works also without Substance but then I found my answer in This layout is set "on top" of the existing layout manager (delegating all the regular work to it). And now I have some ideas on how this could be working. Will wait for the technical implementation discussion.

  -fred

  Posted by: l2fprod on September 20, 2006 at 09:33 AM

• Fred,
  The code is linked in the article, so you can look at it (it's not in the best shape since i've been working on it only for two evenings). In general, the moving / resizing can be done under any LAF, but the fading requires changes to LAF (more on that in the next part) and as such, are available only under Substance (or under any other LAF that will take the laf-widget layer). I wanted to post the Flash movie of the same application under Metal, but it's already taking up too much space (the movie in this entry is about 2.5MB, so i didn't want to take too much bandwidth).

  Posted by: kirillcool on September 20, 2006 at 10:11 AM

• Hey Kirill,
  Here at JavaDesktop we're okay with slow-loading pages and demos, if the eye candy is worth it!

  Posted by: sumitkishore on September 23, 2006 at 11:11 AM

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