Swan - Features

Features

Features Summary

Enables AJAXing existing and new applications
Eliminates the need to learn complex JavaScript component APIs
Elimintates the need to write a single line of JavaScript code.
Swan takes care of all the Ajax plumbing work .
Swan makes browser and server communication transparent.
Simplifies the AJAX integration process.
Transparent Browser – Server – Browser communication.
Provides abstraction layer for UI definition to enable UI portability
Support various server side technologies
Engineered to facilitate the evolution/migration to new components and RIA technologies
IDE available

Swan Core Framework Features

No JavaScript needed - Swan handes all Ajax integration making it transparent to the developers. With Swan, developers que focus on the design of the User Interface and the business behavior required for it the server, and not on how to integrate the client with the server. So, with Swan even developers with no JavaScript experience can easily create an Ajax based application.

No Custom Tags - With Swan there is no need to learn new tags for building web pages. Swan relies on plain HTML that most developers are already familiar with. This makes Swan easy to use and learn.

Simple Application Architecture - Swan application model is simple andis based on the idea that each page should have a model/controller on the server side that encapsulates the UI business logic on the server side. Swan's framework provides a front controller that delegates Ajax requests to the Page Controller configured for the page making the request. With Swan, developers are responsible for the UI design and the implementation of the Page controller. This model makes it easy to trace the business logic from the UI down to the server side.

Swan Application Model

Server Side Access to UI Components -Swan's Framework provides access to the Widgets from the server side controller. This enables developers to interact with the widgets on the server side without having to worry about partitioning code between server and client, or between Java and JavaScript for example.

Use of XML for UI configuration - Swan relies on XML to glue the Client and the Server sides together. Swan's XML configuration files are provided for each page and they define the bindings between client events and server side functions.

Can Integrate with other frameworks - Swan based applications can still be integrated with other frameworks such as Struts. With Swan you can enhance existing applications by Ajax enabling specific sections or components from an Struts based application without any conflict.

Open Widget Framework - Swan's widget framework is easy to extend and change. Swan comes pre-configured with aset of widgets that can be easily customized or extended. You can also add new widgets and integrate your own libraries.

With Swan, you could provide different inmplementations of a widget using different libraries like YUI or PWC, but they remain decoupled from the UI design. This enables you to easily change widget implementations without having to change a line of code in you application.

Widgets Supported

Basic form

Button
Label
List
Combobox
Text Field
Text Area
Radio Button
Check Box

Data Table
Paging Table
Tree
Search Field
Date Field
Currency Field
Numeric Field
Calendar
Dialog/Panel
Tab Box
Rich Text Editor

Server Side Technologies

Java
PHP
Others planned:

Smalltalk
Ruby
.NET

Swan New Coming Features

Maps - We are working on the support for some of the common MAP APIs out there

Google Maps
Yahoo Maps
Bing Maps

Composite Widget - This will enable re-use of Swan based applications. With Composite widgets developers will be able to easily embed a complete application as part of the parent page, kind of a portlet.
Module Support - With this feature, developers will be able to create fully functional applications that are registered as modules that can then be the source for composite widgets. We'll provide initial modules such as:

Login Form
File Cabinet
File/Image upload

Swan Enterprise Edition - Planned Features

JMS Integration Component for Server Push Services
Dashboards
Web Services Facing
Widgets

DataGrid Widget
Graphs Widgets

Eclipse Plugin Features

Custom HTML Editor - Swan plugin provides a custom HTML Editor that faciliates the work with Swan based components. The editor provide access to the widget palette. Developers can easily configure the widget bindings from Swan's HTML Editor.

Code Generation - Swan assist the development process by automatically generation intial stubs of code needed for the Page Controller based on the configuration of your widgets.

Wizards - Swan plugin provides a set of wizards for creating applications based on templates defined within the framework. You can use this as the starting point for building your application. The code generated by the wizards can then be customized and changed to fit your application's needs.

Application Templates - Swan's templates used by the Wizards are buit based on Velocity's templating framework and they can be customized. You can also add your own templates and make them available thru the Wizard.