Transparent Components
Fidel Viegas
I am in the process of porting an application implemented in Adobe
Flex and I was wondering if I am able to do a few things:
1) Can I use vector graphics for buttons and backgrouns?
2) Can I make a panel transparent?
I am attaching a screenshot so that you can have an idea of what I am
trying to replicate. I know I won't be able to do it exactly as it is,
but something similar.
Best Regards,
Fidel.
Luan O'Carroll
That should be possible. The biggest issue being the vector graphics.
In the past we have used SvgSalamander but there doesn't seem to be
much activity on that project any more. Other options might be to use
JavaFx, but I guess that is something of a moving target. There are
other rendering engines too that might be of use. In the short term
you could use SVG and the support for it in Aria, and later we may be
able to find an alternative - that's something on my todo list.
If you search the JavaOne archives
(http://developers.sun.com/learning/javaoneonline/j1sessn.jsp?sessn=TS-3755&yr=2007&track=2)
you will find a presentation I gave about using Svg and it may help
explain some of the components involved.
One further option is to dynamically convert SVG to raster images and
then use the normal image support. I've also written about this in
connection with Synth and can pull the code out if its of interest.
Kirill Grouchnikov also did something similar using Batik (which I
think is heavy and slow).
Hope that helps
-Luan
2009/8/10 Fidel Viegas <fidel....@gmail.com>:
Fidel Viegas
Vector graphics aren't of a high priority on my project, so I don't
really think of JavaFX as an option, because the learning curve isn't
very linear.
I think I am going to use raster graphics instead. Now, with regards
to the panel transparency, is that possible?
Thanks in advance,
Fidel.
Luan O'Carroll
Yes, I can understand that - that would be my choice too.
Aria's panels can be transparent - in fact the layers are just
transparent panels. You can use RGBA values or you can use transparent
images.
Fidel Viegas
On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 6:30 PM, Luan O'Carroll<luan.o...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Fidel,
>
> Yes, I can understand that - that would be my choice too.
>
> Aria's panels can be transparent - in fact the layers are just
> transparent panels. You can use RGBA values or you can use transparent
> images.
>
One thing I like about Aria is its page based way of organising an
application. It is closely related to how webpages work, but this is
much more powerful than Ajax. I am certain you can achieve the same
with JavaFX, but that is not as straightforward. I was able to learn
Aria really quickly. The same does not apply to JavaFX.
As for the transparency, what I want is control the alpha channel, and
not have it 100% transparent. I want to be able to define its opacity.
As for transparent images only gifs are accepted, right?
I have tried pngs but I was getting some errors.
Regards,
Fidel.
Luan O'Carroll
pngs should work, or any of the supported image types. There are
performance differences between image types and sometimes the sub
formats may have problems, it can be annoying :-(
If there are specific issues I can take a look
-Luan
2009/8/11 Fidel Viegas <fidel....@gmail.com>:
Fidel Viegas
On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 7:11 PM, Luan O'Carroll<luan.o...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> And the layout support in JavaFX very patchy.
>
yes, it sucks. It is a nice concept, but to create an application it
takes quite a lot of time.
> pngs should work, or any of the supported image types. There are
> performance differences between image types and sometimes the sub
> formats may have problems, it can be annoying :-(
>
I guess we can overcome this with time.
> If there are specific issues I can take a look
I don't remember what the error was, but I will try it again and let
you know. I think that it had to do with the image format. It may have
to do with the application that generated it. I will have a look and
then let you know.
Thanks for the help.
Regards,
Fidel.