Maqetta 10 Release Notes

The Maqetta 10 release includes the following updates:

• Upload ZIP from local file system - With Release 10, we have added an the ability to upload a ZIP file from your local file system into your cloud workspace, and the ability to expand the contents of the ZIP into a particular folder. (For related notes, see the subsequent section below about the UI changes to the Files palette.)
• Clone existing project and "Save as project template" - With Release 10, we have added a series of features that make it more convenient to work with projects. The two main new features are the ability to clone an existing project, and the ability to save the current project as a "project template" that you or your colleagues can use in the future. Details:
  • Clone existing project - With Release 10, there is a new checkbox on the "New project" dialog that says "Copy files from current project into new project". If this option is checked when you create a new project, then the new project will include all of the same files you have in your current project. See below for a snapshot of how the "New project" dialog looks in Release 10:
    
    
  • Project templates - A major new feature in Release 10 is the ability to create project templates. With this new feature, you can create re-usable project templates that contain all of the folders, CSS, JavaScript, HTML and image files that you want to be available with each new project you create. Details:
    • Creating a new project template - To create a new project template, use other Maqetta facilities to create and/or upload files into desired locations. Then, using the "Project menu" (top/right of Files palette), issue a "Save as project template..." command. This will clone all of the files in your current project into a named project template that you (or possibly your colleagues) can use in the future.

      There is a checkbox on the "Save as project template" dialog that allows you to choose whether to share the project template with your colleagues or not. Note that if you share a project template, it will be shared with all other Maqetta users on the same server will have access to that template. (In a future release of Maqetta, we hope to add a "user group" feature so that instead of sharing with everyone, you can choose to share only with a particular group of users.)

      See below for a snapshot of how the "Save as project template" dialog:
      

    • Using a project template - To use a project template, issue a "New project..." command (found on the "Project menu" at the top/right of Files palette). Then, in the "New project" dialog, check the option labeled "Use project template" and choose the desired project template from the dropdown menu. This will cause your new project to contain a clone of all of the files that are in the given project template.

      Note that if you choose both "Use project template" and "Copy files from current project into new project", Maqetta will first clone the files from the project template, and then clone the files from your current project. This means that if the same file exists in both the template and in the current project, the one from the template will be overwritten by the one from the current project.

    • Update an existing project template - To change the files that are in an existing project template, create a new project that uses the given project template, change files appropriately, and then re-issue the "Save as project template..." command. If you choose the same name as the existing project template, the action will replace the files in the template with the files found in your current project.
    • Manage project templates - You can rename project templates, delete project templates, and change whether a given project template is shared or not by using the "Manage project templates..." command (found on the "Project menu" at the top/right of Files palette).

• Files palette UI changes - changes to toolbar and context menus -

  With Release 10, the File palette has a redesigned toolbar, and the context menu has been changed.

  Here is a snapshot of the new Files palette toolbar:

  
  

  Details:

  • Toolbar row 1: project and project template actions - The first row in the Files palette toolbar contains project-related actions.
    • Project selection control - At the left of the first row is the project selection control. It displays the currently active project ("myproject" in the picture above) and provides a dropdown menu that shows all of your projects. To change projects, choose a different project name from the dropdown menu.
    • New project icon - Allows you to create a new project. (See other sections in these release notes about the various enhancements to the "New project" dialog that is included in Release 10.)
    • Project menu - The icon at the right side of the first row brings up the project menu, which includes these commands:
      • Delete this project... - Allows you to delete the currently open project.
      • Rename this project... - Allows you to rename the currently open project.
      • Save as project template... - Takes a snapshot of your current project and saves it as a re-usable "project template". (See subsequent section for details about the new "project template" feature that is included in Release 10.)
      • Manage project templates... - Brings up a dialog that lists the project templates you have created and allows you to modify and delete those templates. (See subsequent section for details about the new "project template" feature that is included in Release 10.)
      • Modify libraries - allows you to change properties on the JavaScript libraries that included in your project, such as the location of those libraries
  • Toolbar row 2: file actions - The second row in the Files palette toolbar contains icons for various file-related actions.
    • New folder - Creates a sub-folder inside the currently selected folder
    • Rename selected file
    • Delete selected files
    • Download entire project - creates a ZIP containing your entire project
    • Download selected files - creates a ZIP containing the currently selected files
    • Upload files - allows you to upload files from your local file system into the currently selected folder
    • Upload ZIP - allows you to upload a ZIP file from your local file system and optionally expand the contents of the ZIP into the currently selected folder
  • Context menu changes The context menu that appears when you right-click over a file in the Files palette has changed. We have removed the "Upload files" and "Download" commands; instead, to perform those actions, users must use the new icons on the Files palette toolbar.
• Several new clipart icons - Release 10 adds the following new clipart images:
  • Cellphone (in section "Devices")
  • Computer (in section "Devices")
  • Copy (in section "User interface icons")
  • Delete (in section "User interface icons")
  • Edit (in section "User interface icons")
  • Error (in section "User interface icons")
  • Fatal (in section "User interface icons")
  • Folder (in section "User interface controls")
  • GraphBar (in section "Media")
  • GraphLine (in section "Media")
  • GraphPie (in section "Media")
  • Info (in section "User interface icons")
  • Laptop (in section "Devices")
  • Paste (in section "User interface icons")
  • ProgressBar (in section "User interface controls")
  • Record (in section "Media")
  • Refresh (in section "User interface icons")
  • Save (in section "User interface icons")
  • Server (in section "Devices")
  • Table (in section "Media")
  • Tablet (in section "Devices")
  • WaitingPending (in section "User interface controls")
  • Warning (in section "User interface icons")
• onChange event support - The onChange event has been added to the Events palette.
• Source edits are now undo-able - If you change HTML source code in the Maqetta source editor (either in source view or one of the split views), those changes are now undoable. This new feature might be particularly important for users who accidentally made source code changes that confuse the Maqetta HTML parser, previously resulting in either a blank page or a red screen of death (with lost work), but now users can click on the Undo button on the toolbar to revert their source code changes.
• Source editing improvements for mobile applications - We fixed some problems when doing source editing of multi-view mobile applications. Previously, sometimes after source changes, the page and type-in cursor would jump back to the top of the file.
• Can now re-order application states using drag/drop - In the Scenes palette, you can now re-order application states by dragging one of the existing application states to a new position. Note that the Background state cannot be re-ordered. It is locked in the first position.
• Updated to Eclipse Orion 2.0 - Maqetta now builds on top of Orion 2.0 (upgraded from v0.5). A few new features are available in the source editor, such as bracket matching and a folding ruler for comments when editing JS and CSS. For more information, please visit the Orion website.
• Different behavior when Publishing a review - In previous releases, when you created a new review and clicked on the Publish button in the Create Review wizard, the application would open up a review session within the author's running copy of Maqetta. With Release 10, we no longer open a review session when clicking on Publish. The user has to open review HTML files manually.
• User actual name - In various parts of the UI, Maqetta now shows the user's real name (e.g., John Smith) instead of the user's email (johnsmith@example.com).
• Widget-specific date properties now include date picker - Any widget-specific properties that are specified as holding a date value (via the format:'date' setting in the _oam.json file) now will present a popup date picker in the "Widget" section of the properties palette.
• Small "x" icon added to widget palette filter box - There is now a small "x" that appears in the filter box for the widget palette whenever there is at least one character typed into the filter box. THe "x" icon clears the filter box.
• Enhanced SmartInput -
  • Setting multiple fields from SmartInput - For example dojo TextBox supports the HTML placeHolder attribute, SmartInput for all dojo TextBox now lets the user set the TextBox value and placeHolder attributes.
  • Setting Date and Time fields from SmartInput using date and time pickers - For example dojo DateTextBox SmartInput now uses a date picker for setting the value feild.
• Theme Editor support for simulating CSS Pseudo-class behaviors - For example the user can now select the HTML button, select the Hover from the states palette and set the :hover CSS Pseudo-class in the claro theme.
• Save As Widget Improvements - old custom widgets not supported
  The Save As Widget feature has been "experimental", and with Release 10 continues to be experimental, but in Release 10 there have been major improvements. Several bugs have been fixed, and it appears that it is possible now to put any widgets inside of an HTML <div>, select the <div>, then Save As Widget, and the resulting custom widget can be used in HTML pages, where it will render and operate correctly. Also, the team's testing showed that it is possible to create a ZIP from the root folder for a custom widget (found in lib/custom), send the ZIP to another user, who then can use the new "upload ZIP" feature to expand the ZIP into his lib/custom folder, and then that custom widget is available for his use.

  The improvements required some significant coding changes, and the coding changes resulted in lack of backwards-compatible support for custom widgets created in previous versions. For maqetta.org users, the old custom widgets will still be in your (migrated) workspace, and you can find your old custom widget files by invoking Open -> Orion Navigator, and looking for your old custom widgets in {project}/lib/custom/{custom widget name}.

  The Save As Widget feature has many of the same limitations as in previous releases. For example, there is still no way to define configurable properties on a custom widget.

• Removed Managed Libraries feature - Because the feature had too many bugs, we have removed the "Managed Libraries" feature from Release 10. You can still relocate your JavaScript libraries as part of the download entire project dialog.

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