Changes in Magnolia UI 6.1

DEVELOPER PREVIEW

This page covers the changes in version 6.1 of the Magnolia UI project released with Magnolia 6.1.

Summary

Magnolia UI 6.1 comes with a completely resurfaced UI featuring the new Find Bar at its core. We have also rewritten selected parts of the UI framework, particularly the content-app framework. We generally adhere to the same concepts as before, but we have developed better implementations by using Vaadin 8.

The new implementations simplify app mechanics and configuration and use less custom Vaadin code, thus enabling cleaner and faster customization.

Magnolia UI 6.1 contains both the UI framework used in Magnolia 5.7 (referred to as Magnolia 5 UI) and the Magnolia 6 UI framework. You can use:

• Magnolia 5 UI components as well as your custom components and modules that rely on the previous Magnolia UI. We provide backward compatibility at both runtime and compile-time levels.
• New Magnolia 6 UI implementations.

All UI components from both implementations are rendered with the new resurfaced theme design.

Why we have changed things

The main reasons for rewriting some of the UI components include:

• Replacing the deprecated Vaadin 7 with Vaadin 8 (classes and frameworks)
• Developing new implementations that are more component-driven so that the components are easier to reuse
• Decreasing the amount of custom front-end (GWT) code and instead using the new stock Vaadin
• Simplifying app mechanics and configuration

The resulting implementations are easier to maintain for us and cleaner and faster to customize for you.

What is preserved

In Magnolia UI 6.1, the functions and frameworks known from version 5.7 and earlier remain. By preserving class names and Magnolia module names, we keep runtime backward compatibility of custom modules with custom classes extending Magnolia classes.

Class names

Class and package names of the classes existing in Magnolia 5.7 have not changed and are still available in Magnolia UI 6.1. You can use these classes or extend them in your custom code.

Magnolia module names

A Magnolia module defines dependencies to other Magnolia modules and many other tasks. A Magnolia module can be defined with one file (i.e. a module descriptor). The Magnolia module descriptors of the UI project reside in Maven modules.

All previously known Magnolia modules still exist with the same name and provide the same functions. However, the module descriptor files defining those Magnolia modules may have been relocated due to changes in the composition of the Maven modules.

The magnolia-ui-framework-compatibility Maven module contains the module descriptors for the ui-framework, ui-contentapp and ui-mediaeditor Magnolia modules. The magnolia-ui-framework Maven module defines the new ui-framework-core Magnolia module.

What has changed

Look and feel

The whole UI has been resurfaced to provide a modern, state-of-the-art user experience. At its core, the UI features the new Find Bar. All components of Magnolia 5 UI and Magnolia 6 UI are rendered using the new resurfaced theme design.

Magnolia 5 legacy UI

Maven modules

From version 5.7 and earlier, we have removed eight Maven modules. The classes of these modules are not lost. Instead, they have been relocated to the new magnolia-ui-framework-compatibility module or to the still existing magnolia-ui-framework module. New implementations have been added to the new magnolia-ui-framework-jcr module.

Removed Maven modules

• magnolia-ui-actionbar
• magnolia-ui-contentapp
• magnolia-ui-dialog
• magnolia-ui-form
• magnolia-ui-imageprovider
• magnolia-ui-mediaeditor
• magnolia-ui-vaadin-integration
• magnolia-ui-workbench

 We have created Maven relocations for these modules. This ensures backward compatibility for compile-time dependencies.

Added Maven modules

• magnolia-ui-framework-jcr

   Maven dependency snippet

  Error rendering macro 'artifact-maven-dependencies-snippet-macro'

  java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid classifier: "vaadin-8.3.13" in version "6.2.12-vaadin-8.3.13"

• magnolia-ui-framework-compatibility

   Maven dependency snippet

  Error rendering macro 'artifact-maven-dependencies-snippet-macro'

  java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid classifier: "vaadin-8.3.13" in version "6.2.12-vaadin-8.3.13"

Features

Magnolia UI 6.1 brings, among others, the following new features:

• Resurfaced design of the admin interface
• Integrated Find Bar
• Improved back-end data binding
  • dataSource replacing contentConnector for subapps
• Forms
  • Simplified field API
  • Separation of binding and logic
  • Non-JCR-data-source friendliness
  • Custom layout support for forms

See Magnolia 6 UI documentation for more information.

Magnolia 6 and Magnolia 5 UI frameworks

Backward compatibility

The API changes are marginal. We provide backward compatibility at both runtime and compile-time levels.

Runtime compatibility

All classes from Magnolia UI 5.7 are also available in Magnolia UI 6.1. They have kept their fully qualified class names, which provides binary compatibility. Compiled custom modules (JAR files) built with Magnolia 5.7 also work in Magnolia 6.1 with the 6.1 UI.

Magnolia Maven module names are still the same. You do not have to change Magnolia module dependencies.

The binary compatibility together with the same-named Magnolia modules ensures runtime backward compatibility.

Compile-time compatibility

Module and submodule structures have been reorganized (see module changes). We have created Maven relocations for the removed modules. This ensures that you do not have to update the Maven module dependencies within the custom modules that depend on Magnolia UI modules.

How to upgrade

Make sure you upgrade your entire Magnolia bundle, not just the UI modules.

For general information on upgrading your Magnolia projects, read Upgrading to Magnolia 6.1.x.

With Maven

Make sure to set the version for the Magnolia UI project to 6.1.

In your bundle(s)

If you have a custom bundle based on a preconfigured Magnolia bundle, set the magnoliaBundleVersion property to 6.1. The Magnolia bundle will manage the UI version accordingly. For an example, see Upgrading to Magnolia 6.1.x: Updating Maven-managed webapps.

In custom modules

The composition of the submodules of the UI project has changed. Some modules have been removed, and their classes have been relocated to the magnolia-ui-framework-compatibility module. See What has changed: Maven modules.

 Since we have created Maven relocations for the removed modules, you do not have to change the dependencies to them within your custom modules.

However, to reflect the actual dependencies and to improve the readability of your POM files, you may want to replace the dependencies to the removed modules with the new compatibility module:

1. Remove all dependencies to these Maven modules:
   • magnolia-ui-actionbar
   • magnolia-ui-contentapp
   • magnolia-ui-dialog
   • magnolia-ui-form
   • magnolia-ui-imageprovider
   • magnolia-ui-mediaeditor
   • magnolia-ui-vaadin-integration
   • magnolia-ui-workbench
2. Instead, add a dependency to magnolia-ui-framework-compatibility.

   Error rendering macro 'artifact-maven-dependencies-snippet-macro'

   java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid classifier: "vaadin-8.3.13" in version "6.2.12-vaadin-8.3.13"

Manually

If you choose to do this manually, make sure you upgrade the entire bundle and not just the UI modules. Please follow the instructions on Upgrading to Magnolia 6.1.x: Updating manually.

Status

• A few of our apps make use of the improved implementations:
  • Messages app
  • Tasks
• Most of the other apps still rely on the old implementations. We will adapt them soon.

Complete list of submodules