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Feathers Release Notes

Noteworthy changes in official releases of Feathers.

1.2.0 BETA

  • New Component: Alert
  • New Component: Drawers
  • New Component: LayoutGroup
  • New Component(s): LayoutGroupListItemRenderer, LayoutGroupGroupedListItemRenderer, LayoutGroupedListHeaderOrFooterRenderer
  • FeathersControl: better support for scaleX and scaleY. Width and height are scaled.
  • FeathersControl: dispatches FeathersEventType.CREATION_COMPLETE after the first validation.
  • FeathersControl: ensures that keyboard focus is ignored if disabled.
  • FeathersControl: new protected functions setInvalidationFlag() and getInvalidationFlag() for better re-invalidation during draw().
  • FeathersControl: getChildByName() uses nameList.contains(). Doesn't work when an IFeathersControl is in a non-Feathers display object.
  • Button: added FeathersEventType.LONG_PRESS event.
  • Button: updates isEnabled on label text renderer and icon, if applicable.
  • Button: label is always on top of the icon.
  • List, GroupedList: Setting a new data provider will clear selection. Now, selection cannot be set before data provider is passed in. If the same selection is desired after a data provider change, it should be done manually.
  • List, GroupedList: improved invalidation when various properties are changed.
  • List, GroupedList: better handling of typical item to improve performance an accuracy of layout calculations.
  • GroupedList: improved handling of updateItemAt() to properly update whole groups.
  • ImageLoader: added loadingTexture and errorTexture properties.
  • ImageLoader: support for loading ATF files from URL.
  • ToggleSwitch: on and off labels can be created with separate factories.
  • Panel: header and footer contents can receive keyboard focus.
  • ButtonGroup: properly resizes when data provider changes.
  • ButtonGroup: support for padding around buttons.
  • ButtonGroup: dispatches its own Event.TRIGGERED when any button is triggered.
  • ButtonGroup: support for horizontal and vertical alignment.
  • ButtonGroup, TabBar: better handling of custom names for first and last items.
  • Callout: backgroundSkin is no longer required.
  • Callout: show() function adds an argument for a custom overlay factory.
  • Scale9Image, Scale3Image: support for scaling edge regions down to zero. Causes distortion, but removes overlapping.
  • Scale9Image, Scale3Image, TiledImage, BitmapFontTextRenderer: uses batchable property from QuadBatch for improved performance.
  • Scroller: support for minimum scroll positions less than zero.
  • Scroller: improved draw() function to avoid extra invalidation.
  • Scroller: new interactionMode value INTERACTION_MODE_TOUCH_AND_SCROLL_BARS.
  • Scroller: added minimumDragDistance and minimumPageThrowVelocity.
  • Scroller: fixed vertical page snapping.
  • Scroller: supports custom page dimensions for snapping.
  • Scroller: won't scroll with mouse wheel when scroll policy is off.
  • Text editors: visibility fixes when text is empty.
  • TextFieldTextEditor: support for rotation.
  • StageTextTextEditor: doesn't clear text when displayAsPassword is changed.
  • StageTextTextEditor: better scaling and support for rotation.
  • TextFieldTextRenderer: supports using multiple textures if text width or height is greater than 2048 pixels.
  • TextInput, text renderers: dispatches soft keyboard events.
  • TextInput: supports icon.
  • TextInput: alternate name for search input.
  • Screen, PanelScreen: better handling of back button that accounts for depth.
  • ScreenNavigator: properly resizes if content is resized.
  • ScreenNavigator: clears screen if removeScreen() is called for the active screen.
  • ToggleGroup: added getItemIndex() and setItemIndex().
  • VerticalCenteredPopUpContentManger: touch must begin and end outside of content to close the content.
  • DisplayListWatcher: added initializeObject() function to initialize display objects that are already added when a theme is created.
  • PropertyProxy: support for QName values.
  • SmartDisplayObjectValueSelector: fix to support uint values for Quads.
  • SmartDisplayObjectValueSelector: support for ConcreteTexture.
  • State value selectors: strict equality checks for null to support 0 values.
  • VerticalLayout, HorizontalLayout: improved item validation to account for justify alignment.
  • AnchorLayout: better measurement when using horizontalCenter or verticalCenter values.
  • ValidationQueue: items are added to the queue faster with better sorting.
  • ExclusiveTouch: allows a component to claim a touch so that nested scrolling components won't be in conflict.
  • Label: added ALTERNATE_NAME_HEADING for larger text and ALTERNATE_NAME_DETAIL for smaller text.
  • Default item renderers: better handling of data and fields.
  • Default item renderers: support for delaying texture creation on scroll in ImageLoaders.
  • Default item renderers: updates isEnabled on accessory, if applicable.
  • Default item renderers: accessory is cleared if itemHasAccessory is set to false.
  • DefaultGroupedListHeaderOrFooterRenderer: contentLabel maxWidth is used for proper wrapping, if needed.
  • DefaultGroupedListHeaderOrFooterRenderer: added support for justify alignments.
  • Many performance improvements with the help of Adobe Scout.
  • All built-in components ensure that sub-components are validated.
  • Examples: use drawers component where applicable.
  • Examples: new DrawersExplorer example.
  • Examples: new DragAndDrop example for DragDropManager.
  • Themes: updated to support new properties and alternate names.
  • Documentation: many properties now list default values.
  • Documentation: createSubComponent() and autoSizeIfNeeded() patterns are now documented parts of the architecture.
  • Fixes to better support iOS 7.
  • New minimum runtime versions. Target SWF version rolled back to 18 (Flash Player 11.5 and AIR 3.5) to offer easier BlackBerry 10 support.

1.2.0 Deprecated APIs

All deprecated APIs are subject to the Feathers deprecation policy. Please migrate to the new APIs as soon as possible because the deprecated APIs will be removed in a future version of Feathers.

The scrollerProperties property on scrolling components, including List, GroupedList, ScrollText and ScrollContainer is deprecated. Because these components now extend Scroller instead of adding a Scroller as a child, all of the properties that could be set through scrollerProperties can now be set directly on the components. The scrollerProperties property was deprecated in Feathers 1.1.0, and it remains deprecated in Feathers 1.2.0.

1.2.0 API Changes

Some changes have been made to Feathers that have the potential to break code in existing project. Changes of this type are considered exceptions to the Feathers deprecation policy, and careful consideration is made to limit the impact of these changes on existing projects. Most developers using Feathers will not be affected by these changes, except perhaps, to observe improved stability and consistency.

IVirtualLayout

Three changes have been made to the IVirtualLayout interface. Custom implementations of IVirtualLayout created before Feathers 1.2.0 will have compiler errors until the required changes are made. It is expected that a small number of Feathers developers have created custom implementations of IVirtualLayout, so this change will have no impact on the majority of projects that are upgraded from older versions of Feathers.

The typicalItemWidth and typicalItemHeight properties may be removed completely from custom IVirtualLayout implementations. In their place, the typicalItem property must be added. Components like List previously passed pre-calculated width and height values for a typical item display object. However, a layout may need to manipulate the typical item before calculating its dimensions. By giving more control to the layouts, their estimation of virtualized items will be more accurate.

The new typicalItem property might be declared as follows:

/**
 * @private
 */
protected var _typicalItem:DisplayObject;

/**
 * @inheritDoc
 */
public function get typicalItem():DisplayObject
{
	return this._typicalItem;
}

/**
 * @private
 */
public function set typicalItem(value:DisplayObject):void
{
	if(this._typicalItem == value)
	{
		return;
	}
	this._typicalItem = value;
	this.dispatchEventWith(Event.CHANGE);
}

Usage of the new typicalItem property may depend on factors that are specific to each implementation. In general, an implementation will measure the typical item at the beginning of most of its public functions, including layout(), getScrollPositionForIndex(), getVisibleIndicesAtScrollPosition(), and measureViewPort(). If the typical item is a Feathers control, it should be validated. The following snippet shows the most basic case for how to request the typical item's dimensions:

var measuredTypicalItemWidth:Number = 0;
var measuredTypicalItemHeight:Number = 0;
if( this._useVirtualLayout && this._typicalItem )
{
	if( this._typicalItem is IFeathersControl )
	{
		//validate the typical item so that it reports the correct width and height
		this._typicalItem.validate();
	}

	measuredTypicalItemWidth = this._typicalItem.width;
	measuredTypicalItemHeight = this._typicalItem.height;
}

If the typical item is a Feathers control, validate() should be called before requesting its dimensions. Optionally, the dimensions of a Feathers control may be reset to NaN in order to ask the control for its ideal dimensions. This will match the behavior introduced Feathers 1.1.x. However, in Feathers 1.2.0, the built-in layouts have chosen to reset the typical item's dimensions only when a flag is enabled. For many layouts, resetting the dimensions of the typical item is rarely required, and it may be undesireable. This change reverts the behavior to match Feathers 1.0.x, while still allowing advanced developers to re-enable the behavior introduced in Feathers 1.1.x.

For more advanced code, take a look at one of the built-in layout classes, such as VerticalLayout.

Note: The built-in layout classes repurpose the typicalItemWidth and typicalItemHeight properties that were removed from IVirtualLayout to work with a new resetTypicalItemDimensionsOnMeasure property. By default, setting these properties outside of a component like List will have no effect, which exactly matches the behavior from all older versions of Feathers. Custom layouts may elect to provide this same capability, but it is not required by the IVirtualLayout interface.

GroupedList

The typicalHeader and typicalFooter properties have been removed from GroupedList to support the better handling of typical items in virtual layouts, as discussed above. From now on, the typicalItem on a GroupedList is the only way to provide hints to the layout used by a GroupedList.

1.1.1

This release includes minor updates to support Starling Framework 1.4 and a number of minor bug fixes.

  • Switches to Starling's implementation of the clipRect property.
  • Uses Texture onRestore for internally managed textures, like in text controls.
  • StageTextTextEditor: fix for displayAsPassword clearing the text.
  • Panel: won't scroll if mouse wheel or touch occurs in header or footer.
  • Panel: header and footer can be touched when content is scrolling.
  • AeonDesktopTheme: uses a better disabled text color.
  • SmartDisplayObjectStateValueSelector: properly supports uint color value of 0.
  • Item Renderers: smarter handling of accessory resizing.
  • Item Renderers: better measurement to account for NaN.
  • Item Renderers: properly checks for _data, in addition to _owner, in commitData().
  • Label: sets proper text renderer dimensions if height is explicitly set.
  • Radio: better handling of setting toggleGroup to avoid accidentally adding to defaultRadioGroup.
  • Scroller: properly updates isEnabled on scroll bars when they are first created.
  • Scroller: child touches are blocked until throw animation finishes to match native behavior.
  • Scroll bars: better isEnabled handling.
  • TextInput: better handling of focus when not visible.
  • TextInput: better prompt handling.
  • TextFieldTextEditor: snapshot is properly hidden when text is cleared.
  • ButtonGroup: properly resizes when data provider changes.
  • GroupedList: requests proper typical item from data provider.
  • ScrollText: better padding getter.
  • PickerList: closes pop-up list on Event.TRIGGERED.
  • PickerList: properly disposes pop-up list and IPopUpContentManager.
  • TiledRowsLayout, TiledColumnsLayout: fixed manageVisibility implementation.
  • TiledRowsLayout, TiledColumnsLayout: fixed bad positioning when useSquareTiles is true.

1.1.0

  • New Beta Component: NumericStepper. Add and subtract from a numeric value with buttons. Optional text editing.
  • New Beta Component: TextArea. A multiline text input. Recommended for desktop only. Not recommended for mobile.
  • New Beta Component: Panel. A new container subclassing ScrollContainer that adds a header and an optional footer.
  • New Beta Component: PanelScreen. An IScreen implementation (similar to Screen) based on Panel.
  • New Beta Layout: AnchorLayout. Added to support fluid layouts and relative positioning. Can position relative to parent container and also to other children of the parent container.
  • Added FocusManager for keyboard navigation and interaction. Not intended for mobile. Use a desktop theme or set FocusManager.isEnabled = true. TextInput cannot use StageTextTextEditor when focus management is enabled. TextFieldTextEditor is recommended.
  • All Components: sub-components are created from factories and can receive custom names for theming.
  • Added ILayoutObject interface to support extra data for layouts to use, like includeInLayout property.
  • List: support for optional multiple selection.
  • TextInput: supports prompt/hint
  • TextInput/StageTextTextEditor: supports multiline on mobile.
  • PickerList: supports prompt when no item is selected.
  • Slider: measurement now includes thumb dimensions and a new property called trackScaleMode has been added.
  • Callout: disposal is more consistent. Set combination of disposeOnSelfClose and disposeContent.
  • Callout: doesn't close when origin is touched. origin should now separately determine correct behavior.
  • Callout: added origin and supportedDirections properties to make Callout capable of switching origins after creation.
  • Item Renderers: properly handle accessory resizing if accessory is a FeathersControl.
  • Item Renderers: fixes for a number of layout order, gap, and alignment combinations.
  • PickerList: doesn't close when touching scroll bar. only item renderer touch will trigger a close.
  • PopUpManager: Supports custom root to place pop-ups somewhere other than the stage.
  • PopUpManager: modal pop-ups receive a different focus manager.
  • ScreenNavigator: added hasScreen(), getScreen(), and getScreenIDs().
  • ScreenNavigator: added autoSizeMode property to select between sizing to fit stage or to fit content.
  • ScreenNavigator: fix for broken transition if showScreen() is calleed before transition begins but after new screen is added to stage.
  • Transitions: fix for quickStack constructor argument.
  • ScrollContainer, List, GroupedList: better auto-sizing with a background skin.
  • ScrollContainer: new alternate name for toolbar style.
  • TextInput: exposed isEditable, maxChars, restrict, and displayAsPassword properties.
  • BitmapFontTextRenderer, Scale3Image, Scale9Image: option to turn off the use of a separate QuadBatch.
  • TextFieldTextEditor: better selection on mobile.
  • TextFieldTextEditor: properly dispatches FeathersEventType.ENTER.
  • Text Renderers and Editors: better snapshot disposal.
  • TextFieldTextRenderer: better measurement to workaround runtime dimensions being wrong.
  • TiledRowsLayout, TiledColumnsLayout: supports separate horizontal and vertical gaps.
  • TiledRowsLayout, TiledColumnsLayout: more stable virtualized item renderer count to improve performance.
  • TiledRowsLayout, TiledColumnsLayout: fixes for certain issues with paging.
  • ButtonGroup: supports isEnabled as a property in the data provider.
  • ImageLoader: added delayTextureCreation flag to avoid creating textures while scrolling (or during any action that requires best performance).
  • Scroller: adds an invisible overlay during scrolling to block touch events on children.
  • Scroller: exposes horizontal and vertical page count properties.
  • Scroller: added FeathersEventType.SCROLL_START event.
  • Scroller: scroll bars are hidden when stopScrolling() is called.
  • Scroller: fix for velocity calculation.
  • Button: better detection of click to avoid other display objects moving on top of button before TouchPhase.ENDED.
  • Button: new styles for themes, including back, forward, call-to-action, quiet, and danger.
  • List: if items are added or removed, selected indices are adjusted.
  • List, GroupedList, ScrollContainer, and ScrollText all extend Scroller, instead of using it as a sub-component. The scrollerProperties property on each of these is now deprecated because all public properties of Scroller are now direct public properties of these components. Theme initializers that target Scroller will break because Scroller is no longer a sub-component, but a super class of classes like List. Move this stuff into initializers for List, GroupedList, ScrollContainer, and ScrollText.
  • FeathersControl: setSizeInternal() is now stricter. It can never receive a NaN value for width or height. This is a common source of bugs, and throwing an error here will help make it easier to find those bugs.
  • IVariableVirtualLayout: added function addToVariableVirtualCacheAtIndex() for more specific control over the cache of item dimensions.
  • IVariableVirtualLayout: added function removeFromVariableVirtualCacheAtIndex() for more specific control over the cache of item dimensions.
  • ScrollText: now properly handles visible and alpha properties.
  • ListCollection: added removeAll(), addAll(), addAllAt() and contains().
  • Scroller: scrolling animates for mouse wheel.
  • List, VerticalLayout, HorizontalLayout: optimized case where useVirtualLayout is true and hasVariableItemDimensions is false.
  • HorizontalLayout, VerticalLayout, TiledRowsLayout, TiledColumnsLayout: added manageVisibility property to set items to false when not in view. Set to true to improve performance.
  • Item Renderers: added stopScrollingOnAccessoryTouch property to make accessory touch behavior configurable.
  • Screen: default value of originalDPI is DeviceCapabilities.dpi. It used to be 168. Can still be changed.
  • MetalWorksMobileTheme and MinimalMobileTheme: major overhaul with improved skins and new alternate skins.
  • AeonDesktopTheme: added some missing skins, like TabBar.
  • AeonDesktopTheme: uses FocusManager.
  • AzureMobileTheme: removed this example theme. Please feel free to continue using the old version, if desired.
  • ComponentsExplorer: better button screen to show off various styles of buttons.
  • Todos: new example.
  • All Examples: Use PanelScreen instead of Screen and Header where appropriate.
  • All Examples: Use AnchorLayout where appropriate.
  • All Examples: Uses NumericStepper instead of Slider where appropriate.
  • Added 96x96 icons to examples for Android xhdpi. Requires AIR 3.7.
  • Extended API documentation with inline examples and improved descriptions.
  • Added many new articles to the Feathers Manual.
  • Now built with ASC 2.0.

1.1.0 Deprecated APIs

All deprecated APIs are subject to the Feathers deprecation policy. Please migrate to the new APIs as soon as possible because the deprecated APIs will be removed in a future version of Feathers.

The scrollerProperties property on scrolling components, including List, GroupedList, ScrollText and ScrollContainer is deprecated. Because these components now extend Scroller instead of adding a Scroller as a child, all of the properties that could be set through scrollerProperties can now be set directly on the components.

1.1.0 API Changes

Some changes have been made to Feathers that have the potential to break code in existing project. Changes of this type are considered exceptions to the Feathers deprecation policy, and careful consideration is made to limit the impact of these changes on existing projects. Most developers using Feathers will not be affected by these changes, except perhaps, to observe improved stability and consistency.

IVariableVirtualLayout

Two changes have been made to the IVariableVirtualLayout interface. Custom implementations of IVariableVirtualLayout created before Feathers 1.1.0 will have compiler errors until the required changes are made. It is expected that a very small number of Feathers developers have created custom implementations of IVariableVirtualLayout, so this change will have no impact on the vast majority of projects that are upgraded from older versions of Feathers.

The functions addToVariableVirtualCacheAtIndex() and removeFromVariableVirtualCacheAtIndex() have been added to IVariableVirtualLayout to provide lower-level control over the cache of item dimensions. Instead of clearing the entire cache, a component may insert or remove a specific index from the cache. For instance, the List component uses these functions when its data provider is manipulated. These functions allow the layout to provide more accuracy to its virtualization and to improve performance.

These two functions can easily simulate the old behavior from Feathers 1.0.x, if needed. The following implementations of addToVariableVirtualCacheAtIndex() and removeFromVariableVirtualCacheAtIndex() can easily be copied into a custom implementations of IVariableVirtualLayout to quickly migrate existing Feathers 1.0.x implementations to behave exactly the same in Feathers 1.1.0:

public addToVariableVirtualCacheAtIndex(index:int, item:DisplayObject = null):void
{
	this.resetVariableVirtualCache();
}

public removeFromVariableVirtualCacheAtIndex(index:int, item:DisplayObject = null):void
{
	this.resetVariableVirtualCache();
}

1.0.1

This release includes a number of bug fixes.

  • Scroller: FeathersEventType.SCROLL_COMPLETE always dispatched after last Event.SCROLL.
  • ScrollBar, SimpleScrollBar: thumb position properly accounts for padding.
  • Scroller: mouse wheel detection properly accounts for contentScaleFactor.
  • ScreenNavigator: calling clearScreen() during a transition no longer causes a stack overflow.
  • ScrollBar, SimpleScrollBar: can drag to minimum and maximum if they aren't a multiple of the step.
  • Header: Fix for runtime error when rightItems aren't IFeathersDisplayObjects
  • TextInput: better selection/cursor recovery when changing text programmatically.
  • TextInput: Moved fontSize contentScaleFactor multiplication into StageTextTextEditor.
  • FeathersControl: requires isInitialized to be true before it can validate.
  • FeathersControl: clipRect properly accounts for scale.
  • GroupedList: added missing documentation for setSelectedLocation().
  • ImageLoader: does a better job keeping aspect ratio when only one dimension is explicit.
  • ImageLoader: properly scales content when dimensions are explicit.
  • ImageLoader: no runtime errors if content loads after dispose.
  • ScrollContainer, List, GroupedList, ScrollText: fix for detecting changes in scrollToPageIndex().

1.0.0

No major API changes since 1.0.0 BETA. Mostly bug fixes and minor improvements.

  • Fix for memory leaks in List, GroupedList, and ImageLoader
  • PageIndicator properly handles ImageLoader or other IFeathersControl as symbol
  • IGroupedListHeaderOrFooterRenderer extends IFeathersControl
  • Header: fix for "middle" vertical alignment
  • Updated for Starling Framework 1.3

1.0.0 BETA

Initial release. The following major changes happened in the last month or two leading to the beta.

  • GTween library removed as a dependency. All animations switched to the Starling Tween class.
  • as3-signals library removed as a dependency. Switched to Starling events.
  • TextInput: supports swappable text editors, similar to the text renderers used for uneditable text. The default StageTextTextEditor uses StageText to allow text input, which is ideal for mobile. The TextFieldTextEditor uses a TextField of TextFieldType.INPUT instead, and it may be a better choice for desktop. A static function, defaultTextEditorFactory, has been added to FeathersControl.
  • TextInput: now has events for focus in and out.
  • Item renderers: Switched to ImageLoader for icon and accessory textures, which has a source property that supports Texture instances or String URLs to load textures from the web. Properties like iconTextureField and accessoryTextureFunction now have new names like iconSourceField and accessorySourceFunction because values other than textures are now allowed. Similarly, iconImageFactory and accessoryImageFactory have been renamed to iconLoaderFactory and accessoryLoaderFactory.
  • Item renderers: accessory may be positioned. See layoutOrder and accessoryPosition properties.
  • Added dispose() method to AddedWatcher so that theme resources like textures be disposed.
  • Added ScrollText component to display text in an overlay on the native display list. Useful for long passages of text that may be too large to convert to a texture.
  • ScreenNavigator: added events for transition start and complete.
  • ToggleSwitch: TRACK_LAYOUT_MODE_STRETCH is now TRACK_LAYOUT_MODE_ON_OFF.
  • Slider: TRACK_LAYOUT_MODE_STRETCH is now TRACK_LAYOUT_MODE_MIN_MAX.
  • ScrollBar: TRACK_LAYOUT_MODE_STRETCH is now TRACK_LAYOUT_MODE_MIN_MAX.