Say hello to Vaadin 24.5! This release brings exciting new capabilities to the platform, including the Vaadin Control Center for managing apps in production and automatic user management without extra development. You'll also find the Vaadin Modernization Toolkit for seamless migration from older Vaadin versions or Java Swing, as well as Flow support in Vaadin Copilot, which automates repetitive coding tasks. Plus, you can now import designs directly from Figma, making UI development easier than ever. See what’s new below!
Vaadin Control Center: A new way to manage your applications
Creating a web application requires more than just coding skills. The new Vaadin Control Center provides a centralized hub for managing Vaadin applications in Kubernetes environments.
Vaadin Control Center simplifies web development by offering "building blocks" like user management, login, and internationalization that you can easily integrate into your application. Built on Kubernetes, it makes managing and scaling applications accessible, even for teams new to Kubernetes, removing the complexity of deployment and operation.
Key features include:
- Create a production configuration in any Kubernetes-compatible cluster
- Deploy Vaadin apps
- One-click user management integration based on Keycloak & PostgreSQL that Control Center manages for you
- Manage users, roles, and groups
- Social logins, including Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, GitHub, X
- Federated login with OpenID Connect [commercial]
- Two-factor authentication with authenticator apps [commercial]
Learn more about Control Center or see documentation →
Vaadin Copilot: Now available for Flow
In version 24.4, we introduced Vaadin Copilot for Hilla—a front-end savvy AI assistant designed to automate mundane coding tasks, making UI development faster and easier. With Vaadin 24.5, we’re excited to expand this powerful AI assistant to Vaadin Flow as well.
We aim to help developers focus on complex, high-value work by automating repetitive tasks and offering intelligent code suggestions. Copilot understands both Flow and Java, providing in-context recommendations that significantly enhance productivity. This feature is not just about writing code faster—it’s about giving developers more time to innovate and solve problems creatively, regardless of whether they are using the Hilla or Flow framework.
Figma integration: Bridging the gap between designers and developers
We recognize that collaboration between designers and developers is crucial for creating exceptional user experiences. With Vaadin 24.5, we’ve enhanced our Figma integration, which makes it easier than ever to turn design prototypes into fully functional UI components in your Vaadin applications.
With the new Figma import, you can easily copy your design from Figma and paste it into your Hilla or Flow view, instantly recreating the component tree and layout. Use our pre-made components to arrange UI elements as needed. Vaadin Copilot empowers developers to bring designs to life with ease, becoming UI artists in the process. Check out the quick demo below to see it in action!
Additional new features in Vaadin Copilot
- Internationalization is crucial for global users, and Vaadin Copilot simplifies the process. It provides automated translations to get you started and supports professional localization workflows, helping you efficiently manage and apply translations across your app.
- Documentation: Check documentation for selected components directly from Copilot.
- Test generation with AI (experimental): Automatically generated test cases help prevent regression, giving you the confidence to make UI changes without worrying about breaking anything. We all know test cases are necessary, but writing and maintaining them can be a chore—let AI handle the tedious, repetitive work so you can focus on what matters.
- UI Services: Displays a list of Hilla services along with their security configurations, ensuring proper access control for the user interface.
- Development Workflow: Improves the developer experience when working with Vaadin applications by checking if the Vaadin plugin for IntelliJ is installed and ensuring HotSwap is enabled. It also provides helpful hints to improve efficiency.
What’s new in Flow?
Simplified Hotswap support
In Vaadin 24.5, we've integrated hot-swap support using HotSwapAgent, making hot-reloading during development faster and more convenient. By automating their use through IDE plugins and optimizing Flow for seamless reloading, you can instantly see changes as you develop—saving time, improving productivity, and maintaining focus without the need to manually restart your application or recompile code.
Additional Flow improvements:
- Automatic layout and menu generation for Flow apps.
- Java Record support in Binder and Grid.
- Reusing existing tabs after restarting in dev mode.
- Faster startup times for improved performance.
What’s new in Hilla?
Full-stack signals
Introducing full-stack signals in Hilla! This experimental feature lets you build live-updated functionality by synchronizing the UI state between server and client with fine-grained updates, reducing data transfer by syncing only what's changed. Complex UI state is effortlessly kept in sync across the server, browser, and even multiple clients. Learn more about full-stack signals in Leif Åstrand’s recent talk at Devoxx Belgium.
Additional Hilla improvements:
- Seamless serialization of Java types to TypeScript and vice versa. Learn more on GitHub →
- Generic JSON value support with JsonNode in Java and any in TypeScript. Learn more on Github →
Modernization Toolkit
Extend and modernize your existing applications with ease. Vaadin's Modernization Toolkit provides features and refactoring tools to maximize value from your tested apps, reducing transformation effort by up to 90% compared to a full rewrite.
- Dragonfly Transpiler: Automate migration from Vaadin Framework or Swing to Flow using preconfigured rules, supporting full or selective transformations. See documentation
- Feature Pack: Ease migration of existing applications or add some retro cool to new ones with features from Vaadin 7, Vaadin 8, Swing, AWT, and a selection from JGoodies and NetBeans. See documentation
- MTK Analyzer: Audit code dependencies and estimate automation potential to streamline Java migrations. Self-assess your current Java application for modernization readiness—for free. Try it out yourself with Maven or Eclipse.
Collaboration Kit is now free and open-source
Starting from Vaadin 24.5, the Collaboration Kit is now free and open-source! This powerful tool enables real-time collaboration in your applications, with features like customizable avatars, synchronized field editing, and real-time chat, all without restrictions on user numbers in production.
Other noteworthy features and enhancements
In addition to these major features, Vaadin 24.5 includes a range of other smaller improvements:
- Grid empty state customization: You can now define custom empty states for Vaadin Grids, either with text or with more complex UI components.
- Popover component: A new Popover component for Flow and Hilla allows you to easily add rich tooltips and notifications to your UIs.
- Form binding improvements: We've made binding forms to records easier and more intuitive, streamlining the process of working with immutable data structures.
- Constraint error messages: Use custom error messages to communicate field constraints (e.g., pattern, minimum length) to users better.
- Color support in Rich Text Editor: Use your preferred colors for text and text background with a customizable color palette.
- Lumo-styling for Spreadsheet: Styling spreadsheets is now possible by using standard Lumo practices.
- CSS Classname API for ComboBox and MultiSelectComboBox items: Individually style dropdown items and chips using the new CSS classname generator API.
See the Roadmap board on GitHub for more details on the features and bug fixes planned for upcoming versions.
Explore Vaadin 24.5 today!
We’ve packed a lot into Vaadin 24.5, and we hope you’re as excited about it as we are. Whether it’s the AI Copilot making coding user interface easier, the new Control Center making getting to production faster, or the Figma integration bridging the design-development gap, Vaadin 24.5 is here to take your productivity to the next level.
Psst...If you're upgrading from an earlier version, our detailed upgrade guides and tools will ensure a smooth transition so you can start taking advantage of all the new features right away.
Check out our release notes for the full list of new features and updates, and be sure to watch our Community Town Hall for an in-depth overview of everything new in this release.
Got questions? Join the conversation on our community forum or contact our experts directly.