Vaadin touchkit for Vaadin 8

Flow
1

When it will be available?

2

Hi Germán,

We’re not planning to update Vaadin TouchKit for Vaadin Framework 8. Instead, we are planning to incorporate the major features (except for the UI components) into Vaadin Framework 8.x. Right now we are targeting this for 8.2, but this might still change. You can already build most mobile apps with plain Vaadin Framework, but we want to add the missing pieces to the core product. We feel that mobile is really important and you should not have to use an add-on to build mobile apps with Vaadin.

What specific features of TouchKit do you rely on the most? What do you think we should keep in mind when building this into Vaadin Framework?

Cheers,
Jonatan

3

My 2¢ worth as a Touchkit wish list in no particular order:

  1. Support Valo. Buttons, for example, could look consistent across desktop and mobile parts of the application if Valo were supported.
  2. Respond properly to requests for old XXX.cache.js files. After a widgetset recompile an iPhone will put in a request for the previous XXX.cache.js file which won’t get a response which causes a hang. I’ve had to implement a do filter to force a proper response to a request for an old file. It would be nice not to have to do that.
  3. Have websocket respond elegantly when a mobile browser closes, instead of with a severe error and stack trace. Desktop browsers can be quit without a websocket error, but a mobile browser closing leaves the logs littered with stack traces.
  4. Become responsive. Rotating the screen causes UI chaos, rotating it back retains the chaos requiring a browser refresh.

Of course 2, 3 and 4 could be caused by gaps in my knowledge in these areas, but they remain Touchkit issues for me for now.

4

I’m just planning a new version of a very old software we have. I need to start from scratch. I’m facing the “wait for 8” or “start with latest 7” decision. Since mobile is a key part of that decision, hence de question.

5

Something to consider: 8.2 is still some time away, since even 8.0 isn’t out of beta yet.

-Olli

6

Hello German,

Forget about Touchkit. It’s a “pro” addon that is really poorly maintained that will die soon.

  • Sorry vaadin guys, I’m really positive about you, but clearly Touchkit has never been a priority (or it was a looong time ago) -

For you to make the decision, you have to point out what you mean with “mobile is priority”. Some functionnalities are already in base framework.

Regards
Sebastien

7

I feel really bad about the current state of TouchKit as well. Not only because I initially started that project here at Vaadin, but I also use that in a Vaadin application I use weekly (a GIS system which shows the areas where I’m allowed to hunt, where I and other hunters are and where my hound dog is running) and it works great there, even with often quite modest network. And, I think TouchKit would have had much more potential, we just haven’t really invested on in since the initial release (and quick and dirty V7 upgrade).

Although some features are indeed already in the core, there is still lot of stuff missing (and wont be at least in 8.0):

  • Fast buttons (core Framework don’t have the optimization that removes the lag mobile browsers use to detect double tap)
  • Lots of mobile oriented (iOS inspired) components → impossible or very hard to upgrade if no V8 versions available.
  • Mobile optimized input fields (email, number, date etc)
  • Geolocation
  • Cache manifest generation (speeds up the startup a lot at least on mobile devices)
  • Smaller mobile optimized theme (Valo is huge and with extra fonts → further makes mobile devices feel “sluggy”)
  • Icons

I wouldn’t care that much about the offline support. If you really need that, you are most often better off with native solutions anyway.

I have suggested open sourcing the stuff for long time and hope this will finally happen, but I’d also upgrade that to Vaadin 8 (by Vaadin Ltd). I think it shouldn’t be that big effort.

cheers,
matti

8

Great! Don’t let it die!

9

Hello all,

I also require additional to my current application a mobile support. What is now that best way to avoid redeveloping everything in the future? Is it enough to implement a valo page optimized on the mobile devices sizes or do I have to respect many other things?

Best Regards,
Thomas

10

Jonatan,

Two points:

  1. Is there a good guide or best practices paper for developing mobile apps using Vaadin 8? If not, can you guys record a webinar or share one on your site?
  2. When is Vaadin 8 finally going to be out and when can we expect 8.2? Sharing a roadmap with the community would definitely help people with planning etc.

Thanks.
Guru

11

Guru,

  1. Great point. This doesn’t exist right now, but I’ll make sure that we create the material.
  2. Vaadin 8.0 is scheduled for the end of this month, potential blockers might move it forward a bit, though. 8.2 doesn’t have a time schedule quite yet, but we’re planning it for the autumn.

Cheers,
Jonatan

12

Jonatan,

Thanks for the followup. I have high hopes for my mobile endeavors, so any material you guys can share would be wonderful. Autumn seems so far away right now!

Thanks and I appreciate all the wonderful work that you guys are doing for people like me who don’t like non-Java solutions.

Guru

13

Please consider to add “Apache Cordova” and “Phonegap” extensions/add-ons/templates/integration guidelines when developing Vaadin’s mobile features. Straightforward integration with those frameworks could be great for Vaadin developers. It would be very apreciated.

Thanks!

14

I received information, that opensourcing Vaadin TouchKit is going to happen. The currently CVAL licensed project is going to be moved under Apache 2.0 license. I’m calling for people willing to take Vaadin TouchKit under their wings.

You should become the main coordinator and contributor of TouchKit. You would maintain the add-on, review code, merge pull requests, make releases, handle push rights to the project - well you get the idea.

If you want to participate, send me an email or comment to this thread.

15

TouchKit for Vaadin 5.x is now open source under Apache 2.0 license. Go to at
https://github.com/vaadin/touchkit
 and fork it. We’ll have a announcement blog post about later, but I wanted to share this already.

16

That’s great! Thanks!

17

It would be really nice if you could incorporate the UI components, like Switch and the touch firendly components, into the main framework.

In my eyes Vaadin has always been a framework for “back office” work that is not intended for a huge concurrent userbase. Having more touch-friendly components makes it easier to build applications that are only operated using touch. In our case due to hygene reasons keyboard and mouse are not an option. But there are many industrial applications that are just operated using touch and I think this will increase in the future.
For example, currently doing a simple touch friendly checkbox is a pain in the ass. Switch would make that so much easier.

The addition of the touch firendly components would significantly improve Vaadin for there application areas.

18

It would be great to have a painless responsive “Apache Cordova/Phongap + Vaadin + Touchkit” bundle/API to build mobile apps. Even if it is included in pro/tools.