I know… I am late for a happy new year but I am not for a Happy New 2022.01.0! I’m in a dancing mood while I’m writing this… (and poor you) an idea comes to my mind: “Why not associate a song to each new feature?” It could be funny and it’ll result in a (terrible) soundtrack to play with this new version. Follow me for a musical ride through the new Sirius Web and OCP features!
Calendar versioning
June, July
January, February, March, April, May
June, July
—Boney M., Calendar song
For two years now, we have been working hard on Sirius Web in the open. Since the last 2021.12.0 version, Sirius Web released its first stable version. From now on, we will make sure to not break (too much) APIs for our Sirius Components customers. We decided to switch from semantic versioning to calendar versioning to reflect the maturity of the project. Our development cycle for each release consists of six weeks of active development and two weeks for various minor improvements. Once a stable release “YEAR.MONTH.0” is done, we will start working on the next one “YEAR.MONTH+2.0”. During the preparation of the next release, we will improve the current branch to prepare for that release. As a result, we will have multiple intermediate releases within a YEAR.MONTH.1, YEAR.MONTH.2… YEAR.MONTH.42, etc. Those releases should be considered as milestones for the next stable one.
The changes made are tracked in the CHANGELOG where you can find a fine-grained list of all the API breaks, new features, bug fixes, and various improvements.
Magic connector
It's a kind of magic
A kind of magic (No way)
One dream, one CONNECTOR
—Almost Queen, A Kind of Magic
A new “Magic Connector” tool is available on diagrams. It provides an alternative way to create edges between diagram elements:
- choose the generic
Connectortool from the source node’s palette - select the target node
- choose which of the compatible tools to apply in the menu appears. If there is only one tool defined, it will be applied automatically without showing the menu.
DnD for Unsync diagram
She's out of sync (sync)
She's out of sync (sync)
She's out of sync
—Devo, Out of sync
Since the 2021.10.0 release, it is possible to create so-called unsynchronized diagrams with Sirius Web. Where a synchronized diagram automatically computes the elements of the model displayed, an unsynchronized diagram allows the user to select the elements he wants (according to the rules defined by the diagram). We also added support for “Delete from Diagram”, to delete graphical elements without deleting the corresponding semantic element in unsynchronized diagrams.
It is now also possible to drag semantic elements from the explorer to a diagram. The concrete effect depends on how the target diagram is defined, but a typical case is to add a graphical representation of the dropped element to the diagram.
Fit to Screen
Oh fits you good
Yeah fits you good
Oh fits you good
—Bryan Adams, Fits Ya good
When a diagram is opened, a “Fit to screen” is automatically performed to ensure all its contents are visible. Previously, depending on the coordinates of the elements it could happen that not all of them were visible when opening a diagram.
Stylish studios!
—Taylor Swift, Style
Release after release we continue to improve the web studio definition capabilities.
Nodes can now have a dynamically computed size (using Size Expression) which depends on the current state of the semantic model. If the expression is present and produces a positive integer, it will be used as both the width and height of the node, in pixels. Currently, it is not possible to compute different values for width and height.
It is now possible to define border nodes in the web studio definition.
And finally, it is possible to configure text style on labels: bold, italic, underline, strike-through.
Next
The Obeo team has started a new iteration to prepare 2022.03.0, during which we focus on three topics:
- Support of Component-like diagrams with ports and bendpoints for edges,
- Diagram user experience to smoothly edit, move, reconnect, and layout diagrams,
- And…(drum roll)… Tables! I am really enthusiastic about this one, we are cooking something really cool!
A detailed release note for 2022.01.0 is available in our online documentation: http://docs.obeostudio.com.
As usual, all these changes are made available thanks to our loved customers sponsoring the Sirius Web open-source project! Do not hesitate to join the party and become a Sirius Web supporter, it is as easy as sending me an email, or contacting the team.
See you soon for the next Sirius Web and OCP soundtrack release!