Enterprise Griffon provides an overview of the Griffon framework, which is a desktop application framework for Java that uses plugins and addons to extend its capabilities, and it discusses Griffon's plugin architecture, MDI support, UI toolkits like SwingXBuilder and MacWidgetsBuilder, notifications, database integration, printing, and deployment options.

1. Enterprise Griffon
James Williams
Software Engineer, BT/Ribbit

2. Agenda
•Basic Griffon Overview
•Griffon's Plugin Architecture
•MDI
•Beyond SwingBuilder
•Notifications
•Databases
•Printing
•Deployment

3. If you missed the last
session...

4. Boo!!!

5. Griffon Basics
•Apache 2 Licensed
•Inspired by Grails and SAF
•Desktop framework for the Java
platform
•Extensible through plugins and
addons

6. Griffon Basics
•UIs done right
•Composite UI builder can mix and
match components
•Common structure for all apps
•Embraces MVC design

7. Plugins
•Provide compile-time features
•Directory structure is the same as
applications
•UI toolkits
•Testing frameworks
•Data services (db/web)
•Addons

8. Addons
•Supply run-time capabilities
•Can decorate core features and
components

9. Distributing Your Plugins
● griffon package-plugin
● Creates docs and zips the plugin
● griffon release-plugin
● Packages plugin and checks it into
the griffon repo

10. Creating A Plugin
Demo

11. Multi-Doc Plugin
•Simplifies the process of creating
tabbed interfaces
•Creates a document state class to
manage open and active documents
•Creates actions for opening,
closing, and saving documents

12. Beyond SwingBuilder

13. SwingXBuilder
•Provides a builder for the
SwingLabs components
•The easiest way to give your apps
some bling
•Well supported when it comes to
theming

14. MacWidgetsBuilder
•OS X Java UI widgets
•cross-platform
•over 10 components

15. MacWidgetsBuilder

16. Demo

17. Notifications

18. Notifications
● Griffon (and Java)
● can use the system tray
● intercept webhook notifications
● can use Growl

19. What are Webhooks?
● Fluid interface for communication
● You already how to use it
● Just send an HTTP POST to a
user-provided or generated URL

20. Notify.io
•Users register with Notify.io
•They provide their email addy to
Notify.io enabled sites
•Sites use webhooks to send
notifications to their users

21. Growl
•Slightly messy
•Ubuntu and OS X work natively
•Windows needs an additional
install
•No plugin available at this time

22. Demo

23. Databases
•Rich database support
•GSQL
•MongoDB
•Neo4J
•CouchDB
•and several others

24. Printing
•Printing plugin simplifies printing for
•TXT
•RTF
•HTML
•and PDF files
•Markup Builder + PDFRenderer for
complex layouts
•Some CSS layout support

25. Deployment
● Apps can be deployed as
● applets
● desktop
● webstart
● Some important considerations
● Non-swing UIs
● Sandbox issues

26. Installer Plugin
•Creates app launchers for all major
operating systems
•Creates platform specific installers
•Can be extended to conditionally
include assets

27. Demo

28. Plugins mentioned
● rest
● tray-builder
● installer
● printing
● swingx-builder
● macwidgets-builder

29. Links
Blog: http://jameswilliams.be/blog
Twitter: @ecspike
@theaviary (Griffon News)
Griffon: http://griffon.codehaus.org