Getting Simpler and Richer

• Please see New Features for more information

Behind the scenes

• To read about the philosophy behind ZK 8, please visit this blog

Feature Updates

• 120+ off-the-shelf Ajax components
  • Tabbox, grid, listbox, tree, menu, combobox, bandbox, datebox, chart, hbox, vbox, window, slider, paging, audio, image, timer, include, iframe...
  • Drag-and-drop supported by all components, such that users can drag components and drop them to any other or particular set of components.
  • Context menus and customizable tooltips supported by all components, such that a menu or any popup appears when user click, right-click or move the mouse over a component.
  • Customizable sorting of listbox, grid and children of any component with 100% Java codes (java.lang.Comparator).
  • Auto-completion for combobox.
  • Load on demand with writing Java codes.
  • Live data for listbox.
  • Grids, listboxes and trees with sizable columns.
  • All components are cloneable and serializable.
  • Validation and formatting for any input components, such as regular expression and $#,##0.
  • 100% Java API of Google Maps and CKeditor components.
• Event-driven, server-centric model
  • Ajax requests, application notification, and server push are all managed as events
  • Event Queue shields developers from the complexity of Ajax and server push, such as multi-thread programming
  • All events are processed at the server. No hurdle to communicate between clients and servers.
  • All events are synchronized. No racing condition to worry about.
• ZK User-interface Markup Language (ZUML).
  • Rich user interface could be designed in ZUML as simple as authoring HTML pages.
  • Powerful yet intuitive control flow by the if, unless and forEach attribute.
  • Scripting in EL expressions and your favorite scripting languages, include but not limited to Java, JavaScript, Ruby and Groovy.
  • Hot changes and updates without restarting your Web applications.
  • Annotations that allow a page to access database with zero Java codes.
• Browser history management.
  • Add states to browser's back button history. Then, users can bookmark and use the back and forward button to navigate different states of the same ZK desktop.
• Simple yet boundless component model.
  • POJO components supporting interfaces and clustering. Easy to instantiate and manipulate directly with pure Java, or injected and managed by an AOP framework, such as Spring
  • Macro components. Develope full-featured new component by using other ZUML pages.
  • Inheritable customization. Developing a new component by extending existent components.
  • Seamlessly and easily to encapsulate pure-client components as ZK components with 100% Java API.
  • Customizing components with pre-compiled Java classes, or by scripting in your favorite scripting languages, include but not limited to Java, JavaScript, Ruby and Groovy. The choice is yours.
• Simple yet flexible threading model.
  • Thread-safe component handling.
  • True server-side Modal dialog.
  • Suspend and resume event listeners freely.
• 100% Customizable User-Interface factory.
  • Loading ZUML pages not only from Web contents but also any repository such as database.
  • Customizing the features of sessions, desktops and pages.

What's New

• New Features Tracker
  • ZK-1717: Support dymic template
  • ZK-1972: ZK bind support access vm properties in client side
  • ZK-1983: add a "today" button to datebox's calendar popup
  • ZK-2476: Support to plug a different parser for parsing a page
  • ZK-2508: Enhance ForEachStatus to be consistent with JSTL's varStatus properties.
  • ZK-2545: Children binding support ListModel
  • ZK-2576: Support a shadow element concept for Databinding or EL expression
  • ZK-2578: Add one more phase when initial bindings
  • ZK-2581: Add a @SmartNotifyChange annotation that triggering the notification once the value of the property is changed
  • ZK-2584: Support @command and @global-command for client side to use
  • ZK-2591: zk.loadScript() can check file existence
  • ZK-2596: Support JSR 341: Expression Language 3.0
  • ZK-2612: ZHTML support textContent attribute for dynamic data binding
  • ZK-2613: ZHTML component's src attribute support encodeURL like Image in Zul
  • ZK-2614: ZK DataBinding support client callback function after some command triggered
  • ZK-2620: Upgrade Font Awesome to 4.3 version
  • ZK-2631: Parser support another namespace for shadow element
  • ZK-2632: Parser support disorder template tag
  • ZK-2638: simplify exception handling (avoid wrapping RuntimeExceptions)
  • ZK-2641: Support custom error message for input element that has multiple constraints
  • ZK-2650: BindingParam annotation support converting from JSON to POJO automatically
  • ZK-2660: Sync grid column visible state in client/server side when show/hide column through menupopup
  • ZK-2668: New Build-in Converter - FormattedTimeConverter
  • ZK-2674: Add an annotation for notify command
  • ZK-2675: Add an annotation for client command
  • ZK-2698: Add a lightweight rich editor
  • ZK-2707: Add a timepicker component
  • ZK-2708: Add a rowlayout component
  • ZK-2713: Clients.java support loadScript and loadCSS API
  • ZK-2718: Forbidden to set hflex/vflex and width/height at the same time
  • ZK-2724: Add a callback mechanism for component at redraw phase
  • ZK-2725: New ZK message support - Danish translation
  • ZK-2727: Utilize Scrollview component in desktop
  • ZK-2730: Support client data attributes handler
  • ZK-2753: el3 enhancement for invoking customized static method
• Bugs fixed
  • ZK-1848: Form Binding doesn't update the bean field when a binding bean changed
  • ZK-2078: FormBinding with collections does not cache the changes
  • ZK-2083: MVVM Form Binding with References
  • ZK-2552: Tabbox model NotifyChange problem
  • ZK-2592: @validator('formBeanValidator'... does not validate nested properties
  • ZK-2598: forward event behaves inconsistent inside an include
  • ZK-2663: Popup does not show up when its parent is native
  • ZK-2716: xhtml component dynamic updates
  • ZK-2721: sh:apply parameters leaking into templates
  • ZK-2726: Bean proxy object cannot accept a null value
  • ZK-2735: Form proxy with enum property
  • ZK-2736: Form proxy with Immutable values
  • ZK-2737: Form proxy with calculated (transient) fields
  • ZK-2738: Break line merge problem in zul file
  • ZK-2744: pause comet server push while au isn't ready
  • ZK-2762: zk:zscript tag directly inside html or head tag no longer works

Upgrade Notes

• Deprecated the method of getEach() in org.zkoss.zk.ui.util.ForEachStatus, use getCurrent() method instead.
• Removed the class of org.zkoss.bind.SimpleForm, org.zkoss.bind.impl.FormImpl and org.zkoss.bind.impl.FormExt.
• Renaming icons for upgrading Font Awesome to 4.3
  • z-icon-move to z-icon-arrows
  • z-icon-resize-full to z-icon-expand
  • z-icon-resize-small to z-icon-compress
  • z-icon-resize-vertical to z-icon-arrows-v
  • z-icon-resize-horizontal to z-icon-arrows-h
  • z-icon-fullscreen to z-icon-arrows-alt
  • z-icon-hospital to z-icon-hospital-o
  • z-icon-unlock-o to z-icon-unlock-alt
  • z-icon-ellipsis-horizontal to z-icon-ellipsis-h
  • z-icon-ellipsis-vertical to z-icon-ellipsis-v
• Removed the icons for upgrading Font Awesome to 4.3
  • z-icon-expand-o
  • z-icon-collapse-o
• The library property of org.zkoss.zk.ui.invokeFirstRootForAfterKeyDown.enabled is false by default.
• Deprecated the method of setWidgetAttribute() and getWidgetAttribute() of org.zkoss.zk.ui.Component, use setClientAttribute() and getClientAttribute() method instead.