1. Application Framework: What's New

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1. Editors Use 100 Times Less Memory by Default

Designer has signficantly reduced the amount of memory it consumes for each editor that you open. Until now, if a project totaled up to 20 MB of files, all 20 MB were loaded from disk for each editor that you opened, regardless of the editor. The objects have been greatly streamlined, and the data of each object is loaded from disk only as needed. For a 20 MB project, each editor usually consumes less than 200K, rather than the full 20 MB. In many cases, this lightened load should increase the performance when loading editors.

We also solved major memory problems where editors were never releasing memory. This would cause you to run out of memory rather quickly if you were opening a lot of editors. That problem should be completely solved.

2. Faster Environment

Designer is now based on the latest version of Eclipse 3.3 and the latest Java 6 Virtual Machine. Because performance enhancements were made to both Eclipse and Java, Designer benefits from improved performance in many areas. For example, images should load 30-70% faster from disk, depending on the image.

3. Project Converter Chains the Conversions and Lists the Benefits

Designer 3.0 M1 requires that projects created in earlier versions be converted to the 3.0 format. Designer automatically does this conversion. Projects created with Designer 2.0 M5 or the shipping version of Designer 2.0 are converted directly to the 3.0 M1 format. Projects created in a version earlier than Designer 2.0 M5 are automatically converted to the 2.0 M5/2.0 shipping format and then converted to the 3.0 M1 format.

The project converter also now lets you know what it is doing by listing the reasons the conversion is necessary and the benefits that occur, based on the type of conversion (the converters that are automatically chained together).


4. Using an External Editor of Your Choice

The following key objects in the Designer model are now saved to their own pure XML files. You can edit them directly by using an XML editor that is available from within Designer's Outline view.
  • DirXML Script policies
  • ECMA Scripts
  • E-mail notification templates
  • Entitlements
  • Mapping tables
  • Resources
  • Schema map
  • XSLT
To edit an object:
  1. In the Outline view, right-click on of the eight listed items.
  2. Select Open with, then select the editor that you want to use.
    Designer always shows the Designer built-in editor at the top of the list because this editor is always used when you double-click the item. The rest of the list displays other editors that can edit the selected object. By default, you see the Novell XML editor and a text editor.
    You can add any desired external XML editor to this list and set it to be the default editor. The new default then appears at the top of the list of additional editors.


To specify your own editors:
  1. Select Window > Preferences.
  2. Select General > Editors > File Associations.
  3. Click Add, then browse to and select any external editor.
    Because these objects are all XML files, you need to associate the editor with the .xml file type.



5. Significant Browser Improvements on Linux

The Browser widget now uses profiles on GTK+ and linux-motif. As a result, many previous shortcomings have been fixed. The browser now does the following:
  • Displays HTTPS pages
  • Renders visited links properly
  • Caches visited pages

6. Sorry, No Project Source Version Control Yet

At Brainshare 2007, we demonstrated a working version control in Designer and thought it would be ready for 3.0 M1. However, we encountered some signficant hurdles in maintaining project integrity when operating in a team environment. We apologize, but have opted to forgo version control for 3.0 M1 so that we can correctly put into place an underlying file architecture to fully support source version control. We anticipate that version control will be available in 3.0 M2.

7. Improved Workspace Switching

Designer 3.0 M1 enables you to more easily switch between workspaces in Eclipse. For quick access, the most recently used workspaces now appear when you select File > Switch Workspace.

8. Improved View Management

When you minimize a view or an editor stack, a placeholder tray now appears in the closest trim location along the left, bottom, or right edge of the workbench. Each view from the view stack acts as a fast view while in the trim.

You can restore the stack by clicking the tray's Restore icon. You can drag and drop minimized trays to new locations along the workbench trim.

Maximizing any stack triggers minimization of all others.


9. Special Characters Show in the Text Editor

The text editor has been enhanced to show tabs, white space, and carriage returns. You can use this editor on any text file that you add to your Documents folder in the Project view.


To use this feature, select Window > Preferences > General > Editors > Text Editors > Show whitespace characters.

10. Additional Text Editor Enhancements

  1. Scroll Wheel Support: The mouse wheel scrolls the content by pages while the Ctrl key is pressed.
  2. Drag and Drop Gestures: You can now select any text and drag it to any other portion of the document or to any other text editor.
  3. Joining Lines: You can now use Ctrl+Alt+Jto join lines in a text editor.
  4. Convert Tabs to Spaces: You can convert tabs to spaces when typing. To enable this feature, select Window > Preferences > General > Editors > Text Editors > Insert spaces for tabs.
  5. Triple-Click in Text Editor: Triple-clicking in a text editor now selects the line.

11. Turning Off Highlighting in Searches

When you open a help document as a result of a search, the search terms are highlighted by default. A new toggle icon now appears in the toolbar so that you can turn highlighting off, making the document easier to read.


12. Printing Multiple Help Topics

You can now print multiple topics, including a complete topic subtree at any level, with a single action.
  1. In the help window, select the new print icon above the table of contents.

  2. Select Print selected topic and all subtopics.


Designer automatically generates a table of contents in the printed document.

13. Breadcrumbs in Help

Help now displays a series of links called breadcrumbs at the top of each document. These links allow for easier navigation and provide the context of the document being viewed.



14. Undo or Redo Tasks and Bookmarks

Undo is now available for many task and bookmark operations. When you create, update, add, or delete a task or bookmark, you now have the ability to undo that change. Use the Edit menu from the Task or the Bookmarks view to undo the operation.


15. Scroll through Project Checks

You can now scroll through items listed in the Project Checker. This new behavior supports a more fluid workflow between focused tasks (such as editing in a maximized editor) and the need for intermittent access to secondary information (such as selection in the Outline view). In addition, it provides a more compact representation of minimized stacks, saving screen real estate.
To scroll through items listed in the Project Checker:
  1. Double-click an item in the Project Checker.
  2. Click the scroll arrows in the Properties dialog box.




16. Additional Filter for DS Trace Viewer

A new filter has been added to DS Trace Viewer. This allows a user to filter the trace based on events.




Other Enhancements & Bug Fixes
  1. Now able to always save the converted project. Click here for details.
  2. The Project Name now displays in the Outline view after converting a project. Click here for details.
  3. The java/bin directory is now added to the Designer path on Windows. Click here for details.
  4. JVM arguments have been moved from a Designer shortcut to eclipse.ini. Click here for details.
  5. Project Check on characters that need to be escaped in object names. Click here for details.
  6. The Project Checker no longer throws errors for ECMA and mapping tables 'The content for this resource is empty'. Click here for details.
  7. The hiearchical layout in the Project Checker view now sorts in alphabetical order. Click here for details.
  8. The Project Checker no longer has random filtering problems. Click here for details.
  9. The Project checker no longer improperly reports errors when token-replace-all is used in a policy. Click here for details.
  10. Fixed the error 'Project Checker could not run checks on this object. This object contains invalid data.'. Click here for details.
  11. The Project Checker now catches references to non-existing GCVs. Click here for details.
  12. The Project Checker no longer falsely reports references to variables not previously declared. Click here for details.
  13. An imported Identity Vault schema is now saved to disk. Click here for details.


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