CHANGELOG.md

General Information:

• Install latest stable Alloy: [sudo] npm install -g alloy
• Install Alloy by version: [sudo] npm install -g [email protected]
• Alloy Documentation
• Alloy on NPM

1.3.0 (10 December 2013)

• Full list of Issues that were addressed in Release 1.3.0

Breaking Changes

Titanium SDK Support

Due changes in the application build process for both Alloy and the Titanium SDK, Alloy 1.3.0 only supports Titanium SDK 3.2.0 and later. You can find details on this in the following tickets:

• TIMOB-14884
• ALOY-760

New Features

XML Markup Enhancements

• Support children elements for Widget and Require elements. View objects created using the Widget and Require elements can contain child view elements, which are added as children views of the parent Widget or Require view object. Example: require_children

• Support <HeaderView>, <FooterView> and <PullView> as children tags of the <ListView> object to specify the headerView, footerView and pullView properties of Titanium.UI.ListView.

• Support <SearchBar> and <SearchView platform="android> as children tags of the <ListView> object to specify the searchView property of Titanium.UI.ListView.

• Support <HeaderView> and <FooterView> as children tags of the <ListSection> object to specify the headerView and footerView properties of Titanium.UI.ListSection.

• Support <LeftButton>, <RightButton> and <KeyboardToolbar> as children tags of the <TextField> object to specify the leftButton, rightButton and keyboardToolbar properties of Titanium.UI.TextField. These properties are only supported on the iOS platform.

• Support shorthand method for declaring iOS system buttons. When specifying the system attribute for a Button object, you do not need to use the Ti.UI namespace. For example, the following markup creates the iOS camera button:

  <Button systemButton="CAMERA"/>
  

TSS Enhancements

• Support for bitwise operators, which includes bit shifting ('>>', '<<', and '>>>'), bitwise AND ('&'), bitwise OR ('|') and bitwise XOR ('^').

Model Enhancements

• Support fetching a model using its ID attribute rather than an SQL query with the SQLite sync adapter. For example, you can fetch a model by using the attribute:

  myModel.fetch({id: 123});
  

  rather than using an SQL query:

  myModel.fetch({query: 'select * from ... where id = ' + 123 });
  

New Compiler Hook

This Release added a new compiler task called pre:load that is triggered before copying assets and other resources to the project's Resources folder. This task is executed near the beginning of the Alloy compiliation process, after the project is cleaned.

Support Platform and Environment-Specific Project Configurations

In the project configuration file (config.json), you can combine the os and env keys together to specify an environment and platform configuration. For example, the code below specifies configurations for iOS test, iOS development and iOS production:

"os:ios env:production": {
    "foo": "os:ios env:production"
},
"os:ios env:development": {
    "foo": "os:ios env:development"
},
"os:ios env:test": {
    "foo": "os:ios env:test"
}

Previously, you could not specify both a platform and environment together.

New APIs

The following APIs are new in Release 1.3.0.

API	Type	Note
Alloy.builtins.animation.flip	method	Transitions from one view to another using a 3D flip animation (iOS only).
Alloy.builtins.animation.flipHorizontal	method	Transitions from one view to another using a horizontal flip animation (iOS only).
Alloy.builtins.animation.flipVertical	method	Transitions from one view to another using a vertical flip animation (iOS only).
Alloy.builtins.animation.HORIZONTAL	constant	Constant to specify a horizontal flip (iOS only).
Alloy.builtins.animation.VERTICAL	constant	Constant to specify a vertical flip (iOS only).

1.2.2 (18 September 2013)

• ALOY-813. Fixed bug handling unicode characters in XML attributes.
• ALOY-817. Fixed bug adding XML event handlers to UI components that use custom namesapces.
• ALOY-815 & ALOY-818. Support Ti.UI.iOS.NavigationWindow API in XML

1.2.1 (27 August 2013)

• ALOY-789. Fixed improper handling of printable escape characters in TSS.
• ALOY-802. Fixed escape character handling issue in TSS on Windows.
• ALOY-803. Fixed issue with controller subfolders on Windows.
• ALOY-804. Fixed issues with jake on Windows.

1.2.0 (15 August 2013)

• Full list of Issues that were addressed in Release 1.2.0
• Fixes for a handlful of Windows issues are available in the latest 1.2.1 release candidate. You can install it like this: [sudo] npm install -g [email protected].

New Features

Dynamic Styling

As of this Release, Alloy supports changing styles dynamically during runtime. There are two methods to support dynamic styling in Alloy. You can either generate a dynamic style dictionary that can be passed to applyProperties or a create method, or modify TSS class styles to an existing component on the fly.

For more information, see:

• Dynamic Styles guide
• dynamic_styling Sample
• Refer to the "New APIs" section below.

ListView in Markup

ListView objects can now be created in markup and with collection-view binding enabled.

For more information, see:

• listview Sample
• binding_listview Sample
• ListView API Reference
• Alloy Data Binding guide

Module Markup Element

Use the new Module XML element to include a view from a native module.

For more information, see:

• "Module XML Element" section in the Alloy XML Markup guide
• native_modules Sample

CLI Command to Generate Styles

Style files can be generated using the Alloy CLI. The Alloy CLI extracts the IDs and classes from the markup file to create a skeleton style file.

For more information, see the "Generating a Style" section in the Alloy Tasks guide.

New APIs

The following APIs are new in Release 1.2.0.

API	Type	Note
Alloy.Controller.addClass	method	Adds a TSS class to the specified view object.
Alloy.Controller.createStyle	method	Creates a dictionary of properties based on the specified styles.
Alloy.Controller.removeClass	method	Removes a TSS class from the specified view object.
Alloy.Controller.resetClass	method	Applies TSS classes to the specified view object and removes any applied classes that are not specified.
Alloy.Controller.UI.create	method	Creates a Titanium UI object with the specified styles.

1.1.3 (17 June 2013)

New Features

• ALOY-661. Code Processor: Get Alloy to recompile before an analysis

1.1.2 (2 May 2013)

New Features

• ALOY-424. Blackberry support

Bug Fixes

• ALOY-628. Error loading platform-specific theme-based styles
• ALOY-632. Builtins being copied into Resources directory more than once causing runtime errors
• ALOY-633. Compiler directives (OS_IOS) undefined when referenced inside a widget
• ALOY-635. Styles not being sorted properly among global, controller, platform-specific, and theme

1.1.1 (19 April 2013)

Just 2 quick fixes to reduce the size of the Alloy distribution and fix one regression.

• ALOY-625. app.tss not being applied to views that don't have view-specific styles.
• ALOY-626. Remove unneeded resources from samples/mapping.

1.1.0 (April 2013)

• Full list of Issues that were addressed in Release 1.1.0

Breaking Changes

Alloy Run Command

The Alloy run command is obsoleted by the Titanium CLI build command.

If you are only using command-line tools to build your Alloy project, after using the alloy compile command to convert the Alloy files to Titanium files, use the titanium build command to build and run the Titanium code.

New Features

Debugging in Studio

As of Titanium Studio 3.1.0, breakpoints added in Alloy Controllers and the alloy.js file are recognized by the Studio Debugger. These breakpoints map to the code in the generated Titanium files located in the Resources directory.

CommonJS modules and Alloy Models will support this feature in a future release of Titanium Studio and Alloy. You still need to add breakpoints for these files in the generated Titanium files located in the Resources directory.

Refer to Alloy Debugging for more information.

Content Assistance in Studio

As of Titanium Studio 3.1.0, content assistance is supported in Alloy Views (XML markup and TSS files) and Alloy Controllers.

For XML markup, start typing the XML element, attribute or on attribute (for events) to receive content assistance.

For TSS files, type the name of the element, class (element prefixed with .) or ID name (element prefixed with #) to receive content assistance. You need to type the entire name of the element, class or ID name to receive assistance, and the class and ID name must exist in the associated XML markup file.

For controller code, type the ID name (element prefixed by $.) or start typing a namespace (Alloy, Titanium, etc.) to receive content assistance. You need to type the entire name of the ID in order to receive assistance and it must exist in the associated XML markup file.

Some of the Alloy-specific attributes, such as platform, formFactor and the data binding attributes, will be supported in a future release of Titanium Studio.

Refer to the "Using Content Assistance" section in Alloy Tasks for more information.

Expanded Support for Collection-View Binding

ScrollableView, CoverFlowView, ButtonBar, ToolBar and TabbedBar objects support collection-view binding.

For ButtonBar, ToolBar and TabbedBar, refer to the binding_bars example.

For CoverFlowView, refer to the binding_coverflow example.

For ScrollableView, refer to the binding_scrollableview example.

Refer to Alloy Data Binding for more information.

Widget Enhancements

Various enhancements to widgets:

• Widgets have their own create methods. Use Widget.createController(), Widget.createWidget(), Widget.createModel() and Widget.createCollection() instead of the Alloy.create* methods to create components relative to the widget context rather than the Alloy project. The method parameters are the same as the Alloy.create* methods.

• Widgets support their own models and collections. Use models and collections the same as with an Alloy project except use the new Widget create methods, that is, use Widget.createModel and Widget.createCollection instead of Alloy.createModel and Alloy.createCollection, respectively to create models and collections inside a widget.

Refer to Alloy Widgets for more information.

XML Markup Enhancements

Various enhancements to XML markup:

• Support <LeftNavButton> and <RightNavButton> as children tags of the <Popover> object to specify the leftNavButton and rightNavButton properties of Titanium.UI.iPad.Popover.

• Support <HeaderView> as a child tag of the <TableViewSection> object to specify the headerView property of Titanium.UI.TableViewSection.

• Support the name attribute with the <Widget> and <Require> tags to specify a widget view-controller to use besides widget.xml/widget.js.

Refer to Alloy XML Markup for more information.

1.0.0 (19 February 2013)

** Breaking Changes **

The following changes alter the behavior of the Alloy Framework from previous versions and may require code changes to your applications.

Titanium SDK Support

Alloy 1.0 only supports Titanium SDK 3.0 and later. Previous versions of Alloy supported Titanium SDK 2.1.x and later.

Backbone Events API Removed from View Proxies and Controllers

For Alloy View proxies and Controllers, that is, objects either referenced with $.myid or created with createController and getView methods, you cannot use the Backbone Events API on, off and trigger methods to bind and unbind event callbacks, or fire events. Use the Titanium SDK API addEventListener, removeEventListener and fireEvent methods instead.

Previously, Alloy View proxies and Controllers could use the Backbone Events API.

For Alloy Collection and Model objects, use the Backbone Events API not the Titanium SDK event listener API. This has not changed from previous versions of Alloy.

Alloy Model-View Binding

Model-view binding with the Ti.UI.View proxy should be considered experimental. On the iOS platform, the view items are not being repopulated correctly. To follow this issue, see ALOY-485.

Model-view binding with TableViews works fine and does not suffer from any known issues.

For more information, see the Alloy Data Binding guide.

Custom Sync Adapter

If you created a custom sync adapter, the order of the passed parameters of the module.exports.sync method has changed to match the Backbone.sync method.

Prior to 1.0.0, the order was:

module.exports.sync(model, method, options)

For 1.0.0 and later, the order is now:

module.exports.sync(method, model, options)

To update your custom sync adapter, just switch the order of the method and model arguments.

Additionally, both the module.exports.beforeModelCreate and module.exports.afterModelCreate methods accept an additional passed parameter--the name of the model file.

Prior to 1.0.0, the methods were:

module.exports.beforeModelCreate(config)
module.exports.afterModelCreate(Model)

For 1.0.0 and later, the methods are:

module.exports.beforeModelCreate(config, name)
module.exports.afterModelCreate(Model, name)

SQLite Sync Adapter and Migrations

The previous sql sync adapter has been replaced with the sql_new sync adapter as mentioned in release 0.3.5.

If you have a model that uses the sql sync adapter from Alloy 0.3.6 and before, you need to migrate your data to the new table schema of the Alloy 1.0.0 SQLite sync adapter.

First, manually remove the following files from your Alloy project:

• Resources/alloy.js
• Resources/alloy/sync/sql.js

Next, create a one-time migration file to transfer your model data to the new database schema. Adapt the following code for your table schema. Replace title, author and isbn with your own specific table schema but leave id and alloy_id alone. The order of fields does matter. This migration file creates a temporary table, copies your current data to a temporary table, deletes the old table from the database, creates a new table, then copies your data to the new table.

migration.up = function(migrator) {
    var db = migrator.db;
    var table = migrator.table;
    db.execute('CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE book_backup(title,author,isbn,alloy_id);')
    db.execute('INSERT INTO book_backup SELECT title,author,isbn,id FROM ' + table + ';');
    migrator.dropTable();
    migrator.createTable({
        columns: {
            title:"TEXT",
            author:"TEXT",
            isbn:"INTEGER"
        },
    });
    db.execute('INSERT INTO ' + table + ' SELECT title,author,isbn,alloy_id FROM book_backup;');
    db.execute('DROP TABLE book_backup;');
};

migration.down = function(migrator) {

}

Run your application once to migrate your data, then remove the migration file.

Note the migrator.db object in the previous example. This object is a handle to a Ti.Database instance to execute SQLite commands. DO NOT CLOSE THIS HANDLE OR OPEN A SECOND INSTANCE OF THE DATABASE. This will cause fatal application errors.

See the Alloy Sync Adapters and Migrations guide for information about the new SQLite sync adapter and the new migration features.

Removed ti.physicalSizeCategory Module

The ti.physicalSizeCategory module has been replaced by a background module part of Titanium SDK 3.0.x. No action is needed to migrate to the new module. However, your tiapp.xml file still references this module, but does not affect the compilation or execution of the application. You may safely remove this reference from your tiapp.xml file.

Previously, this module was copied to an Alloy project as part of the alloy new command and used to determine the size of an Android device.

Removed APIs

The following deprecated APIs have been removed in this release:

API	Type	Notes
Alloy.getCollection	method	Creates a local instance of a collection. Use Alloy.createCollection instead.
Alloy.getController	method	Creates a local instance of a controller. Use Alloy.createController instead.
Alloy.getModel	method	Creates a local instance of a model. Use Alloy.createModel instead.
Alloy.getWidget	method	Creates a local instance of a widget. Use Alloy.createWidget instead.
Alloy.globals	property	Global namespace. Use Alloy.Globals instead.
datatime.js	builtin	Collection of functions for datetime formatting. Use moment.js instead.
size	XML/TSS attribute	Defines size-specific view components or styles. Use the formFactor attribute instead.

New features

• ALOY-343. Facilitate Alloy code completion in Studio.
• ALOY-437. Support Android fastdev.
• ALOY-475. Create test app for testing sql adapter apps with no migrations.

Bug fixes and improvements

• ALOY-209. Remove ti.physicalSizeCategory module for Alloy 1.0.0 (TiSDK 3.0+). Fixes ALOY-188 and ALOY-134.
• ALOY-313. Use applyProperties to assign properties to Ti.Android.MenuItem in parser.
• ALOY-323. Make Alloy support only TiSDK 3.0+.
• ALOY-407. Make alloy generate model calls uniform in format, regardless of adapter. Fixes ALOY-375 where models were not being generated correctly in Titanium Studio.
• ALOY-429. Convert jake app runner to use new CLI.
• ALOY-454. iOS is rebuilding apps every time with new CLI.
• ALOY-455. Remove Backbone eventing from Titanium proxies. Fixes ALOY-460 where ScrollableViews displayed noticeable lagging.
• ALOY-457. Make Alloy sync adapter sync() function signature match that of Backbone.
• ALOY-473. Abort compile process with message if trying to compile Alloy 1.0+ for anything less than Titanium 3.0.
• ALOY-476. Widgets within model-bound view get bound to unexisting $model.
• ALOY-479. Fix migration processing bug.
• ALOY-480. Replace sql adapter with sql_new.
• ALOY-482. View-based collection binding not properly clearing children before repopulating.
• ALOY-486. sql adapter does not update ID in client-side model when using AUTOINCREMENT.

Deprecations

• ALOY-330. Make alloy run execute titanium build. The alloy run command will be removed in version 1.1.0 in favor of only using the titanium build command of the Titanium CLI.

0.3.6 (18 January 2013)

Bug fixes and improvements

• ALOY-474. Allow extra commas in TSS files.

0.3.5 (18 January 2013)

New features

• Tons of sql sync adapter features and fixes
  • IMPORTANT: Please read the notes on the sql_new adapter below.
  • ALOY-458. The sql adapter now allows you to execute custom queries on fetch(). The models/sql_queries test app uses this, specifically in this controller file.
  • ALOY-447. Alloy Model column definitions now support SQLite keywords, like PRIMARY KEY and AUTOINCREMENT. The models/sql_keywords test app shows how to use it.
  • ALOY-467. idAttribute is now assignable from the model.js file's definition object. The models/sql_keywords test app, specifically this model file shows how to use it to identify which column in your table is the unique identifier for syncing between SQLite and Backbone.
  • ALOY-453. Full support for up() and down() migrations in sql adapter. models/sql_keywords is also a multiple migration test app.
  • ALOY-345. sql adapter databases can now be preloaded from a database file. The models/sql_preload test app shows how.
  • ALOY-456. sql adapter now supports multiple SQLite databases. The model/sql_queries test app makes use of multiple SQLite databases.
  • ALOY-468. Added insertRow() and deleteRow() functions to migration object. You can see these in use for prepopulating and deleting rows in this migration file of the models/sql_queries test app.
• TSS parsing and features
  • ALOY-272. TSS parsing is now grammar based. Makes code assist in TiStudio possible.
  • ALOY-252. Commas are now optional between top-level style objects in TSS files. Check this style file for an example.
  • ALOY-452. expr() syntax has been removed from TSS files. Here is the cleaner and more powerful alternative for using runtime values in TSS files.
• ALOY-284. Titanium constants can now be used as XML attributes in markup. Check this view xml file for an example.

Bug fixes and improvements

• ALOY-191. The models/todo test app now works with all supported sync adapters (sql, properties, localStorage).
• ALOY-336. Mobileweb logs not showing up in console (related to TISTUD-2525).
• ALOY-449. Parsing state not cleaned properly when processing multiple top-level UI elements.
• ALOY-446. sql adapter should open/close between all operations (best practices).

Additional Notes for 0.3.5

Due to the massive amount of changes in the sql adapter, it is being introduced as "sql_new". This is the "type" you would use in your model definitions, as seen in this model from the models/sql_queries test app. The unchanged "sql" adapter still exists temporarily for compatibility.

All freshly built apps will work with the sql_new adapter, including all the sql ones in the test/apps/models folder in the repo. There may be conflicts, though, if you attempt to just drop the sql_new adapter on an app that has been previously using the old sql adapter. This is because sql_new uses a different, smarter, less invasive means of identifying the unique id of your sql records, adding an "alloy_id" column only if absolutely necessary. If you can delete your existing sql storage and just rebuild it, then all you need to do is delete and then you can start using the sql_new adapter. If not, we'll have a migration guide soon.

One final important note is that the old sql adapter will be replaced with sql_new when Alloy 1.0.0 is released, tentatively scheduled for mid-February. This'll give you a month to try it out and migrate data if necessary. Any questions or concerns, hit me up at the google group.

0.3.4 (20 December 2012)

Important Note for Model/Collection Binding Feature

• ALOY-432. Added $.destroy() function to all controllers. When using model/collection binding in a controller, you MUST call this when closing a controller to prevent potential memory leaks. This is especially true if your binding makes references to global models/collections. More detailed documentation on this point will be added to the Alloy Data Binding Guide very soon. (TEST APP)

New features

• ALOY-394. Support collection binding on Views, allowing for arbitrary component repetition. (TEST APP)
• ALOY-103. Support model binding of models to discrete properties on UI components. (TEST APP)
• ALOY-382, ALOY-383. Support in markup for proxy properties, like rightNavButton, leftNavButton, titleControl, etc... (TEST APP)
• ALOY-387, ALOY-388. Support view (XML) and controller (JS) code completion in Titanium Studio.
• ALOY-421. Add moment.js as builtin. Deprecates datetime.s builtin.

Bug fixes and improvements

• ALOY-342. Support '--platform' option with 'alloy generate' command to create platform-specific views and controllers.
• ALOY-359, ALOY-423. Improve buttongrid widget and fix a memory leak.
• ALOY-361. Fix a bug with style prioritization as it relates to the formFactor attribute.
• ALOY-420. Refactor TableView parser to allow model-bound tables to use proxy properties.
• ALOY-430. Collection binding now responds to the Backbone "reset" event.
• ALOY-433. Removed "unreachable code" warning in production Android builds.
• ALOY-436. Alloy compile failures will now abort the Titanium build process, as expected, with the Titanium 3.0+ SDK.
• ALOY-438. Fixed bug where the Backbone off() function on Titanium proxies created from markup was not working.

0.3.3 (6 December 2012)

New features

• ALOY-104. Enable Model-View binding on TableViews. For more information, see the basic tableview_binding test app or the slightly more complete todo_binding sample app which shows how to do data filtering and transformations on bound data.

  NOTE: This is brand new stuff with lots more functionality coming, so any feedback on the current state is very welcome. It's best to let us know at the Alloy google group.

• ALOY-312. Update Underscore.js to version 1.4.2 and Backbone.js to minified production 0.9.2 version.

• ALOY-367, ALOY-377. Support Soasta touch test.

• ALOY-373, ALOY-379. Add Collection tag in markup to create a singleton or instance(s) of a collection.

• ALOY-390, ALOY-391. Add Model tag in markup to create a singleton or instance(s) of a model.

• ALOY-396, ALOY-397, ALOY-156. Add completion callback to all methods in the animation.js builtin library.

Bug fixes and improvements

• ALOY-311. Improve Ti.UI.Android.MenuItem parser.
• ALOY-370. Fix ability to assign functions with variable assigned functions in controllers.
• ALOY-376. Improve handling of Ti.Android.Menu component.
• ALOY-393. (Re-)enable optimizer.js as part of runtime JavaScript file optimization.
• ALOY-403. Improve Alloy.Collection and Alloy.Model code optimization.
• ALOY-417. Improve properties adapter.

Deprecations

• ALOY-401. Deprecate Alloy.globals; use Alloy.Globals instead.

0.3.2 (15 November 2012)

Bug fixes and improvements

• ALOY-353. Support all Backbone eventing in Titanium proxies, on(), off(), trigger(). Fixed multiple event firing bug with on().
• ALOY-355. Improve path handling in compiler plugin for OS X.
• ALOY-356. Remove string builtin dependency to shorten compilation time.
• ALOY-365. Add Alloy.globals namespace for global context.
• ALOY-380. Create app/alloy.js file automatically for all new projects.

0.3.1 (2 November 2012)

New features

• ALOY-192. Add to-do sample application. Code is available on github.
• ALOY-337. Support themes to change the appearance of the entire GUI by customizing styles and assets. For more information, see:
  • Alloy Styles and Themes
  • Themes sample application on github

Bug fixes and improvements

• ALOY-306. Support platform, formFactor, and inline event attributes with abstract types in markup.
• ALOY-340. Fix Android "too deep recursion while parsing" error with Rhino runtime.
• ALOY-341. Improve adapter-backbone processing.
• ALOY-352. Fix SQL adapter to work if no migrations are present.
• ALOY-354. Fix "alloy generate jmk" command.

0.3.0 (beta)

• Removed node-appc dependency.
• Added Alloy splash screens and icons
• Updated widgets, added new button-grid widget.

0.2.42

• Ti.UI.OptionDialog markup parser added. Check out this link for a test app and usage: https://github.com/appcelerator/alloy/tree/master/test/apps/ui/optiondialog
• You can get the Alloy version at runtime now with Alloy.version
• Tightened up XML ID restrictions. As an enforced best practice, no reserved JS words as IDs. If you try to, you'll get a compile time error message.
• Revamp of code processing, better organized, more efficient. It's all under the hood, you shouldn't notice, other than compiles might be faster.
• Quick fix to error output in compiler plugin.py
• Some minor cleanup in the test apps