ForeUI is an easy-to-use UI prototyping tool, designed to create mockup / wireframe / prototypes for any application or website you have in mind.

ForeUI Blog

iPhone App Prototyping with ForeUI

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Yesterday I’ve submitted a brand new “iPhone Widgets” library in the ForeUI community site.  Now it is very easy to create prototype for iPhone App in ForeUI.

You can download the library from ForeUI directly.  Just click the “Resource Sharing” button on the bottom left corner:

Then in the popup window, click the download link under the “Library: iPhone Widgets V1.00” item, ForeUI will download and deploy the library automatically.

After the download you can find a new element category named “iPhone”, so you can use the now elements now:

You can also download the library from web browser, just go to the URL http://www.foreui.net/node/16 and then click the download link for the .fcl file.  The .fcl file is a ZIP file actually, you can extract all its content to a directory, you will see some .fce files (element files) inside, you need to import them one by one (not so convinient yet, we need a library import feature).

The iPhone elements are real scaled, the screen in iPhone element is 320×480 pixels, which is the same with the real iPhone screen,  thus we can make iPhone app mockup in 1 : 1 scale.

So far there are 14 elements in the library, I will add more convenient elements in the future.  Thanks Natasha Nayberg for the good suggestions in this thread.

I’ve just create a simple prototype with this elements, it just take me two minutes:

I will keep improving this library, so if you have any suggestion, please feel free to let us know, thanks.

Exciting News: ForeUI 2.0 is Released!

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Today I am so happy to announce that ForeUI V2.00 is released!  As a major upgrade, ForeUI 2.0 is so exciting.  You can find improvements here and there, it is quite hard for me to introduce all of them.  So I will just pick a few big updates to write up.

Windows 7 UI Theme

Now you can create prototype with the brand new Windows 7 UI theme.  Although many people are still using Windows XP, more and more people are moving to Windows 7.  So Windows 7 UI theme may be frequently used in the future.

Community Site Integration

About 3 months ago, we have considered such a community site for users to share their resources.  Now the site is online!  The community site provides user a new channel to get more plot examples and custom elements.  User will be able to get new examples and elements more quickly and more frequently, since they don’t have to wait for our new release.  Please keep in mind that the community site is not only powered by us, but also by all ForeUI users.  So if you have any plot or custom element that you think is interesting or may be useful to others, please consider uploading it to the community site.  You may not get paid by submiting the resource, but you will definitely get return from the community 🙂

The community web site has been integrated with ForeUI 2.0.  You don’t have to visit the site in web browser, just open the community window from ForeUI via the “Resource Sharing” button (on the bottom left corner), then you can do the resource download / upload.

Element Categories Management

Now you can configure the element categories on the left.  You can hide the category that you don’t like by setting it to “inactive” state.  You can also create new category and manage the elements inside.  To open the element categories management window, please click the “Manage Categories” button (on the bottom left corner).

Page Management Window

In 2.0 we implement a new page management window.  The pages are managed as tree structure, page can have its child page so that the entire sitemap structure can be built.  You can also create folder in the tree structure.  Folders can help organizing the pages, they can also control the content to be exported.  When the “Excluded from export and simulation” option is checked, all pages under the folder will not be included image/pdf/dhtml export.  This feature is useful when we want to hide the master pages from output.

Global Properties

Global properties are some properties that do not belongs to any element, it can be a system property (read-only) or a user defined property.  System property will be updated by system in the background, we can retrive its value when we need; User defined property can be a String or Integer, we can set its value via the “Set Global Property” action.  We can always insert a global property into the expression.

Custom Event

From now on, we can define event handler for custom event.  That means we can define a complex action in a custom event handler and then trigger the custom event from different places.  It is a powerful machanism to reuse the defined logic and make our work more easy.

There are still many new features, enhancements and bug fixings.  I do not have enough time to introduce here, so I will list them below.

Other New Features:

  • Display settings for toolbar icon, toolbar text, action flag and element button size.
  • Table element supports “Table Cell Values” property.
  • New placeholder element.

Enhancements:

  • Table content should not be wrapped, unless ‘n’ is used.
  • When inputing the target element id, the id list should include ids for group members.
  •  Property chooser also allow inputing element id directely.
  • Add page navigation buttons on bottom tool bar.
  • Improved some dialogs UI (page management, plot configure, element selector etc.)
  • Avoid selecting text within table body by double-clicking in the simulation. 
  • “Show Message” action can do optional calculation within the message.
  • Allow specifying the loop interval in behavior editor.
  • Adjust the title position for window element.
  • Rectangle, ellipse, triangle and placeholder support line stye (solid, dashed, dot).

 Fixed Bugs:

  • Bug_0126: The table element with spaces in content will be shows as “&nbsp…” when export html more than one time.
  • Bug_0127: If one row of table element contains less columns than other rows, error occur when exporting to html.
  • Bug_0128: Post commands list is disabled by default, even the post commands are enabled.
  • Bug_0129: ComboBox element can not contain “<“, “>” sysmbols.
  • Bug_0130: Delete a master page may cause the page manage window crash.
  • Bug_0131: Page management window should be closed when the plot is closed.
  • Bug_0132: The window icon and title is not aligned well when title contains parenthesis.

Try ForeUI V2.00  Now:

You can run ForeUI V2.00 in your browser via this URL:  http://www.foreui.com/demos/demo0/

 You can also download ForeUI and install it:

For Windows: http://www.foreui.com/download/V2_00/ForeUI_Setup.exe

For Mac OS X: http://www.foreui.com/download/V2_00/ForeUI.dmg

For Linux/Unix: http://www.foreui.com/download/V2_00/ForeUI.tar.gz

About the ForeUI 2.xx License

The price of ForeUI 2.xx license is $99 per user, if you buy license for multiple users, you can also get volumn discounts.  You can use the license on ANY V2.xx versions.  You can use the license on any machine you own.

To ForeUI V1.xx customers, you can upgrade your license with just $10 per user.   Comment: Since V1.xx is $79 per user, and now you can have the 2.xx license with another $10, so you totally pay $79 + $10 = $89, which is still less than $99.

ForeUI 2.0 is Coming :)

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Hello everybody,  I haven’t updated this blog for a while since we are working hard at ForeUI V2.00.  We planned to give you a surprise, but many friends send mails to ask for the progress.  To avoid replying emails with similar content, I decide to write something here 🙂

Actually the launch date of ForeUI 2.0 has been finalized a few days ago,  we will release ForeUI V2.00 on next Monday, that will be 25th, January.  It is a little delayed than our estimation at the end of Year 2009, but you will understand the reason when you see what’s new in this release 🙂

We’ve produced a short video to demonstrate the new generation ForeUI, enjoy it!

Year 2009 Last Update – V1.90: Enhanced Table Element

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Year 2009 is such an exciting year, we launched ForeUI product and achieved unbelievable success.  Here I must on behalf of our company thank you again for your generous help, it is your ideas and creativity that push ForeUI become better and better.  Can you imagine what will we do today?  Yes we just released ForeUI V1.90!  This version will be our last update in year 2009, and it will also be the last one of the V1.xx serial.  As we’ve mentioned in our newsletter, ForeUI 2.0 is coming soon!  No doubt the 2.0 will be very exciting but today’s leading role is still V1.90 🙂

V1.90 is a big update actually; it contains many things.  Now let me show you the details.

Enhanced Table Element

Table Scrolling

In previous versions the table element is just a static image during the simulation, but now things have been changed.  Table element will be converted to real HTML table and support scrolling (if you enabled it).

The animation below shows how the scrollbar works in the simulation:

Table Cell Alignment

The table cell alignment can be configured independently, with the “<“, “=” and “>” prefix for the text.  The text alignment of the whole table will be the default alignment for each cell.  We can use “<“, “=” or “>” at the beginning of cell text to specify the alignment for the cell.

Set Cell Value Action

The enhanced table element supports the “Set Cell Value” action, this allow you to change the table cell value dynamically.

Input Action Target Element Id

This feature is requested by Ulrich, it can save your time to find element in a big plot.  Thanks for the good idea Ulrich 🙂   Now you can input the target element id for the action.  We also provide an auto-complete assistent when you type the id, it will show all candidates in a popup list and you can pick one with mouse or keyboard.

Post Commands for DHTML Export

This feature is requested by Tim, we find it very useful when you want to do some successor task after the exporting, thanks Tim for the idea!  Now you can input some commands in the “Export” tab of settings window, they will be invoked in turn after the DHTML is generated.  Here is an example, we will run the simulation in FireFox, Opera and Safari when the DHTML is generated.

“Set Selected Index” Action

In order to provide more flexibility for behavior definition, we implemented a new “Set Selected Index” action.  This action is supported by  Table, List, Tree, Tabs and VerticalTabs elements.  So you can change the selection of these elements in the simulation.

Other Enhancements

  • Avoid selecting header of table element in edit mode.
  • Press Backspace to delete element for non-Mac system.

Fixed Bugs

  • Bug_0120: Main window may be hidden when click the action button on page management window.
  • Bug_0122: Calendar element is not displayed correctly in FireFox.
  • Bug_0123: Tabs/VertcialTabs/Tree/List/Table elements should invoke the handler for “Selection Changed” event when default selection is changed.
  • Bug_0124: Sometimes Page Up/Down can not switch page in simulation after clicking some element.
  • Bug_0125: List/Tree element without selected item is not painted correctly in simulation.

ForeUI V1.85: Vertical Tabs and Enhanced ComboBox

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Hello everyone, it is my pleasure to announce that ForeUI V1.85 is released today!  In this version, we added a new vertical tabs element, improved the combo box element, implemented some useful enhancements and fixed a few bugs.

Vertical Tabs

We’ve put this vertical tabs in our TODO list for a while, and finally it is available now.  It is very similar with the Tabs element, but it will place the tabs on the left or right side.  Also the vertical tabs has four different looks according to the current UI theme.

 vert_tabs_themes
The vertical tabs also supports the “Selection Changed” event, just like the tabs element does.  You can handle this event, and control the visibility of elements within the tabs, just like this:
VertTabs

Enhanced ComboBox

Now we have more options to manipulate the ComboBox element during simulation.  The ComboBox element now provides “Selection Changed” event, “Selected Index” property and “Set Selected Index” action.

This example demonstrates the usage of the “Selection Changed” event and “Selected Index” property:

combobox_event_property

We can also use “Set Selected Index” action to change the selection of ComboBox:

combobox_action

Pin Windows

The element selector window and the page management window will be closed automatically once they lose focus, now you can pin it and keep it opened. Just click the small pin icon on the top-right corner, the window will be pinned and will not close until you click the “x” button.

pin_window

Other Enhancements:

  • Ctrl+Click to bring up context menu in Mac.  (Thanks Todd Sieling for the suggestion!)
  • Command+Click to remove element from selection in Mac.  (Thanks Todd Sieling for the suggestion!)
  • Store last modify time in .4ui and .fce files for future usage. 

Fixed Bugs:

  • Bug_0117: Page name editing should be stopped when closing the page manage window.  (Ulrich reported, thanks!)
  • Bug_0118: Page information in status bar is not correct if switching page in “Page Loaded” event handler. (Thanks Ulrich for the reporting!)
  • Bug_0119: Empty tab in Tabs element can not be selected in simulation.