As colorful and tasty as Easter eggs comes along a second pre-release 0.7-alpha2 to demonstrate many of the exciting new features to be included in 0.7. :-)

The most significant addition after the recent alpha1 release is a complete reimplementation of qooxdoo's advanced dynamic properties. While those dynamic properties have proven to be quite powerful in previous releases, they were not as good as they could be. Many of the limitations and inconsistencies of the previous implementation have now been removed, the property declaration and their use is more elegant and user-friendly, and last but not least, they are tuned for maximum performance.

Even at this early stage there is quite some documentation for the new dynamic properties available. All interested users are welcome to get to know the proposed features. Documentation may still be a bit rough, but should explain all the new features:

The exciting new OO features that involve a concise class declaration syntax and advanced concepts like interfaces and mixins has become more mature after the alpha1 release. Those fundamental OO features along with the new dynamic properties are nicely covered by the much improved API viewer. A re-worked browser history manager now supports the browser's back and forward buttons in qooxdoo application, as can be seen in the API viewer application.

The power of the new properties will come into play while theming qooxdoo application. As in the past the styling of an application will not be done by CSS, but by cross-browser themes that are a perfect match for qooxdoo widgets. alpha2 already contains some parts of the proposed, much user-friendlier theme declaration. Sorry, no documentation for this hot new topic yet, but you are welcome to have a peek at the folder class/qx/theme/appearance/. It contains both the Classic theme and a new theme Ext, which can be selected in the showcase.

It is quite easy to take your existing applications based on qooxdoo 0.6.x and migrate them to the 0.7-alpha2 release. Make sure you made a copy of your application and follow the few steps for migration support. Starting with alpha2 migration has (again) become simpler by providing a target "make migration" that transforms an older 0.6.x-based application to the latest version automagically.

Feedback on the new features, particularly the dynamic properties, is highly appreciated.

Enjoy, and Happy Easter!