lml

LibGDX Markup Language

Templates for LibGDX Scene2D with HTML-like syntax and FreeMarker-inspired macros.

Examples

See gdx-lml-tests for example uses of all available tags and macros.

Check it out on-line.

Documentation

See LibGDX forum thread, example project, tutorial and DTD schema section.

Extensions

VisUI syntax support is available through gdx-lml-vis library. Additionally to replacing standard Scene2D actors with improved VisUI widgets, it offers full support for other VisUI features - including color picker, file chooser, other new widgets, listeners and validators.

Check it out on-line.

Dependencies

gdx-lml is available through the official project creator tool: gdx-setup (in third party extensions). However, its version might not be up to date.

To import LML with Gradle, add this dependency to your core project:

        compile "com.crashinvaders.lml:gdx-lml:$libVersion.$gdxVersion"

$libVersion is the current version of the library, usually following MAJOR.MINOR schema. $gdxVersion is the LibGDX version used to build (and required by) the library. You can check the current library version here - or you can use the snapshots.

If you want to use LML with GWT, you have to add this module to your GdxDefinition:

        <inherits name='com.github.czyzby.lml.GdxLml' />

What's new

1.8 -> 1.9

• Fixed string to upper/lower case conversions that caused issues with some default locales.
• else conditional tags did not accept whitespaces. Now a single space can be optionally used in else tags. For example, <if:else /> is a valid conditional tag.
• LmlApplicationListener no longer tries to pause a view on application resume.
• @LmlActor now supports field injection by field name. If no actor ID is passed to the annotation, field name will be used instead to select the actor. Note that this approach is prone to refactoring and obfuscation of the code.
• @LmlAction now supports field access and method invocation by name. If no action IDs are passed, field/method name will be used as action ID instead. Note that this approach is prone to refactoring and obfuscation of the code.

1.7 -> 1.8

• Added <:random> macro, which allows to choose a random value from the passed array.
• Added LML style sheets support. See wiki for more info.
• Added <:style> macro, which allows to set default values of tag attributes at runtime, similarly to LML style sheets.
• Added <:importStyleSheet> macro, which allows to import LML style sheet file from within LML templates.
• Added missing programmaticChangeEvents attribute to all button tags.
• Added support for <container> pad-related attributes, even when outside of <table> tag.
• SelectBox instances now can store any type of objects.

1.6 -> 1.7

• A new mechanism - isolation - was introduced through <isolate> tag. Isolated actors are parsed along with the rest of the templates, but are not immediately added to stage or they tag parents. This basically allows to create actors with LML without adding them to the stage - something that previously wasn't achievable with fillStage or createView methods. ActorStorage is an Actor extension that keeps track of a list of actors, but does not draw them in any way: this actor is used internally by isolation tags and can be injected if you want to access the list of its parsed children actors.
• Lml#EXTRACT_UNANNOTATED_METHODS setting added. When this is set to false, ActionContainer methods and fields that are not annotated with @LmlAction will not be available in LML templates. Defaults to true, but if you consequently annotate methods and fields that are accessed by LML actors, you should consider setting this value to false, as it will considerably speed up method look-up time.
• DefaultLmlSyntax.INSTANCE was removed. It was entirely unnecessary when using a different syntax, like VisLmlSyntax.
• DefaultLmlSyntax now extends EmptyLmlSyntax. EmptyLmlSyntax implements all LmlSyntax interface methods and manages all tag, attribute and macro mechanisms internally, but registers no tags or attributes on its own. This can be a very useful utility class if you want to manually choose which tags, macros and attributes should be supported.
• Added conditions evaluating in arguments, similarly to how you can evaluate equations {=likeThis}. Using this syntax: {? condition ? onTrue : onFalse}, you can process simple conditions anywhere in the code. See new condition syntax examples in gdx-lml-tests and gdx-lml-vis-tests projects.
• Added :cell macro. Adds an empty cell to the chosen table and allows to parse any cell attributes. Useful if you need to preserve a certain table layout, but do not want to create unnecessary mock-up actors with the sole purpose to fill a cell.

Archive

Older change logs are available in CHANGES.md file.