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NatTable 2.6.0 - New & Noteworthy

The NatTable 2.6.0 release was made possible by several companies that provided and sponsored ideas, bug reports, discussions and new features you can find in the following sections. We would like to thank everyone involved for their commitment and support on developing the 2.6.0 release.

We would especially like to thank Robotron Datenbank-Software GmbH for sponsoring the NatTable RAP implementation.

Of course we would also like to thank our contributors for adding new functions and fixing issues.

Almost every change in code is tracked via GitHub Issues, so if you are curious about the details and all the bugs that are fixed and enhancements that were added with the 2.6.0 release, have a look there.

API changes

The following modifications to the API were made. Several new classes and interfaces were introduced to support new features. The details can be found in the Enhancements and new features section.

Below is the list of new classes and interfaces

  • org.eclipse.nebula.widgets.nattable.Activator in org.eclipse.nebula.widgets.nattable.core
  • org.eclipse.nebula.widgets.nattable.util.PlatformHelper
  • org.eclipse.nebula.widgets.nattable.groupby.GroupByCommand
  • org.eclipse.nebula.widgets.nattable.extension.glazedlists.groupBy.command.GroupByCommandHandler
  • org.eclipse.nebula.widgets.nattable.extension.glazedlists.groupBy.SortModelGroupByComparator

Below is the list of new constructors

  • ScalingMouseWheelListener(boolean)
  • ScalingMouseWheelListener(boolean, Consumer<IConfigRegistry>)
  • ScalingUiBindingConfiguration(NatTable, boolean)
  • ScalingUiBindingConfiguration(NatTable, boolean, Consumer<IConfigRegistry>)
  • ZoomInScalingAction(boolean)
  • ZoomInScalingAction(boolean, Consumer<IConfigRegistry>)
  • ZoomOutScalingAction(boolean)
  • ZoomOutScalingAction(boolean, Consumer<IConfigRegistry>)
  • SliderScroller(Slider, boolean)
  • NatExporter(Shell, boolean, boolean, boolean, Runnable)
  • ExportCommand(IConfigRegistry, Shell, boolean, boolean, ILayerExporter, boolean, Runnable)

Below is the list of new constants

  • GridRegion#GROUP_BY_REGION

Below is the list of new fields

  • NatExporter#successRunnable (private)

Below is the list of new methods

  • ExportCommand#isOpenResult()
  • ExportCommand#getSuccessRunnable()
  • NatExporter#setSuccessRunnable(Runnable)
  • GroupModel#isVisible()
  • HoverLayer#isColumnPositionHovered(int)
  • HoverLayer#isRowPositionHovered(int)
  • HoverLayer#isFireColumnUpdates()
  • HoverLayer#setFireColumnUpdates(boolean)
  • HoverLayer#isFireRowUpdates()
  • HoverLayer#setFireRowUpdates(boolean)
  • ScalingUtil#zoomIn(NatTable, boolean, Consumer<IConfigRegistry>)
  • ScalingUtil#zoomOut(NatTable, boolean, Consumer<IConfigRegistry>)
  • ScalingUtil#getNewZoomInDPI(int, boolean)
  • ScalingUtil#getNewZoomOutDPI(int, boolean)
  • ViewportLayer#getHorizontalScroller()
  • ViewportLayer#getVerticalScroller()

Dependency Updates

We updated the dependencies to consume the latest versions of third-party-libraries provided by Eclipse Orbit. Additionally we updated to the latest Nebula Release 3.2.0 which forces an update of the Target Platform to Eclipse 2024-06 (4.32) because of a dependency of CDateTime to SWT >= 3.126.0. The dependency update mainly influences the NatTable E4 Extension and the NatTable Nebula Extension, which now require Java 17 because of the transitive dependencies. NatTable Core, the NatTable GlazedLists Extension and the NatTable POI Extension still only require Java 11 and also still work with older Eclipse releases.

Additionally the NatTable update site does now not contain the third-party-libraries itself, as they can be automatically be resolved via p2. The NatTable features now also don’t specify any requirements anymore, as the requirements are defined on a bundle level. This makes the NatTable update site smaller and easier to be integrated in user setups, e.g. if new versions of a dependency needs to be consumed.

Enhancements and new features

  • RAP Support

    It is now possible to use NatTable with RAP. For this several modifications needed to be done in the NatTable Core, to avoid issues when running with RAP. A detailed description about those modifications can be found in the corresponding pull request.

    To support NatTable in RAP the newly introduced NatTable RAP fragment needs to be added to the runtime. The fragment uses Byte Buddy to inject the necessary RAP features to NatTable. This is necessary because NatTable is based on Canvas, but we need a specialized CanvasOperationHandler to get everything working in NatTable. This is especially necessary for the mouse interactions and the scrolling. A detailed description on the details of the fragment can be found in the NatTable RAP GitHub Repository.

    NatTable Examples RAP Application

  • Axis Hover

    It is now possible to configure a NatTable to highlight the whole column and/or the whole row when hovering over a cell. To be able to highlight a whole column and/or row, the HoverLayer needs to be configured to fire the corresponding update events:

    hoverLayer.setFireRowUpdates(true);
hoverLayer.setFireColumnUpdates(true);

    The IConfigLabelAccumulator on the HoverLayerthen needs to be implemented so it inspects that information:

    hoverLayer.setConfigLabelAccumulator(new IConfigLabelAccumulator() {

    @Override
    public void accumulateConfigLabels(LabelStack configLabels, int columnPosition, int rowPosition) {
        boolean rowHover = hoverLayer.isFireRowUpdates() && hoverLayer.isRowPositionHovered(rowPosition);
        boolean columnHover = hoverLayer.isFireColumnUpdates() && hoverLayer.isColumnPositionHovered(columnPosition);
        if (rowHover || columnHover) {
            configLabels.add(AXIS_HOVER_LABEL);
        }
    }
});

    We added the _5066_GridBodyAxisHoverStylingExample to show the configuration of the axis hover.

    GridBodyAxisHoverStylingExample

  • Dynamic scaling in percentage mode

    The dynamic scaling in NatTable by default scales according to OS scaling levels. The main reason for this is the scaling of icons that are provided in different OS scaling levels.

    To enable zoom operations with smaller steps, you need to add the ScalingUiBindingConfiguration like this:

    natTable.addConfiguration(new ScalingUiBindingConfiguration(natTable, true));

    The percentage configuration will increase/decrease generally by 10%, and will use one of the predefined OS scalings in case the calculated DPI are “near” the OS scaling value.

  • Configure a success action with the ExportCommand

    It is now possible to configure the action that should be triggered when an export operation finishes successfully. The typical action is to open the generated export file using org.eclipse.swt.program.Program. This is for example not possible in RAP. To support a generate and download scenario in RAP and inform the user once a export succeeded, it is now possible to configure a success Runnable when triggering an export.

    natTable.doCommand(
        new ExportCommand(
                natTable.getConfigRegistry(),
                natTable.getShell(),
                false,
                false,
                null,
                false,
                () -> {
                    MessageDialog.openInformation(
                            natTable.getShell(),
                            "Export Succeeded",
                            "The export finished successfully");
                }));

  • Improvements to programmatic groupBy

    To support the groupby feature without a direct dependency to the GlazedLists Extension, the GridRegion#GROUP_BY_REGION and the org.eclipse.nebula.widgets.nattable.groupby.GroupByCommand were added to the NatTable Core. The command and the implementation of org.eclipse.nebula.widgets.nattable.extension.glazedlists.groupBy.command.GroupByCommandHandler in the GlazedLists Extension supports extended ways to set a groupby in a more extended way, e.g. grouping multiple columns.

  • Alternative GroupByComparator

    A new SortModelGroupByComparator was added to improve scenarios when sorting a table with active groupBy states. It primarily uses the ISortModel to sort the list by values, and the GroupByObjects in second place. This changes the behavior when sorting a table with active groupby in that way, that the groupby tree structure could also update when sorting a column that is used for grouping.

    SortModelGroupByComparator<ExtendedPersonWithAddress> groupByComparator = new SortModelGroupByComparator<>(
        bodyLayerStack.getGroupByModel(),
        columnPropertyAccessor,
        bodyLayerStack.getBodyDataLayer());
bodyLayerStack.getBodyDataLayer().setComparator(groupByComparator);

// connect sortModel to SortModelGroupByComparator to support sorting by
// group by summary values
groupByComparator.setSortModel(sortHeaderLayer.getSortModel());

    The _808_SortableGroupByWithFilterExample was updated to show the usage and behavior of that new GroupByComparator.

News - 2025-09-19

Nebula NatTable 2.6.0 released

News - 2024-11-28

Nebula NatTable 2.5.0 released

News - 2024-05-23

Nebula NatTable 2.4.0 released

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