Pluggable Look and Feel (PLAF) API

GridSphere supports two pluggable look and feels (PLAF)s: {@link org.gridlab.gridsphere.layout.view.classic} and {@link org.gridlab.gridsphere.layout.view.standard} The classic PLAF remains the old (GS 2.1.2 and earlier) look and feel using a combination of nested tables and some CSS. The current default PLAF used by the layout components is the 'standard' PLAF which is evolving towards a much more configurable pure CSS layout.

The PLAF interfaces define the bare minimum required by the concrete look and feel classes. The {@link org.gridlab.gridsphere.layout.view.Render} interface defines 4 methods: doStart, doStartBorder, doEndBorder and doEnd as we determined that these four methods seem to satisfy the majority of our currently used layout components. Layout components that have no border would simply return empty. To make it easier, a base class {@link org.gridlab.gridsphere.layout.view.BaseRender} implementing the Render interface is provided for PLAF developers to use.

The current list describes the concrete portlet components that are in use:

- {@link org.gridlab.gridsphere.layout.view.Render}
- {@link org.gridlab.gridsphere.layout.view.BaseRender}
- {@link org.gridlab.gridsphere.layout.view.FrameView}
- {@link org.gridlab.gridsphere.layout.view.TabbedPaneView}
- {@link org.gridlab.gridsphere.layout.view.TableLayoutView}