This is a short practical demo created to test the Wipe library. The Wipe library is a JavaFX package making animated transitions between pages in a UI easy. On the desktop it could be useful for simple slide shows, but its real power comes when used in applications with small UIs (like desktop widgets or smart phone apps) where page-based navigation is common.

Building such a library is tricker than it might first seem, particularly if developers can plug in their own wipes. Wipes must not disturb the nodes laid out around them, and no matter what happens the scene graph must always be left in a consistent state — not easy to do when a wipe could be interrupted by another wipe at any time.

To get a feel for how the library performs in a real-world circumstance I wrote the above demo; a mock up of a smart phone interface. The menu uses SlideWipe to switch between pages, and FadeZoomWipe to enter/exit an application.

Icons courtesy of Deleket.