How Will the New Application Framework Affect my Applications?

A new application and UI framework is planned for Symbian^4 (S^4). This topic summarizes what you need to know about how the new framework will affect your AVKON applications and any clients that draw using CWindowGc.

The new application and UI framework will provide a modern replacement for AVKON and CWindowGc drawing. However, AVKON and CWindowGc drawing will continue to be supported, although AVKON may not exist on some devices. This means that AVKON applications (and clients that draw using CWindowGc) will eventually need to be ported to the new framework.

Assuming AVKON is present on the device, AVKON applications will continue to work correctly on S^4 (although performance may be affected), provided their main view is opaque and it covers the entire screen. The same is true for any other clients that draw using CWindowGc. These constraints apply only to the application's main view and not to dialogs and menus that appear over the main view.

Applications that of necessity have a transparent main view and/or occupy only a section of the screen (for example, a magnifying glass application) are not guaranteed to work correctly if they are run on S^4 and later. You may therefore want to port these applications to the new framework at the earliest opportunity.

void CExampleAppUi::ConstructL()
    {
    iAppView = CExampleAppView::NewL(ClientRect());
    }

CExampleAppView* CExampleAppView::NewL(const TRect& aRect)
    {
    CExampleAppView* self = new(ELeave) CExampleAppView();
    CleanupStack::PushL(self);
    self->ConstructL(aRect);
    CleanupStack::Pop();
    return self;
    }

// Standard initialization for a window-owning control.
void CExampleAppView::ConstructL(const TRect& aRect)
    {
    // Create the window owned by the view.
    CreateWindowL();

    // Set the view's size and position.
    SetRect(aRect);

    // Activate the view.
    ActivateL();
    }