Using JavaFX 2.0 inside Swing applications, by Artem Ananiev

by Jonathan Giles | Jun 2, 2011 | Links

Here’s a good introduction to the JFXPanel component by Artem Ananiev, which allows for embedding JavaFX nodes into a Swing application.

It makes much more sense to use FX content in Swing, because there are so many existing Swing applications and so many exciting FX features. The good news is that using FX in Swing is now possible and, which is more important, officially supported via public API: javafx.embed.swing.JFXPanel. …More

A JavaFX Button and Slider atop a Swing JButton

JavaFX links of the week, May 30

by Jonathan Giles | May 29, 2011 | Links

Howdy folks! It’s been a busy week this week, with the release of the first JavaFX 2.0 beta. I look forward to seeing your blog posts over the coming weeks and months as you get better versed with the API and technologies, and as we keep rolling out beta refreshes to fix bugs, add features and improve performance.

• As I mentioned, the JavaFX 2.0 beta is now out. You can download it, read the documentation, check out the API docs, and file issues in our bug tracker.
• Osvaldo Pinali Doederlein has blogged about JavaFX 2.0 beta first impressions, in his usual in-depth and considered way. This is well worth a read for anyone wanting to get a good appreciation for what has changed in JavaFX 2.0 beta.
• After the JavaFX 2.0 beta came out, the single loudest complaint was whether JavaFX will be cross platform. Richard Bair, Java Client Architect at Oracle, responded and makes it very clear that JavaFX will be cross platform.
• Jasper Potts put up two blog posts: ‘Simple 3D Cubes in JavaFX 2.0‘ and ‘JavaFX 2.0 Charts‘.
• Michael Heinrichs, a member of the JavaFX team at Oracle, has blogged about JavaFX 2.0 properties. In another post, Michael covered creating JavaFX 2.0 properties.
• I blogged about how you should go about building custom JavaFX 2.0 user interface controls. It should hopefully give enough to get people over the initial hurdle of how to start writing a control.
• James Sugrue has blogged about the JavaFX 2.0 ‘Reboot’.
• In light of the JavaFX 2.0 release, Stephen Colebourne has blogged his thoughts about beans and properties.
• Dustin Marx has blogged about “JavaFX 2 Beta: Time to Reevaluate JavaFX?“
• Geertjan Wielenga has blogged about integrating JavaFX 2.0 applications inside the NetBeans RCP.
• Stephen Chin and Kevin Nilson have put up their slide deck for ‘Moving to the Client – JavaFX and HTML5‘.

That’s all folks! Keep up the good work, whether that be exploring JavaFX 2.0 (if that’s your thing), or just writing cool JavaFX-related software and blog posts. Catch you next week! 🙂

JavaFX Documentation Page

by Richard Bair | May 27, 2011 | Links

Just a quick post to point a link to the JavaFX Documentation page. The documentation team has been working really close with the engineering team and done a wonderful job in putting together these docs. For example, there is some great documentation for Properties & Binding, Working with Layouts, and Using UI Controls.

Jump over there and give the documentation a good read while building applications in JavaFX!

JavaFX links of the week, April 11

by Jonathan Giles | Apr 10, 2011 | Links

Hey everyone – here’s another bunch of JavaFX links that you might find interesting. Sorry for not posting these recently – I try to batch up the links I’m collecting on my personal website, and post them here once there is a decent number of links. I’m sure as JavaFX 2.0 hits beta and GA we’re bound to see more posts here however.

• Richard Bair is presenting a ‘Richard Bair Reveals All on JavaFX 2.0‘ talk this week. Note: the location has changed since the initial announcement – it is now at the Googleplex rather than at Oracle HQ. As always, there is a livestream available on ustream, where you can chat with other participants, as well as provide questions via a Google Moderator link. I’ll be in the online chat, so I hope to catch many of you in there too!
  
• Eric Bruno has blogged about creating a custom control in JavaFX 2.0. Given this is my day job, I should note a few things: 1) this is pre-beta API, 2) I haven’t actually reviewed in detail how accurate this code sample is (and whether it is using best practices), and 3) I’ve challenged Eric to attempt doing the same with just CSS – which in this example should be far simpler.
• I did a short teaser video of something I was working on recently – sorting / filtering in ListView and TableView controls. It’s still very primitive, but the primary purpose of the video is to actually show how simple it is to link up this functionality in JavaFX 2.0.
• Tom Eugelink has been developing using JavaFX 2.0 EA and has provided his feedback on the current API (which is very much in a state of flux still!).
• Max Katz blogged about JavaFX 2.0, and how recently there was discussion about initially supported platforms. I don’t really have anything to add from the product marketing side of things (it’s absolutely not my area at all, I am not a spokesperson for JavaFX 2.0, I have no insight at all into this level of things, etc, etc, etc), but I did want to say this: Within Oracle a number of the JavaFX development team are developing JavaFX 2.0 on Mac and Linux platforms. There are also a number of people in the JavaFX 2.0 EA program using Mac OS and Linux as their development environments (e.g. Dean’s post from early February). Regardless of what is officially supported in the 2.0 release, as a bunch of hardworking engineers we’re working to ensure all platforms work as well as possible. Regarding the comments on Max’s blog, I think there is a bit too much assuming going on! I’m certain more information will come out from official sources as we build up to the JavaFX 2.0 release. However, and as always, once the beta hits we’d all appreciate your feedback in the JavaFX bug tracker.
• Re Lai has blogged about ‘Using Adobe Flex and JavaFX with JavaServer Faces 2.0‘. Note: this is a JavaFX 1.3-related post.
• mxshrestha has blogged about managing multiple scenes in JavaFX Script.

Hope you found something interesting! 🙂 Catch you again soon.

JavaFX links of the week, March 21

by Jonathan Giles | Mar 20, 2011 | Links

Here we go again, with another batch of JavaFX 2.0 related links of the week. I hope you enjoy them 🙂

• Richard Bair was recently interviewed by InfoQ regarding JavaFX 2.0.
• Geertjan Wielenga blogged about the potential usefulness of the JavaFX WebView component. This is a part of JavaFX 2.0 – a fully fledged web browser component that can be embedded in your JavaFX applications. Also, because JavaFX 2.0 supports being embedded inside Swing applications, you can also use the WebView in Swing.
• Tom Eugelink has ported the MiGLayout layout manager to JavaFX 2.0 EA. For people who love building user interfaces with MiGLayout, it looks like your prayers have been answered. Interestingly, there is very little code to this layout, considering the powerful layout functionality it exposes.
• Aljoscha Rittner has created a screen capture tool written in JavaFX 2.0 with only 200 lines of code and a very quick startup time. Once the dependency on the AWT Robot class is removed, it is likely that this will become even quicker.

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to blog about their thoughts, experiences, and progress with JavaFX 2.0. I love reading it and love sharing it with the community – keep up the great work!