Calling JavaFX From Java?

Thanks Geertjan for your post!  I think you hit the nail right on the head about embedding JavaFX into Swing applications.  I was a Flash developer from 2000-2006 and I saw it go from "let's build the entire site in Flash", which was often cumbersome to maintain and update, to "let's build a rich media piece in Flash", to which Flash then really came back and excelled (of course, the inclusion of video and broadband was a part of this too). I feel like most of the people who are complaining about the value of JavaFX are basically reliving the same issues that happened when Flash became very popular.  (Note: Been doing Java/Swing since 2000 as well, in case the note above about Flash implies I've been using Java client stuff for just the past couple years).

Geertjan,

I can only say...THANK YOU! I was trying to make FEST test a JavaFX UI, but I have been procrastinating for many days! :)

 

Best regards,

-Alex

Geertjan,

 

Nice!

One of my questions ultimately answered!

 

Thanks,

Carl

Thanks all for the comments: good to see I'm not alone in yearning for the marriage of JavaFX with Java! I agree with Michael Bien that it feels like reflection, i.e., some kind of workaround, though. On the (very!) bright side, I received an e-mail from Josh Marinacci with these words: "I'm in belgium and have forgotten my login so i couldn't comment on your blog. Can you post an update that soon we'll have some code that shows you how to properly embed a javafx scene into a swing application."

Great news!  Looking forward to seeing the examples!

Hi Alex, you need to put a whole bunch of JavaFX JARs on your app's classpath to make it possible. (To save time, I simply put all of them there, i.e., every JAR in the JavaFX distro.) Then put Jim's FX file in a package and the Java class you see above there too.

Alex,

I called mine Main.class instead.

I was getting the same thing. I figured it had to do with EDT. This works all the time.

Enjoy!

package javatalkingtofx;

import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import javax.script.ScriptEngine;
import javax.script.ScriptEngineManager;
import javax.script.ScriptException;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class Main {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

            ScriptEngineManager manager = new ScriptEngineManager();
            final ScriptEngine engine = manager.getEngineByExtension("fx");
            final InputStreamReader reader = new InputStreamReader(Main.class.getResourceAsStream("Calculator.fx"));
            SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
                public void run() {
                try {
                    engine.eval(reader);
                } catch (ScriptException ex) {
                    Logger.getLogger(Main.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
                }
                }
            });

    }

}

-Carl

I wrote about my experience trying to test a JavaFX UI at http://www.jroller.com/alexRuiz/entry/using_fest_swing_to_discover

Best regards,
-Alex

Thanks Carl for the kind words about FEST :)

About a JavaFX version of FEST, I'm thinking about it. I'd like to release version 1.0 of the FEST-Swing (planned for mid-January 09) and also learn more about JavaFX before announcing anything :)

I followed your suggestion and posted a message in the JavaPosse mailing list (there is a lot of JavaFX-related activity there.) The message can be found at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse/browse_frm/thread/db150b394d189185?hl=en

Cheers,

-Alex

guyz i have failed to call a JavaFX class from a swing application when a button is clicked.

I developed the application so that when i run the swing application i click a button "Run FX" and the JavaFx class "Main.fx" runs. but all in vain. the error it brings is displayed down below.

My code is shown below.

Please help as soon as possible. probably as soon as u read this message.

// JavaFx Class

/*
 * Main.fx
 *
 * Created on Mar 30, 2010, 11:26:22 AM
 */

package calc;

import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.text.Text;
import javafx.scene.text.Font;

/**
 * @author peter
 */

Stage {
    title: "Sample app"
    scene: Scene {
        width: 250
        height: 80
        content: [
            Text {
                font : Font {
                    size : 16
                }
                x: 10
                y: 30
                content: "Testing files"
            }
        ]
    }
}

 

 

// my swing class

/*
 * To change this template, choose Tools | Templates
 * and open the template in the editor.
 */

/*
 * NewJFrame.java
 *
 * Created on Mar 30, 2010, 12:02:35 PM
 */

package calc;

import com.sun.javafx.runtime.Main;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import javax.script.ScriptEngine;
import javax.script.ScriptEngineManager;
import javax.script.ScriptException;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

/**
 *
 * @author peter
 */
public class NewJFrame extends javax.swing.JFrame {

    /** Creates new form NewJFrame */
    public NewJFrame() {
        initComponents();
    }

    /** This method is called from within the constructor to
     * initialize the form.
     * WARNING: Do NOT modify this code. The content of this method is
     * always regenerated by the Form Editor.
     */
    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="Generated Code">
  // </editor-fold>

    private void jButton1ActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
        // TODO add your handling code here:
         ScriptEngineManager manager = new ScriptEngineManager();
        final ScriptEngine engine = manager.getEngineByExtension("fx");
        final InputStreamReader reader = new InputStreamReader(NewJFrame.class.getResourceAsStream("Main.fx"));
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {

            @Override
            public void run() {
                try {
                    engine.eval(reader);
                } catch (ScriptException ex) {
                    Logger.getLogger(Main.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
                }
            }
        });
    }

    /**
    * @param args the command line arguments
    */
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                new NewJFrame().setVisible(true);
            }
        });
    }

    // Variables declaration - do not modify
    private javax.swing.JButton jButton1;
    // End of variables declaration

}

 

 

 when i click the button "Run FX" it brings the following error

init:
deps-jar:
compile:
jar:
standard-run:
Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.NullPointerException
        at java.io.Reader.<init>(Reader.java:61)
        at java.io.InputStreamReader.<init>(InputStreamReader.java:55)
        at calc.NewJFrame.jButton1ActionPerformed(NewJFrame.java:78)
        at calc.NewJFrame.access$000(NewJFrame.java:27)
        at calc.NewJFrame$1.actionPerformed(NewJFrame.java:50)
        at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:1995)
        at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2318)
        at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(DefaultButtonModel.java:387)
        at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(DefaultButtonModel.java:242)
        at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicButtonListener.mouseReleased(BasicButtonListener.java:236)
        at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Component.java:6263)
        at javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(JComponent.java:3267)
        at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Component.java:6028)
        at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Container.java:2041)
        at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:4630)
        at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2099)
        at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4460)
        at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Container.java:4574)
        at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Container.java:4238)
        at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Container.java:4168)
        at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2085)
        at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Window.java:2478)
        at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4460)
        at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:599)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:269)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:184)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:174)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:169)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:161)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:122)
browser-run:
jws-run:
midp-run:
run:
BUILD SUCCESSFUL (total time: 8 seconds)

 

please if any one can help i will be very grateful.