Abstract

Let's face it; Java's Swing GUI toolkit is a bit dated. Although it was and still is a good toolkit for building desktop applications, it hasn’t change with the times. Its library of widgets has remained more or less static since the 90s and its architecture prevented it from leveraging hardware acceleration, providing modern visual effects, or supporting multi-touch. The Look & Feel architecture never realized its full potential and impeded efforts to customize the appearance of Java applications. To address these shortcomings and bring desktop Java into the twenty-first century Sun introduced JavaFX in 2009. Oracle released JavaFX 2.0 at JavaOne 2011 and it is finally ready for primetime.

JavaFX 2.0 opened the JavaFX library to developers using standard Java and the ambitious JavaFX Script language was dropped. At its core JavaFX uses a scene graph and supports hardware acceleration enabling media rich applications to fully leverage the GPU. It also includes a built-in HTML5 component that uses WebKit (engine in Chrome and Safari) to render blazingly fast HTML5 content. With a library of over 50 built-in components the need to purchase or find open source widgets is greatly reduced. JavaFX enables components to be skinned using CSS3.

This presentation will cover the basic nuts and bolts of JavaFX. Topics that will be covered include the scene graph, special effects, layouts, table support, HTML5 component, Scene Builder, and also integration with existing Swing applications. This will provide you with a firm foundation to start exploring JavaFX further and begin leveraging in your applications today. Note: At JavaOne Russia Oracle demoed JavaFX running on the iPad.