Ten Man-Years of JavaFX: Real World Project Experiences
1. Ten Man-Years of JavaFX: Real
World Project Experiences
JavaZone 2013
Henrik Olsson
@imheols
2. Session Overview
Our experiences
– Why we chose JavaFX
– How we use JavaFX
– The great migration
– Pros, cons and tips
Examples of JavaFX usage
Our tools
– GuavaFX
– TestFX
Introduction
3. About me
Developer and Product Owner of LoadUI
– SmartBear Software in Stockholm
Worked with JavaFX for ~3 years
Contact
– henrik.olsson@smartbear.com
– linkedin.com/in/heols
This is my first conference session
5. Session Overview
Our experiences
– Why we chose JavaFX
– How we use JavaFX
– The great migration
– Pros, cons and tips
Examples of JavaFX usage
Our tools
– GuavaFX
– TestFX
Introduction
11. “JavaFX 1 will reach end of life (EOL)
in December.”
The JavaFX Blog, Spring 2012
“We can’t finish the migration of LoadUI until early
next year. Will we be able to redistribute our existing
LoadUI versions after the EOL date?”
SmartBear Sweden CTO, February 2012
“No, sorry.”
Oracle Representative in a phone call, February 2012
12. “Several software engineers have warned against
total rewrites, especially under schedule
constraints or competitive pressures.”
From Rewrite (programming) at Wikipedia
13. The JavaFX Blog, May 2013
“We've decided to create a workaround that will
allow anyone to redistribute the JavaFX 1
Runtime. This solution is available today…”
“The EOL is postponed to March 2013.
Redistribution of the JavaFX 1 Runtime is not an
option, for a number of reasons.”
Oracle Representative, Fall of 2012
“The deadline will be very hard to meet. Is it
possible to delay the EOL, or let us redistribute
the JavaFX 1 Runtime?” Me, Fall of 2012
“We are done with the migration!”
Me, April 2013
14. Migrating
41k lines of JavaFX 1 (JavaFX Script) to 32k
lines of JavaFX 2 (Java).
– In 9 months
JavaFX 1 and JavaFX 2 cannot co-exist.
All code isolated in an OSGi module.
More of a rewrite than a migration.
16. JavaFX 1
Good stuff
Flexible
CSS
Fun!
Pitfalls
Poor IDE support
Hard to debug
License issues
Missing basic controls
17. JavaFX 2
Good stuff
Flexible
CSS
Fun!
Pitfalls
Poor IDE support
Hard to debug
License issues
Missing basic controls
FXML
– MVC for real! Multi-platform issues
Undocumented weak
references
– Bindings.bindContent()
– Bindings.bindBidirectional()
”Living in the future”
18. Tips for starting with JavaFX 2
Run tests early on all platforms that you will
support.
Learn and use CSS and FXML.
Use IntelliJ IDEA or NetBeans.
Prepare mentally to move to JavaFX 8.
You’re not a UX designer.
Enjoy!
– JavaFX is cool, fun and here to stay.
19. Session Overview
Introduction
Our experiences
– Why we chose JavaFX
– How we use JavaFX
– The great migration
– Pros, cons and tips
Examples of JavaFX usage
Our tools
– GuavaFX
– TestFX
21. Session Overview
Introduction
Our experiences
– Why we chose JavaFX
– How we use JavaFX
– The great migration
– Pros, cons and tips
Examples of JavaFX usage
Our tools
– GuavaFX
– TestFX
23. What is GuavaFX?
Functional extensions for
the ObservableList, inspired by Google Guava.
– transform
– filter
– concat (preserves ordering)
Game changer for us.
Cached.
Using weak listeners.
32. Why TestFX?
We needed:
– Tests that any tester could follow and modify.
Options:
– JemmyFX was too complicated and verbose.
– FEST-JavaFX was dead.
– MarvinFX didn’t yet exist.
– No GUI testing software existed for JavaFX.
– Write our own!
33. What is TestFX?
A fluent and fixture-less API for interacting with
JavaFX applications:
– rightClick("#desktop").moveMouseTo("New")
.click("Text Document")
.type("myTextfile.txt")
.press(ENTER)
– drag(myNode).to("#trash-can")
– press(CONTROL, A)
35. Key principles
Fixture-less
– Don’t have to create fixtures for custom controls
– Clean code that most testers can read
– Enables TDD
– Dangerous?
/** It is always dangerous to directly access objects within Java
FX hierarchy. All the access should be done through event queue.
If done otherwise results are unpredictable at the best. */
• Not in our experience.
60 tests running for more than a year.
Stress test to provoke JavaFX/TestFX.
» Using Timeline, bindings and millisecond precision
assertions.
36. Key principles
Hamcrest Matchers
– Makes use of regular Hamcrest Matchers.
– Provides a few JavaFX specific Matchers.
States
– Optional
37. JemmyFX official example
@Test
public void hello() {
SceneDock scene = new SceneDock();
ListViewDock list = new ListViewDock(scene.asParent());
final TextInputControlDock address = new TextInputControlDock(scene.asParent());
String location = address.getText();
address.asSelectionText().to(address.getText().length());
address.type("testdata");
address.keyboard().pushKey(ENTER);
new ListItemDock(list.asList(), new LookupCriteria() {
@Override
public boolean check(Object cntrl) {
return cntrl.toString().endsWith("folder1");
}
}).mouse().click(2);
new ComboBoxDock(scene.asParent()).asSelectable().selector().select(new File(location));
address.wrap().waitProperty(Wrap.TEXT_PROP_NAME, location);
new LabeledDock(scene.asParent(), "back_btn").mouse().click();
new ListItemDock(list.asList(), "file.txt", SUBSTRING).mouse().click(1);
}
38. Same example in TestFX
@Test
public void hello() {
click("#address-field").type("testdata").press(ENTER);
doubleClick("folder1");
click(".combo-box").click("Tests");
click("#back_btn").click("file.txt");
}
40. How we use TestFX
GUI unit tests
class MyTest extends GuiTest {
@BeforeClass
public static void createStage() {
showNodeInStage( nodeUnderTest );
}
@Test
public static void nodeUnderTest_should_behave() {
// Test logic goes here.
}
}
41. How we use TestFX
System tests
– With states (TestState.java).
• First state starts LoadUI.
From a user survey.Users have started to expect well thought-out GUIs. Blame the iPhone ;-)
*click *JavaFX 1 had a licensing model that prohibited redistribution of the JARs. We solved this by using Java Web Start, that fetched the JARs on the first startup.[Shorten these quotes further]
*3 clicks *...and guess what happened one month later?*click*
I asked people that’s been working with LoadUi over the years.Fun:Almost everybody says this! More modern than Swing and.Poor IDE support:Because of JavaFX Script.Hard to debug:Because of JavaFX Script + Not Open Source.License issues:Not allowed to redistribute the runtime.Missing basic controls:No table view, no modal windows, etc.
FXML:MVC in Swing is hard. In JavaFX it’s natural.Multi-platform issues:Major problems on Windows Server. Mac problems (runs in headless mode which kills all Swing integration). Major drag-n-drop bug in Linux. All these are reportedly fixed in JavaFX 8.Living in the future:A lot of bugs are being fixed... In JavaFX 8, which already been delayed once. No backports.Things are still changing a lot: In JavaFX 2, there are builder classes for everything. In JavaFX 8, those will be removed.
You’re not a UX designer:In JavaFX you can easily create new controls, with shadows, drag and drop and reflections.It’s easy to go overboard, break conventions, and create stuff with bad usability.
I’m going to show how we use a few JavaFX components in LoadUI. This is probably the most interesting if you’ve been using JavaFX.Webview, med custom starterpage som öppnar youtubevideoninline. Charts, with old test-run.Tabs CSS repeating background
