The document provides practical examples and tips for building rich clients using JavaFX 2.0, covering various aspects such as CSS styling, animation threading, and binding controls. It includes code snippets for creating user interface components like split panes, toolbars, and charts, along with discussing advanced features such as validation and progress indicators. Additionally, it demonstrates how to customize charts and implement user interactions through mouse events.

1. JAVAFX 2.0
Practical Experience Building Rich Clients
Richard Bair & Jasper Potts

2. General
Binding
Controls
& Charts
AnimationThreading
CSS
Tips

4. Tricks

5. General
Binding
Controls
Charts
AnimationThreading
CSS

6. Node subnode = parentNode.lookup(“......”);
where .... is a CSS selector
Lets you quickly and easily get any descendent node.
Useful Selectors:
“#NodeID” find descendent node with id “NodeID”
“.StyleClass”
“ClassName”
LOOKUP

7. public class Lookup extends Application {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Application.launch(args);
}
@Override public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
final SplitPane splitPane = new SplitPane();
splitPane.getItems().addAll(
RegionBuilder.create().style(
-fx-background-color: red;).build(),
RegionBuilder.create().style(
-fx-background-color: dodgerblue;).build()
);
Scene scene = new Scene(splitPane, 300, 250);
primaryStage.setScene(scene);
primaryStage.show();
}
}

8. public class Lookup extends Application {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Application.launch(args);
}
@Override public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
final SplitPane splitPane = new SplitPane();
splitPane.getItems().addAll(
RegionBuilder.create().style(-fx-background-color: red;).build(),
RegionBuilder.create().style(-fx-background-color: dodgerblue;).build()
);
Scene scene = new Scene(splitPane, 300, 250);
primaryStage.setScene(scene);
primaryStage.show();
Pane gripper = (Pane)splitPane.lookup(.horizontal-grabber);
gripper.getChildren().add(
VBoxBuilder.create().spacing(5).children(
ButtonBuilder.create().text()
.onAction(new EventHandlerActionEvent() {
public void handle(ActionEvent t) {
splitPane.setDividerPosition(0, 0);
}
}).build(),
// .... a second button here for
).build()
);
splitPane.lookup(.split-pane-divider).setStyle(-fx-padding: 8px;);
}
}

10. General
Binding
Controls
Charts
AnimationThreading
CSS

11. CSS COLORING CONTROLS

12. CSS COLORING CONTROLS
+

13. CSS COLORING CONTROLS
-fx-base: red;
+

14. CSS COLORING CONTROLS
-fx-base: red;
+
=

15. CSS COLORING CONTROLS
-fx-base: red;
+
=

16. public ToolBar createToolBar(String id) {
return ToolBarBuilder.create()
.id(id)
.items(
new Button(Button 1),
new Button(Button 2),
new Slider(),
new ChoiceBox(
FXCollections.observableArrayList(Font.getFamilies())),
new Button(Button 3)
).build();
}
CSS COLORING CONTROLS
Method for creating example ToolBar

17. public class DarkToolbar extends Application {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Application.launch(args);
}
public ToolBar createToolBar(String id) {.....}
@Override public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
primaryStage.setTitle(Colored Toolbars);
ToolBar standardToolbar = createToolBar(standard);
ToolBar darkToolbar = createToolBar(dark);
ToolBar blueToolbar = createToolBar(blue);
Scene scene = new Scene(
VBoxBuilder.create()
.spacing(10)
.padding(new Insets(10))
.children(standardToolbar, darkToolbar, blueToolbar)
.build()
);
scene.getStylesheets().add(
DarkToolbar.class.getResource(DarkToolbar.css).toString());
primaryStage.setScene(scene);
primaryStage.show();
}
}

18. #dark {
-fx-base: #333333;
}
#blue {
-fx-base: dodgerblue;
}
CSS COLORING CONTROLS

19. #dark {
-fx-base: #333333;
}
#blue {
-fx-base: dodgerblue;
}
CSS COLORING CONTROLS

20. Say you have some rounded content in a SplitPane like:
CSS HIDDEN SPLITTERS
And you want to make the split panes not draw a bar like:

21. public class HidingSplitPane extends Application {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Application.launch(args);
}
@Override public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
primaryStage.setTitle(Hidden Splitter);
final SplitPane splitPane = SplitPaneBuilder.create()
.id(hiddenSplitter)
.items(
RegionBuilder.create().styleClass(rounded).build(),
RegionBuilder.create().styleClass(rounded).build(),
RegionBuilder.create().styleClass(rounded).build()
).dividerPositions(new double[]{0.33,0.66})
.build();
Scene scene = new Scene(splitPane, 300, 100);
scene.getStylesheets().add(HidingSplitPane.class
.getResource(HidingSplitPane.css).toString());
primaryStage.setScene(scene);
primaryStage.show();
}
}

22. .rounded {
-fx-border-color: dodgerblue;
-fx-border-width: 2px;
-fx-border-radius: 15px;
-fx-padding: 20px;
}
#hiddenSplitter {
-fx-background-color: null;
-fx-padding: 10px;
}
#hiddenSplitter *.split-pane-divider,
#hiddenSplitter *.vertical-grabber,
#hiddenSplitter *.horizontal-grabber {
-fx-background-color: null;
-fx-border-color: null;
-fx-padding: 5px;
}
CSS HIDDEN SPLITTERS

23. Scene scene = new Scene(
VBoxBuilder.create()
.spacing(10)
.padding(new Insets(10))
.children(
ButtonBuilder.create()
.text(Inset Text Button)
.id(button1).build(),
LabelBuilder.create()
.text(Label styled as bar)
.id(label1).build()
)
.build()
);
CSS INSET TEXT
Apple style inset text, eg:

24. #button1 Text, #label1 Text{
-fx-effect: dropshadow(
one-pass-box , white, 0, 0 , 0, 1);
}
CSS INSET TEXT
Add some simple CSS:

25. General
Binding
Controls
Charts
AnimationThreading
CSS

26. ANIMATION CACHING
When animating objects with complex graphics such as large
screens of controls like a data form can be jerky. So what
you need to do is cache them while animating.

28. public void handle(ActionEvent t) {
ANIMATION CACHING
SequentialTransitionBuilder.create()
.node(tilePane)
.children(.......)
.build().play();
}

29. public void handle(ActionEvent t) {
ANIMATION CACHING
SequentialTransitionBuilder.create()
.node(tilePane)
.children(.......)
.onFinished(new EventHandlerActionEvent() {
public void handle(ActionEvent t) {
tilePane.setCache(false);
}
})
tilePane.setCache(true);
tilePane.setCacheHint(CacheHint.SPEED);
.build().play();
}

30. General
Binding
Controls
Charts
AnimationThreading
CSS

31. BINDING
Using the low level binding API, you can do arbitrarily
interesting binding, such as creating complex messages

32. THE SETUP
StringBinding
• Listens to the TextField
• Computes the String to be
displayed in the Label
• Uses a SimpleDateFormat and
some Calendar’s to do the job
TextField
• Enter the text here
Label
• Just binds to a custom binding

34. General
Binding
Controls
Charts
AnimationThreading
CSS

35. TASKS
Using aTask, ProgressIndicator, and Region you can
implement background tasks which block the UI, simply

37. SERVICE
Using a Service instead of aTask, you can easily create a
reusable Service for doing background work

39. General
Binding
Controls
Charts
AnimationThreading
CSS

40. VALIDATORS
Using the scene graph and some CSS you can wrap any
control in order to handle custom validation

41. Has-a
THE SETUP
TextInputValidatorPane
• A layout container which wraps its content
• Listens to changes in the TextField and
handles validation
• Sets the style class to “.validation-error” or
“.validation-warning” when there are
validation problems
Validator
• Interface which takes a control and
produces aValidationResult
ValidationResult
• Has a message validation result
type (Error,Warning, Normal)
CSS
• Styles make the background of the
text field change
TextField
• Just lives its life normal, doesn’t
have to do anything special
Styles
Creates

43. TABLE PLACE HOLDER
You can place any node in as a place holder on aTableView
and it will be shown when there is no data.

45. final TableView tableView = new TableView();
TABLE PLACE HOLDER
tableView.getColumns().addAll(
TableColumnBuilder.create()
.text(First)
.cellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory(firstName))
.build(),
TableColumnBuilder.create()
.text(Last)
.cellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory(lastName))
.build(),
TableColumnBuilder.create()
.text(Email)
.prefWidth(220)
.cellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory(email))
.build()
);

46. final TableView tableView = new TableView();
TABLE PLACE HOLDER
tableView.getColumns().addAll(
TableColumnBuilder.create()
.text(First)
.cellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory(firstName))
.build(),
TableColumnBuilder.create()
.text(Last)
.cellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory(lastName))
.build(),
TableColumnBuilder.create()
.text(Email)
.prefWidth(220)
.cellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory(email))
.build()
);
tableView.setPlaceholder(
ProgressIndicatorBuilder.create()
.maxWidth(100)
.maxHeight(100)
.build());

47. TABLE PLACE HOLDER
PauseTransitionBuilder.create()
.duration(Duration.seconds(5))
.onFinished(new EventHandlerActionEvent() {
public void handle(ActionEvent t) {
tableView.setItems(FXCollections.observableArrayList(
new Person(Jacob, Smith,
jacob.smith@example.com ),
new Person(Isabella, Johnson,
isabella.johnson@example.com ),
new Person(Ethan, Williams,
ethan.williams@example.com ),
new Person(Emma, Jones,
emma.jones@example.com ),
new Person(Michael, Brown,
michael.brown@example.com )
));
}
})
.build().play();

48. SUBMIT PROGRESS
It is nice to give the user some feedback while we are
responding to their action.A quick neat way to do this for
a form submission is to add a ProgressIndicator to the
submit button.

50. SUBMIT PROGRESS
public class SaveButtonProgressIndicator extends Application {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Application.launch(args);
}
@Override public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
primaryStage.setTitle(Save Button ProgressIndicator);
try {
Parent root =
FXMLLoader.load(getClass().getResource(SalesForm.fxml));
primaryStage.setScene(new Scene(root));
primaryStage.show();
} catch (IOException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}
}

51. SUBMIT PROGRESS
GridPane xmlns:fx=http://javafx.com/fxml
fx:controller=tipsandtricks.SalesForm fx:id=salesForm
hgap=15 vgap=12
paddingInsets top=10 right=10 bottom=10 left=10//padding
children
Label text=Quantity: GridPane.columnIndex=1 GridPane.rowIndex=1/
TextField fx:id=quanityTextField text=1 GridPane.columnIndex=2
GridPane.rowIndex=1/
HBox spacing=10 alignment=center_right GridPane.columnIndex=1
GridPane.rowIndex=2 GridPane.columnSpan=3
children
Button text=Cancel onAction=#cancelAction cancelButton=true
style=-fx-base: #AAAAAA;/
Button text=Save onAction=#saveAction defaultButton=true
style=-fx-base: #333333;/
/children
/HBox
/children
/GridPane

52. SUBMIT PROGRESS
public class SalesForm {
@FXML private void cancelAction(final ActionEvent event) {}
@FXML private void saveAction(final ActionEvent event) {
// put progress indicator in save button to show user
// something is happening
Button saveButton = (Button)event.getSource();
ProgressIndicator pi = new ProgressIndicator();
pi.setPrefSize(14,14);
saveButton.setGraphic(pi);
}
}

53. IMAGE BARCHART
You can customize the look of JavaFX charts with CSS
such as styling the bars of a BarChart with images.

54. IMAGE BARCHART
You can customize the look of JavaFX charts with CSS
such as styling the bars of a BarChart with images.

56. IMAGE BARCHART
public class ImageBarChart extends Application {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Application.launch(args);
}
@Override public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
primaryStage.setTitle(Image BarChart);
BarChart barChart = new BarChart(new CategoryAxis(), new NumberAxis());
barChart.setLegendVisible(false);
barChart.getData().add(
new XYChart.SeriesString,Integer(Sales Per Product,
FXCollections.observableArrayList(
new XYChart.DataString, Integer(SUV,120),
new XYChart.DataString, Integer(Sedan,50),
new XYChart.DataString, Integer(Truck,180),
new XYChart.DataString, Integer(Van,20)
)
)
);
Scene scene = new Scene(barChart, 350, 300);
scene.getStylesheets().add(InsetText.class
.getResource(ImageBarChart.css).toString());
primaryStage.setScene(scene);
primaryStage.show();
}
}

57. IMAGE BARCHART
.chart {
-fx-background-color: -fx-box-border, #f5f5f5;
-fx-background-insets: 0, 1;
-fx-font-size: 0.9em;
}
.chart-bar {
-fx-background-color: rgba(0,168,355,0.05);
-fx-border-color: rgba(0,168,355,0.3) rgba(0,168,355,0.3)
transparent rgba(0,168,355,0.3);
-fx-background-radius: 0;
-fx-background-position: center bottom;
-fx-background-repeat: no-repeat space;
-fx-background-image: url(van-s.png);
}
.data0.chart-bar { -fx-background-image: url(suv-s.png); }
.data1.chart-bar { -fx-background-image: url(sedan-s.png); }
.data2.chart-bar { -fx-background-image: url(truck-s.png); }
.data3.chart-bar { -fx-background-image: url(van-2.png); }

58. DRILL DOWN CHART
You can attach mouse handling to items in a chart so you
can do drill down or other actions.

60. DRILL DOWN CHART
public class DrilldownChart extends Application {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Application.launch(args);
}
@Override public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
primaryStage.setTitle(Drilldown Chart);
PieChart.Data A,B,C,D;
final PieChart pie = new PieChart(
FXCollections.observableArrayList(
A = new PieChart.Data(A, 20),
B = new PieChart.Data(B, 30),
C = new PieChart.Data(C, 10),
D = new PieChart.Data(D, 40)
)
);
Scene scene = new Scene(pie, 350, 300);
scene.getStylesheets().add(InsetText.class
.getResource(DrilldownChart.css).toString());
primaryStage.setScene(scene);
primaryStage.show();
}
}

61. DRILL DOWN CHART
public class DrilldownChart extends Application {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Application.launch(args);
}
@Override public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
primaryStage.setTitle(Drilldown Chart);
PieChart.Data A,B,C,D;
final PieChart pie = new PieChart(
FXCollections.observableArrayList(
A = new PieChart.Data(A, 20),
B = new PieChart.Data(B, 30),
C = new PieChart.Data(C, 10),
D = new PieChart.Data(D, 40)
)
);
A.getNode().setOnMouseClicked(new EventHandlerMouseEvent() {
public void handle(MouseEvent t) {
pie.setData(FXCollections.observableArrayList(
new PieChart.Data(a1, 7),
new PieChart.Data(a2, 2),
new PieChart.Data(a3, 5),
new PieChart.Data(a4, 3),
new PieChart.Data(a5, 2)
));
}
});
Scene scene = new Scene(pie, 350, 300);
scene.getStylesheets().add(InsetText.class
.getResource(DrilldownChart.css).toString());
primaryStage.setScene(scene);
primaryStage.show();
}
}

62. DRILL DOWN CHART
.chart-pie:hover {
-fx-border-color: red;
-fx-border-width: 2px;
}

63. SEARCH BOX
You can combine standard controls + some CSS and
create new controls such as a search box.

65. SEARCH BOX
public class SearchBoxApp extends Application {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Application.launch(args);
}
@Override public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
primaryStage.setTitle(SearchBox);
VBox root = new VBox();
root.getChildren().addAll(new SearchBox());
Scene scene = new Scene(root);
scene.getStylesheets().add(InsetText.class
.getResource(SearchBox.css).toString());
primaryStage.setScene(scene);
primaryStage.show();
}
}

66. SEARCH BOX
public class SearchBox extends Region {
private TextField textBox;
private Button clearButton;
public SearchBox() {
setId(SearchBox);
getStyleClass().add(search-box);
setMinHeight(24);
setPrefSize(150, 24);
setMaxHeight(24);
textBox = new TextField();
textBox.setPromptText(Search);
clearButton = new Button();
clearButton.setVisible(false);
getChildren().addAll(textBox, clearButton);
......
}
@Override protected void layoutChildren() {
textBox.resize(getWidth(),getHeight());
clearButton.resizeRelocate(getWidth()-18,6,12,13);
}
}

67. SEARCH BOX
public class SearchBox extends Region {
private TextField textBox;
private Button clearButton;
public SearchBox() {
setId(SearchBox);
getStyleClass().add(search-box);
setMinHeight(24);
setPrefSize(150, 24);
setMaxHeight(24);
textBox = new TextField();
textBox.setPromptText(Search);
clearButton = new Button();
clearButton.setVisible(false);
getChildren().addAll(textBox, clearButton);
clearButton.setOnAction(new EventHandlerActionEvent() {
@Override public void handle(ActionEvent actionEvent) {
textBox.setText();
textBox.requestFocus();
}
});
textBox.textProperty().addListener(new ChangeListenerString() {
@Override public void changed(ObservableValue? extends String
observable, String oldValue, String newValue) {
clearButton.setVisible(textBox.getText().length() != 0);
}
});
}
@Override protected void layoutChildren() {
textBox.resize(getWidth(),getHeight());
clearButton.resizeRelocate(getWidth()-18,6,12,13);
}
}

68. SEARCH BOX
.root {
-fx-padding: 10px;
-fx-background-image: url(images/top-bar.png);
-fx-background-size: cover;
-fx-background-position: left top;
-fx-background-repeat: no-repeat;
}

69. .search-box .text-field {
-fx-background-color: white;
-fx-background-insets: 1;
-fx-background-radius: 15;
-fx-padding: -9 5 -11 0;
-fx-border-image-source: url(images/search-box.png);
-fx-border-image-slice: 12 12 12 22 fill;
-fx-border-image-width: 12 12 12 22;
-fx-border-image-repeat: stretch;
-fx-font-size: 13px;
-fx-prompt-text-fill: grey;
}
.search-box .text-field:focused {
-fx-background-color: -fx-focus-color, white;
-fx-background-insets: -1.4, 1;
-fx-background-radius: 14.4;
}
SEARCH BOX

70. SEARCH BOX
.search-box .button {
-fx-background-color: null;
-fx-background-image: url(images/search-clear.png);
}
.search-box .button:hover {
-fx-background-image: url(images/search-clear-over.png);
}