What is JavaFx?

JavaFX is a software technology that lets you create and deliver Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) with media and content across a wide variety of platforms and devices.

The language was originally called F3 (Form Follows Function) and was developed primarily by Chris Oliver, now at Sun Microsystems. The name was changed to JavaFX in 2007.

On Java platforms, JavaFX is a compiled, statically typed, declarative scripting language. The language offers automatic data binding, triggers, animation, and an expression syntax where code blocks yield values. Sequences, function types, and inferred types make JavaFX a concise scripting language. Developers can use objectoriented JavaFX features to simplify complexity and handle errors with Java-like exceptions. JavaFX also lets you easily access the complete Java API, which includes an enormous number of third-party Java libraries.

Figure 1.1 is the big picture for JavaFX. This block diagram shows the various pieces you can leverage when creating JavaFX applications. As the diagram shows, there are extensions for three environments: Desktop, Mobile and TV. All three environments support the common API (labeled Common Elements in Figure 1.1). As of this writing, the runtime for the JavaFX TV environment does not yet exist. There is a runtime for the JavaFX mobile environment, which supports the common API only.

On the desktop, JavaFX runs on Windows XP, Vista, and Mac OS. Linux support is forthcoming (as of this writing). JavaFX is also capable of running on Android, Windows Mobile, and other mobile operating systems.

The JavaFX platform release currently includes three major components : JavaFX SDK, NetBeans IDE and JavaFX Production Suite.

JavaFX SDK

The JavaFX SDK (Software Development Kit) includes the JavaFX compiler, runtime tools, graphics, media, and web services. It also includes libraries that let you create RIAs (Rich Internet Applications) for desktop, browser, and mobile platforms.

NetBeans IDE

NetBeans is a sophisticated IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that lets you build, preview, and debug JavaFX applications. The code editor supports JavaFX syntax checking, code completion, hyperlinked documentation, and other developerfriendly features. To decrease development time, the editor offers drag-and-drop from palettes of GUI controls, event handlers, transformations, effects, and animation. For Mobile applications, NetBeans also supports a Mobile emulator to simulate applications running on mobile devices.

Currently, JavaFX is a plug-in component for NetBeans. A community-supported plug-in for Eclipse IDE users is also available.

JavaFX Production Suite

The JavaFX Production Suite is a set of tools and plug-ins to help designers export JavaFX graphics from third-party applications (Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop).

Using the JavaFX Graphics Viewer, you can preview how graphics will render when you deploy to desktop and mobile environments. An SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) conversion tool lets you convert SVG files to JavaFX format.

To access the JavaFX downloads, go to

http://java.sun.com/javafx/downloads. You will see downloads for the following components.

• JavaFX SDK

• NetBeans for JavaFX

• JavaFX Production Suite

Follow the instructions on the web site to download and install the component you want. You can download and install NetBeans with JavaFX together or you can install the JavaFX plug-in separately if you already have NetBeans installed.

Here are some other valuable links for JavaFX.

• http://java.sun.com/javafx—Main site for JavaFX

• http://javafx.com—Samples and demos for JavaFX

• http://java.sun.com/javafx/num/docs/api—JavaFX documentation (version num)

• http://www.netbeans.org—NetBeans site

• https://openjfx-compiler.dev.java.net—OpenJFX Compiler Project

Once you have NetBeans and JavaFX installed, you are ready to try out JavaFX.