JAVA's abstraction is somehow brought out by allowing us to create a JFrame (and save it in its own .JAVA file) and populate it with different kinds of objects such as JPanels, JTextFields ... (saved in different files) if and when needed by using the remove(), add(), validate(), repaint() methods.
I'm trying to move my JAVA project to JAVA-FX due its great flexibility in design via JavaFX Scene Builder and css. Are there any equivalents to the above methods here (In JAVA-FX)? Is there a way I could create a Pane or a Label ... and save it in its own file as it waits to replace onother Pane with its own child Nodes (and saved in its own file) on the Stage later when it's called via an action, such as a button click?
Would really appreciate any help. Sample code enumerating the above could help also.
Thank you all in advance.
Your's trully, Complete JAVA-FX Newbie.
In a regular JavaFX application, there is only one primary stage and its one scene. Create your FXML file (optionally with its controller) containing any JavaFX node and load this file on button action using FXMLoader. Then you can use the loaded node as a root of scene;
scene.setRoot(MYNode) (though only Parent can be set as root)
or add it to subtree of root node as a child;
if you know the substructure: scene.getRoot().getChildren().get(3).getChildren().add(MYNode);
if you know the id: scene.lookup("myPane").getChildren().add(MYNode);
The same logic applies to another FXML file(s) being loaded in another action event.
Related
My goal is to have a program with 3 panes. A mulitfactor Auth. The first pane will have the user type in a passphrase, while the second pain will allow the user to pick a image from a drop down list. But I want the 3rd pane to launch just to the right of the 2nd pane after the use selects a image in the same "Main" stage.
Not looking for someone to code a program just point me in the right direction to what im trying to do. My searching skills are failing, either im not explaining it right or theres another word for this.
Edit:
This is my idea of how i want it to work. Now that i look at it using a border pane probably makes since, But im still stuck with, How can I launch each section of the border at a different time, i.e when something is clicked.
I would go about it by having 3 panes side by side and just blank for the first FXML file you load in. I would then have another FXML file with the same layout that contains what you want to show up in those panes.
Then with that, you can have the controller on request (like when a user hits submit or however you are wanting these to show up) grab the content inside of the pane on the second FXML file by ID and load it into the pane.
I've done something similar with changing anchor panes and keeping the toolbar from the original so I can add more on this when I get home and should be able to supply some code that is modified to fit your issue.
Edit 1: Sorry I was in a hurry to submit that dive I had to go but I am on mobile now so I can edit but not able to add a lot, just felt I needed to say, there are different options for what you can use to do this which is why I just said a pane instead of anything specific. Just wanted to submit something so you can start looking in the right direction till I am able to update.
Edit 2: Alright now that I am home I tried this out and was able to get this working. Here is how I did it.
So I had two FXML files. One with the 3 areas that you have your items, however, only the box that you want to show when it starts is shown. Each area is enclosed by an AnchorPane. I used the AnchorPane as a container so I can swap out what is inside of it. I then had a second FXML file that had all of the boxes you want to show all of which enclosed in AnchorPanes. Here are pictures explaining what I mean.
I have the first pane named initial.fxml and the second named grabfrom.fxml. For the pane names, I just have it as pane1, pane2, and pane3. Lastly, the methods I have are show2() and show3() and call them from the FXML when the respective buttons are clicked inside of the AnchorePanes.
With initial, I just load that up as normal from the start method in my main class and that is all that is needed to be done with that. We only had it so we could display something that does not have the boxes showing before needed.
Now for the important part
With what I have in show2(), which is called when the button inside of the first pane (which is there from the start) is pressed.
public void show2() throws IOException{
AnchorPane toSetPane2=(AnchorPane) FXMLLoader.load(getClass().getResource("grabfrom.fxml"));
toSetPane2=(AnchorPane) toSetPane2.lookup("#pane2");
pane2.getChildren().setAll(toSetPane2);
}
What this is doing is loading the grabfrom.fxml into a temp var that we cast to an anchor pane. (Do note that this works since as you can see in the screenshot the whole FXML file is an anchor pane. If you're not using it that way you can take out the casting and cast to something you are using or not even cast depending on what it is.)
It then set the var we just made to just the AnchorPane we need, which is the second one since that's the one we are adding. It does this with the .lookup("#ID"); method to get just the pane we need.
Lastly, it sets everything inside of the current pane2 to toSetPane2.
This could all be compressed down into one line, however, I have left it as is for easier reading.
You should be able to use this method of loading in a portion of your application for loading in the third one and for that matter any other parts you want to in any situation.
Edit 3:
Also as #Swatarianess had said, there are stackpanes, this method will work with anything that you can set an ID to so they would work just as well. I used AnchorPanes because I have done a fair bit with them and had some code I could recycle whilst making a test for it so it was easier. All you would do if you were using those though is just cast to a StackPane instead of an AnchorPane like this:
public void show2() throws IOException{
StackPane toSetPane2=(StackPane) FXMLLoader.load(getClass().getResource("grabfrom.fxml"));
toSetPane2=(StackPane) toSetPane2.lookup("#pane2");
pane2.getChildren().setAll(toSetPane2);
}
The transition between panes could be done with a stackpane.
What is meant by the word "Node" within context of JavaFx/FXML? If I search for this question, all I find are people using the term discussing something else, but no explanation. For example, this answer to the question: How do I open the JavaFX FileChooser from a controller class?:
For any node in your scene (for example, the root node; but any node
you have injected with #FXML will do), do
chooser.showOpenDialog(node.getScene().getWindow());
What would the node be, and how for that matter would I "inject it with #FXML"?
Before you understand what a Node is, it is also important to first of all understand what a Scene Graph is in JavaFX.
JavaFX applications consist of a Stage and a Scene or several scenes. The stage being the top-level container of your application. The Scene(s) on the other hand, contains all the content (User Interface elements) of your application (if your application has only one "page") or the content of one of the "pages" of your application, and exists in/on a stage. (To be clear here, by page I mean what the user interacts with, for instance, a login page.)
The Scene Graph is a graphical illustration of how all the stuff in your scene are laid out. This graph is represented in the form of a tree data structure.
A Node is an item in the scene graph.
I think this image explains this clearly.
Example of a Node is a Control, which is anything that can be manipulated by the user E.g., TextField, Button, TextArea
Photo Credit
A Node is the abstract superclass of the graphical elements the scenegraph are "made of".
Some examples of classes inheriting from Node:
TextField
AnchorPane
Canvas
Group
VBox
Button
Label
...
Injecting a Node with the FXMLLoader id done this way:
Create a field in the controller associated with the fxml with a appropriate type (i.e. any type the element you want to inject can be assigned to). This field must be accessible by the FXMLLoader which means it has to be public or annotated with the #FXML annotation.
Add the id attribute from the fxml namespace (most likely using the prefix fx) to the element in the fxml file that should be injected. The value of that attribute is the name of the field in the controller.
Example
fxml
....
<TextField fx:id="myTextField" ....>
....
Controller
....
#FXML
private TextField myTextField;
....
The FXMLLoader uses this information to assign the object it creates for that fxml element to the field before the controller's initialize method is called.
A full example/extendend tutorial including injection can be can be found here: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/javafx/fxml-tutorial/fxml_tutorial_intermediate.htm#JFXMG153
This is an old question, but it is answered abstractly. "What is a node?" and "in order to understand what is a node you must first understand what is a scene-graph". A node is the highest level abstract class from which nearly all that is graphically displayed in a GUI, is derived. Its super class is Object. In the image displayed by Ojonugwa Ochalifu there is one stage that contains one scene which contains several nodes that contain other nodes. The image shown of a GUI begs the question "How is this created?".
For general understanding here are the JavaDocs for Stage, Scene, and EventTarget.
In javafx doc Stage https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/javafx/api/javafx/stage/Stage.html
and Scene https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/javafx/api/javafx/scene/Scene.html
Both Stage and Scene inherit the same interface, EventTarget as well as Pane, and Control and a long list of classes. https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/javafx/api/javafx/event/EventTarget.html
I also recommend looking at the source code for classes that you are using. It will help provide insight into the behavior of classes that inherit from node. For example, JavaFX documentation mentions that a bug could exist when displaying an Image. Ensuring that this bug does not occur in a UI requires thorough testing. Other insight such as how to access the graph with multi-threaded techniques requires understanding the "how" and "What" a class uses.
The Scene-Graph is contained by the Stage and is comprised of any subclass of node. Some nodes such as Panes may have children. A child is still a node. Children are contained in a structure which may contain other nodes that may also have children. Thus the graph is much like a multi-dimensional array or non-binary tree. It's also important to understand that: The Scene-Graph is a Non-Directional Graph meaning that a child can access its parent; a child can have only one parent; but can have an unlimited number of children. The getParent() method provides access to a nodes parent.
Image of scene-graph
Note that essentially the graph structure is a multi-dimensional array. Or in other words, an array that may contain either other arrays of items that inherit from Node, or Nodes such as ImageViews, Buttons, etc. Array like Nodes are Panes, Canvas's etc... which may contain other nodes.
This is important to understand when it comes to test automation & reliably assuring that a UI is displaying what it should show.
A good book to get started with JavaFX is "Learn JavaFX 8" by Kishori Sharan. https://www.amazon.com/Learn-JavaFX-Building-Experience-Interfaces/dp/148421143X/ref=asc_df_148421143X/?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid={creative}&hvpos={adposition}&hvnetw=o&hvrand={random}&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl={devicemodel}&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584413736126928&psc=1
I am currently working on some GUI using JavaFX and JavaFX Scene Builder. I've met an issue and it is not that easy to find a solution for it (at least for me). I'd would like to get something like this:
http://i.imgur.com/oN4mIVl.png
And the point is that after click on the TreeItem "Sample" only the right side of the window will reload. I would like to do it also using fxml files.
I know that I can include one fxml in another but that's not the solution. There might be a lot of TreeItems, and every TreeItem should load another pane configured by another FXML.
Can you guys at least steer me on the good track, please?
(Sorry the image is in link but I do not have 10 reps yet as I'm new here...)
Have you tried to load the node and setting the node on the right?
Node root = FXMLLoader.load(getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("fxml/yourfxml.fxml"));
borderPane.setRight(root);
I have created a Node (AnchorPane) in the JavaFX scene builder and was wondering how to clone it.
I saw Duplicate/Clone Node in JavaFX 2.0 but I need to clone the Node without re-loading the fxml.
Is there any way to achieve this in JavaFX 2?
You can place the component that needs to be duplicated in a separate .fxml file.
Then you can load the separate file as many times as needed adding the nodes to the appropriate root in the main scene.
Additionally you can edit an <fx:include source="..."/> element to the main .fxml file and include the separate .fxml file. You can then still work with it in the JavaFX Builder.
There is no such node duplication function in the JavaFX platform, you will need to write your own which introspects on the properties of the node you are interested in cloning and creates a new node with the required properties.
Using an fxml template for the node definition is probably the easiest way to do this for node's with static initialization properties - but then, as you state in your question, you don't want to use fxml for this, so you'll have to code your cloning logic in Java.
After having used Swing for the past 3 years for School and such, I decided to give JavaFX a try and play around with it. With the new Scene Builder and NetBeans 7.2, it's been a blast so far.
The next step I'd like to do is convert a small project of mine into JavaFX. One of the issue however is that project uses a MVC Architecture. Basically I have a JFrame with a Toolbar, a JMenuBar, plus an empty JPanel.
The JPanel is used to display a View which is a JPanel built the using GUI Builder of NetBeans. This allows me to navigate to different view and each view is an independent component.
My question is as followed: Is there any ways to display a Scene inside a Scene? Or achieve similar result as a JPanel inside a JPanel, or a User Control inside a User Control (for the .Net folks)
Basically, I'd like to display another scene in the Gray area of the picture.
I had the same reaction when I came in: you want a Node (which feels wrong on a first glance). The Node is basically the root component that can contain itself (much like a JPanel) and though you can change out scenes on your stage if you're looking for the "root component" it will extend Node for the MVC basics.
http://docs.oracle.com/javafx/2/api/javafx/scene/Node.html
I'm sure you could get fancy and swap out scenes on your stage (which is totally viable) but from my Swing background the Node behaved more naturally. Caviat: I find I write a bit more framework and abstractions to make it work for me (wrapped classes with Groups etc...) but it definitely does the trick.
I hope to find a better way, for my "Module" based project I initially used Scenes, but found it completely restricting. The Nodes allow for much more dynamic content.
Best of luck.
edit: reading the doc after answering I really should say "Parent" but the direct subclasses of Node are all useful as containers)