[KeyboardKowboy]

I began hearing about JavaFX for over a year now, thought it sounded compelling at first, and then lost interest. I just recently decided to quickly view some tutorials on it's uses and best practices. I have not dove too deep into JavaFX just yet, I'd hate to spend the time learning it if it isn't something that is practical enough to use.

My question is for all of you who have used it, are actively using it, or at least have some experience with it. What do you use JavaFX for? Can it be harnessed to do more than just "pretty up" an application?

According to Sun, as long as the machine is running one of the more recent JRE's, distribution isn't a problem. Is this true?

Thanks for your time all!

[KeyboardKowboy]

No one's used JavaFX or have any comments on using it?

[Programmist]

I think the lack of responses is partly because it's still really new and, as I mentioned in another post, Flex has a lot of the RIA market at the moment. You're also posting in a Java help forum, so probably most of the people here don't even know what JavaFX (jfx from here on) is. jfx can be used for more than just RIA (desktop apps), but I think that is the sweet spot. I'm not a UI developer, so I've only used jfx in a demo cpacity, so my technical expertise is of limited value. But I will say that the declarative nature of it is nice. If you're tageting UI development I'd say definitely spend some time with it, but don't spend all of your time with it. Be sure to look at competing technologies as well. The future of jfx is still slightly iffy since Oracle took over. One would hope that they'd keep it alive given the vast amount of work that went into and the solid product that it is. But I haven't heard anything on the subject, so who knows. If jfx takes off and proves to be at least as good as competing products then I fully expect it to dominate. Why? Well, it's free for one thing and for another it allows you to get RIA/UI capabilities from your existing Java stack. Give it a try.

[crazyjugglerdrummer]

its competing with flash and silverlight at the moment, and flash has a HUGE share of the ria market. Learn whatever you like though, it can't hurt.

[KeyboardKowboy]

Thanks for the replies. I'm glad to see that you consider JFX to still be in it's infancy. I was hoping I hadn't 'missed the bus'. I have seen some pretty wild examples of JFX and it seems pretty powerful. I've started playing around with it and can admit that I see a lot of potential in it. Gotta love the open source aspect to it as well. I definitely think this will be something worth looking into further.

Does anyone know if it's possible to incorporate a JFX script into an already existing java application? I haven't read any documentation so far that's said no, but I also haven't seen any documentation or examples that said yes. Thanks everyone.

[Programmist]

Well, it's not open source yet. Sun had planned to open source it, but with Oracle at the helm, no one really knows what they'll do just yet.

This might be of interest to you
http://blogs.sun.com...o_use_javafx_in

[KeyboardKowboy]

Quote

This might be of interest to you
http://blogs.sun.com...o_use_javafx_in

Awesome. Good find! I appreciate it.

[skyhawk133]

Moving this to our "Java Programmers" forum.

[iwanluijks]

Well to me JavaFX doesn't actually mean a lot. Let me explain...

Flash has an enormous market share and so because of that Flex is able to be used almost always too, so for feature-rich applications there's already a kind of defacto standard in the web world.

When Silverlight entered the scene, not much was likely to be changed, except that Microsoft has a very good marketing strategie and were able to still get Silverlight to the user and developer; also let's not forget the very clean interaction it has with .NET.

Now about JavaFX. Released too early and too less featured to be able to really compete with Flash/Flex and Silverlight. Now that's not the only thing: Sun never had a great marketing team meaning the company mostly had great innovations but troubles getting them to the user/developer.
Also JavaFX lacks a good interoperability scheme between itself and Java.

Why use a technology that was already crushed (maybe a bit too harsh) when it came from the ground?

[KeyboardKowboy]

I do agree with you in that Sun has never been that great at exposing new technologies to developers, which may be why JavaFX has had a slow start. I have however uncovered some interesting, and possibly quite powerful, functions that JavaFX allows that I have not seen in the others. For example... you can interject CSS into the JavaFX classes, which will allow you to form the Scene Content utilizing CSS standards. I've also seen a JavaFX script, running as an applet, setup as a widget which allows you to "pull" the applet off of the web browser and drop it onto your desktop. I found that to be somewhat important seeing as how Windows 7 for example is pushing widget development for the desktop (the side bar is dead). Just thought I'd stir the pot a bit with this information.. I don't believe these are possible with Flash/Flex/Silverlight?

[Programmist]

iwanluijks, on 29 May, 2009 - 08:00 AM, said:

Well to me JavaFX doesn't actually mean a lot. Let me explain...

You make some good points. Sun marketing was a nightmare and yes jfx was released much earlier than it should have been (they rushed it to have it ready for JavaOne last year). It's probably not a super-mature language yet. However, there is one flaw in your reasoning. Just because something is not the best now does not condemn it to a short life, ending in failure. Remember in 1995 when C/C++ was the "defacto standard" general purpose programming language and Java was this quirky immature little upstart? If jfx is allowed to continue (by Oracle), is improved so that it can compete, and is free open sourced, then I fully expect it to whomp all propretary RIA frameworks (in time). Now, those are three big ifs. But all we need is for Oracle to put its weight behind jfx and they all become a lot more likely. If you can get a fantastic FOS RIA capability from your existing Java stack, who would pay Adobe or Microsoft?

[KeyboardKowboy]

Quote

If you can get a fantastic FOS RIA capability from your existing Java stack, who would pay Adobe or Microsoft?

Amen to that!

[Programmist]

FWIW, this guy thinks JavaFX will be open sourced during JavaOne 2009. Although he's got a java.net blog, I don't think he's a Sun employee though, so not sure hoe creditable his opinion is. Interesting read though.

[KeyboardKowboy]

Good find. Thanks for that information. I agree with the author that if Sun waits until 2010 or 2011 to fully open source JavaFX, it will be too late. Newer versions of Flash/Silverlight will be out and many developers may completely choose to drop JavaFX and move on because Sun sat on it too long. I hope this isn't the case... I love competition and love open source to continue to be a contender.

I wish I personally knew when they would be doing this, if they do it, so that I can decide whether learning JavaFX is worth my time! (My original post question!)

Thanks again Programmist...

[Programmist]

Keep your eye on this blog for JavaFX dwevelopments at JavaOne 2009. They've already announced Oracle's intention to keep JavaFX and open source it. Also new version 1.2 was released.
http://blogs.sun.com/theplanetarium/