Java FX for Dummies

436 Pages·2016·4.8 MB·English

by  Lowe Doug.

JavaFX ®
by Doug Lowe
JavaF X® For Dummies®
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2014941051
ISBN 978-1-118-38534-0 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-41743-0 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-42166-6
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................. 1
About This Book ..............................................................................................1
Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................2
How This Book Is Organized ..........................................................................3
Part I: Getting Started with JavaFX ......................................................3
Part II: JavaFX Controls .........................................................................3
Part III: Enhancing Your Scenic Design ...............................................3
Part IV: Making Your Programs Come Alive .......................................4
Part V: The Part of Tens ........................................................................4
Icons Used in This Book .................................................................................4
Beyond the Book .............................................................................................5
Where to Go from Here ...................................................................................5
Part I: Getting Started with JavaFX ............................... 7
Chapter 1: Hello, JavaFX! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
What Is JavaFX? .............................................................................................10
Perusing the Possibilities of JavaFX ............................................................11
Looking at a Simple JavaFX Program ..........................................................13
Downloading and Installing JavaFX .............................................................16
Downloading JDK 8 ..............................................................................16
Installing JDK 8 .....................................................................................17
Setting the path ....................................................................................17
Developing the Click Me Program with Notepad ......................................19
Developing the Click Me Program with TextPad .......................................22
Using an IDE to Create the Click Me Program ............................................24
Chapter 2: Looking Closer at JavaFX Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Looking Again at the Click Me Program ......................................................31
Importing JavaFX Packages ..........................................................................34
Extending the Application Class ..................................................................34
Launching the Application ...........................................................................36
Overriding the start Method ........................................................................36
Creating a Button ...........................................................................................38
Handling an Action Event .............................................................................39
Creating a Layout Pane .................................................................................41
Making a Scene ...............................................................................................42
Setting the Stage ............................................................................................42
Examining the Click Counter Program ........................................................43
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Chapter 3: Handling Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Examining Events ..........................................................................................50
Handling Events .............................................................................................52
Implementing the EventHandler Interface .................................................53
Handling Events with Inner Classes ............................................................57
Handling Events with Anonymous Inner Classes ......................................59
Using Lambda Expressions to Handle Events ............................................61
Chapter 4: Setting the Stage and Scene Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Examining the Stage Class ............................................................................68
Examining the Scene Class ...........................................................................72
Switching Scenes ...........................................................................................73
Creating a Dialog Box ....................................................................................77
Creating a Confirmation Box ........................................................................82
Exit, Stage Right .............................................................................................85
Creating a Close button.......................................................................87
Handling the CloseRequest event ......................................................88
Putting it all together...........................................................................90
Chapter 5: Using Layout Panes to Arrange Your Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Working with Layout Panes ..........................................................................93
Introducing four JavaFX layout panes...............................................94
Creating layout panes..........................................................................95
Combining layout panes .....................................................................96
Using the HBox Layout .................................................................................96
Spacing Things Out .......................................................................................98
Adding Space with Margins ........................................................................100
Adding Space by Growing Nodes ..............................................................101
Using the VBox Layout ................................................................................104
Aligning Nodes in a Layout Pane ...............................................................106
Making Nodes the Same Width ..................................................................107
Using the Flow Layout .................................................................................108
Using the Border Layout .............................................................................113
Chapter 6: Getting Input from the User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Using Text Fields .........................................................................................118
Validating Numeric Data .............................................................................125
Using Check Boxes ......................................................................................126
Using Radio Buttons ....................................................................................129
Looking at a Pizza Order Application .......................................................131
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Part II: JavaFX Controls ............................................ 141
Chapter 7: Introducing the JavaFX Node Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
An Overview of JavaFX Packages ..............................................................144
The Node Class ............................................................................................146
The Parent Class ..........................................................................................148
The Region Class .........................................................................................150
The Control Class ........................................................................................153
Chapter 8: Choosing from a List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Using Choice Boxes .....................................................................................155
Creating a choice box ........................................................................157
Setting a default value .......................................................................158
Getting the selected item ..................................................................159
Working with Observable Lists ..................................................................160
Listening for Selection Changes .................................................................163
Using Combo Boxes .....................................................................................164
Creating combo boxes ......................................................................166
Getting the selected item ..................................................................167
Handling combo box events .............................................................168
Using List Views ...........................................................................................169
Creating a list view ............................................................................171
Getting the selected items ................................................................171
Using Tree Views .........................................................................................172
Building a tree ....................................................................................173
Creating a TreeView control.............................................................177
Getting the selected node .................................................................179
Looking at a complete program that uses a tree view ..................180
Chapter 9: Working with Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Creating the Data for a Table .....................................................................186
Creating a Read-Only Table ........................................................................191
Using the TableColumn class ...........................................................192
Using the TableView class ................................................................194
A Program That Creates a Read-Only Table ............................................196
Creating an Editable Table .........................................................................198
Adding table rows ..............................................................................198
Deleting table rows ............................................................................199
Editing table cells ...............................................................................200
A Program That Creates an Editable Table ..............................................202
Chapter 10: Making Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Introducing Classes for Creating Menus ...................................................209
Creating a Basic Menu Bar .........................................................................210
Creating Menus ............................................................................................211
Creating Menu Items ...................................................................................212
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Using Separators ..........................................................................................214
Using Action Listeners ................................................................................214
Creating Menus That Change .....................................................................216
Using Check and Radio Menu Items ..........................................................217
Creating Submenus .....................................................................................220
Creating Custom Menu Items .....................................................................221
Part III: Enhancing Your Scenic Design ...................... 225
Chapter 11: More about Layout Panes for Precise Scene Design . . . 227
Using the StackPane Layout .......................................................................228
Using the TilePane layout ...........................................................................232
Using the ScrollPane Layout ......................................................................236
Using the GridPane Layout .........................................................................241
Sketching out a plan ..........................................................................242
Creating a grid pane ..........................................................................243
Working with grid pane constraints ................................................245
Examining a grid pane example .......................................................248
Chapter 12: Skinning Your Application with CSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Using Default Style Sheets ..........................................................................256
Adding a Style Sheet to a Scene .................................................................257
Using Inline Styling ......................................................................................260
Creating a Style Sheet .................................................................................260
Using type selectors ..........................................................................261
Creating your own style class names ..............................................262
Using id selectors...............................................................................262
Using multiple selectors ...................................................................263
Specifying Style Properties .........................................................................263
Specifying font properties ................................................................264
Specifying background colors ..........................................................265
Specifying border properties ...........................................................266
Chapter 13: Drawing Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Introducing the Shape Class ......................................................................267
Creating lines ......................................................................................271
Creating rectangles ............................................................................272
Creating circles and ellipses.............................................................273
Creating arcs ......................................................................................273
Looking at the ShapeMaker program ..............................................274
Fancy Fills .....................................................................................................277
Drawing transparently ......................................................................277
Using a gradient fill ............................................................................278
Translating, Scaling, and Rotating .............................................................283
Drawing Text ................................................................................................284
Combining Shapes .......................................................................................286
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Chapter 14: Adding Special Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Introducing Special Effects .........................................................................289
Adding Shadows ..........................................................................................290
Creating Reflections ....................................................................................295
Making Things Blurry ..................................................................................296
Blooming and Glowing ................................................................................298
Gaining Perspective .....................................................................................300
Combining Effects ........................................................................................304
Part IV: Making Your Programs Come Alive ................ 307
Chapter 15: Using Properties to Create Dynamic Scenes . . . . . . . . . 309
Introducing JavaFX Properties ..................................................................309
Java API Properties .....................................................................................311
JavaFX Property Classes .............................................................................312
Creating a Read/Write Property ................................................................314
Creating a Read-Only Property ..................................................................316
Creating Properties More Efficiently .........................................................318
Using Property Events ................................................................................320
Binding Properties .......................................................................................323
Chapter 16: Using Images and Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Using Images ................................................................................................327
Using the Image class ........................................................................328
Using the ImageView class................................................................330
Viewing an Image example................................................................332
Playing Audio Files ......................................................................................334
Playing Video Files ......................................................................................337
Chapter 17: Animating Your Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Introducing JavaFX Animation ..................................................................341
Using Transition Classes ............................................................................342
Looking at a Transition Example ...............................................................348
Combining Transitions ...............................................................................351
Animating the Hard Way .............................................................................354
Improving the Ball Bouncer .......................................................................358
Chapter 18: Targeting Touch Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Introducing Gestures and Touch Events ..................................................365
Listening for Gestures .................................................................................368
Looking at an Example Program ................................................................370
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Part V: The Part of Tens ............................................ 375
Chapter 19: Ten More JavaFX Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
TitledPane .....................................................................................................377
Accordion .....................................................................................................379
ColorPicker ...................................................................................................380
DatePicker ....................................................................................................382
Hyperlink ......................................................................................................383
ProgressIndicator and ProgressBar ..........................................................383
Slider .............................................................................................................384
ScrollBar .......................................................................................................386
PasswordField ..............................................................................................387
Chapter 20: Ten Steps to Building a 3D World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Step One: Add a Perspective Camera .......................................................390
Step Two: Add a Cylinder ...........................................................................392
Step Three: Create a Material ....................................................................392
Step Four: Translate the Cylinder .............................................................393
Step Five: Add a Box ....................................................................................394
Step Six: Rotate the Box ..............................................................................395
Step Seven: Add a Sphere ...........................................................................397
Step Eight: Add a Mesh Object ..................................................................398
Step Nine: Animate the Objects .................................................................401
Step Ten: Add a Light Source .....................................................................401
Putting It All Together: The Complete 3D World Program .....................402
Index ....................................................................... 407