Java GUI Libraries Overview

Introduction

• Graphical User Interface (GUI) is a user-friendly way to interact with an application.
• GUI provides a distinctive “look-and-feel” to applications.
• GUI components are objects that enable user interaction through input methods like mouse, keyboard, touch, and voice.

Evolution of Java's GUI Libraries

• Java's original GUI library was the Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT), suitable for simple GUI development.
• Swing, introduced in Java SE 1.2, replaced AWT, offering enhanced robustness, versatility, and flexibility.
• Swing became the primary Java GUI technology for years and remains part of Java, widely used for desktop GUI applications.
• JavaFX, a completely new GUI platform, has replaced Swing as the future of Java's GUI, graphics, and multimedia API.

JavaFX Overview

• JavaFX is an open-source, Java-based framework for developing rich client applications.
• It incorporates modern GUI technologies to facilitate the creation of sophisticated GUI applications.
• Initially known as F3 (Form Follows Function) and developed by Chris Oliver at SeeBeyond, it was a Java scripting language for GUI development.
• F3 offered declarative syntax, static typing, type inference, data binding, animation, 2D graphics, and Swing components.

JavaFX Development and Releases

• Sun Microsystems acquired SeeBeyond and renamed F3 to JavaFX in 2007, positioning it as a competitor to technologies like Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight.
• Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems in 2010 and open-sourced JavaFX in 2013.
• The first version of JavaFX (JavaFX 1.0) was released in the fourth quarter of 2008.
• Developers initially used JavaFX Script, which compiled to Java bytecode, enabling JavaFX apps to run on the Java Virtual Machine.

JavaFX 2.0 and Beyond

• Starting with version 2.0 in 2011, JavaFX was reimplemented as Java libraries directly usable in Java apps.
• Version numbers transitioned from 2.2 to 8.0, and from Java 8 onwards, Java SE and JavaFX versions aligned.
• JavaFX was removed from the Java SE runtime library with the release of Java SE 11.
• JavaFX leverages Java features like multithreading, generics, and lambda expressions.
• Developers can use various Java IDEs like IntelliJ IDEA, NetBeans, or Eclipse to develop, compile, run, debug, and package JavaFX applications.

Key Features of JavaFX

• JavaFX supports data binding through its libraries.
• It offers two ways to build a user interface (UI): Java code and FXML.
  • FXML is an XML-based markup language for declarative UI definition.
  • Scene Builder, provided by Gluon, is a visual editor for FXML.
• JavaFX provides extensive multimedia support, such as audio and video playback.
• It enables embedding web content within applications.
• JavaFX offers built-in support for effects and animations, crucial for gaming applications.
• Multitouch support is provided for touch-enabled devices like tablets and smartphones.
• JavaFX has built-in 2D, 3D, animation support, and video and audio playback.

Advantages of JavaFX over Swing

• JavaFX is easier to use, providing a single API for GUI, graphics, and multimedia (images, animation, audio, and video), while Swing requires separate APIs for graphics and multimedia.
• JavaFX Scene Builder offers consistent code generation across various IDEs, unlike Swing's IDE-specific code.
• JavaFX provides complete control over GUI look-and-feel using CSS, the same technology used for styling web pages.
• JavaFX has enhanced threading support, crucial for optimal performance on multi-core systems.
• JavaFX utilizes the GPU for hardware-accelerated rendering.

JavaFX Architecture and Capabilities

• JavaFX supports transformations for positioning and reorienting components and animations for property changes over time.
• Animations can be easily implemented using the javafx.animation APIs and declarative methods like XML documentation.
• The top layer of the JavaFX architecture provides a comprehensive set of Java public APIs for rich client application development.
• These APIs offer flexibility and power for constructing rich client applications.
• The JavaFX platform integrates the best of the Java platform with immersive media functionality, providing an intuitive and comprehensive development environment.
• Java API features for JavaFX include: leveraging powerful Java features (generics, annotations, multithreading, Lambda Expressions), simplifying usage for Web developers through otherJVM-based languages (Groovy, JavaScript), and improvements based on user feedback for APIs like Layout and Media.

JavaFX Graphics System

• The JavaFX Graphics System is an implementation detail beneath the JavaFX scene graph layer, supporting both 2D and 3D scene graphs.
• It provides software rendering when hardware acceleration is insufficient.
• The JavaFX platform employs two graphics accelerated pipelines:
  • Prism: handles render jobs, potentially on hardware or software renderers (including 3D), responsible for rasterization and rendering JavaFX Scenes.
  • Quantum Toolkit: connects Prism and Glass Windowing Toolkit, making them accessible to the JavaFX layer. It manages threading rules for rendering and event handling.

Glass Windowing Toolkit

• The Glass Windowing Toolkit is the lowest level in the JavaFX graphics stack.
• Its primary responsibility is to provide native operating services like window, timer, and surface management.
• It serves as the platform-dependent layer connecting JavaFX to the native operating system.
• The Glass toolkit manages the event queue, Unlike AWT, which manages its own event queue, the Glass toolkit utilizes the native operating system's event queue for thread scheduling.
• The Glass toolkit runs on the same thread as the JavaFX application.

JavaFX Media Functionality

• JavaFX media functionality is accessible through the javafx.scene.media package.
• JavaFX supports both visual and audio media, including MP3, AIFF, and WAV audio files and FLV video files.
• JavaFX media functionality is provided as three components:
  • Media object: Represents a media file.
  • MediaPlayer: Plays a media file.
  • MediaView: A node for displaying media.
• The Media Engine component focuses on performance and stability, providing consistent behavior across platforms.

JavaFX Web Component

• The Web component is a JavaFX UI control based on Webkit, providing a Web viewer and browsing capabilities through its API.
• This Web Engine component utilizes WebKit, an open-source web browser engine supporting HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, DOM, and SVG.
• The Web component enables developers to implement the following features:
  • Render HTML content from local or remote URLs.
  • Support history and offer Back and Forward navigation.
  • Reload content.
  • Apply effects to the web component.
  • Edit HTML content.
  • Execute JavaScript commands.
  • Handle events.

JavaFX App Window Structure & Components

• A JavaFX app window comprises several parts:
  • Controls: GUI components like Labels (display text), TextFields (receive user input), Buttons (initiate actions), and more.
  • Stage: The window showcasing the JavaFX app's GUI, an instance of the Stage class (package javafx.stage).
  • Scene: The stage contains an active scene defining the GUI using a scene graph, a tree data structure of visual elements like GUI controls, shapes, images, videos, text, etc. The scene is an instance of the Scene class (package javafx.scene).

Nodes and Layout Containers

• Each visual element within the scene graph is a node, an instance of a subclass of the Node class (package javafx.scene), defining common attributes and behaviors.
• Nodes, except for the root node in the scene graph, have one parent.
• Nodes can have transforms (moving, rotating, scaling), opacity (transparency levels), effects (drop shadows, blurs, reflection, lighting), etc.
• Nodes with children are typically layout containers (HBox, VBox, GridPane, etc.) arranging child nodes in the scene.
• These layout containers arrange a combination of controls and potentially other layout containers in more complex GUIs.

Event Handler and Controller Class

• User interactions with controls (clicking a Button, typing in a TextField) generate events.
• Event handling involves responding to these events by specifying actions triggered by user interactions.
• An event handler is a method reacting to user interaction. In FXML GUIs, event handlers are defined in a controller class.

Additional Resources

• Install Java JDK 22 on Windows 10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwGqikr8N5s&t=3s
• Download JavaFX 22.0.2 (LTS): https://openjfx.io/
• Install IntelliJ for JavaFX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBqoGAptvkI
• Install Apache NetBeans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9rrNojWycw
• Setup JavaFX and JDK 22 on Netbeans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8seLHAYT6k&t=5s

This quiz explores the evolution and concepts of Java's Graphical User Interface (GUI) libraries, including AWT, Swing, and JavaFX. It covers the features and functionalities of each library, showcasing how they contribute to modern application development. Test your knowledge on the significance and transition between these technologies.