Lib-FXML

Intention

The Lib-FXML library simplifies the loading of JavaFX relevant files (model,
view, controller, .fxml, .css, .properties) and enables a standardized handling
of the data flow to (in, from) the gui.

Inspired by Adam Bien‘s library afterburner.fx, which unfortunately hasn’t been
developed since 2015, the library Lib-FXML simplifies the daily developer tasks
in context from the aboved mentioned two main points:

• Simplifying the loading of JavaFX relevant files and
• offering a standardized data flow to (in, from) the gui.

Image: Overview Lib-FXML

Content

• Demo ‘All in Ones’
  • Intention
    General features
    Extended features
    Additional features
  • Demo files
    DemoAllInOnes.java
    DemoAllInOnesController.java
    DemoAllInOnesEntity.java
    DemoAllInOnesSqlEntityProvider.java
    demoallinones.css
    demoallinones.fxml
    demoallinones.properties
    DemoInfoWriter.java
    DemoAllInOnesInfoWriter.java
    DemoAllInOnesPreferencesWriter.java
  • How it works
    Usage from the singleton class ‘FXMLAction’
    Usage from the abstract class ‘FXMLController’
    Usage from the class ‘FXMLModel’
    Usage from the class ‘FXMLView’
    Usage from the interface ‘FXMLModelable’
    Usage from the interface ‘FXMLRegisterable’
• JavaDoc
• Download
• Requirements
• Installation
• Contribution
• License
• Autor
• Contact

" class="reference-link">Demo ‘All in Ones’

Image: Demo ‘All in Ones’

" class="reference-link">Intention

This demo wants to show, explain how to integrate the various features from the library Lib-FXML into a demo application:

" class="reference-link">General features

• How to use the abstract class FXMLController as a convention to managed the presentation from the FXMLModel data in a concrete implementation from FXMLController.
• How to use the class FXMLModel as a lightweight version from an entity to manage the dataflow to (in, from) the controller.
• How to use the class FXMLView to load the gui declaration (.fxml file) and map it (initialization from the gui) to a controller.

" class="reference-link">Extended features

• How to use the singleton FXMLAction to register (handle) lambda methods such like Consumer, Function and Supplier.
• (TODO) How to use the class FXMLModel to add additional methods which extend the original entity behavior. For example #isUpdatedProperty().
• How to use the interface FXMLRegisterable as a convention which allowes developers to register for example action methods.
• How to use the interface FXMLModelable as a convention to create a lightweight version from an entity.

" class="reference-link">Additional features

• How to implement a singleton instance with Optional in FXMLAction and access the class behaviours with the static method #getDefault().
• How to use the JavaFX default binding features to automatically update the FXMLModel (entity) data to (in, from) the controller.
• How to use the JavaFX standard class FXMLLoader in FXMLView to load .fxml, .css, .properties files and assoziate them with a controller.
• How to style with CSS different JavaFX components such like AnchorPane, Button, TextField, ScrollPane.
• How to use the library ‘Lib-Logger’ (https://github.com/Naoghuman/lib-logger) to log messages easily to a log-file.

" class="reference-link">Demo files

In this section all files are listed which are involved into this demo. Also their main purpose are explained:

" class="reference-link">DemoAllInOnes.java

• Shows how to start a JavaFX application :) .
• Shows how to create an instance from the class FXMLView to show then the gui with ‘view.getRoot().orElse(new AnchorPane)’ in the demo application.
• Shows how the interface FXMLRegisterable can be used as a convention to register the action method from this class.

" class="reference-link">DemoAllInOnesController.java

• Shows how the developer can access the URL from the .fxml file.
• Shows how the developer can access the optional ResourceBundle if defined.
• Shows how to use the classes ‘DemoInfoWriter’, ‘DemoAllInOnesInfoWriter’ and ‘DemoAllInOnesPreferencesWriter’ to write the demo infos.
• Shows how to use the overriden method FXMLController#configure(FXMLModel) to bind the data from the FXMLModel to the gui components.
• Shows how the interface FXMLRegisterable can be used as a convention to register the various action methods from this controller.
• Shows how to use the different FXMLAction#handle(...) methods to fit the necessities from this controller.

" class="reference-link">DemoAllInOnesEntity.java

• Shows how to create a simple POJO with JavaFX properties (LongProperty and StringProperty).
• Shows the usage from JavaFX properties to bind data which means we don’t need to be aware that the data is up-to-date :).
• Shows how to use the interface FXMLModelable which allowed to configure a FXMLModel with selected data properties from the entity.

" class="reference-link">DemoAllInOnesSqlEntityProvider.java

• Shows how to define a simple sql entity provider which simulates the crud operations for an entity to (from) a database.
• Shows how to use the interface FXMLRegisterable as a convention to register the action methods from this class.
• Shows how to use the class FXMLAction to register the (crud) action methods via lambda injection.

" class="reference-link">demoallinones.css

• Shows how to create a CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) file which styles will be then shown in the demo application.
• Shows how to style with CSS different JavaFX components such like AnchorPane, Button, TextField, ScrollPane.

" class="reference-link">demoallinones.fxml

• Shows how to define a declaration from the demo gui in form from a special JavaFX XML file so called FXML.
• Shows how then the initialization will be done during the loading and mapping from the .fxml file with the corresponding controller.
  See FXMLView#initializeFXMLLoader(FXMLModel) for more informations.

" class="reference-link">demoallinones.properties

• Shows how to create a .properties file which can contains different key/value String pairs. Over the key the value can retrieved then in the application.
• An alternative is the useage from my Library Lib-I18N (https://github.com/Naoghuman/lib-i18n), which allowed multilingualism depending from an actual Locale.

The next files are used to create the demo informations:

" class="reference-link">DemoInfoWriter.java

• The abstract class ‘DemoInfoWriter’ offers various functions for writing different styled informations into a VBox.
• For example: Styled text (size, FontPosture), Buttons, Separators and TextFields.

" class="reference-link">DemoAllInOnesInfoWriter.java

• A concrete implementation from the abstract class ‘DemoInfoWriter’ for this demo.
• All informations about the features from the library Lib-FXML and the demo :) in the left side from the demo are written with this class.

" class="reference-link">DemoAllInOnesPreferencesWriter.java

• Another concrete implementation from the abstract class ‘DemoInfoWriter’.
• With this class the interactive area on the right side in the demo application is written.

" class="reference-link">How it works

This section shows how to use the different classes and interfaces from the Lib-FXML api:

" class="reference-link">Usage from the singleton class ‘FXMLAction’

• Used in ‘DemoAllInOnes’, ‘DemoAllInOnesController’, ‘DemoAllInOnesInfoWriter’ and ‘DemoAllInOnesSqlEntityProvider’.
• Answers the question how to implement a singleton instance with Optional in FXMLAction and access the class behaviours with the static method #getDefault().
• Answers the question how to register (handle) action methods from type Consumer<FXMLModel>, EventHandler<ActionEvent> and Function.
• Answers also the question how to register (handle) action methods from type EventHandler.

" class="reference-link">Usage from the abstract class ‘FXMLController’

• Used in ‘DemoAllInOnesController’.
• Used in FXMLView.
• Answers the question how to use the abstract class as a convention to managed the presentation from the FXMLModel data in a concrete controller.
• Answers the question how the controller (it’s attributs) is the initialization from the declaration in the .fxml file.

" class="reference-link">Usage from the class ‘FXMLModel’

• Used in ‘DemoAllInOnes’, ‘DemoAllInOnesController’, ‘DemoAllInOnesEntity’ and ‘DemoAllInOnesSqlEntityProvider’.
• Used in FXMLAction, FXMLController, FXMLModelable and FXMLView.
• Answers the question how to use the model to managed the dataflow to (in, from) the gui.
• Answers the question how the FXMLModel will be initialized in the entity ‘DemoAllInOnesEntity’ with the convention methods from the interface FXMLModelable.
• Answers the question how to add some additional data methods to extend the behavior from the original entity.

" class="reference-link">Usage from the class ‘FXMLView’

• Used in ‘DemoAllInOnes’.
• Answers the question how to use the class FXMLView to load the gui declaration (.fxml file) and map it (initialization from the gui) to a controller.
• Answers the question how to use the JavaFX standard class FXMLLoader in FXMLView to load .fxml, .css, .properties files and assoziate them with a controller.

" class="reference-link">Usage from the interface ‘FXMLModelable’

• Used in ‘DemoAllInOnesEntity’.
• Answers the question how to use the interface as a convention to initialize a FXMLModel with different entity properties.

" class="reference-link">Usage from the interface ‘FXMLRegisterable’

• Used in ‘DemoAllInOnes’, ‘DemoAllInOnesController’ and ‘DemoAllInOnesSqlEntityProvider’.
• Answers the question how to use the interface as a convention to register different action methods via lambda injection.

" class="reference-link">JavaDoc

The JavaDoc from the library Lib-FXML can be explored here: JavaDoc Lib-FXML (in work)

Image: JavaDoc Lib-FXML v0.3.0-PRERELEASE

" class="reference-link">Download

Current version is 0.3.0-PRERELEASE. Main points in this release are:

• Extend the api with exciting features like FXMLAction, FXMLModel.
• Create an extended demo application with all features from the library.

Download:

• Release v0.3.0-PRERELEASE (04.23.2019 / MM.dd.yyyy)

An overview about all existings releases can be found here:

• Overview from all releases in Lib-FXML.

" class="reference-link">Requirements

• On your system you need JRE 8 or JDK 8 installed.
• The library lib-fxml-0.3.0-PRERELEASE.

In the library following dependencies are registered:

• The library lib-logger-0.6.0.jar.
  • Included in Lib-Logger is the library log4j-api-2.10.0.jar.
  • Included is Lib-Logger is the library log4j-core-2.10.0.jar.

" class="reference-link">Installation

• If not installed download the JRE 8 or the JDK 8.
  • Optional: To work better with FXML files in a JavaFX application
    download the JavaFX Scene Builder under ‘Additional Resources’.
• Choose your preferred IDE (e.g. NetBeans, Eclipse or IntelliJ IDEA) for development.
• Download or clone Lib-FXML.
• Download or clone Lib-Logger.
• Open the projects in your IDE and run them.

" class="reference-link">Contribution

• If you find a Bug I will be glad if you could report an Issue.
• If you want to contribute to the project plz fork the project and do a Pull Request.

" class="reference-link">License

The project Lib-FXML is licensed under General Public License 3.0.

" class="reference-link">Autor

The project Lib-FXML is maintained by me, Naoghuman (Peter Rogge). See Contact.

" class="reference-link">Contact

You can reach me under peter.rogge@yahoo.de.