Java FX related to Swing

[Alan Dickinson]

Hello Jim Clarke, Jim Connors & Eric J. Bruno,

How does Java FX programming model differ from Swing?

Can you mix and match Swing and Java FX components?

Is Java FX multi-threaded or do you have a similar issue of the event-dispatch thread?

Best regards,

Alan Dickinson

[Jim Clarke]

JavaFX has 3 platform profiles, Desktop, Mobile, and TV. Swing only is supported on the Desktop.

JavaFX supports JavaFX versions of several of Swing components contained in the javafx.ext.Swing package.
Ready made components are available for SwingButton(JButton), SwingCheckBox(JCheckBox),
SwingComboBox(JComboBox), SwingIcon(Icon), SwingLabel(JLabel), SwingList(JList),
SwingRadioButton(JRadioButton), SwingScrollPane(JScrollPane), SwingSlider(JSlider),
SwingTetField( JTextField ), and SwingToggleButton(JToggleButton).

You can also create your own javafx Swing classes by either wrapping the JComponent using
the javafx.ext.swing.SwingComponent.wrap() function as in:

var myComponent = SwingComponent.wrap(myJComponent);

Another way is to have your JavaFX class extend SwingComponent and implement
the abstract funciton, protected abstract createJComponent() : javax.swing.JComponent.

Personally, I try to shy away from the Swing classes and use the javafx.scene.control classes. That way my application
can run on all three platforms.

[Jim Clarke]

JavaFX is single threaded similar to Swing and you can only update JavaFX objects
on the main JavaFX thread. In the JavaFX language there is no support for creating
threads or doing synchronization semantics.

Usually, the only reason you have to get on to the main JavaFX thread is you
have java code that is running in its own thread and you need to communicate
back to the JavaFX environment.

From java, there is a class:

import com.sun.javafx.runtime.Entry;

...
        Entry.deferAction(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                // do javafx update here.
                listener.callback(msg);
            }
        });

If you want to do something like the Swing invokeLater call from JavaFX,
there is a function in javafx.lang.FX called deferAction. It works like this:

FX.deferAction( function () : Void {
        // do something on main thread.
    }
)

;

If you want to do an asynchronous task you need to use the javafx.async classes. I have done a write up
on this at my blog: http://blogs.sun.com/clarkeman/