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Develop Expressive Content with the JavaFX Platform

JavaFX is an expressive rich client platform for creating and delivering rich Internet experiences across all the screens of your life.

The JavaFX platform gives you unparalleled freedom and flexibility to create expressive content across multiple screens, including mobile devices, desktops, televisions, and other consumer devices. It combines the best capabilities of the Java platform with comprehensive, immersive media functionality into an intuitive and comprehensive one-stop development environment.

The JavaFX platform empowers content developers by enabling them to focus on creativity instead of coding. It enables developers to create game-changing applications and engaging content with maximum market penetration opportunities.

What's New in JavaFX 1.2

JavaFX 1.2 contains many new features and quality improvements, such as UI controls and charts, persistent storage, faster startup time and other performance enhancements. For a detailed description of the new features in JavaFX 1.2, see JavaFX 1.2 Technology: Features and Enhancements.

Why the JavaFX Platform?

Developers are seeking the most efficient way of creating expressive content in applications that appear on desktops, on the Internet, and on mobile devices. They need to build high-fidelity GUI's that operate seamlessly on multiple Web browsers, operating systems and devices, without having to port or rewrite their applications for each screen. To meet this goal, developers need to work efficiently with team members such as graphics designers and media authors to exchange audio, video, and other rich media assets.

The JavaFX platform contains an essential set of tools and technologies that enable developers and designers to collaborate, create, and deploy applications with expressive content to browsers and desktops. Mobile application developers can use the JavaFX Mobile Emulator to preview applications for mobile devices using the JavaFX platform.

Key features of the JavaFX platform include:

• One-stop-shop expressive content design and development platform for all screens: Build engaging visual experiences across desktop, browser and mobile with a unified development and deployment model. The most powerful and pervasive platform in the industry is now the most expressive!
  
  
• Broadest market reach: Devices can open up to the broadest portfolio of content and services in the industry. Applications can be distributed across billions of devices with the power of Java. Mobile developers can efficiently target their content to as many mobile devices as possible.
  
  
• Broadest access to mobile device capabilities: JavaFX is the best way to bring expressive, feature-rich content to mobile devices. JavaFX Mobile brings expressiveness to Java ME, to combine the richest mobile experience with the most access to the underlying system and across the broadest number of devices.
  
  
• Lower implementation cost: Builds on your pre-existing investment in Java. Developers can use any Java library within a JavaFX application to build expressive interfaces. In mobile devices, JavaFX builds on top of the existing Java ME and Mobile Service Architecture (MSA) platforms to reduce implementation costs for device manufacturers.
  
  
• Designer-developer workflow: Dramatically shorten your production cycle for design and development by using JavaFX Production Suite to incorporate multimedia assets from popular third-party design tools.
  
  
• Powerful runtime: Leverage the extreme ubiquity, power, performance and security of the Java runtime.
  
  
• Break free from the browser: With Java SE 6 update 10 and beyond, you can drag-to-Install applications from your browser directly onto your desktop. This innovative feature is an industry first and providers developers with new channels to get their content to their target end users.

What Can I Build with JavaFX?

Here are some examples from the extensive JavaFX samples library to give you a taste of the JavaFX technology. Click each thumbnail to run the sample application and see a description that explains how it was built.

Interesting Photos This sample uses Web Services (Flickr's REST API) to retrieve photos from Flickr into a JavaFX application. Works for desktop and mobile deployment.

Path Animation This sample shows how to animate a shape along an arbitrary vector path. It has two scenarios: a car running on a racetrack and a boat sailing on waves. You only have to create an animated node for a visual asset and a path for the track along which it moves. Works for desktop and mobile deployment.

JavaFX MediaBox Player For Streaming Video This sample uses the JavaFX Media Component, a prefabricated video player that provides all of the standard video player controls you might need. Incorporating video in your application is as simple as creating an instance of this component, setting a few variables and including a link to your video source. Works for desktop deployment.

JavaFX Platform Components

The JavaFX platform architecture is shown in the following figure. Mouse over any box in the diagram for a description.

The JavaFX platform contains cross-platform and platform-specific runtime environments and support libraries. It includes a declarative language called JavaFX Script, as well as a set of development and design tools. This ensures that applications can provide a consistent look and feel across devices with diverse form factors and capabilities.

What Tools Are Available for the JavaFX Platform?

The available downloads are organized by the functionality you need to start developing with JavaFX. The diagram shows the download bundles, and the following sections contain a detailed description of what each download bundle includes.

Developer Bundle

The developer bundle contains the following tools.

• NetBeans IDE for JavaFX
  
  The JavaFX technology is integrated with the NetBeans IDE, a mature and powerful development environment that makes it easy to build, preview, and debug JavaFX applications.
  
  The NetBeans IDE for JavaFX is easy to learn, and it comes bundled with the JavaFX SDK and lots of sample applications.
  
  The NetBeans editor features a drag and drop palette to quickly add JavaFX statements, including transformations, effects and animation.
  
  
• JavaFX Plugin for NetBeans
  
  If you are already using the NetBeans IDE, you can add the JavaFX plugin to include support for developing JavaFX applications.

Designer Bundle

The designer bundle consists of JavaFX Production Suite, a single download that contains the following tools to enable designers to exchange visual assets with developers.

• JavaFX Plugin for Adobe Photoshop and JavaFX Plugin for Adobe Illustrator
  Plugins for Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator export graphic assets from creative designer tools to the JavaFX format.
  
  
  
  Developers can start building their applications based on mockups that the designer creates. As the visual design evolves, it is easy for the developer to incorporate changes in the artwork for the final version of their application.
  
  When designers save their graphic to the JavaFX format they can compare how the graphic will look in desktop and mobile applications, and they can view metrics that enable them to minimize resource demands on mobile devices.
  
  

• JavaFX Media Factory
  
  JavaFX Media Factory contains two separate tools:
  
  
  • SVG Converter: Convert SVG graphics into the JavaFX format
    
    
  • JavaFX Graphics Viewer: View graphic assets that were converted to the JavaFX format. JavaFX Graphics Viewer allows you to preview each graphic as it will appear in either desktop or mobile applications.

Stand-alone SDK

If you prefer using other tools, or developing directly via the command line, you can download the stand-alone SDK.

• JavaFX SDK
  
  The SDK includes the following components (also included when you download NetBeans IDE for JavaFX ):
  
  
  • JavaFX Desktop Runtime
  • JavaFX Mobile Emulator (for Windows)
  • JavaFX APIs
  • JavaFX Compiler
  • JavaFX API documentation
  • Samples

Deployment and Distribution

Java is deployed on billions of devices globally and has a developer base over six million. This enables JavaFX content designers and developers to reach a larger audience than any other technology. JavaFX applications can run seamlessly and consistently on the vast majority of the world's desktops and laptops, and in the future will run on mobile phones (from the lowest-end to highest-end), as well as televisions and other devices.

JavaFX applications can be deployed and distributed in the following ways:

• Java Plugin: A tool used for deploying Java applets that run inside a web browser
  
  
• Java Web Start: A tool used for deploying stand-alone Java applications on the desktop, using JNLP (Java Network Launching Protocol).
  
  
• JavaFX Mobile Emulator: A tool provided with the JavaFX SDK, which displays your applications as they would look on a typical mobile device.
  
  
• The Java Store: JavaFX applications can be submitted for distribution through the Java Store. End users can go to the Java Store and "drag to install" or perform a traditional installation directly to their desktops.

The JavaFX SDK contains a JavaFX File Packager utility, which creates an application in a format that is specific for a target profile, either desktop or mobile. The NetBeans IDE incorporates this utility and is available to users when they choose an execution model.

Where to Go Next

• Download Netbeans IDE for JavaFX, JavaFX Production Suite, and the stand-alone JavaFX SDK on the javafx.com download page.
  
  
• Get going quickly by reading Getting Started With JavaFX Technology.
  
  
• Learn the basics with our tutorial on the JavaFX Script programming language.
  
  
• Find out how to develop a simple JavaFX application.
  
  
• Get started building graphical user interfaces using visual effects and animation with the GUI tutorial.
  
  
• Wondering how to build a rich Internet application (RIA)? See our Media Browser tutorial that explains how to create an RIA that gathers and displays media from popular web sites.
  
  
• Check out the FAQs.
  
  
• A fully stocked gallery of code examples and samples will ensure your success in building and deploying JavaFX applications.
  
  
• Participate in the developer and designer communities and help us improve JavaFX via forums and bug reports.