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// Application Width and Height
def stageWidth = 600;
def stageHeight = 450;
// initial window location
var stageX:Number = 320;
var stagey:Number = 160;
// Is running as Applet in browser? If no, show close [X] button
var inBrowser="true".equals(FX.getArgument("isApplet") as String);
var currentEmployee:Employee = null;

var titleBar = Rectangle {
    width:stageWidth
    height:25  // a horizontal strip with height 25 pixels
    fill: Color.TRANSPARENT
    visible: bind (not inBrowser)
    onMouseDragged: function(e) {
        stageX += e.dragX;
        stageY += e.dragY; // these two statements make the window move around
    }
}

It is not necessary to program for closing the window. Since the application is in headless mode (i.e. without standard taskbar), closing of window had to be taken care of

var closeButton: ImageView = ImageButton {
    // places it at the right top corner
    x: stageWidth - 20
    y: 5
    normalImage: Image { url: "{__DIR__}images/close_n.png" }
    selectImage: Image { url: "{__DIR__}images/close_h.png" }
    visible: bind (not inBrowser)
    onMouseClicked: function(e) {
      javafx.lang.FX.exit();//closes the application programmatically
 }
}

The “closeButton” (it is an ImageView) is used to dispose the application window. Attributes x and y is used to place the button at the top right corner; this value is relative to the “root” node(Window/Stage) position.  “__DIR__" points to the directory in which current .fx file is placed. The class ImageButton is taken from a javafx sample: it provides hovering effect on the button.

http://javafx.com/samples/InterestingPhotos/src/ImageButton.fx.html

The below code snippets takes care of displaying and shuffling background images in this application. See how easy it is to create a new object (bgImage = ImageView), no “new” keyword, and the variable type is optional. Note that a function call is made to initialize the image variable

The image files are named background0.JPG through background4.JPG. See the usage of  curly braces with variables as in {bgn} here; this is similar to using + operator with String in Java.

bgImage.image = getRandomImage(); This statement changes the background image; no additional calls like repaint() or revalidate() to make the effect!!.

var bgImage = ImageView {
    x: 2
    y: 2
    image: getRandomImage()
}
function getRandomImage() {
    var bgn = new Random().nextInt(5);
    Image {
        url: "{__DIR__}images/background{bgn}.JPG"
    }
}
var bgButton: ImageView = ImageButton {
    . . . . . some code is not shown for brevity
    onMouseClicked: function(e) {
      // simply assigning a new image changes the background no explicit repaint/refresh!!
        bgImage.image = getRandomImage();
    }
}

var newEmpButton: SwingButton = SwingButton {
    text: "Add Employee"
    action: function() { // actionPerformed
        buttonText = "Create";
        onNewEmp ();
    }
}

Creation of JTable, TableModel and the operations on them are encapsulated in TableHelper.java. Those who are familiar with Swing would understand the code. Explanation for the contents of this class is beyond the scope of this tutorial.

var table = TableHelper.create();
table.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(stageWidth,140));
// this is how swing component is added as a content in JavaFX node/scene
var tableComp = SwingComponent.wrap(table);

More details: http://javafx.com/samples/ExercisingSwing/index.html

The below code snippets shows how to create TextField and ComboBox in JavaFX . Notice how the ComboBox items are initialized on the fly from the list of departments. See the usage of “as” to cast the variable to a particular type.

var dept: Department = department as Department; in JavaFx

equivalent to

Department dept=(Department)department;        in Java

var firstNameField = SwingTextField {
    columns: 15
    borderless: true
};
var departments = new DepartmentNoDBdao().getAllDepartments();
// create and initialize the departments combobox
var deptComboBox = SwingComboBox {
    selectedIndex: 2 // default selected item index
    width: 100
    items: for (department in departments)
        SwingComboBoxItem {
            // "as" is used for casting in JavaFX
            var dept: Department = department as Department;
            text: dept.getName(); // display text
            value: dept; // Object associated with the text
        }
}

editCreateButton represents the save button in employee details page that gets labeled “Edit” when “Edit Employee” button is pressed and “Create” for “Add Employee” respectively in the front page. Notice the usage of bind keyword with buttonText (button label changes when its value changes)

Also note how the selected data is fetched from the ComboBox.

“currentEmployee” is variable of type Employee that represents either the currently selected record in the table in the case of Edit or a new empty Employee object in the case of “Add”. See the functions onEditEmp () and onNewEmp ()

var editCreateButton = SwingButton {
    text: bind buttonText // Text is based on the button clicked in the front page
    action: function() {        
	currentEmployee.setFirstName(firstNameField.getJTextField().getText());
        var depItem: SwingComboBoxItem = deptComboBox.getJComboBox().getSelectedItem() as SwingComboBoxItem;
        currentEmployee.setDepartment(depItem.value as Department);
        if("Create".equals(buttonText)) 
            new EmployeeNoDBdao().insertEmployee(currentEmployee);
        onCancel ();// done with edit/create, back to front page
        TableHelper.refresh();
    }
};

The below code snippet is used to layout fields and the associated labels in a standard alignment. Notice the usage of HBox and VBox; both are built-in layouts available in JavaFX to place components in a grid like layout.  The first one is a simple layout manager that puts all nodes in an horizontal line, one after other. And the second do the same, but in a vertical line. Here different spacing size used to adjust for the height difference in Label and Field components.

Unlike x and y which are in relative to “root” node,  translateX and translateY applies after transforming the current node with relation to the root and sibling nodes.  Use this for minor adjustments.

var newEmpFieldsBox = HBox{
    spacing: 20
    translateX: 10
    translateY: 10
    content: [
        VBox{
            spacing: 20
            content: [
                SwingLabel {
                    text: "First Name: "
                    font: labelFont
                },
                SwingLabel {
                    text: "Last Name:"
                    font: labelFont
                },
                .............
                editCreateButton
            ]
        }
        VBox{
            spacing: 17.5
            content: [firstNameField,lastNameField,ageField,deptComboBox,cancelButton]
        }
    ]
}

This is surprisingly easy in JavaFX; no remove/add on a parent container, no refresh and repaint method calls. Just switching the referred Node of a bound variable does the trick.

The following code snippets show the places where page switching is done. As you can see pageHolder which is bound to a location is the key to this feature.

function onEditEmp () {
      .............
    // show the employee details page...
    pageHolder = empDetailsPage;
}
function onNewEmp () {
    ................
    // show the employee details page...
    pageHolder = empDetailsPage;
}
function onCancel () {
      // done with Edit/Create show me the front page
        pageHolder = frontPage;
}

The scenegraph used in JavaFX is a tree-like data structure where each item in the tree has zero or one parent, and each item is either a "leaf" with zero sub items or a "branch" with zero or more sub items.  The positioning of each component in a JavaFX application will be depend on its x & y coordinates, translateX & translateY transformations, spacing of layouts etc.

Let’s explain the important statements from the bottom up:

var stageContent = [bgImage,closeButton,bgButton,contentBox];

All the contents of this node get displayed based on their individual coordinates relative to its parent Stage. 

pageWrapperBox is used to bind pageHolder with it. pageHolder can not directly be bound as a element in the content  array of contentBox

pageHolder is a variable that points to currently displayed page. Assigning individual page Node to this variable will make it get displayed in the contentBox thanks to the bind magic.

var buttonNode: Node[];
buttonNode = [newEmpButton, editEmpButton,delEmpButton];
var frontPage = VBox {
    spacing: 10
    content: [buttonNode, tableComp]
};
var pageHolder = frontPage; //initial page
// used this VBox to take advantage of "bind" key word with content
var pageWrapperBox = VBox {
    spacing: 10
    content: bind pageHolder
}; 
// organizes the contents in a box and provide spacing between adjacent ccomponents
var contentBox = VBox {
    spacing: 10
    content: [titleBar,titleText,pageWrapperBox]
};
// place all the components in the Stage
var stageContent = [bgImage,closeButton,bgButton,contentBox];

The JavaFX Stage class is the top level container for the FX script instantiation. This is similar to the JFrame class in Swing. Note the usage of “with inverse” on the bind keyword: this is how binding is made bidirectional.  Bidirectional bind allows updates to flow in either direction, rather than just from the bound expression to the variable.

Stage {
    width: stageWidth
    height: stageHeight
    visible: true
    x: bind stageX with inverse
    y: bind stageY with inverse
    // comment the “style” to display standard task bar
    style: StageStyle.TRANSPARENT
    scene: Scene {
        content: Group {
            content: stageContent
            clip: Rectangle {
                width: stageWidth
                height: stageHeight
                arcWidth: 20
                arcHeight: 20
            }
        }
        fill: Color.WHITESMOKE
    }
}