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Trying out JavaFX (and the NetBeans JavaFX Plugin)

July 24, 2007 on 8:42 pm | | In Java, JavaFX, Netbeans, Software | 3 Comments

I took the news on the updated NetBeans plugin for JavaFX as impulse to try it out at last: JavaFX has been buzzing around for some months now. So long Adobe/Macromedia Flash has been the only choice for interactive graphically intensive and multimedia application. Well I know that there is SVG and SMIL, but I also know that those two can’t compete with Flash (I spare out a ‘yet’ … how long do we have to wait?). With JavaFX and Microsoft Silverlight there are two competitors on the scene. However I cannot try the latter one – I didn’t find an Ubuntu download JavaFX however is looking cool: The demo / tutorial from openjfx.dev.java.net shows a lot of nice effects and features.

But now for the quick start:

• Download the newest Java SE version (1.6u2 in my case)
• Download NetBeans 6.0 M10+
• Install the JavaFX plugin. See how is done here. (Note that the tutorial is crap as the screen shots definitely do not look like the screens you will see in NetBeans M10. However the process remains the same)
• Create a new JavaFX project using File -> New Project …

And what to do now?

Try out the tutorial given on the JavaFX site. You will soon notice that the reference manual is also a necessary resource.

And the winner is …

The winner is the NetBeans Plugin for JavaFX (or the group of 4 plugins): It has enabled me to take a peak on JavaFX and decide that it is nothing yet for me:

• JavaFX is not intuitive for me. I know Perl, C(++), Ruby, Java, JavaScript, Basic, Pascal and R and JavaFX is something completely new.
• The – for me – most appealing features of Flash have no counterparts: (i) Flash has a very small footprint (< 1.2M on Windows, < 2.6M on Linux compared to a Java runtime – Perhaps the Consumer JRE will fix this?). (ii) Flash supports videos & audio streams (at least some basics, see e.g. YouTube) – no such thing in Java (Don’t try to argue with JMF …) (iii) Flash has a graphical editor with Drag’n'Drop, where – with some hard work – even unexperienced users can produce something.

The NetBeans plugin for JavaFX however is essential: It just works, giving an editor and a preview. One does not have to understand how to build and run JavaFX files. All is done by the IDE. This would be perhaps some good start for a DnD editor?