I am so-so with Swing and just starting to learn JavaFX. I went over a few answers on SO with regards to which one to use and I still can not make up my mind.
Is it possible to get the best of both the worlds ??
Like, use JavaFX with I want to give some visually appealing graphics and add some Swing to JavaFX when I want to ?
You can use JavaFX in Swing applications via the JFXPanel control. See the SwingInterOp sample. You can also utilize JavaFX from inside sophisticated Swing based platforms such as NetBeans RCP.
A current limitation of JavaFX/Swing integration is that you can embed JavaFX components in a Swing application, but not Swing components in a JavaFX application. RT-12100 Swing in JavaFX embedding support is currently scheduled for Java 8.
If you have a green field new application to develop, I'd advise choosing one technology or the other and sticking with that or at least keeping the integration points localized and few and far between. Both frameworks are large and take time to learn, plus you will avoid any integration headaches such as needing to take care that Swing processing is done on the Swing Event Dispatch thread and JavaFX processing is done on the JavaFX Application Thread.
JavaFX also integrates with SWT and that integration is currently simpler than the JavaFX/Swing integration (because there is only a single GUI thread to worry about).
Here is a screenshot of JavaFX/Swing interop sample from Oracle:
I went over a few answers on SO with regards to which one to use and I still can not make up my mind.
Rather than doing that, I'd advise picking a small application and implementing it from scratch in Swing and JavaFX and seeing which you prefer. It's time better spent as there is no substitute for hands on experience - then, if you still have questions (hopefully more specific and targeted), come back to StackOverflow to research or ask them.
It depends on your motivation for learning them. If you're looking primarily to boost your CV in the near future and become attractive to businesses, then (for the moment at least) there's many more applications out there written in Swing than JavaFX, purely because the latter is a much newer toolkit.
However, if you're thinking more long term or just want the best tool for the job, personally I find JavaFX to offer more flexibility, be much easier to code in an aesthetically pleasing way, and easier to learn as well (the API behind it is just much nicer.) The only thing against it at the moment is that there's some features that I'd really like to be included, but aren't yet (again, naturally this is what you get by going for the newer toolkit.)
I'd also advise against mixing the two. I'm currently involved in two projects using JavaFX, one entirely JavaFX based and the other a mixture of FX and swing. The latter is much more fiddly to maintain, primarily because of the difference in dispatch threading.
As a previous poster stated, you can use JavaFX in Swing applications now. But since Oracle has declared that JavaFX is the future of the desktop for Java, why not just learn it. I've tried to keep current on both and it's a chore. I'm planning on focusing on JavaFX exclusively in the future -- less chance of confusing myself.
That said, JavaFX still doesn't seem to be a full-fledged member of the JDK, especially if used in conjunction with other languages, like Clojure for example. Depending on the JavaFX version, there are different machinations to go through to pull it into build tools. But that situation is getting better with each release.
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This sounds like a useless question at the first glance, but I need to give my colleagues some valid arguments about the history of JavaFX. I know about FXML and that Swing won't get any new features in the future, this already speaks for it self in the IT-world.
But apart from that... WHY did they start from scratch instead of adapting Swing to the new requirements?
JavaFX is easier and it supports XML layouts, but this doesn't sound to me like it is necessary to build a completely new framework.
I read THIS blog and some other sources on the topic and I can't really answer this question. The points I read are mostly minors as far as I can guess.
Simply put, Swing, being a 15+ year old architecture, just doesn't work with something like JavaFX. The pipeline and architecture is not there. If they tried to layer FX on top of Swing, they would either break Swing, or hinder FX, or both.
We know a lot more today than we did then as to what a GUI framework needs to do to be better performant, along with what modern developers expect from a GUI framework.
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I am a complete beginner in java. Although i have studied a lot of literature on the language (well sort of), this is my first real project.
I was basically planning to make a simple clock widget and later plan to build Gui s. Until now, i had learnt in swing. But then i found on this site that Swing is kinda outdated
( ref : Java GUI frameworks. What to choose? Swing, SWT, AWT, SwingX, JGoodies, JavaFX, Apache Pivot?).
What i needed was some good libraries in java to assist me in this process ( the clock widget and subsequently more complex gui). So i thought of getting libraries from jgoodies, the free ones.
And now i am utterly confused and messed up on what to do and dont understand anything. And of course i dont need books in design patterns etc etc. Just java references and some tutorials on gui using java and jgoodies to get me started. And i cant find them anywhere.
So please point me in right direction.
Reading background (Head First java, java the complete ref and data structures and algo)
(Suggest others if not sufficient)
AWT has effectively been replaced by Swing.
SWT is a different framework, which provides greater native interaction with the OS
JavaFX is the new player on the block, while some consider it a replacement for Swing, it's primary intention was to display Flash or act as an alternative to it.
SwingX and JGoodies are Swing based libraries.
Swing and SWT have begin around for quite some time, some might consider them to be "old", but what it does mean is there is a body of knowledge surrounding the frameworks, as well as a number libraries designed to support and extend them
JavaFX is new player on the market and has yet to build the same knowledge and support base.
If I was you. I would pay attention to Swing (personally) as it is going to provide you with the best ground base of experienced developers and support to help you on your way.
Once you become more comfortable, you could explore SWT, JavaFX and other toolkits and frameworks.
I would start with Creating a GUI with Swing, Performing Custom Painting and 2D Graphics.
My (personally) feeling is to build an understanding of the base library, try and learn it's strengths and weakness. This will help you understand when to use such libraries as SwingX and JGoodies - IMHO
What i needed was some good libraries in java to assist me in this process ( the clock widget and subsequently more complex gui). So i thought of getting libraries from jgoodies, the free ones.
Probably you don't need libraries as much as you think you do. Learn stuff from first principles and you will learn it better.
All the major Java GUI frameworks are quite high level and functional already. When you are first starting out, I think you should skip 3rd party libraries and see how far you get with what is provided in the base JRE and the framework of your choice. There is more than enough to learn with just the basic frameworks, the java language and the JRE. If you try to add in other frameworks too early, you will end up overloaded, confused and less productive. Plus the increased abstraction of the libraries may prevent you from learning some of the important underlying principles well enough.
Once you get a bit more experience in building things, then you will have a much better idea where the gaps in the frameworks are for your application and you can add in 3rd party libraries at that time.
planning to make a simple clock widget
If you get stuck, here is code for a JavaFX clock: How to draw a clock with JavaFX 2? or a similar implementation in Swing.
Note that creating a clock is quite a bit different than creating a traditional form based GUI that makes use of a library of predefined controls - but any of the major Java GUI frameworks can handle both tasks.
Don't make a clock your first GUI programming task, do something easier. Then try to create a clock later.
using swing for precise layout is really a difficult job
There are interactive graphical layout managers for Swing and other frameworks (e.g. the excellent SceneBuilder for JavaFX) which make this easier.
However, when first starting, it's probably worth hand coding stuff rather than letting a tool manage the layout for you (for example when learning JavaFX, stick with just the Java API and don't use FXML until you are completely comfortable with the Java API). You will learn the ins and outs of layout management and other things better that way. Sure you will make some mistakes and there will be a bit of frustration, but things will become clear in time with some persistence. And you may eventually end up deciding that you prefer hand-coding rather than using a graphical tool anyway.
The tricky part is usually creating quality, dynamically resizable GUIs that look good at different resolutions and window sizes - and that is generally tricky for beginners no matter what GUI toolkit is used.
The layout managers in JavaFX are very similar to the basic layout managers in Swing - so layout-wise there is little difference between the two frameworks.
The retained mode Scene Graph in JavaFX may be a bit easier to work with than the direct mode painting of Swing, but I guess that is not quite layout related.
Introspection tools, such as ScenicView for JavaFX, ease debugging layouts at runtime. Think of things like ScenicView as something similar to Firebug for HTML (e.g. your essential layout debugging companion).
And now i am utterly confused and messed up on what to do and dont understand anything.
You understand more than you think you do or you wouldn't have known enough to ask this question.
What you should do (IMO) is just pick a Java GUI framework (any framework - they are all passable), pick a decent starting task (something that seems mind-numbingly simple - even simpler than a clock) and start coding. Make everything task related; very small tasks with clear end-goals. Write a decent amount of code and always go back and revise your code and it's output to try to make it the very best it can be - don't settle for good enough.
Try painting rainbows and happy faces - when you code that up and see it on the screen, you will feel good about yourself :-)
If you need a refresher on the Java language, follow the Oracle Learning the Java Language trail. That trail is the way I learnt Java many years ago. It has been maintained over the years so that it is still a great resource and useful today.
If you choose Swing, follow the starting links from MadProgrammer.
If you choose JavaFX, follow the JavaFX tutorials and the Ensemble sample app but be aware that some of the JavaFX tutorials are targeted to more experienced programmers.
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I have a very big program that is currently using SWT. The program can be run on both Windows, Mac and Linux, and it is a big desktop application with many elements.
Now SWT being somewhat old I would like to switch to either Swing or JavaFX. And I would like to hear your thoughts on three things.
My main concern is what will be better for a desktop GUI application? (I looked online and a lot of people suggest that JavaFX is just as good as Swing, but I didn't see many valid arguments except simple opinion flame wars). It has to work on both Windows, Mac and some popular Linux distributions.
What will be cleaner and easier to maintain?
and what will be faster to build from scratch?
I am using MVC methology in my application, if that is of any help.
What will be cleaner and easier to maintain?
All things being equal, probably JavaFX - the API is much more consistent across components. However, this depends much more on how the code is written rather than what library is used to write it.
And what will be faster to build from scratch?
Highly dependent on what you're building. Swing has more components around for it (3rd party as well as built in) and not all of them have made their way to the newer JavaFX platform yet, so there may be a certain amount of re-inventing the wheel if you need something a bit custom. On the other hand, if you want to do transitions / animations / video stuff then this is orders of magnitude easier in FX.
One other thing to bear in mind is (perhaps) look and feel. If you absolutely must have the default system look and feel, then JavaFX (at present) can't provide this. Not a big must have for me (I prefer the default FX look anyway) but I'm aware some policies mandate a restriction to system styles.
Personally, I see JavaFX as the "up and coming" UI library that's not quite there yet (but more than usable), and Swing as the borderline-legacy UI library that's fully featured and supported for the moment, but probably won't be so much in the years to come (and therefore chances are FX will overtake it at some point.)
As stated by Oracle, JavaFX is the next step in their Java based rich client strategy.
Accordingly, this is what I recommend for your situation:
What would be easier and cleaner to maintain
JavaFX has introduced several improvements over Swing, such as, possibility to markup UIs with FXML, and theming with CSS. It has great potential to write a modular, clean & maintainable code.
What would be faster to build from scratch
This is highly dependent on your skills and the tools you use.
For swing, various IDEs offer tools for rapid development. The best I personally found is the GUI builder in NetBeans.
JavaFX has support from various IDEs as well, though not as mature as the support Swing has at the moment. However, its support for markup in FXML & CSS make GUI development on JavaFX intuitive.
MVC Pattern Support
JavaFX is very friendly with MVC pattern, and you can cleanly separate your work as: presentation (FXML, CSS), models(Java, domain objects) and logic(Java).
IMHO, the MVC support in Swing isn't very appealing. The flow you'll see across various components lacks consistency.
For more info, please take a look these FAQ post by Oracle regarding JavaFX here.
JavaFX Frequently Asked Questions
No one has mentioned it, but JavaFX does not compile or run on certain architectures deemed "servers" by Oracle (e.g. Solaris), because of the missing "jfxrt.jar" support. Stick with SWT, until further notice.
I don't think there's any one right answer to this question, but my advice would be to stick with SWT unless you are encountering severe limitations that require such a massive overhaul.
Also, SWT is actually newer and more actively maintained than Swing. (It was originally developed as a replacement for Swing using native components).
On older notebooks with integrated video Swing app starts and works much faster than JavaFX app. As for development, I'd recommend switch to Scala - comparable Scala Swing app contains 2..3 times less code than Java.
As for Swing vs SWT: Netbeans GUI considerably faster than Eclipse...
I'd look around to find some (3rd party?) components that do what you want. I've had to create custom Swing components for an agenda view where you can book multiple resources, as well as an Excel-like grid that works well with keyboard navigation and so on. I had a terrible time getting them to work nicely because I needed to delve into many of Swing's many intricacies whenever I came upon a problem. Mouse and focus behaviour and a lot of other things can be very difficult to get right, especially for a casual Swing user. I would hope that JavaFX is a bit more future-orientated and smooth out of the box.
I need to write a cross-platform GUI application to process (in multiple threads) and visualize fairly large quantities of data. Ideally the application should be relatively fast and look good.
The app's interface will consist of a table widget, a tree widget, and a custom figure-drawing widget. The user will be able to modify the data from any one of these widgets and the changes should be immediately reflected in the other widgets.
Naturally, I am planning to use MVC. However, I normally do all my GUI programming in C++/Qt, and have very limited exposure to Java. So I would really appreciate any advice on how to organize such an app in Java. In particular, should I use Swing or JavaFX? Which widgets would you pick for the job? Could you recommend any books/online tutorials that cover these aspects of the Java platform?
I will greatly appreciate any feedback. Thanks!
That's a very subjective question.
Swing is a mature, well established and documented API. It's been operating for over 12 years and has many 3rd party supporting APIs.
JavaFX is a relatively new technology and while it's use is growing, it's still relatively immature in regards to things like it's documentation (particularly 3rd party trouble shooting and tutorials).
With JavaFX 2, you now get a tree and table implementation and are no longer restricted to it's scripting language.
As I understand it, JavaFX's rendering engine is far more up to date then Swing's (Swing relies on AWT and its rendering engine, which "can" cause issues in some edge cases - this has been a criticism of Swing for a while now (the reliance on AWT)).
Swing has been used in a large number of large, high quality, high demanding applications for a number of years and while I'm sure JavaFX can probably meet the challenge, the number of projects of the scale aren't very numerous.
It's a question of bleed-edge as opposed to proven - IMHO.
Personally, I'd fall back to Swing, but a lot of that comes from experience and knowledge of available support. However, if I was given the chance, I'd probably be interested in prototyping a solution in JavaFX and Swing to compare not only the technologies, but also the development process.
When first released, JavaFX was targeted at competing within the same space as Flash. One could argue, it was Sun's attempt to replace/update the Applet API. I don't think this is JavaFX's only direction now and JavaFX 2 has seen some significant enhancements (including the inclusion of a Tree and Table view and less of a reliance on it's scripting language).
Some may suggest that JavFX is Swing's replacement and that Swing is deprecated. This is not true. While it is true, Swing has not seen any major updates in the past few years, it is viable and core library.
...IMHO
Are Swing applications really used nowadays? I don't find a place where they are used. Is it okay to skip the AWT and Swing package (I learned a bit of the basics though)?
If you are writing for the web exclusively, you can probably skip Swing, but otherwise you're absolutely going to run into it. I've never worked on a non-trivial Java app without a Swing GUI.
Also, Swing is one of the better APIs to use. If you use most others, you are going to find them more difficult to use and/or platform incompatible. (If anyone reading this is aware of exceptions to this, please leave comments, I haven't looked for a while and am kind of curious if anything better has become available)
Other JVM languages like JRuby and Jython are often used because of their access to Swing.
You may checkout Swing Sightings.
This website is hosted by SUN and it is dedicated to sw projects that use Swing.
There are a lot of projects using Swing ...
http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/sightings/
Swing is heavily used in business specific (vertical)/internal application development.
Hmmmm... how about NetBeans? You know, the IDE? It uses Swing.
Swing applications are used in most cases where a Java app runs on the desktop. Sometimes you don't even know - for example, LimeWire is a Java Swing application.
When learning Swing, you'll find that you will come to know those parts of AWT that are still important, such as Event, LayoutManager, Graphics, Font, Color, etc.
You should certainly write Swing for desktop Java, only using AWT to the degree that Swing demands it.
I'm sure people can come up with examples of very good Swing apps besides SQL Squirrel and IntelliJ.
I think that RIA technologies like Flex, Silverlight, etc. are ascendant because the web and services are taking mindshare from desktops. It's not just Swing that's losing out.
Whenever you want to write a desktop GUI app for non-Windows OS, you use Swing as the only sane and guaranteed cross-platform GUI framework.
Besides, Swing has a very good design. I recommend to learn it anyways, to make yourself a better programmer.
Check out Filthy Rich Clients. It explains some of the history of AWT and Swing. Swing, being a lightweight alternative (successor) to most of the AWT classes.
IIRC jEdit is also a Swing app. Quite a popular text editor.
Skip AWT and Swing? To jump where? SWT? Web-based development?
In the broader sense, I have a number of Java applications, although I am not too sure if they use Swing or SWT.
Lot of database tools like SQuirreL SQL Client are written in Java. I think SQuirrel uses stuff from Netbean, which is, of course, Swing based.
yEd is written in Java, probably Swing.
A number of P2P softwares are written in Java, including Frostwire (I see no trace of SWT there, but I can just miss it).
And this list is far from exhaustive!
Lol! I forgot to mention the software suite made by the company I work for! It is quite specialized, used by mobile phone companies to monitor health of their network nodes (superficially looks like a spreadsheet). Totally Swing based.
While Swing has some cross-platform look-and-feel deficiencies and it would be nice if it was updated to support generics, it is still well designed and quite usable. I have always been a fan of the sheer amount of customization offered. SWT is nice and is more native, but you give up some power and control with that as well. In addition, it seems simpler to use, which can be a plus, since Swing can be overly complex due to its flexibility.
Geertjan Wielenga often blogs about applications based on the NetBeans platform, and therefore Swing. The applications range across the board from rather small esoteric applications to very large, mission-critical systems (Boeing Aircraft comes to mind). Many of the enterprise-level applications that Geertjan misses are mentioned on Planet NetBeans. It seems like every few weeks there is an announcement or description of such a program.
As noted above, lots of tools use Swing including the IntelliJ IDEA IDE, a favorite. I'm surprised no one else mentioned it.
Sun also used to maintain a Swing Sightings web site, but it hasn't been updated in a few years.
Where I work, Swing is used in the presentation layer for a very large document management system. In my own development experience I've used Swing for desktop applications in the areas of image processing, device control (video, motors, etc.), math, statistics, and medical devices.
BTW, I agree about the slowness of file choosers. But there are lots of alternatives that will use the native file chooser. It can just be a bit jarring if the L&F's don't match up very well.
EDIT: Oh, and as others have mentioned, it's very easy to use Swing from other languages on the JVM. With Clojure, for example, it is even easier to use than in Java, in my opinion.
There is no universal question to whether it is ok to skip something or not. It's a matter of priorities. While Swing has a lot to teach you (and it is too heavily infused with AWT), if you're never going to be writing GUIs you may be better off investing in something else.
Swing, while ugly as hell, is still used in many places. A quick search on "java swing" in Indeed or dice would reveal many jobs and industries that require it.
Are you skipping it for an exam/interview? Besides really good apps like IntelliJ IDEA and NetBeans, there are lots of Swing like frameworks [SWT (Eclipse), GWT etc.] which you can learn faster with Swing knowledge...
You should probably be looking at JavaFX for future work. As the FAQ states,
Sun is not replacing Swing with JavaFX Script. Instead, JavaFX Script makes Swing easier to use.
Using/learning it will give you a very good understanding of the important Swing concepts, and how they fit in with "the future". I haven't used JavaFX yet, but heard very good things about it.
Armitage tool is made in swing , GUI tool of metasploit framework.