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Tag: JavaFX

JavaFX on Linux!

Yeah. No more workarounds. Download now JavaFX 1.2 for Windows, MacOS X, Linux and OpenSolaris!

bob sponja dancinha

\o/

There’s also a lots of improvements in the language and the API. For details on that read this document. Unfortunately, as a side effect of those great changes some JavaFX source codes posted here are now deprecated and need a few changes to compile again but the online preview of them as applet or Java Web Start will continue to work well.

Let’s code.

FootprintFX

Footprint logo

Footprint is a publisher and distributor of certificates of participation in conferences – signed PDF documents that prove you attended a conference or a course.

This is a little JavaFX application that shows how to create a interface that displays data provided by services. This version uses three services: one that counts the number of users, other that counts the number of events and one that list these events. Check out the source code here.  Try the application as a draggable JavaFX applet here.

JavaFX, Retrieving non XML/JSON data from clouds

tango weather overcast

Usuually on JavaFX we grab data using HttpRequest from external resources on formats like JSON or XML. I showed how to get it on the post Reading Twitter with JavaFX and how to parse it using PullParser on the post Parsing a XML sandwich with JavaFX.

Another day I need to grab and interpret some plain results, not in XML nor JSON, while consuming a REST service. In this case we don’t have a well structure data so the PullParser won’t help us.

Example 1: Reading Raw Data

In this example we’ll load a plain text file served in a remote location.

var planetsRequest = HttpRequest {
    location: "https://silveiraneto.net/downloads/planets";
    onInput: function(stream: InputStream) {
        var buff = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(stream));
        var line = "";
        while((line = buff.readLine())!=null){
            println(line);
        }
    }
}
planetsRequest.enqueue();

This will produce the output:

Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune

Example 2: Discovering your IP Address

In this example we’ll examine how to integrate a request of a remote data in a running graphical program.

The best way to know your real IP address is asking for a remote server to look which IP made that request. It’s like calling for a friend and asking him which number appeared in his mobile. =) This server side Python script prints the IP address of who requested the page.

#!/usr/bin/env python
import os

print "Content-type: text/html"
print
print os.environ['REMOTE_ADDR']

In the client side, with JavaFX, we’ll load the remote value into a local variable. The ip is assigned with the value “…” and later the ipRequest will replace it with a String with the IP. The bind feature will automatically fix the GUI String text.

For the user he will see the ellipsis for a few seconds and so their IP.

import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.text.Text;
import javafx.io.http.HttpRequest;
import java.io.*;

var ip = "...";

Stage {
    title: "What is my IP?" width: 250 height: 80
    scene: Scene {
        content: Text {
            x: 10, y: 30
            content: bind "My IP is {ip}"
        }
    }
}

var ipRequest = HttpRequest {
    location: "https://silveiraneto.net/scripts/myip.py";
    onInput: function(stream: InputStream) {
        var buff = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(stream));
        ip = buff.readLine();
    }
}
ipRequest.enqueue();

You can try this JavaFX applet here.

Example 3: Reading Integer values

Until now we handled just plain Strings. But in some cases you want to get number as non structured data. In this case you need to know previously which type the data is. In the case of a web service this probably will be described in a WSDL file.

Here I’m writing a very simple service script at Zembly, a great platform for cloud computing. It’s called aplusb, it justs add the first parameter A to the second B.

if ((Parameters.a != null) && (Parameters.b!= 0)) {
return Parameters.a+Parameters.b;
}

The service is published at Zembly here where you can see more details on how to invoke it.

A simple way to invoke it on JavaFX and than getting the value as an Integer:

import java.io.*;
import javafx.io.http.HttpRequest;

var a = 100;
var b = 200;
var result = 0 on replace {
    println(result);
}

var zemblyRequest = HttpRequest {
    location: "http://zembly.net/things/1827f696529d4e6f940c36e8e79bea1c;exec?a={a}&b={b}";
    onInput: function(stream: InputStream) {
        var buff = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(stream));
        result = Integer.valueOf(buff.readLine());
    }
}
zemblyRequest.enqueue();

The output will be:

0
300

The first 0 is from the first assignment on the var result. The 300 is from the webservice itself.

The same approach can be used to convert the ASCII/Unicode result from the stream to the suitable type on a variable.

JavaFX 1.1 for Linux workaround

Download

javafx4linux.tar.bz2 (~ 36Mb).

Installing

1) Extract the javafx4linux.tar.bz2 file. In this example I’m placing it on my Desktop. After the installing process you can remove it.

javafx linux ubuntu extract

2) Open your NetBeans 6.5 and go at Tools → Plugins and go to Downloaded tab. In a plain and new NetBeans installation there will be no plugin in this tab yet.

netbeans javafx linux step01

netbeans javafx linux step02

netbeans javafx linux step03

3) Click on the Add Plugins button and head to the directory you extracted the file and select all .nbm files.

netbeans javafx linux step 04

4) You will see a list of 22 plugins selected. Click on the Install button.

netbeans javafx linux step 05

5) Just keep clicking on the Next button.

netbeans javafx linux step 6

6) Check the license agreement accept box.

netbeans javafx linux step 7

7) You’ll see a warning because the Linux pluggin is not signed. Don’t worry, just click Continue.

netbeans javafx linux step 8

8) Click on Finish to restart NetBeans.

netbeans javafx linux step 9

9) Now we can test it. Go at File → New Project, select the JavaFX on Categories and JavaFX Script Application on Projects.

netbeans javafx linux step 10

10) Put some code and run it. There is. JavaFX on Linux.

netbeans javafx linux step 11

Considerations

This is not a official of JavaFX for Linux! This solution was tested on Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope” with Java 6 update 13 and NetBeans 6.5.1, but should also work with others Linux distributions and Java versions greater than 5.

Known bugs

As a non official workaround for JavaFX for Linux you may notice some drawbacks. Some parts of the JavaFX runtime rely on native implementations on the specific operational system. You may not use some multimedia capabilities as video playback, JavaFX Mobile emulator and some performance issues in some effects. Despite that, is perfectly possible to develop applications using JavaFX on NetBeans.

Thanks

I’d like to thanks some guys around the world. Weiqi Gao’s original post on JavaFX on Linux, HuaSong Liu article on DZone and Kaesar Alnijres post.

JavaFX, Acessando Recursos de Dentro do JAR

us flagTranslation: there’s a English version of this article.

Para algumas classes como o javafx.scene.image.Image é fácil abrir imagens de uma localidade remotada com:

ImageView {
    image: Image {
        url: "http://example.com/minhaFigura.png"
    }
}

ou uma imagem local com a constante __DIR:

ImageView {
    image: Image {
        url: "{__DIR__}/minhaFigura.png"
    }
}

Mas para outras classes abrir recursos internos (de dentro do próprio arquivo jar) não é tão direto. Por exemplo, no artigo Parsing a XML Sandwich with JavaFX eu tive que colocar o arquvio XML dentro de um diretório temporário. Uma maneira mais elegante teria sido:

package handlexml;

import java.io.FileInputStream;
import javafx.data.pull.*;
import javafx.ext.swing.*;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

class Resource{
    function getUrl(name:String){
        return this.getClass().getResource(name);
    }

    function getStream(name:String){
        return this.getClass().getResourceAsStream(name);
    }
}

var list = SwingList { width: 600, height: 300}

var myparser = PullParser {
    documentType: PullParser.XML;
    onEvent: function (e: Event) {
        var item = SwingListItem {text: "event {e}"};
        insert item into list.items;
    }
    input: Resource{}.getStream("my.xml");
}
myparser.parse();

Stage {
    title: "Map"
    scene: Scene {
        content: list
    }
}

Com um simples arquivo XML chamadovmy.xml dentro do seu pacote.



   
   
   
   
   

fileplace

E temos os mesmos resultados de antes, mas com todos seus aquivos dentro de seus Jars.

Referencias: