I did my JavaFX Alternative Languages talk at Devoxx and will soon be presenting it at JavaOne Brazil (December 7-9th).

During the Devoxx talk I was honored to have Martin Odersky in the audience (for those of you who don’t know him, Martin is the man behind Generic Java and now Scala).  There were several great questions at the end of the talk, one posed by Martin himself.

The question was around this Scala code fragment:

def timeline = new Timeline {
  repeatCount = INDEFINITE
  autoReverse = true
  keyFrames = List(
    new KeyFrame(50) {
      values = List(
        new KeyValue(rect1.x() -> 300),
        new KeyValue(rect2.y() -> 500),
        new KeyValue(rect2.width() -> 150)
      )
    }
  )
}

He was wondering why I had the extra parenthesis after the variables (x, y, and width).  In Scala using parenthesis is optional for methods and allowed for variables, so it appears to be a style issue.  However, there is a good reason for this.

The current JavaFX property model has 4 helper methods for each variable:

• int getX() – Standard JavaBeans getter function for the property x.
• setX(int x) – Standard JavaBeans setter function for the property x.
• static PropertyReference X() – A static function that returns a property reference for x that can be used to refer to this field.
• ValueBinding x() – A member function that returns a mutable reference to x that can be used to get or set the value dynamically.

So the extra parenthesis were to differentiate between a normal method call (“x”) and a ValueBinding (“x()”).

By popular demand at the earlier SvJugFx Event, I also added in some new content demonstrating usage of the Fantom language for coding JavaFX. Besides being extremely easy to create DSLs in, it also has a built-in Duration operator, making the end result extremely similar to the equivalent JavaFX Script:

Here is the full talk on alternative languages with all the updates for the latest conceptual JavaFX 2.0 APIs:

If you are going to be at JavaOne Brazil, please drop me a line and I will be happy to meet up and chat about JavaFX futures.

There were some huge announcements at JavaOne today for the JavaFX platform.  Overall I think the announcements show some very positive momentum for the future of JavaFX and rich client Java, but there were some casualties…

In this blog I will cover the salient bits, but if you would like an opportunity to hear it directly from the JavaFX leadership team in a free event, we will be hosting a JavaFX 2.0 event with Richard Bair and Jai Suri at our next SvJugFX meeting.  As usual, the event will be streamed live, and questions can be asked remotely via Google Moderator.

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The Good Parts:

Java and Alternative JVM Languages

JavaFX has a new API face.  All the JavaFX 2.0 APIs will be exposed via Java classes that will make it much easier to integrate Java server and client code.  This also opens up some huge possibilities for JVM language integration with JavaFX that Jonathan Giles and I explored in our JavaOne talk today.  We did a whirlwind tour through four different JVM languages (Ruby, Clojure, Groovy, and Scala) showing what JavaFX 2.0 code may look like when ported to these different languages.

Here is the full presentation deck:

Which can also be downloaded as a PDF.

Open Source Controls

Thomas Kurian announced a strategy to open source the JavaFX controls going forward.  This is a huge move in the right direction for the platform, and will make life for us third-party control developers much better!  Even though this is not the full platform open sourcing that I have been petitioning for (thanks for all your support!!!), I will still take some of the credit. 

JavaFX 2.0 Proposed Roadmap

Oracle has published a proposed roadmap for JavaFX 2.0 in the 2011 timeframe.  There are some really great things included, many of which I have been campaigning for:

• Multithreading Improvements – The move to Java APIs breaks down some of the barriers to multi-threaded programming that were present with JavaFX.  Presumably a similar model to Swing will exist where you can launch worker threads, but still have to do all UI operations on a main event thread.
• Texture Paint – Interesting to see this highlighted, but its use in JavaFX was pioneered by Jeff Friesen and included in JFXtras 0.7.
• Grid Layout Container + CSS – Very good to see that they are taking the Grid Layout and evolving it.  The addition of making it accessible from CSS will make it an extremely powerful layout container suitable for multiple uses.
• HD Media – Media seems to be getting a big upgrade, which has been long overdue.  This is in addition to other promised improvements in full screen capabilities, media markers, animation synchronization, and low latency audio.
• HTML5 WebView – It is good to see that this is finally getting the attention it deserves.  JavaFX is great for dynamic application development, but is not well suited for content presentation.  The combination of JavaFX + HTML5 will greatly expand the range of applications that can be developed.
• Controls Galore! – TableView, SplitView, TabView, and Rich Text to name a few.  This is a necessity to build robust enterprise applications.
• File (and other) Dialogs – This may seem like a minor point, but is incredibly important for building real applications.

HTML5 Support

Not to be confused with the WebView, there is also a plan for the successor to JavaFX 2.0 (2012 timeframe) to support an alternate HTML5 rendering pipeline.  Not many details are available about this yet, but it could be a huge technological breakthrough if they are able to pull it off successfully.  The practical applications of being able to deploy your JavaFX application to any HTML5 compliant device is enormous.

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The Casualties:

JavaFX Script

JavaFX Script was good to us, but it is no longer a go forward technology for Oracle.  I am a bit disappointed about this move, because it takes away a lot of the productivity benefits that have made JavaFX code a joy to write.  However, many of the promised improvements in JavaFX 2.0 are around language features of JavaFX Script (such as binding and sequences), so hopefully they can maintain some of the benefits.

Richard Bair added a very insightful post on his blog, which goes into more details on the language changes and is well worth a read.

JavaFX Mobile

JavaFX Mobile has not seen a lot of action since JavaOne 2009 and the mobile focus in the keynote was on JavaME and LWUIT.  I am still a big fan of the “write once, run anywhere” mantra, and am waiting for this to return to the mobile space.  With the proliferation of different mobile programming models (Android, iPhone, WebOS, etc.), whoever solves the mobile cross-platform development problem in a technically solid way will profit immensely.

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What’s Next?

Now that Oracle is done with their announcements, I have some of my own.  If you are at JavaOne, drop by my Wednesday session entitled “JFXtras: JavaFX Controls, Layouts, Services, and More” at 2:15 to hear it firsthand, or wait for my blog post shortly following that.

I am pleased to announce that we have a couple new videos available on the Silicon Valley JavaFX User Group (SvJugFx) video site. Here is a link to the landing page where you can watch these videos as well as all our previous sessions:

http://web.ubivent.com/svjugfx.html

The first new video is a Hands-On JavaFX Lab given by Stuart Marks, core JavaFX team member, and regular SvJugFx attendee. This was our most successful meeting so far for the local audience, because it filled in the gap between the very technical rich presentations we started with and the experience level of the attendees. The entire flood tutorial was published as an HTML document, but it is much more entertaining to see Stuart do it first hand:

Hands-on JavaFX:  http://jnlp.ubivent.com/jnlp/eventid=10/guest=1/path=doc:129,doc:128,doc:210

The second was the wildly popular Bay Area JUG Round-Up event.  All the Bay Area user groups cooperated to host a massive event with a live recording of the Java Posse.  Oracle sponsored the event, with an introduction by Justin Kestelyn and update on Java.net from Sonya Barry.  And of course the Java Posse did an amazing job working the crowd with some hilarious techie humor.

Justin Kestelyn: http://jnlp.ubivent.com/jnlp/eventid=10/guest=1/path=doc:129,doc:128,doc:217,goto:v:-0

Sonya Barry: http://jnlp.ubivent.com/jnlp/eventid=10/guest=1/path=doc:129,doc:128,doc:217,goto:v:-1

The Java Posse: http://jnlp.ubivent.com/jnlp/eventid=10/guest=1/path=doc:129,doc:128,doc:217,goto:v:-2

For our meeting next month we have the esteemed Max Katz coming to speak on Enterprise JavaFX.  He will demonstrate how to use the open-source Flamingo framework to connect a JavaFX application to an enterprise backend using JBoss Seam.  For those of you who don’t know, Exadel also develops an Eclipse plug-in for JavaFX, which he will be using for all his coding examples.  It should be an exciting event, so please sign-up to attend in person or online:

Enterprise JavaFX with Max Katz:  http://www.svjugfx.org/calendar/13605800/

This past month we had a great combined meeting of the Silicon Valley JavaFX User Group (SvJugFx) together with the Silicon Valley Web User Group.  The presenters included Richard Hyde and James Allen from Oracle on the Java Store and Yoav Landman and Fred Simon from JFrog on repository management with Artifactory.

Our April SvJugFx presentation will feature Stuart Marks from the JavaFX Team in Hands on JavaFX – Scripting the Scene Graph.  To attend in person or via our live web stream (and be eligible for great prizes!), please sign-up here: http://www.svjugfx.org/calendar/12863551/

We were also fortunate enough to be contacted by the folks at Ubivent who have developed a JavaFX-based event platform.  Their platform is used by large corporations like SAP, and they have generously offered to host our videos going forward.  Therefore, you can now watch all the SvJugFx videos using JavaFX technology!

To watch the latest videos, you can go to the landing page for the new SvJugFX Video Site:

Registration is optional, but will allow you to comment on the presentations.  Once you launch the application you will be taken to an event hall that lets you choose which presentation you want to watch:

Finally, when you click on a presentation you will be given a virtual theater experience with side-by-side slides and video.  You can click on the double arrows to expand it to full screen, skip around by chapter, and comment on the video as you are watching.

For convenience, here are some links that will take you directly to the two videos and their associated slide shows:

Java Store & Java Warehouse Overview (video) (slides)

Repository Management with JFrog Artifactory (video) (slides)

Also, we have posted the videos on our Parleys SvJugFx Space and will continue to do that for folks who like using this excellent presentation platform.

Recently I have been doing a lot of research, experimentation, and processing of videos for the Silicon Valley JavaFX User Group.  We decided from day 1 that we wanted to take things up a notch by providing high quality web streaming of our events.  It makes particular sense for us, because the JavaFX community is spread all around the world, and we want to be able to reach as wide of an audience as possible.  However, once you have everything setup the overhead is minimal, so it is worthwhile to do for any user group or event.

Video setup for the first SvJugFx meeting with myself (left) and Keith Combs (right) running the rig.

Because this is a fairly in depth subject, I am going to cover it in a 4 part blog series.  Here are the topics (links will be added as each entry is published):

• Part 1 : Introduction – You are reading it!
• Part 2 : Hardware – This will give you an idea what hardware you need (including how to reuse what you have available).
• Part 3 : Broadcasting – A step-by-step guide on how to stream video live from your event and tools to let your remote audience interact.
• Part 4 : Post-processing – How to take the video assets you have and process them for upload complete with slides.

By the end of this series you will be able to walk in to almost any venue and do live streaming on the spot.  You will also be able to post-process professional videos like Hinkmond’s February JavaFX Mobile talk.

Please drop feedback or comments below on anything specific you are interested on hearing me cover beyond what I have already mentioned!

In case you missed the big event last week, I have finished post-processing and uploading the video.  We took the quality up a notch by getting a direct screen capture from the presenter laptop.  This means that you will not only get crystal clear slides, but also full-screen demos and a nice tight head-shot of the presenter.  This moves our video setup firmly up from a Level 4 to a premium Level 1 operation as detailed in Stephan Janssen’s blog.

Without further ado, here is the Parleys version of Hinkmond’s JavaFX Mobile Dojo talk:

I got a lot of requests for just the slides last time, so I am also making them available here:

Finally, a quick plug for our next SvJugFx event.  We will be doing a double feature with folks from the Java Store and JFrog Artifactory presenting back-to-back.  Even if you plan to attend online, make sure to sign-up here:
http://www.svjugfx.org/calendar/12559455/

I finished post-processing and publishing our January talk with Amy Fowler on Parleys.com.

Here is a direct link: JavaFX Layout Secrets with Amy Fowler

I did my best to clean up the audio at the beginning to remove the static that our streaming listeners had to put up with. After the first 10 minutes we swapped mics, which made a huge difference!

Here are the slides for the same presentation:

Our plan for next month is to upgrade our streaming/recording setup once again so we can directly capture the presenter’s VGA signal for a dual-cast. This should allow us to capture the demos in full resolution and give a much better streaming experience. If you or your company is interested in helping sponsor some of our hardware needs, we can definitely use the help (contact me).

See you next month for Hinkmond’s JavaFX Mobile talk: Hinkmond’s JavaFX Mobile Dojo

Just a quick note. I have added a new page for the Silicon Valley JavaFX User Group live stream in the toolbar above. It contains an embedded movie player, chat window, and link to Google Moderator. The direct url is: http://steveonjava.com/svjugfx/

I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but the live stream is definitely worth the effort to watch. It is the only place you will get to hear the interesting commentary by JavaFX experts such as Jim Weaver, Dean Iverson, Jonathan Giles, and others.

Please also use this post to respond with comments and suggestions about the stream so we can improve it in future meetings.

We will be broadcasting tonight at 7PM PST, so please join us for a great presentation from Amy Fowler!

I am very pleased to have Amy Fowler (Aim) presenting on JavaFX Layouts at our January Silicon Valley JavaFX Users Group (SvJugFx).  For those of you who don’t know Aim, she was a founding member of the Swing team, has done some Rock Star presentations at JavaOne, and is a core member of the JavaFX team focused on all things layout.

If you are doing any JavaFX development at all, this is an event you won’t want to miss.  The presentation is on January 13th and you can sign-up on the SvJugFx website here:

Click to Sign-Up

We will also be streaming the event live from Santa Clara, so if you don’t live nearby make sure to join us online for the event.  I actually think the folks watching it online are at an advantage, because they get all the inside information in the chat window from JavaFX luminaries like Jim Weaver, Dean Iverson, and Jonathan Giles.

For those of you who missed our December event, we just finished posting Richard Bair’s December talk on JavaFX entitled “Intro to JavaFX – A Rich Client Platform for All Screens.”  You can view it on Parleys.com complete with synchronized slides by clicking on the image or link below:

Richard Bair Presenting on JavaFX at the SvJugFx

Click to View Presentation

I hope to see you at our next event!

For those of you who don’t know, SvJugFx stands for the Silicon Valley JavaFX Users Group.  We will be holding our very first meeting this coming Wednesday with a live, streamed presentation from the world renowned Richard Bair (who is now infamous for divulging JavaFX secrets at Devoxx).

Richard Bair Presenting at Devoxx 2009

Yes, I said streamed live…  for those of you who are not fortunate enough to live in Silicon Valley, you can still participate in realtime by doing the following:

1. Sign-up for the SvJugFx meetup group.  This is the primary communication vehicle we will use to announce last-minute changes:
   http://www.svjugfx.org/
   (Note: Everyone can sign up for the group, but please only RSVP for the event if you are physically attending)
2. For the video feed, please go to the following ustream channel:

   http://www.ustream.tv/channel/silicon-valley-javafx-user-group

3. And to participate, please log on to Google Moderator at the following URL:

   http://moderator.appspot.com/#16/e=d528e

The in-person meeting will start on: Wednesday at 6PM PST
The online streaming will start at latest by: 7PM PST (possibly earlier)

Please leave enough time to login on both sites and test your internet and video playback capabilities.  You will be able to watch the live video stream on ustream and respond with your own questions (as well as vote other participant’s questions up and down) via Google Moderator, which we will be monitoring during the presentation.

This is the first time we are trying this format, so we apologize in advance for technical glitches or issues that we are sure will arise.

“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.”

–Winston Churchill