Monday, September 14, 2009

Getting Started With JavaFX

There are many tools to build RIAs, and I found JavaFX interesting, fun to use, and though still green and growing it fits my needs for my current projects.

These are a set of links any resourceful person can find on their own. I distilled the sites I found useful, and I use this post as a reference point for those asking me about JavaFX. I also revisit this post's reference section for myself, so I'll try to keep it updated.

Prerequisites

You should be familiar with RIAs (Rich Internet Applications) and some coding experience with similar or related tools such as Flash, Silverlight and some Java.

What is JavaFX?
Learn the Basics
Learn More
Stay in Touch
Personal Notes and Suggestions

I'm using NetBeans IDE for JavaFX. In the past I always used Eclipse for my Java coding (and still like it), but I since I was learning a new API I thought I'd try a new IDE. So far it is working great.

I'm developing on a Windows 7 virtual machine, but I also use an Ubuntu virtual machine on my laptop. NetBeans and JavaFX has worked great in both environments so far. I downloaded my Ubuntu 9.04 VM from Linhost.info and it has worked perfectly.

For me, the declarative style of JavaFX script took a while to get used to, but now I love it. I suggest opening your IDE, creating a JavaFX project and step through the
JavaFX Language Reference. Run the samples yourself and get a feel for how it all fits together. By the end of the trail, you'll have a good grasp on what the scripts can do and the samples will make more sense.

No comments: