James Weaver on Quantum Computing and Java

Expressing the UI with JavaFX FXML

You may have used the JavaFX Scene Builder tool to create the user interface for a JavaFX application.  The underlying data format for the UI that you create with Scene Builder is an XML dialect named FXML.  Here's an article that I wrote for Oracle Technology Network to help you understand FXML.

By the way, the REST communcation in the example program uses REST/FX. As a heads-up, DataFX is becoming a de-facto standard that you might check out as well for data communication from a JavaFX application.

Regards,
Jim Weaver
james.weaver@oracle.com 

JFXtras Project: There's an app for that!

You may already know that the goal of the open source JFXtras Project is to provide pieces that developers often need in their day-to-day work, but that are currently missing from JavaFX 2.  There is an application named JFXtras Ensemble that demos those pieces (currently some Controls and Gauges) available in the JFXtras Project.  To install and run the app, visit jfxtras.org and click the appropriate native installer link in the Try It! section.

Congratulations and thanks to the contributors to the JFXtras Project, namely Stephen Chin, Dean Iverson, Tom Eugelink, Gerrit Grunwald, Thomas Bolz and Jonathan Giles.  Please consider joining the JFXtras Project and helping us create additional useful pieces for JavaFX 2 application development!

Regards,
Jim Weaver
james.weaver@oracle.com 

Naveen and Jim's Excellent ASEAN Adventure

I recently had the privilege and pleasure of traveling throughout the ASEAN region speaking at Oracle Technical Network "Developer Days" events.  The five cities in the tour  were Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Singapore, and Bangkok.  My tour guide and traveling buddy was Naveen Asrani (see picture on the right), a Director of Product Management at Oracle who lives next door to the region in Bangalore.

One of the things that struck me on the tour was how warm and engaging people (including the Java developers) are in the ASEAN region.  The attendees in each location had high levels of professionalism and lots of great questions.  It was also great to meet developers that I had previously only communicated with electronically.  One such developer was Mark Anro Silva in Manila, pictured in the top slide in the deck below.  Mark is a JavaFX pioneer from the early days of JavaFX Script, and shares his work via his blog.

I found it amusing, by the way, that Lady Gaga was on tour in the same region.  After checking into the Makati Shangri-La hotel in Manila, I turned on the TV and found that Gaga had checked in that morning.  I had no idea that she was into Java/JavaFX! :-)

Take a look at the great audiences and a couple of the sights that I had the privilege of seeing, in the slide deck below:

OTN ASEAN Developer Day Photos

I hope to return to the ASEAN region soon!

Regards,
Jim Weaver
james.weaver@oracle.com 

Best Practices for JavaFX 2 Enterprise Applications

I want to make you aware of a two-part series that I wrote for the Oracle Technical Network entitled Best Practices for JavaFX 2 Enterprise Applications.  These newly-published articles focus on using best practices for developing enterprise applications in JavaFX 2.  A great companion-read to these articles is the blog post entitled JavaFX:The 10,000 Foot View written by Richard Bair, as it continues to shed light on the future of JavaFX application deployment (e.g. via native application bundles).

Enjoy!
Jim Weaver
james.weaver@oracle.com