James Weaver on Quantum Computing and Java

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 

Using Properties and Bindings in JavaFX 2

Just a quick note that Part One of the Using Properties and Bindings in JavaFX 2 article that  I wrote for Java Magazine is now available.  It is written in tutorial-style, and contains a download that has exercise/solution code.  Here's a video that introduces the article:

 

I hope that you'll find this article helpful in learning about JavaFX 2 properties and bindings!

Regards,
Jim Weaver
james.weaver@oracle.com 

Pro JavaFX 2: A Definitive Guide to Rich Clients with Java Technology

With the release of JavaFX 2, Weiqi, Stephen, Dean and I decided to rewrite our Pro JavaFX book.  During the process, Johan Vos joined the fray, and Pro JavaFX 2 is now available as a definitive guide for Java developers.  Here's the Table of Contents:

01. Getting a Jump Start in JavaFX
02. Creating a User Interface in JavaFX
03. Properties and Bindings
04. Dynamically Laying Out Nodes in the UI
05. Using the JavaFX UI Controls
06. Collections and Concurrency
07. Creating  Charts in JavaFX
08. Using the Media Classes
09. Accessing Web Services                
10. JavaFX Languages and Markup
Ap: The Visage Language In-Depth

Carl Dea did an excellent job of keeping the book technically accurate, and Nandini Ramani wrote the foreword.  It is our hope that you find Pro JavaFX 2 a very useful resource as you create apps using the JavaFX 2 API.

Update 27-Mar-2012: Here's a Java Spotlight Podcast in which all of the Pro JavaFX 2 authors are interviewed by Roger Brinkley. 

Update 19-Apr-2012: Here's the first chapter so that you can begin getting up to speed on JavaFX and make an informed decision on whether to purchase the book.  You can find the code download for the book on the Source Code/Downloads tab of the Pro JavaFX 2 page on the Apress website.

Update 09-Jul-2012: Here's an Oracle author podcast in which Stephen Chin and Jim Weaver are interviewed by Donald Smith about the Pro JavaFX 2 book. 

Regards,
Jim Weaver
jim.weaver @ javafxpert.com 

Laying Out a User Interface with JavaFX 2

One of the advantages of developing applications with Java/JavaFX is its cross-platform capabilities.  One characteristic of cross-platform applications is their ability to position and resize the elements in the UI appropriately regardless of execution platform and app dimensions.  Here's an article that I wrote for the Oracle Technology Network to help you use the layout capabilities of JavaFX 2.

Regards,
Jim Weaver
jim.weaver @ javafxpert.com