Blog Moved

I noticed that I was getting a few hits on the old wordpress.com site for my blog.  Please go to http://steveonjava.com/ instead for the latest content.

Take me there now!

2009 Devoxx Posts + NetBeans JavaFX Designer Preview

The two talks I gave at Devoxx 2009 are now available on the Parleys.com website for online viewing.

I would recommend you start with the University Talk, which is the most in-depth tutorial on the JavaFX Language and Platform available today.  This talk also features a guest appearance by Tor Norbye who demonstrated the new NetBeans JavaFX Designer Tool (which is distinct from the Authoring Tool):

Netbeans JavaFX Designer Demo

http://devoxx.parleys.com/#st=5&id=1636

The second is the JavaFX Enterprise Developer talk, which showcased many of the new JFXtras components that we are about to release in the 0.6 JFXtras release (a preview of which is available today).  It also goes into detail on JavaFX unit testing with FEST-JavaFX, which is a tool any enterprise developer should use regularly:

Pro JavaFX - Developing Enterprise Applications

http://devoxx.parleys.com/#st=5&id=1593

Both talks are available now for a small fee to register, which is well worth it for all the great content at the conference.  There was a lot of preparation work that went into these talks, so I hope you enjoy them!

WidgetFX Contest – Finish Line

 

IRONMAN Germany – Finish Line
 
Originally uploaded by Daniel Rüd (ruedfotos.de)

Tomorrow is the last day for the WidgetFX Contest! We don’t have as grand of a finish line as IRONMAN in Germany, but I am sure there will be some excitement as we get down to the last couple hours.

It is a little too late to start a new Widget from scratch, but still plenty of time to wrap an existing JavaFX application as a Widget and submit it. (By the way, if you have trouble uploading a widget, drop an e-mail on the WidgetFX Users List.)

Best of luck to all the WidgetFX Contest Entrants!

JFXtras Team Grows Up

We have had quite a few additions to the project team over the past couple weeks.

The JFXtras Team - Ninjas... of JavaFX

Please join me in welcoming the following folks:

• Jonathan Giles – Jonathan is best known for his weekly Java Desktop Links of the Week, and recently (yesterday) contributed a very high quality JavaFX menu bar component to the JFXtras project.  Here is a link to his most recent blog entry on the subject:

  http://jonathangiles.net/blog/?p=566

• Rakesh Menon – Rakesh, a member of the Sun JavaFX team, has been building out a set of standard JavaFX parsers for various services such as Twitter, Yahoo, and Flickr.  He will be contributing these to the JFXtras project for incorporation in a future release.  You can read more about his JavaFX exploits on his blog:
  http://blogs.sun.com/rakeshmenonp/
• Jeff Friesen – JavaJeff is a developer and educator who wrote the very first article on JFXtras for JavaWorld.  He has agreed to contribute his Custom Cursors and Custom Paints to the JFXtras project from his popular java.net articles.  There is some documentation and testing needed before this is ready for release if anyone is interested in volunteering.
• Till Ballendat – Till created some great widgets for the WidgetFX Contest, and graciously offered to submit some of his components to the JFXtras project.  He has already checked in his MultiLineTextBox component from his Twitter widget.
• Liu Huasong – Liu (a.k.a. goodsforyou) has started contributing some of his code from real JavaFX projects.  His most recent check-in included some advanced gradients including an HSB variant for Linear and Radial gradients.
• Simon Morris – Simon, author of the upcoming JavaFX in Action book, has contributed a wipe transitions library.  It needs a little bit of documentation and work, so if anyone is interested in helping to productize this, let me know!

And also the following contributors to the JFXtras Community Site:

• Carl Dea – Carl was winner of the “Dude, Where’s My Pass?” JavaOne contest, and has become a JavaFX community champion.  He has taken the JFXtras Links page and run with it, so please be sure to check out his latest work.
• David Armitage – David contributed his JFXMines application to the JFXtras Samples library.  He also prodded me to get the Community Forum going.
• Sten Anderson – Sten is winner of the JavaFX 25K Challenge, and has released the full source code for his winning entry, Music Explorer FX, to the JFXtras Samples repository.
• Mark Macumber – Mark is one of our first project members who did early work on charting.  He recently contributed a Hudson charting mash-up to the JFXtras Samples library.

And of course our long-time contributors including: Jim Clarke, Dean Iverson, Keith Combs, Steven Bixby, and Jim Weaver.

If you are interested in joining the JFXtras team, we have plenty of work to go around.  Please drop a note on the JFXtras Developers mailing list and let us know what you are interested in helping out with.

JFXtras Test and FEST Unite!

I put together the JFXtras Test 0.5 Release today.  This release includes full support for JavaFX 1.2, new comparison expectations (thanks to Peter Pilgrim!), and asynchronous testing support.

You can download JFXtras Test 0.5 here:
http://code.google.com/p/jfxtras/downloads/list

This will be the final release under this name as the codebase is merged with the FEST project.

So what do you get when JFXtras Test and FEST Unite?

JFXtras Test + FEST = FEST-JavaFX

Here is what you might want:

• A super-sonic drill that pulverizes Gunmen
• An extra face growing out of your stomach with cool shades and a wicked smile
• A special attack with a killer name like “Giga Drill Breaker!”

But you will have to settle with:

• Tests for JavaFX, written in JavaFX
• Behavior-Driven Development
• Fluent Assertions
• Parameterized Tests
• Declarative Unit Testing
• JavaFX UI Testing
• JUnit Integration

 

Enjoy the final release of JFXtras Test, and look forward to some exciting new work from the FEST-JavaFX project in the months to come!

2009 JavaOne Rock Stars Announced!

Sun finally announced the Rock Stars for JavaOne 2009.

http://java.sun.com/javaone/2009/rockstars.jsp

Duke Rocking Out

Joshua Marinacci and I received the Rock Star award for our “Getting Started with WidgetFX” session.  If you haven’t already, check out my post-session blog with pictures and the full presentation.  Thanks everyone who came to the session and made it a success!

This was a huge year for Java client technologies.  Congratulations to all the JavaFX and Java Desktop winners this year:

• Hinkmond Wong - After presenting at 10! JavaOne conferences he has finally joined the JavaOne Rockstar ranks.  Find out more about converting Midlets to JavaFX Mobile in his presentation.  Congratulations!
• Kirill Grouchnikov - The stalwart desktop champion, Kirill, proved that Swing still has some kick!  He unveiled a full-featured ribbon component for Swing that gives Office 2007 a run for its money.
• Deane Richan - Deane showed that Swing apps don’t have to look like “Something my Cat Coughed Up” with a visually inspiring Gradebook application design.  Learn his design and architecture secrets in the presentation.
• Chet Haase & Romain Guy - Chet and Romain had the guts to talk about animation for 45 minutes and it paid off with a great presentation!  Learn animation principles from the masters that apply to any platform you are working in whether it is Swing or JavaFX in their presentation.
• Jasper Potts & Rich Bair - Last, but not least, Jasper and Rich should have been given their own advanced JavaFX track at the conference.  They presented in multiple sessions, revealing all the secrets of the JavaFX 1.2 release.  Find out more about Graphics, Animation, and CSS in this presentation.

Also, congratulations to all the JavaOne Rockstars!  You are the guys who will keep the Java platform running successfully into the next decade!

Nabaztag Visits the Oakland Java SIG

I had the pleasure of presenting on WidgetFX and JFXtras last night for the Oakland Java SIG.  It was a small, but very engaged audience, and Chris Richardson was a great host!

As usual, Nabaztag was a huge hit.  He got a little upgrade to WidgetFX 1.2 and is now available to try on the WidgetFX Library site:

Nabaztag Widget Speaks!

Note: Make sure you enter the serial number and token of your rabbit in the config dialog of the widget or it will not work.

All the other samples including the MediaExplorer, DrawJFXtras, Spheres Demo, and JFXtras Shelf are available on the new JFXtras Community Site (more on this in a few days):

Shelf Demo on the JFXtras Community Site

There was a lot of new content on JFXtras that I put together just for this event, so I have posted the presentation in two parts as PDF documents here:

Part A (JFXtras): SuperchargingWithJFXtras

Part B (WidgetFX): SuperchargingWithWidgetFX

I hope you enjoy the demos and slides!

Learn WidgetFX with Passion!

Sang Shin has included WidgetFX as part of his 15 week JavaFX Programming Course that is currently underway.  This is a free online course that you can take at your own pace based on his excellent training materials.

Sang Shin, Java Passion instructor

The scheduled date for the WidgetFX module is July 25th, and will feature an online lab and homework to teach basic widget development.

Sign up at javapassion.com and sharpen your skills on JavaFX and WidgetFX for free!

While you are learning WidgetFX, this is a great opportunity to toss an entry into the Widget Developer Contest that is running until the end of July.

WidgetFX Developer Contest

JavaFX 1.2 Refcard Released

JavaFX 1.2 officially hit the shelves today, and I have my own announcement to follow it up.

My Getting Started with JavaFX Refcard is available and fully updated for the JavaFX 1.2 release! (how is that for just-in-time documentation)

JavaFX Refcard Sample Application

It includes sections on the following:

Loading an Image on the Stage

Displaying Text With Effects

Animating Transitions

Interacting With Controls

Panning With Layouts

Finishing With Media

Running on Mobile

Running as a Desktop Widget

It also has a very thorough JavaFX Reference that covers everything from operator precedence to JavaFX sequence nuances.  Please give it a read:

http://refcardz.dzone.com/

This blog entry is also a good place to give me feedback on the article, so fire away in the comments section, or come to one of my JavaOne sessions and ask in person!

WidgetFX Session Sold Out!

5/2 Update: Seats now available…  Sign-up now!

The JavaOne schedule builder just opened a few days ago, and the WidgetFX session has already filled up to capacity!

Here is a screenshot of what you will get if you try to sign up today:

WidgetFX Session Full!

So what if you wanted to attend, but haven’t signed up yet?  The JavaOne conference team is usually pretty good about reallocating rooms to make space for additional attendees, and if you click the yellow plus sign you will get an e-mail notification when additional space is available.

Fun Fact: The WidgetFX session was the earliest submitted session that was accepted by the review committee (check for yourself, there are no session numbers below TS-3789).

Also, you could always sign up for my other session with Jim Weaver on RIA Enterprise Application Development with JavaFX (TS-4861).  Only 191 seats left, so sign up ASAP.

I hope to see you at JavaOne!