Timer.java:

package timer;

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader;
import javafx.scene.Group;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class Timer extends Application
{
   public static void main(String[] args)
   {
      Application.launch(args);
   }

   @Override
   public void start(Stage primaryStage) throws Exception
   {
      primaryStage.setTitle("FX Timer Binding/ProgressBar");

      Group root = FXMLLoader.load(getClass().getResource("Timer.fxml"));

      Scene scene = new Scene(root);
      primaryStage.setScene(scene);
      primaryStage.show();
   }
}

Timer.fxml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<?import javafx.scene.Group?>
<?import javafx.scene.layout.VBox?>
<?import javafx.scene.control.Button?>
<?import javafx.scene.control.Label?>
<?import javafx.scene.control.ProgressBar?>
<?import javafx.scene.paint.Color?>
<?import javafx.geometry.Pos?>

<Group xmlns:fx="http://javafx.com/fxml&quot; fx:controller="timer.TimerController" >
	<children>
		<VBox spacing="20" alignment="CENTER" prefWidth="300" prefHeight="250">
			<children>
				<Button fx:id="buttonStart" text="Start Timer" onAction="#handleStartAction" />
				<Label fx:id="timerLabel" text="15" textFill="RED" style="-fx-font-size: 4em;"/>
				<ProgressBar fx:id="progressBar"/>
			</children>
		</VBox>
	</children>
</Group>

TimerController.java

package timer;

import java.net.URL;
import java.util.ResourceBundle;

import javafx.animation.KeyFrame;
import javafx.animation.KeyValue;
import javafx.animation.Timeline;
import javafx.beans.property.IntegerProperty;
import javafx.beans.property.SimpleIntegerProperty;
import javafx.event.ActionEvent;
import javafx.fxml.FXML;
import javafx.fxml.Initializable;
import javafx.scene.control.Button;
import javafx.scene.control.Label;
import javafx.scene.control.ProgressBar;
import javafx.util.Duration;

public class TimerController implements Initializable
{
   private static final Integer STARTTIME   = 15;

   private IntegerProperty      timeSeconds = new SimpleIntegerProperty(STARTTIME * 100);

   private Timeline             timeline;

   @FXML
   private Button               buttonStart;

   @FXML
   private Label                timerLabel;

   @FXML
   private ProgressBar          progressBar;

   @Override
   public void initialize(URL location, ResourceBundle resources)
   {
      timerLabel.textProperty().bind(timeSeconds.divide(100).asString());
      progressBar.progressProperty().bind(timeSeconds.divide(STARTTIME * 100.0).subtract(1).multiply(-1));
   }

   @FXML
   protected void handleStartAction(ActionEvent event)
   {
      if (timeline != null)
      {
         timeline.stop();
      }
      timeSeconds.set((STARTTIME + 1) * 100);
      timeline = new Timeline();
      timeline.getKeyFrames().add(

      new KeyFrame(Duration.seconds(STARTTIME + 1), new KeyValue(timeSeconds, 0)));
      timeline.playFromStart();
   }
}

Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment! I appreciate the feedback.

After I quick search I found the following set of tutorials which explores building a JavaFX enterprise application here: http://www.zenjava.com/series/building-jee-applications-in-javafx-2-0/. The material looks very helpful.

Yes, I agree using FXML helps separate the view and lets you build an MVC-structured app. Also, the FXML lets you see the hierarchical arrangement of your scenegraph–which helps with maintenance. Here is a link for readers who would like to explore FXML further: http://docs.oracle.com/javafx/2.0/fxml_get_started/why_use_fxml.htm.

As you noted, I was focusing on the JavaFX API in this post. By all means, I encourage you to post the FXML for this Timer example. I think readers would like to see the implementation differences.

Again, thanks for the feedback.

First, thank you very much for this blog post/tutorial. Your writing is concise and your focus on one “feature” makes it much easier to comprehend and build skills with JavaFX.

Second, I have been using GWT for about a year and despite its ability to make stunning web apps, I have found myself fighting against the framework to get relatively simple things done (especially the new RequestFactory and Editor frameworks). JavaFX looks like a nice alternative (except that it runs as a plugin instead of a website which is both a hindrance for user adoption and a great help for producing an app in a much shorter time span). Do you have or know of any references on how to structure JavaFX apps as web-apps (i.e. that pull and push data to a server)?

Thirdly, I noticed you have not utilized FXML in these posts. While I find it adds a little complexity it seems to separate concerns quite nicely. I have redone this Timer post in FXML if you are interested.

Some questions though: 2 typical kinds of applications are e.g.:
Use case 1: access an embedded database with JPA
Use case 2: access a remote Web Service with JAX-WS

Case 1:
How should the JPA entities look like? Should the data layer/ business layer contain JavaFX properties (UI layer)? Or should we duplicate the POJOs – once with “normal” properties and once with JavaFX properties? Other solutions?

Case2:
How can we create JavaFX properties from a WSDL (JAXB)?

It would be great if you (or someone else) could provide some examples for these 2 use cases. (Or point me to them if they already exist.)

Currently I still have the feeling that these JavaFX are really a work-around for a shortcoming in the Java language and I don’t see yet how to make them effectivly work with frameworks such as JPA or JAXB without lot of (alomst) duplicated code.

I guess this is another indicator that Java really needs language level support for properties, which is so fundamental to many frameworks.