When will JavaFX be ready to replace Swing?

[IngoF]

I'm currently looking into JavaFX from the enterprise developer's
point of view and I'm also working on a little article on the subject.

When looking at JavaFX script, it sure is impressive with build in
binding, properties and so on.
And the ease of making cool effects and animations happen really
knocked my socks off!

However, when you play around with it becomes pretty as well, that it
lacks in terms Layout Management, more complex
Widgets, application lifecyle management and so on.
So what should be the advice for someone starting a project for a new
intranet application TODAY?
Use Swing, although you know it will die sooner or later? Write your
own widgets, a little framework around them and use MigLayout?
And then throw everything away when a new and more complete version of
JavaFX comes around?
Or maybe just wait for JavaFX 1.2 or whatever?
But when will it be out? I couldn't find a release schedule or
anything that hints at the next version on the official pages.

Does anyone here know maybe?

[Ruben Reusser]

aster listening to the recent http://feeds2.feedburner.com/thisaintyourdadsjava podcast I was hoping there will be a release of some sort of a component framework for javafx at java one :-)

Ruben

--
Ruben Reusser
headwire.com, Inc
949 595 4365

[Steven Herod]

My advice, after spending the last few months chipping away at my
twitter client in JavaFX 1.0 and 1.1 is wait until 1.2 and see what
they come up with in terms of controls. I wouldn't build an
enterprise app in it today, and I've been working with it for months
in all my spare time.

There are rumors swirly around that JavaFX 1.2 is imminent, that it
will contain controls, including perhaps a charting API and that they
will be native and skinnable,

People (partners) are also seemly getting drops of JavaFX 1.2 today,
which is also apparently including performance improvements.

It's about 4 weeks until Java One. I suggest you postpone your
decision until then and get familiar with the basics in the meantime
(like, buy a book).

Plug (my twitter client, current version 0.30M)

The dev version is here: http://herod.net/twitterfxdev/TwitterFX.jnlp

[Craig Aspinall]

JavaFX is not a direct replacement for Swing, it's an alternative to
Swing, and Swing is going to be around for a long time (possibly
longer than JavaFX if Oracle decides to duck out of the fight with
Adobe and Microsoft). JavaFX script is neat and I really hope that it
flourishes under new ownership, but right now I wouldn't base a
commercial application on it. It's not (yet) good enough to compete
with the user experience of Flex or Silverlight, and opinion is very
much divided about it's future after Oracle completes it's takeover.

If you have to make a decision right now and you have to use Java,
then I would go with Swing. If you want all the whizzy effects of
JavaFX, buy a copy of Filthy Rich Clients which tells you how to
achieve them with regular Java. If you're not tied to Java for the UI,
then I'd be considering Flex instead.

If you don't have to make a decision right now, I'd wait until the
dust settles after Oracle completes it takeover, or at least until
JavaOne!

[Joshua Marinacci]

Our goal is to make JavaFX be the easiest way to create UIs for
enterprise apps. That said, clearly we aren't there yet. The next
release of JavaFX is scheduled to be released at JavaOne or shortly
thereafter. It will definitely have improved controls and layout, as
well as some other fun stuff. Stay tuned.

- Josh

[Michael Kimsal]

Interesting note Josh. 

"Our goal is to make JavaFX be the easiest way to create UIs for
enterprise apps"

That's the clearest bit of goal/focus/design that I've heard for JavaFX,
and clears up a lot of potential questions about "why".  Having said that,
were you speaking just to the "enterprise"ness of JavaFX, and does
JavaFX have other goals as well?  Or is the thinking that JavaFX would
play in the "enterprise" space only, and leave other markets for
Flex/Silverlight to divvy up?

On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 11:46 AM, Joshua Marinacci <jos...@gmail.com> wrote:

Our goal is to make JavaFX be the easiest way to create UIs for
enterprise apps. That said, clearly we aren't there yet.  The next
release of JavaFX is scheduled to be released at JavaOne or shortly
thereafter. It will definitely have improved controls and layout, as
well as some other fun stuff.  Stay tuned.

- Josh

--
Michael Kimsal
http://jsmag.com - for javascript developers
http://groovymag.com - for groovy developers
919.827.4724

[Joshua Marinacci]

JavaFX will play in both the enterprise space and the consumer space (esp. since they are overlapping more and more.)  Our first versions of JavaFX focused on just getting the pieces out there and getting graphics, animation, and media working. Enterprise apps, of course, need controls, so this is the first release that is more targeted at the enterprise.  You'll start to see why binding is so useful. :)

[Ryan Waterer]

Thanks for the information Josh!   I've been really excited about JavaFX and have a small piece integrated into our internal reporting APP here at work.  While it was do-able, there were serveral sections that I felt were just "hacks" to get it to work correctly.    I'm really looking forward to what is/will be announced in the next couple of months.

[IngoF]

Wow, yeah thanks Josh!
That was exactly the kind of announcement that I was hopping for!
Actually I won't be building a large JavaFX app right now, I just
started to write an article about "JavaFX in the Enterprise".
But I guess I'll take a break with that now until JavaOne... ;)

As for Swing: I really like Swing and was also very exited about
the "filthy rich" book when it came out. But when you compare
Swing and JavaFX, then I find JFX being a whole lot easier and
more productive. Sure, Swing will still be around for a very long
time.
(as will CORBA support;) ) But if JavaFX comes with all the controls
Swing
has, good Layout and a Matisse like GUI builder, then JavaFX will for
sure become the number one choice for any new Java GUI Project.
Which means: The usage of Swing will fade out....

[Vince O'Sullivan]

On Apr 29, 5:10 pm, Joshua Marinacci <jos...@gmail.com> wrote:
> JavaFX will play in both the enterprise space and the consumer space  

> (esp. since they are overlapping more and more.)...

In other words, soon it's going to be everywhere...

A couple of weeks back I was cleaning some old apps off my Vista based
PC. To to that you go to the Contol Panel and select the option to
add or remove programs. So far, so good. What surprised me was
amongst the list of programs installed was almost every sample
application that I had clicked on on the JavaFX examples page. Almost
a quarter of the applications that I had installed on the machine
were, in fact, JavaFX applications.

I had no idea that clicking JavaFX components on web pages would
result in so many applications being installed permanently on my
machine. Is this a feature of JavaFX? Should I expect to see a sort
of "JavaFX browsing history" in the form of installed applications on
my PC?

[Joshua Marinacci]

On Apr 29, 2009, at 10:41 PM, IngoF wrote:

>
> Wow, yeah thanks Josh!
> That was exactly the kind of announcement that I was hopping for!
> Actually I won't be building a large JavaFX app right now, I just
> started to write an article about "JavaFX in the Enterprise".
> But I guess I'll take a break with that now until JavaOne... ;)

Well, don't take a break. There's still tons you can learn with
today's SDK. Take a look at some of the stuff at www.jfxstudio.org,
which is entirely community driven. And keep in mind our developer
contest ends May 29th, *before* JavaOne, so if you want to enter you
need to get started now.

> As for Swing: I really like Swing and was also very exited about
> the "filthy rich" book when it came out. But when you compare
> Swing and JavaFX, then I find JFX being a whole lot easier and
> more productive.

Thanks. That was the idea. The UI controls are being built by a team
of people with many years of Swing experience. We have learned the
lessons of Swing and other UI toolkits and applied them to this new
set. A big desire with JavaFX is to answer the question: what if you
could write a new UI system from scratch, without worrying about Java
syntax, AWT legacy, and the constraints of Windows 98 era computers.
I think you'll be happy.

- Josh