Eclipse meets JavaFX in e(fx)clipse 0.1.0

The latest release of the Eclipse flavoured version of JavaFX, bringing in some new features of both JavaFX 2.2 and of Eclipse Juno
With Oracle actively pursuing a future for their rich
internet application (RIA) platform, JavaFX, it’s interesting to
monitor the progress of a expanding supporting cast.
Eclipse’s support for JavaFX 2.2 has received a big boost
recently with the release of e(fx)clipse
0.1.0, the Eclipse IDE-flavoured tooling and runtime
platform. The previous release came
way back in December, and quite a bit has
happened since for JavaFX. e(fx)clipse already has a fair amount
going for it, with Eclipse JDT, PDE, DSL, CSS and FXML support
included. JRE, OSGi and RCP runtimes are all
supported.
Key developer of the
project Tom
Schindl was delighted to reveal the latest
release, complete with brand new features and important bug
fixes.
From the outset, the biggest change is the dropping of Java
FX 2.0, in favour of
the newer 2.2,
and 2.1 as the minimum entry level. Consequently, this has
allowed the array of new JavaFX features to arrive for the Eclipse
offshoot, most notably SceneBuilder and the native packaging
options.
Advances have been made to FXML and FXGraph, such as the
aforementioned Scenebuilder interoperation but also support for
fx:root, support for polyline and imageSVG-Element
types (meaning some nice looking JavaFX controls)
and a new syntax to define static properties.
It’s not just the newest intricacies of JavaFX that get an outing
but also parts of the Eclipse Juno release train, with a new wizard
provided that details how to bootstrap a Java FX application on
Eclipse’s brand new platform, e4.
It’s another step towards a full version for this JavaFX
rethinking for Eclipse – perhaps this might give it momentum
to see some people picking it up. It is bleeding
edge technology though, so expect plenty of bugs along the way.
Download here.
Also well worth checking out, if you’re a fan of JavaFX, is
the latest and sixth beta of Scenic View
1.1, an application designed to help
make it far easier to understand the state of your JavaFX
application.