GroovyFX

Module Overview

GroovyFX provides a Groovy binding for JavaFX 2.0.
GroovyFX is an API that makes working with JavaFX in Groovy much simpler and more natural to those well-versed in Groovy. GroovyFX is focused on leveraging the Builder pattern for JavaFX applications, but more than that, it leverages some of the DSL capabilities that Groovy provides and makes the Groovy based JavaFX code easier to write and, just as important, easier to read. For example, JavaFX colors can be set using pseudo variables, like red or blue.

The primary goal of GroovyFX is to make JavaFX development simpler and more concise than what it takes in Java. This is done via numerous built-in features that Groovy provides, including the Tree Structured Language supported through Groovy’s Builder framework that makes declaring a JavaFX SceneGraph more closely resemble the actual SceneGraph itself. This is done through GroovyFX’s SceneGraphBuilder object, that supports all the Controls, Shapes, Effects, and other JavaFX objects, as well as support for using Groovy closures for event handling.

Features include a SceneGraphBuilder, a TimelineBuilder and Groovy DSL features to handle JavaFX objects, enumerations, binding, and paints/colors. The following is screenshot of a GroovyFX application demonstrating the visual effect features available with JavaFX.

The project is currently in Alpha 1.0 state.

Download

Project source can be downloaded from the GroovyFX Repository. The repository contains a Netbeans project and the Jar file can be created using Netbeans. Eventually, we plan on making snapshot and release jar files available.

Distributions

TBD

Installing

Under construction

Pre-requisites

Groovy 1.8.+

You will need to install the JavaFX 2.0 Beta from javafx.com

Documentation

Developers

Source Control

Project source can be downloaded from the GroovyFX Repository.

Building

As the source is in a Netbeans project, you can build using Netbeans or using ant from the Netbeans installation.