Last week, we released DataFX 1.0. With DataFX, JavaFX developers can easily integrate internal and external data available in a variety of sources and protocol into JavaFX UI Controls.
The JavaFX technology provides Java developers with lots of possibilities in the area of interactive, visually attractive applications. These applications are targeting the desktop, mobile and tablet space, and even embedded environments. Typically, applications need to visualize data obtained from (remote) webservices and available in XML or JSON format.
More information about DataFX itself can be obtained from http://javafxdata.org The code is maintained at http://java.net/projects/datafx.
It is important to realize that one of the goals of DataFX is to provide an abstraction of the source of the data — e.g. a file containing XML or a webservice returning JSON. In my own development projects, I often use files during development, and real webservices during production. Due to the abstraction, switching between those two different contexts is very easy.
Before we could make a 1.0 release of DataFX, I felt we needed to tackle two important issues:
- Provide a convenient Builder class for a RestRequest.
- Create a maven artifact.
Both goals have been achieved. In my opinion, DataFX can now really be used in real-world JavaFX projects.
More information on how to use DataFX in a maven project can be obtained from this blog post by Hendrik Ebbers.
The DataFX is not finished. There are a number of areas that Jonathan, Hendrik and myself are discussing. However, it is important we get feedback from users. Bug reports, feature requests, general comments are all very welcome. Therefore, we created a mailinglist at the java.net project space: users@datafx.java.net . Feel free to bug us at regular mail or twitter as well!
Johan's blog 