JavaFX Script Plugins for the NetBeans IDE 5.5

Prerequisites

The following software must be installed before you attempt to install the JavaFX Script plugin:

• NetBeans IDE 5.5 (download)
• J2SE JDK 5.0 (Java SE Development Kit), which consists of the Java Runtime Environment plus developer tools for compiling, debugging, and running applications written in the Java language.
  • For Solaris, Windows, and Linux, you can download the JDK for your platform from http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp
  • For Mac OS X, Java SE Development Kit 5.0 Release 4, is required. You can download the JDK from Apple’s Developer Connection site. Start here: http://developer.apple.com/java (you must register to download the JDK).

Note: For information about system requirements for the IDE, see the NetBeans 5.5 IDE Release Notes

Downloading and Installing the Software

This section contains instructions for setting up the NetBeans Update Center Beta and installing the modules on a supported platform.

Setting Up the NetBeans Update Center Beta

You must first set up the NetBeans Update Center Beta in the IDE before you can download and install the JavaFX Script plugin modules. If you already have the update center setup, proceed to the Installing the JavaFX Script Plugin section below.

1. Click Tools > Options from the main menu of the IDE.
2. Click Advanced Options in the lower left corner of the Options dialog.
3. Expand the IDE Configuration > System > Autoupdate Types node.
4. Select the NetBeans Update Center Beta node.
5. In the Properties pane on the right, select the Server URL property and enter (update) as the value.

6. Press Enter and click Close to exit the Advanced Options window.

Installing the JavaFX Script Plugin

Once you have configured the NetBeans Update Center Beta, you can now download and install the JavaFX Script plugin using the steps below.

1. Select Tools > Update Center from the main menu of the IDE.
2. In the Select Location of Modules page, select the NetBeans Update Center Beta check box and unselect all other checkboxes.
3. Click Next and the wizard checks for any available updates for the plugin.
4. In the Select Modules to Install page, select the three JavaFX Features nodes and click Add All. The Include in Install pane is updated with the JavaFX modules, as shown below.
5. Click Next.
6. Click Accept in the License Agreement dialogs. The Download Modules page appears and progress is shown as the modules are downloaded.
7. Click Next after the modules have been successfully downloaded. The View Certificate and Install Modules page is displayed list of certificates are made available for your viewing.
8. Click Finish to proceed with the installation of the JavaFX plugin modules. The IDE proceeds with the installation.
9. From the main menu, click Tools > Module Manager. The JavaFX Editor and JavaFX UserLibrary module nodes are now listed, as shown below. The JavaFXLibrary node can be found under the Libraries node.
10. Click to dismiss the Module manager.
11. Proceed to the Getting Started with the JavaFX Script Language tutorial to create your first JavaFX Script program

JavaFX Script Plugin for the Eclipse SDK

JavaFX 0.0.2

Prerequisites

The following software must be installed before you attempt to install the JavaFX plugin:

• Eclipse SDK version 3.2.2
• J2SE JDK 5.0 (Java SE Development Kit), which consists of the Java Runtime Environment plus developer tools for compiling, debugging, and running applications written in the Java language.

Downloading and Installing the Software

1. Start up your Java – Eclipse SDK.
2. From the main menu, select Help > Software Updates > Find and Install.
3. In the Install/Update dialog, choose Search for New Features to Install and click Next.
4. Click New Remote Site.
5. In the New Update Site dialog, type JavaFX in the Name field.
6. In the URL field, type (url)
7. Click OK.
8. In the Install window, click Finish.
   The Update dialog appears.
9. In the Updates dialog, select JavaFX > JavaFX node > and click Next.
10. Accept the license and click Next.
11. Click Next and Finish
12. In the Verification dialog, select Install All.
13. Restart the SDK.

JavaFX

Alla conferenza JavaOne di San Francisco,Sun Microsystems presenta in anteprima un nuovo linguaggio di scripting basato su Java,denominato JavaFX Script,che semplificherà agli sviluppatori la creazione delle cosidette Rich Internet applications (RIAs). fruibili ed installabili su una molteplicità di dispositivi inclusi quelli mobili.Per quest’ultimi si utilizzerà una versione specifica detta JavaFX Mobile.Tale tecnologia si pone in diretta concorrenza con strumenti ormai diffusi oggi come AJAX, Adobe Apollo e Microsoft Silverlight.

Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP)

Technology has a definite cycle. After a decade of dominance by thin clients, rich-client technology is making a comeback. Numerous organizations are building their applications as rich clients and many of them are basing their applications on the Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP). The term “rich client” implies first that the application provides the user with a rich experience; second, it implies that the application is a client for some server. While it is not necessarily the case that a rich client has a corresponding server component, this is often the case.

Rich clients are in many ways comparable to fat clients. Both provide the user with a native desktop experience, presenting information and functionality for the user that is difficult, undesirable, or impossible to deliver using thin-client technology. However, rich clients provide so much more. Where fat clients tend to be large monolithic applications that are difficult to deploy and update, rich clients are lighter weight and based on a component model that makes them relatively easy to deploy and update. Historically, fat clients have been built to be platform specific; today’s rich-client technologies expose the power of the underlying platform, but hide away the details of that platform, allowing the developer to focus on the task rather than idiosyncratic details of any particular platform.

Rich clients also tend to be more scalable than fat clients. Traditionally, fat clients connect directly to a database. This limits the environments where fat clients can run (firewalls may restrict connections from the fat client to the database) and the scalability of the application (the total number of connections from the clients to the server) may be limited by the database. Rich clients tend to leverage application servers that are responsible for making connections to the database. This sort of configuration is very flexible (firewall friendly) and is highly scalable. Of course, there is nothing in the technology that necessarily limits fat clients from communicating with an application server, it’s just that in the heyday of fat-client technology, application servers didn’t exist like they do now.

Rich clients also tend to be more scalable than fat clients. Traditionally, fat clients connect directly to a database. This limits the environments where fat clients can run (firewalls may restrict connections from the fat client to the database) and the scalability of the application (the total number of connections from the clients to the server) may be limited by the database. Rich clients tend to leverage application servers that are responsible for making connections to the database. This sort of configuration is very flexible (firewall friendly) and is highly scalable. Of course, there is nothing in the technology that necessarily limits fat clients from communicating with an application server, it’s just that in the heyday of fat-client technology, application servers didn’t exist like they do now.

Eclipse RCP offers the application developer:

• A consistent and native look and feel for applications and features
• Common application services such as window management, update management, help, and selection management
• A native look and feel, leveraging real platform widgets on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, and embedded devices
• A standardized component model
• Pervasive extensibility
• Integrated update mechanism
• First-class development tools (the Eclipse Software Development Kit (SDK) is a world-class software development environment)

Although it is actually an inappropriate use of the term, Eclipse RCP can be considered middleware for building rich-client applications. It provides the infrastructure that your application needs, which allows developers to focus on core application functionality not the plumbing. Don’t reinvent the wheel: use Eclipse RCP.

The Eclipse RCP is composed of numerous components, and each component contributes to some part of the overall functionality of the environment. In fact, almost all of the Eclipse RCP is made of components; every part of RCP, with the exception of a small amount of bootstrap code is a component. Components are more commonly known as plug-ins in Eclipse circles (or bundles in OSGi terminology). The term “plug-in” implies that the functionality contained within the component is somehow second class, or an add-on to built-in functionality. This is not the case; Eclipse RCP treats all plug-ins as equals and there is no explicit notion of built-in versus custom. The plug-ins that you create to contribute your application’s behavior are run alongside those that make up Eclipse RCP.

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