JavaFX Scene Builder 1.0 Release Notes

The JavaFX Scene Builder 1.0, hereinafter also referred to as Scene Builder, is a design tool for the JavaFX platform It can assist you with quickly prototyping an application with interactive user interface that is linked to the application logic. You simply drag and drop graphical user interface (GUI) components onto a JavaFX scene and the FXML source code for your layout is automatically generated. JavaFX Scene Builder is available for the Windows and Mac OS X platforms.

System Requirements and Installation

See the JavaFX Scene Builder Installation Guide for information about the system prerequisites and also instructions on installing JavaFX Scene Builder.

Getting Started

To get started with Scene Builder, read through the following documentation that can be found at http://docs.oracle.com/javafx/.

You may also view the Getting Started with JavaFX Scene Builder video tutorial, which shows the steps to create the same FXML file for the simple issue tracking application sample.

Known Bugs and Issues

The following issues are known to exist. The numbers leading each item refer to reports in the JavaFX Scene Builder issues dashboard in JIRA. To see a complete list of open issues, log in to the JIRA project for JavaFX Scene Builder at http://javafx-jira.kenai.com/browse/DTL. You must be a registered JIRA user to access the reports.

  • Issue RT-24110: Mac OS X Mountain Lion platform: The FileChooser UI control sometimes causes the Java VM to crash.

    Description: JavaFX Scene Builder 1.0 does not currently support the Mac OS X Mountain Lion operating system. Choosing File and then Open command, or File and then Save As command from the Menu bar will cause Scene Builder to crash on a Mac OS X Mountain Lion system.

    Workaround: None.

  • Issue DTL-5142: Mac OS X platform: The Java version displayed in the About JavaFX Scene Builder dialog box mentions build b23 instead of build b24.

    Description: A Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 7 update 6 build is bundled with the JavaFX Scene Builder for the Mac OS X platform. When you choose Help and then About Scene Builder from the Menu bar, the About JavaFX Scene Builder dialog box displays:

    1.7.0_06, Oracle Corporation, 1.7.0_06-b23

    whereas the released version of Java SE 7 update 6 reports:

    1.7.0_06, Oracle Corporation, 1.7.0_06-b24

    This is as expected and will not cause any issue

    Workaround: None.

  • Issue DTL-5103: Mac OS X platform: A file whose name contains special characters can not be imported.

    Description: If you try to import files whose names contain special characters, such as à, the import command fails.

    Workaround: Rename the file so it does not have special characters in the name.

  • Issue DTL-5089: If an FXML document contains Custom Types and you try to open it, JavaFX Scene Builder does not always prompt you to set up a classpath.

    Description: If you try to load an FXML document that contains Unknown or Custom types, JavaFX Scene Builder should pop up a dialog box to help you resolve these types by enabling you to set up the classpath for the document. This dialog box displays when you choose File, then Open or Open Recent from the Menu bar.

    However, when you try to open the file by using an IDE, such as NetBeans IDE or Eclipse, or by double-clicking on the file from the local file system, the dialog box does not appear. There are no warning messages displayed and elements of unresolved types will not be displayed when the FXML document is loaded. The document may appear empty or partially loaded, and there will be no warning messages indicating any issues were encountered.

    Workaround: Since the FXML document has been loaded already, you can resolve the issue by choosing Preview and then Resolve Unknown Types from the menu bar. Provide the classpath in the Resolve Unknown Types dialog box.

  • Issue DTL-5074: There is no warning message displayed in the Message bar after you load a style sheet file with unresolved lookups.

    Description: You will not get a warning message in the Message bar if you add a style sheet file with unresolved lookups to your FXML layout document. You will only get a message displayed in your system console.

    If you edit the style sheet file and the lookup is still unresolved, the warning message will be displayed in the Message bar.

    Workaround: Correct the unresolved lookup.

  • Issue DTL-5072: The Row Constraints and Column Constraints properties are not displayed when the Grid Pane element is the root container of the Scenegraph.

    Description: When a Grid Pane element is the root container of your FXML layout, the Layout section of the Inspector panel does now show the Grid Pane constraints for rows and columns. You can add a row or column by choosing Modify and then Grid Pane from the Menu bar, but the properties for the row and column constraints can not be modified.

    Workaround: Wrap the Grid Pane element in another container, such as a Stack Pane element.

  • Issue DTL-5029: The path to an imported image is incorrectly calculated when the image's file path name contains white spaces or special characters.

    Description: If the file path name to an imported image contains white spaces or other special characters, then clicking in the Image text field in the Properties section of the Inspector panel corrupts the URL value and causes the image to disappear from the Content panel. The white spaces and special characters in the path name are encoded twice and results in an invalid file path name.

    Workaround: Click on the browse (...) button next to the Image text field and open the image file again from the Image files dialog box. After the file path name has been added back in the text field, do not click in the Image text field because the issue will be triggered again.

    Note that on the Mac OS X platform, the above work around will not work if the file path contains special characters. See DTL-5103 for more details.

  • Issue DTL-4956: The key events in a Text control is not recognized when focus is moved to any Text control after editing a List Control.

    Description: After you edit the Style Class property in the Properties section of the Inspector panel and you commit the changes you have made by clicking inside a Text control, such as the Style property or Id property text fields, the characters that you type in that focused Text control are not visible.

    Workaround: Click another property and then come back to the Text control. Your typed characters are now visible.

  • Issue DTL-4888: The Preview a Style Sheet command name is confusing since it does not actually add a style sheet to your FXML document.

    Description: When you choose the Preview a Style Sheet subcommand from the Preview command of the Menu bar, it does not actually add the style sheet to your FXML document. That subcommand allows you to preview the appearance of your FXML layout if the style sheet file is applied to your application. Any style sheet files added to your FXML document by this command are only enabled when your FXML layout document is loaded in Scene Builder.

    Workaround: None.

  • Issue DTL-4871: Setting the controller class file to use in the FXML document is not easily determined.

    Description: It is not easy to find the Controller Class text field in which you can set the controller class file name to use in the FXML document.

    Workaround: To set the Controller class file name to use for your FXML document, select the node for the top (root) Anchor Pane container in the Hierarchy panel and then click the Properties section of the Inspector panel. Enter the name of the controller class file to bind with your FXML document.

  • Issue DTL-4477: Dragging and dropping multiple images from the local file system onto Scene Builder does not work correctly.

    Description: When you drag and drop multiple images from the file system onto Scene Builder's Content panel, only one of the images is successfully imported.

    Workaround: Drag and drop each image individually.

  • Issue DTL-4476: Mac OS X: Dragging and dropping an image file from the local file system onto Scene Builder does not work when the file's path name contains white spaces or other special characters.

    Description: The dragging and dropping image files from the local file system onto the Scene Builder does not work if the file path name contains white spaces or other special characters. The white spaces and special characters are encoded twice in the resulting file path name, which results in an invalid file path name.

    Workaround: Click the Properties section of the Inspector panel, select the browse (...) button to the right of the Image text field, and from the Image Files dialog box, select the name of the image file again. Make sure not to click inside the Image text field because it would trigger the issue again. An alternative workaround is to choose File, then Import, and finally Media from the Menu bar. From the Import dialog box, select the image's file name.

    Note that on the Mac OS X platform, the above work around will not work if the file path contains special characters. See DTL-5103 for more details.

  • Issue DTL-4294: There are limitations with FXML support in JavaFX Scene Builder.

    Description: Certain advanced features of the FXML format are not supported in JavaFX Scene Builder 1.0 release.
    - An FXML file that contains fx:script elements will not properly load in the FXML document if variables created by the scripts are referred to by objects in the scene graph.
    - File and URL paths must be either absolute or relative to the FXML file
    - Scene Builder only supports editing an FXML file whose root object is an instance of Node or Tab class.
    - Scene Builder will load files that contain fx:copy elements, but will not be able to preserve them.
    - Scene Builder will not be able to load FXML files that define event handlers on FXCollections elements, as implemented by RT-17714.
    Details of the FXML support limitations are listed in DTL-4294.

    Workaround: None.

  • Issue DTL-4236: Column constraints cannot be added or modified if the Grid Pane component has no column constraints defined.

    Description: If a Grid Pane component defined in an FXML file does not have any column constraints defined, you will not be able to add or modify column constraints to that component.

    Workaround: Move the content from the Grid Pane that does not have column constraints defined to a new Grid Pane element created from Scene Builder.

  • Issue DTL-4188: A UI component becomes unselectable when the Disabled and Mouse Transparency flags are set.

    Description: When you check the Disabled or Mouse Transparency property of a UI component, that component becomes unselectable in the Content panel.

    Workaround: Use the Hierarchy panel to select the UI component

  • Issue RT-19435: Popup Control elements that are part of that UI component do not inherit from a parent container's style sheet nor from any inline styled declarations made to the parent container.

    Description: If you assign a CSS file to the style sheets property of a parent container (e.g: root Anchor Pane), the rules in that CSS file are not applied to the Popup Control elements that are associated with the container's children elements. Inline styled declarations inherited from the parent container are also not applied to the Popup Control elements of the children objects. Popup Control objects are Context Menu and Tooltip.

    Workaround: Directly work with the Style property of the Context Menu and Tooltip to set the CSS styling rules.