r/JavaFX • u/gufranthakur • 10h ago
Discussion What is the future of JavaFX looking like?
Been developing in JavaFX for hobby projects for a while and absolutely loving it. However I am a bit worried about JavaFX's future and adoption
- The official OpenJFX website has some horribly outdated info. It's testimonials talk about Java 11 being released, and the docs and getting started are all on Java 11
- The community projects on the website never change. Most are not maintained and are very old
- The official documentation looks horrible. It uses old screenshots, and even old/outdated practices
- Although the development seems to be going good
- How is Gluon doing as an organisation? They provide commercial support for other companies using JavaFX, how successful is that going for them? How many companies actually use the Gluon License
- How often is JavaFX used in commercial/business applications?
I am mostly worried about Gluon. I am grateful to them for their contributions to the JavaFX technology, but I wonder how it is looking for them in JavaFX in the long run.
Desktop applications as a whole have been seeing declining usage. Electron ate JavaFX, Avalonia, QT's breakfast. (QT still going strong though)
Also how will the Java verified portfolio help JavaFX??
I genuinely wish best for the JavaFX and hope it continues to evolve
5
u/OddEstimate1627 8h ago
IMO there has been quite a bit of good development lately. Most of the features I've been wishing for have already been delivered (mainly headless, platform access, title bars, good default styling via AtlantaFX, and a better deployment story via community projects).
There are still a few things I'd like to see, but overall I like the direction is going. The Oracle verified portfolio should help as well.
While Gluon is an important contributor, the only thing that really depends on them is the mobile support. There haven't been major updates in a while, but the stack still works, and Gluon keeps it running while they pivot to Zero and Leyden with an open world assumption. It's debatable whether this is really going to be better than to continue building on GraalVM, but there is no doubt that the current custom stack is hard to maintain, and that devs have a hard time with the closed world model.
AOT on the desktop is better supported and does not require the Gluon stack.
1
u/gufranthakur 51m ago
GraalVM with the Gluon plugin was quite easy for me, I got a native executable for my JavaFX got running in a few minutes (had to modify the JSON files for reflections a lil)
If you know, could you tell me how OVP actually works? On paper it looks like oracle will provide commercial support for JavaFX, but does this also mean that Oracle will be supporting and helping in the development of JavaFX directly? (I really hope so)
1
u/OddEstimate1627 28m ago
I'm just saying that desktop has alternatives. Besides Gluon there is also BellSoft's Liberica NIK, and I'm about to open source one of my own projects as well (can run JavaFX >=26 on stock Oracle GraalVM).
I don't have any special insight into OVP, but my understanding is that it's an official commitment to providing Enterprise Support contracts and a guarantee that the technology will be around long term.
Oracle is already the primary contributor to JavaFX, i.e., they're already doing a lot.
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u/xdsswar 9h ago
I have a toolkit that is kind like electron for java , Its already working, I just need to take it out , complex as fuck to build due to the chromium size and crap, but I got nice ui and low mem usage
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u/gufranthakur 52m ago
been following your work in discord and on your github, it seems interesting. But I havent seen any new updates in a while, hope its going good out there
8
u/ahorsewhithnoname 9h ago
JavaFX is still used in enterprise environments and will be continued to be used and supported. But these applications are nothing to show off in a community projects section.