3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Intro to JavaFX, November 3, 2009
This review is from: Essential JavaFX (Paperback)
I have found this book to be an excellent introduction to JavaFX. The book starts right out with showing you the basics of setting up a project in Netbeans and continues with ample coding examples that anyone should be able to follow. It even has a chapter for non-programmers that are interested in working with the design side of JavaFX. I'm currently using the book as a reference for an online JavaFX course and have found it to be invaluable for this purpose.
For some reason, one of the reviews of this book appears to be under the impression that this is a "course in a book". It definitely is not, and does not purport to be a "course in a book". However, what it is is a good introductory text and a good place to start.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A neat book directly from the source, August 15, 2009
This review is from: Essential JavaFX (Paperback)
I was searching for JavaFX books at amazon.com and saw the only review for this book which seems to be skewed. I own this book already and had an opportunity to meet the writers at Java ONE. I learned from them that they worked directly with JavaFX team at Sun Microsystems to get their information to write the book and publish it paralelly when JavaFX 1.2 is released
Chapter 1 gives quick tip on how to set up Netbeans IDE to start writing your JavFX application.
Chapter 2 introduces JavaFX graphics programing including programming structure, key graphic features such as layouts, gradients to create good looking graphics, effects and animation.
Chapter 3 is dedicated for language features such as types, operators, expressions, sequence, binding, triggers objects, inheritance and scopes.
Chapter 4 elaborates the graphical objects which are introduced in chapter 2 for quick taste of JavaFX graphics programing. This chapter has lengthy coverage of graphic objects such Scene, Stage, Nodes, Cursor, Shapes, Layouts and how to use them effectively.
Chapter 5 covers the Graphics Controls (UI components) introduced in JavaFX 1.2. One of the important aspect of new controls is the ability to skin it for different look and feel. Component skinning (both using Skin and CSS) is covered in this book
Chapter 6 explains in detail the anatomy of a JavaFX application. A piano application is built from scratch and taken apart to explain every stage of building the application.
Chapter 7 delves deep in to the animation capabilities of JavaFX platform. For a good JavaFX animation several core features need to be used in unison including Timeline, KeyFrame, binding, trigger etc. This chapter explain in detail how to put them together to create effective animation. Different types of animation such as Tranition, Rotate and fade, Compound effect, Path Transition etc are explained in detail.
Chapter 8 is about working with images, an important strength of JavaFX. Subjects covered in this chapter are handling images with ImageView, transforming images, mouse handling for image animation.
Chapter 9 helps to understand how to build Rich Internet Application using JavaFX and Web Services. Fundamentals of HTTP Requests, XML and JSON parsing are presented with good examples.
Chapter 10 introduces JavaFX for mobile platform. How to build a mobile application using JavaFX is explained in detail in this chapter.
Over all, in my opinion, this book has written in a very good logical order for teaching JavaFX for beginners. Also there are plenty of tips for advanced users such as how to avoid pit falls of binding and triggers while building your application. I would certainly recommend this book
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Computer libraries will find it a key acquisition, September 18, 2009
This review is from: Essential JavaFX (Paperback)
JavaFX is a platform for building applications for desktops, browsers and mobile devices alike and any library strong in Java programming or web development should have Essential Java FX in their collection. It explains all about Java FX scripts, from basics to scenes, shapes, images and using web services, and it packs in application examples that have been tested with JavaFX 1.2. Computer libraries will find it a key acquisition.
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