Indaba Console
First major example of a major application that has transitioned from Flash/Flex to JavaFX. It is used by musicians to create music tracks that are stored in the cloud (the Internet). Not many users would create music but it is still an application worth covering.
When starting the application it is reasonably quick to appear and has reasonable performance. Upon looking at the application for the first time it has a good unique look that targets its audience. One may note that there are a few custom controls that may appear in a future JavaFX release (not the same ones though).
With Indaba Console a user can:
- Create and edit tracks
- Easily drag n drop pre made audio clips onto existing tracks
- Save a track as a wav or aiff file to the desktop
- Apply sound effects
- Play a track
Thought Slinger
A word processor that stands apart from other word processors by offering secure (encrypted) storage of documents in the cloud, and comprehensive collaboration features (eg instant messaging and documents reviews). Upon looking at the application one may think that a Swing control has been used to act as the text editor. Surprisingly though via a second look it is just a custom JavaFX control.
Again there are some controls that may appear in a future JavaFX release (not the same ones though). My suggestion to the JavaFX team is to have a chat with the developers of Thought Slinger on how they created the custom text editor, a very impressive custom control!
With Thought Slinger a user can:
- Freeze parts of a document that cannot be edited by other users
- Apply a password to the document
- Allow editing access to the document for certain users
- Communicate with other users editing the same document via instant messaging
- Adjust font, size and other styling for parts of a document
- Redo and undo changes made to a document
- Save the document as an HTML, odt, txt or docx file
- Print the document
- Track all changes made to the document (by the owner of the document and other users)
Cheqlist
Very handy application for keeping track of tasks in a list. As an original application it does not
use any Swing controls (all controls are done in JavaFX). It is another example of an application that stores data in the cloud. All data appears to be accessed/stored through a Remember The Milk REST API.With Cheqlist a user can:
- Create, edit and remove lists
- Create, edit and remove tasks
- Easily search through tasks by list or keyword(s)
- Adjust the look of the application to suit
Conclusion
From what has been covered by this post JavaFX allows one to quickly create good looking, but practical applications that can easily interact with the Internet. Do note that the time taken to develop an application will greatly vary depending on what is being developed. The developers of the two applications covered (Idaba Console, and Thought Slinger) should be interviewed as it would give a good insight into why JavaFX was chosen, and the issues/benefits of developing an application using JavaFX.
