@javafxpert I came into JavaFX after script (2.0+). This looks a lot like TornadoFX in terms of the builder pattern

for example, Frame { title : "Word Search", menubar { menu {...

@carlw Yes, the simple and very useful elegance of TornadoFX is what excites me about it, in a similar manner to the way that JavaFX Script excited me 10 years ago. I'm hoping that the conversion of the Word Search program will be as straightforward as it seems!

Any advice on building an image button that lives in a toolbar? The screenshot shows that

... the image is showing up beside the button

The project is in GitHub here: https://github.com/JavaFXpert/wordsearch_tornadofx

@javafxpert i think you're adding items to the toolbar with {} rather than (). () will set the contents of the toolbar as varargs rather than the usual style (called "opcr") for most containers like vbox and anchorpane.

@carlw uploaded a file: Toolbar Example

@javafxpert uploaded a file:

Thanks @carlw !

@carlw @javafxpert No, this is not the correct way to go.

imageview

is an extension function on the node it is executed on. When you write

button(graphic = imageview(url))

, you actually call

imageview

on the parent container, in this case the toolbar. What you want to do is either to construct an imageview with the ImageView() constructor like this:

button(graphic = ImageView(url))

or inside of the button builder, where the parent would be the button anyways:

button { graphic = imageview())

. This can be confusing in the beginning, until you realize how the builders work. The distinction is only relevant/important to understand for builders that take nodes as parameters though. You also want to use the

toolbar {}

syntax. The vararg support is legacy and will be deprecated in an upcoming release.

Ie. the

imageview

builder creates and imageview and attaches it to the Node you called the

imageview()

function on. That's why it backfires when passed as a parameter.

Avoid the confusion, and even the need to understand the intricacies of it with this syntax:

@edvin uploaded a file: Build a toolbar with buttons/graphics the safe way

Come to think of it, we could actually modify the builder so this would work:

@edvin uploaded a file: Proposed modification of `addChildIfPossible`

There is no other place to put the imageview than into the graphic property of the button anyways, so we might as well support this 🙂

That would be cool, @edvin

I've changed to the approach you mentioned (see latest wordsearch_tornadofx checkin)

Just committed the fix 🙂

nice

I'll release TornadoFX 1.7.14 now, due to the Kotlin version update and that nasty runAsync bug 🙂

cool. btw, I'm sorting through how to accomplish the view/model binding necessary for the porting the wordsearch application. Not sure whether to use ViewModel, as I don't require forms for much of the application. Some high level advice on general approaches I should take when porting would be helpful.

I know that you're busy, so I hate to ask, but if you'd skim the WordSearch application related content in the JavaFX Script book I posted to this channel, I think that some pointers would save me lots of trial and error.

Absolutely, let me do the release first and I'll take a look 🙂

areas that I anticipate as challenging are binding strategy, and drag/drop

Thanks!

You may have seen that I posted the JavaFX Script code in GitHub as reference. Thanks for your help.

OK, let me get my bearings here..

Before I look at the code: Wrapping a model in a ViewModel instance makes it injectable and therefore shareable between different views in the same scope. For that reason alone, I tend to always favor it. With little to no performance overhead, and really no code overhead either, even if you're not using it, it's often a good solution. Now, you can actually create a ViewModel without it being backed by another model, if you just need the injectable properties of it.