@User uploaded a file:

This is the SWT UI I'm converting to TornadoFX.

@carlw pinned ’s Kotlin ListView example to this channel.

This is two minutes of TornadoFX:

@User uploaded a file:

No styling or anything yet.

Gotta run to that PTA thing 🙂

Slack note: I just pinned a snipped from Edvin. It's showing up as "Untitled". If you add a code snippet, I think it would be a good idea to add a few words as a title because I can't seem to change the "Untitled" after-the-fact. Maybe @edvin can adjust the title of the listview() code snippet and it will take effect.

@edvin I think the .fxml TornadoFX is what I would end up using for clients. This morning, I just brought up a file in Scene Builder and made an edit. That particular screen isn't readily accessible without a bunch of data access.

@edvin and the .fxml is 4 years old.

@edvin so, unless you have a Kotlin class that is nothing more than a declarative assignment to root or init(), i think business logic (data access, security, binding) will start to bleed in to the design with the builders.

@edvin Ccould you add a chooseDirectory function in the Dialogs file? And add an initial directory parameter to both functions?

@jchildress Absolutely, will do it tonight 🙂

@edvin thank you 🙂

@jchildress

chooseDirectory

is now committed. It has an optional

initialDirectory

parameter. For

chooseFile

I can't add it without breaking backwards compatibility, but you can just do

chooseFile(...) { initialDirectory = dir }

do configure it though. Let me know how it works, ok?

@carlw I agree that it's easier to avoid shooting yourself in the foot with FXML. Builders require both some more constraint and also some more experience. I generally never add code inside the builder, and I think of the

override val root = buildMyUiHere

block in the same way as FXML. I also avoid having to mention all the ui elements using

@FXML/fxid()

because binding is done when I build the UI. I do add

setOnAction

blocks, but I always just call functions, so it is similar to FXML in that regard as well. FXML is a perfectly good way to go, and preferred if you have designers working on the app for sure.

@carlw For the record, I think it's fine to declare the root view in the same file that also has business logic. It actually makes it easier to reason about the ui because you can "see" it right beside your code, while you can still enjoy separation of concerns. I do realize that it's a highly personal matter though. In any case, FXML should have as strong support as possible in TornadoFX.

@edvin thank you.. i will try to test later today.

@edvin glad to see fxml so well supported and sometimes, i use Java code to build out a scene graph (say a UI section that's build on demand)/ so that use case would be perfect for type safe builders

but the ability to pull up and edit any screen without having to login, lookup an account, etc is pretty powerful

@carlw You know you can do that with the builders as well? Just run the view directly 🙂 You just need to make sure that the view can handle not receiving any data. It should handle that in any case, since data often is async.

By the way, I can actually make sure you can use

fxid()

with type safe builders to extract ui components. That would be pretty neat...

@edvin you still need to run a program. the case i'm making is that when creating the view starts to require more than the init() for example, in the todo app, i can look at and edit ItemFragment.fxml but would have to otherwise run the app and add an item to see the typesafe builder

@carlw Well, you have to run a program to see the FXML, so what's the difference? 🙂 The IDEA plugin can run the view adhoc without an application. And my point is that a View shouldn't need data to display, unless the ui is constructed based on the data (ui look/fields depends on data).

I could probably create a preview pane for views written with builders as well 🙂

@edvin you'd have to run a test case (ex "add item") to view the typesafe builder, right?

@carlw No, not at all. You don't need any data to display a view created with the type safe builders.

Let me show you...

@edvin i haven't checked out the plugin. that will run Views and Fragments without a lot of small mains?

First I will run the applicaiton, then the separate parts...