JavaFX Roadmap

At JavaOne 2010, Oracle laid out a long-term roadmap for JavaFX to make it a premier rich client platform. JavaFX 2.0 is a significant milestone towards fulfilling this vision. The following section provides an overview of upcoming features in the JavaFX platform.

Please note that the following is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

The JavaFX roadmap as of April 2012

Open Source

At JavaOne 2011, Oracle announced their intention to open source the JavaFX platform. This proposal was approved by the OpenJDK community in November 2011, and the OpenJFX project was launched in early December. The JavaFX UI Controls source code has been contributed initially; other JavaFX components are planned to follow in multiple phases.

The JavaFX source code has been released under the GPL v2 with Classpath Exception license, similar to other OpenJDK projects. The Oracle JavaFX Runtime and SDK binaries will continue to be released under the Oracle Binary Code License for Java SE Platform Products.

JavaFX for Mac OS X

The Developer Preview of JavaFX 2.1 provides Mac OS X (and Windows) is currently available through weekly builds. The GA¹ release is planned for the second quarter of 2012.

JavaFX for Linux

The Developer Preview of JavaFX for Linux is expected to be available in the first half of 2012, with the GA release following in the second half of 2012. JavaFX will be supported on Ubuntu —the most popular Linux distribution on desktop PCs&mdash, as well as some other Linux distributions supported by the JRE.

JavaFX Scene Builder

JavaFX Scene Builder is a WYSIWYG GUI design tool for the JavaFX platform. It enables designing user interface screens by simply dragging and positioning GUI components from a palette onto a scene. The tool generates files in FXML format² that can be used within a Java project in any IDE such as NetBeans or Eclipse. An early access version of the JavaFX Scene Builder is currently available by invitation only; a Developer Preview is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2012.

New Features Proposed for JavaFX

Future releases for JavaFX will continue to be major milestones for JavaFX not only from a functionality point of view, but also with regards to integration into Java SE. Some of the key new features that are expected to be part of future releases of JavaFX are as follows.

Tighter Integration with Java SE
JavaFX will be tightly integrated as part of the JDK 8 platform, thus ensuring widespread adoption, synchronized updates and security fixes. Furthermore, JavaFX will become available simultaneously across Windows, Mac, and Linux implementations of Java SE 8, allowing cross platform deployment of applications as soon as the product becomes generally available.
Improvements to UI Controls and Charts
New UI controls, including Date picker, Form control, Media player control, Breadcrumb control and Map control are under consideration. Significant enhancements are also planned to the table/grid control, layout controls, and the charts.
Data Services Support
JavaFX will simplify accessing a variety of data services and provide automation for a number of common tasks related to remote data synchronization, offline data persistence and support for messaging frameworks.
Enhancements to WebView
WebView is expected to feature support for additional HTML 5 features such as Web sockets, offline browsing, and local database. The JavaScript engine powering WebKit will be replaced with a high-performance JavaScript engine that will leverage the power of the Java Virtual Machine.
Modularization
Modularization is proposed as one of the key features for Java SE 8. JavaFX will support the Java SE 8 module system accordingly, which will enable the use of JavaFX in embedded environments, among other things.
Accessibility Support
JavaFX will add support for the MSAA and IAccessible2 accessibility standards to enable compatibility with assistive technology products on Windows. On Mac OS X, JavaFX will leverage will leverage platform-specific accessibility solutions.
3D Graphics Support
JavaFX will feature support for 3D graphics that can be leveraged for modern forms of data visualization and advanced user experience.
Multi-Touch and Gestures Support
JavaFX will provide full support for multi-touch and gestures to better meet requirements for touch-enabled displays in desktops, tablets, and embedded devices.
Sensor Support
JavaFX will incorporate support for on-device sensors, including accelerometers, gyroscopes and geo-location.