JavaFX has a large library of standard components that you can use to create your layouts.
There’s nothing magic about these components, and if you look at the source code you’ll find that they’re just Java classes that use standard Java and JavaFX techniques. This means that you can create your own!
At it’s simplest, a custom component can just be a standard JavaFX Control you style a certain way all the time. Rather than repeat yourself in every layout, you can add static method to a library class somewhere that instantiates, styles and returns that control. You might have sub-layout patterns that you use consistently, and those too can be put into your library class.
Finally, you might decide that you want to create a custom component class of your own, that you can drop into any layout and style and configure in the same way that you would any of the standard JavaFX Nodes.
This is not hard to do. If you can write and configure a JavaFX layout, then you can create your own component class. These articles here will show you how to do it!
The Articles:
Getting Started with Custom Components
You can get started with custom components by simply building a library of factory/builder methods that create styled standard components or simple sub-layouts that you use all the time. From there you can move on to create custom classes that you can use just like the standard JavaFX Nodes in your layouts.
Crafting a Custom Component Class
Now that we have a custom component, let’s add the styling elements to make it work just like a standard JavaFX Node. By the end of this article you will understand how to create styleable properties that your client code can use in a style sheet to customize your component.
Custom Component Example: Triple Switch
Here’s an example of how to create a component that’s simply missing from JavaFX, a three-way Toggle switch. In this article we’ll use the technique of extending the Region class to create a custom component that works just like any other JavaFX Node.
Custom Component Example: Radial Menu
Radial menus aren’t seen very often in business applications, but they can be useful and look different. In this article we look at how to grapple with the geometry involved and develop a custom Node that can be used like any other JavaFX Node.
Custom Component Example: LabelledPane
Another useful component that seems to be missing from the standard JavaFX Nodes, a Box with a title embedded within the border.