posted 16 years ago
The design of a JavaFX program is fundamentally different than a Java program (although, in the end, JavaFX is turned into Java).
In our overview chapter, we discuss this difference, which can be called the "scene graph metaphor." In JavaFX, you describe your scene graph (using declarative syntax) by specifying the look and behavior of all of its nodes. Then, your application just "runs." Some applications need input from the user; others just run on their own.
The power of the scene graph is that, not only do you capture the entire structure of your application in a data structure, but you can change the display simply by modifying properties of the objects in the scene graph.
This is the JavaFX-centric description.
JavaFX GUI can be a front-end for a traditional MVC application and any number of design patterns can be applied. In particular, if you have a Java-based middleware/backend system, JavaFX frontend can hook into it seamlessly.
We also spend time in Chapter 6 (Anatomy of a JavaFX Application) discussing how to use object oriented design principles to construct custom nodes.
Gail