Mobile solutions provider Gluon has released JavaFX 12, the company’s second release of the rich client technology for Java since JavaFX was decoupled from the JDK (Java Development Kit).
JavaFX 12 follows on Gluon’s September 2018 release of JavaFX 11. The JavaFX 12 runtime is available as a platform-specific SDK, as JMOD archive files, and as a set of artifacts in the Maven Central repository. Key capabilities in JavaFX 12 include:
- New protected VirtualFlow methods for subclassing.
- Implementation of accelerated composition for WebView.
- The addition of an API in GraphicsContext to control image-smoothing.
- Reintroduction of the JFR (Java Flight Recorder) Pulse Logger.
- Refactoring of the javafx.swing implementation to remove an unneeded abstraction layer.
- Use of the xdg-open tool to get the default web browser on Linux systems.
- Support for mouse forward and back buttons.
The JavaFX 12 release also fixes a number of bugs, such as a blurry font issue on Ubuntu 16.04 and Debian 9, and slow mousewheel scrolling on MacOS X. JavaFX 12 will be supported for six months until the release of JavaFX 13. JavaFX 11 is the current long-term support release.
JavaFX is a rich media technology founded by Sun Microsystems in May 2007. The project passed to Oracle when Oracle acquired Sun in 2010. Oracle a year ago decided to decouple JavaFX from the JDK to make it easier to adopt and attract new participants in its development.
You can download JavaFX 12 from the Gluon JavaFX project website. JavaFX is licensed under the GPL v2 plus Classpath.