Hyperlink in JavaFX

It's a long time being blogging. Actually not done anything new from long time :). Here is one simple concept which some guys asked me. We have provided hyperlink API in JavaFX 1.2 but some of us struggled to open a URL using hyperlink API.

Hmm, 2 ways to do it actually.

No1 : Use the Desktop API of JDK6. It's simple to use. One example is here.

So, very basic code will go like this :

  
package sample2;

import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.scene.control.*;
import java.net.*;

Stage {
    title: "HyperLink to URL"
    width: 240
    height: 320
    scene: Scene {
        content: [
            Hyperlink{
                translateY: 160
                translateX: 40
                width: 150
                text: bind "Visit javafx Samples! "
                action: function():Void{
                    java.awt.Desktop.getDesktop().browse(new URI("http://javafx.com/samples"));
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

So, 2 things for running this code. First,Desktop API has been added in JDK6, so this code won't run on JDK5. Second, Add rt.jar(rt.jar of JDK6) file in the Libraries if you are using Netbeans

No2 : For only JavaFX code, we can use AppletStageExtension like this :

package sample1;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Hyperlink;
import javafx.stage.AppletStageExtension;

Stage {
    title: "Hyperlink to URL"
    width: 250
    height: 80
    scene: Scene {
        content: [
            Hyperlink {
                text: "JavaFX Samples !"
                action: function() {
                       AppletStageExtension.showDocument("http://javafx.com/samples");
                }
            }
        ]
    }
} 

In this case, you cant send hyperlink from Desktop Application, but it will work fine for applet or Browser application. So, best is to use this and then use our normal funda : if {__PROFILE__}" != "browser") --> use the Desktop API code. What you say :).

Please let me know if there is any issue in the code ! Or also if there is any better way to do this.

Z-Order is supported in JavaFX !

While writing some of the samples in which we have to play with images, we sometimes has to manage the depth of the images. Like for the Carousel example, every image has a depth. In that example, actually images are not overlapping with each other, so we never need to write the Z-Order concept. But if someone want to write a Carousel or some application in which Images are residing over other images, we need to set the Z-order of Images. Z-Order in literal term means depth-ness of images. JavaFX gracefully provide API's to set the Z-order of images. With a simple call, you can set the images toFront or toBack features.

In this example, I have taken 3 images and try to set the depth-ness of images on the event of Buttons.

First Image on Top Second Image on Top

Third Image on Top

Here is the code to set the Z-Order :

package zorder;

import javafx.scene.Group;
import javafx.scene.image.Image;
import javafx.scene.image.ImageView;
import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.scene.shape.Rectangle;
import javafx.scene.input.MouseEvent;
import javafx.ext.swing.SwingButton;

var im1 = ImageView {
    x: 100
    y: 100
    image: Image {
        url: "{__DIR__}im1.PNG"
    }
    opacity: 0.8
        };

var im2 = ImageView {
    x: 130
    y: 130
    image: Image {
        url: "{__DIR__}im2.PNG"
    }
    opacity: 0.8
        };

var im3 = ImageView {
    x: 160
    y: 160
    image: Image {
        url: "{__DIR__}im3.PNG"
    }
    opacity: 0.8
        };

var gp = Group {
    content:[
        im1, im2,im3
    ]

}
Stage {
    title: "Application title"
    width: 400
    height: 400
    scene: Scene {
        fill: Color.BLACK
        content: [
            gp,
            SwingButton {
                translateX: 10
                translateY: 10
                text: "Image 1"
                action: function() {
                    im1.toFront();
                }
            }
            SwingButton {
                translateX: 90
                translateY: 10
                text: "Image 2"
                action: function() {
                    im2.toFront();
                }
            }
            SwingButton {
                translateX: 170
                translateY: 10
                text: "Image 3"
                action: function() {
                    im3.toFront();
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

From next blog, I will use applet or JNLP in place of images, as suggested by Dmitry in last blog. Pictures make it bulky and uneasy to load. But I was getting some problem in deploying the application on Sun blog which will be rectified soon.

Physics Motion - Spring In JavaFX

3 weeks back, we were thinking of some cool application to make. I am a guy who has seen very less outside world, so coming up with some great idea is always tough for me. So, deciding that, I went back to my tenth class physics book and saw some of the cool physics motion. Its one of the tough subject and always screw me in exam. Searching some of the easy equation, I though to make one spring motion. Meantime, I though there is some spring motion residing in our repository. Actually one of the Josh applications do it in awesome way, but still we were missing the actual feel of Spring motion because of the gig-gag and spiral stuff attached to the wall and spring is going up and down in it, with a complete view of awesomeness :). This is what finally we achieve from this blog :



I can still bet this can be 3 times much better than what you are seeing here. So, little of good news here that this sample can be executed on mobile



Regret to say, ball will not look like a real 3D ball in FX Mobile because of Bug ID: RT-2205, which basically speaks that Mobile Runtime don't understand Radial Gradient, hoping this will be fixed soon.

Here are the code files :

1. Main file.

2. Spring file.

3. SpringEquation file.

Enjoy FX'ing !

3D E'FX's in JavaFX

Me and Vikram was looking today some of the cool flash examples and I have seen the button effect at some place, when you press the button it really goes like inside and coming out. But that was an effect achieved by the images(two different images, one unpressed button and one pressed button) and then we thought to simulate this effect by code. Somehow we are able to do that in FX, here is the final outcome:

What we have tried to do is pressing one button will put the other in unpressed mode and vice-versa. This has been achieved by some of the cool API's of JavaFX. And we have used the DistantLight effect of JavaFX which gives a lighting effect in its awesome way. Actually this can be more cooler but I left that for developer to modify it according to their need :). But this is a modular code and can be used in any of the button place.

Here is the simple code for the same(again code is not written in the most optimized way but in the best way for understanding) :

package lighteff;

import javafx.scene.effect.light.DistantLight;
import javafx.scene.effect.Lighting;
import javafx.scene.Group;
import javafx.scene.input.MouseEvent;
import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
import javafx.scene.paint.RadialGradient;
import javafx.scene.paint.Stop;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.shape.Circle;
import javafx.scene.text.Font;
import javafx.scene.text.Text;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.stage.StageStyle;

var factor = 5;
var scale = 1.0;
var factor1 = 10;
var scale1 = 0.85;

Stage {
  title: "Control Panel"
  width: 290
  height: 180
  style: StageStyle.UNDECORATED
  scene: Scene {
      fill: Color.BLACK
      content: [
          Group {
              effect: Lighting {
                  light: DistantLight {
                      azimuth: 90
                      elevation: 60
                  }
                  surfaceScale: bind factor
              }
              content: [
                  Circle {
                      centerX: 100,
                      centerY: 100
                      radius: 40
                      fill: Color.RED


                      onMousePressed: function( e: MouseEvent ):Void {
                          scale = 0.85;
                          factor = 10;
                          scale1 = 1.0;
                          factor1 = 5;
                      }
                  },
                  Text {
                      fill: Color.WHITE
                      scaleX: bind scale
                      scaleY: bind scale
                      font: Font {
                          size: 24
                      }
                      x: 71,
                      y: 105
                      content: "Press"
                  }
              ]
          },
          Group {
              effect: Lighting {
                  light: DistantLight {
                      azimuth: 90
                      elevation: 60
                  }
                  surfaceScale: bind factor1
              }
              content: [

                  Circle {
                      centerX: 200
                      centerY: 100
                      radius: 40
                      fill: Color.BLUE
                      onMousePressed: function( e: MouseEvent ):Void {
                          scale1 = 0.85;
                          factor1 = 10;
                          scale = 1.0;
                          factor = 5;
                      }
                  },
                  Text {
                      fill: Color.WHITE
                      scaleX: bind scale1
                      scaleY: bind scale1
                      font: Font {
                          size: 24
                      }
                      x: 171,
                      y: 105
                      content: "Press"
                  }
              ]
          }
      ]

  }
}  

Sparkling Glass

What to achieve: A sparkling glass(beer glasses are clean and shiny before beer get served) like this.

So, our aim is to make those sparkling effect on glass. Here is the code in JavaFX(things are little hard coded but better for understanding):

 
package sample;

import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.text.Text;
import javafx.scene.text.Font;
import javafx.scene.image.ImageView;
import javafx.scene.image.Image;
import javafx.scene.shape.Rectangle;
import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
import javafx.scene.input.MouseEvent;
import javafx.scene.transform.Rotate;
import javafx.scene.shape.Polygon;
import javafx.animation.Timeline;
import javafx.animation.KeyFrame;
import javafx.animation.Interpolator;
import javafx.scene.shape.Circle;
import  javafx.scene.Group;
/**
 * @author Vaibhav
 */

var r = 0.0;
var t = Timeline {
    repeatCount: Timeline.INDEFINITE
    keyFrames: [
        KeyFrame {
            time: 3s
            canSkip: true
            values: [
                r => 360.0 tween Interpolator.EASEBOTH
            ]
        }
    ]
}
t.play();
var op = 1.0;
var t1 = Timeline {
    repeatCount: Timeline.INDEFINITE
    keyFrames: [
        KeyFrame {
            time: 3s
            canSkip: true
            values: [
                op => 0.0 tween Interpolator.EASEBOTH
            ]
        }
    ]
}
t1.play();

Stage {
    title: "Sparkling on Glass"
    width: 250
    height: 480
    scene: Scene {
        fill: Color.BLACK
        content: [
            ImageView {
                image: Image {
                    url: "{__DIR__}wineglass.png"
                }
            }
            Polygon {
                rotate: bind r;
                translateX: 130
                translateY: 100
                scaleX: 0.5
                scaleY: 0.5
                points: [ 0,0, 2,-50, 4,0, 54,2,4,4,2,54,0,4,-50,2]
                fill: Color.WHITE
                opacity: bind op
            },
            Polygon {
                rotate: 45;
                scaleX: 0.25
                scaleY: 0.25
                translateX: 130
                translateY: 100
                points: [ 0,0, 2,-50, 4,0, 54,2,4,4,2,54,0,4,-50,2]
                fill: Color.WHITE
                opacity: bind 1 - op
            },
            Polygon {
                rotate: bind r;
                translateX: 50
                translateY: 50
                scaleX: 0.5
                scaleY: 0.5
                points: [ 0,0, 2,-50, 4,0, 54,2,4,4,2,54,0,4,-50,2]
                fill: Color.WHITE
                opacity: bind op
            },
            Polygon {
                rotate: 45;
                scaleX: 0.25
                scaleY: 0.25
                translateX: 50
                translateY: 50
                points: [ 0,0, 2,-50, 4,0, 54,2,4,4,2,54,0,4,-50,2]
                fill: Color.WHITE
                opacity: bind 1 - op
            },
            Polygon {
                rotate: bind r;
                translateX: 30

                translateY: 120
                scaleX: 0.5
                scaleY: 0.5
                points: [ 0,0, 2,-50, 4,0, 54,2,4,4,2,54,0,4,-50,2]
                fill: Color.WHITE
                opacity: bind op
            },
            Polygon {
                rotate: 45;
                scaleX: 0.25
                scaleY: 0.25
                translateX: 30
                translateY: 120
                points: [ 0,0, 2,-50, 4,0, 54,2,4,4,2,54,0,4,-50,2]
                fill: Color.WHITE
                opacity: bind 1 - op
            },
        ]

    }
}

Same animation in flash is here : http://www.entheosweb.com/Flash/sparkling_effect.asp

Filling eyes effect in JavaFX

This is one simulation of Golden Eyes :-D(with an ugly face). I tried to make one use of Gaussian Blur which is applied in the white color of eyes. Adding this spot in the eyes gives a real simulation.



package eyes;

import javafx.application.Frame;
import javafx.application.Stage;
import javafx.scene.geometry.Arc;
import javafx.scene.geometry.*;
import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
import javafx.scene.paint.*;
import javafx.scene.effect.*;

var y: Number = 150;
Frame {
title: "Golden Eyes"
width: 500
height: 500
closeAction: function() { java.lang.System.exit( 0 );
}
visible: true

stage: Stage {
fill: Color.GRAY;
content: [

Circle {
centerX: 160, centerY: y
radius: 23
fill: LinearGradient {
startX: 0.0
startY: 0.0
endX: 1.0
endY: 0.0
proportional: true
stops: [
Stop { offset: 0.0 color: Color.GOLD },
Stop { offset: 1.0 color: Color.BLACK }
]
}
opacity: 0.9
},

Circle {
centerX: 160, centerY: y
radius: 10
fill: Color.BLACK
},
Circle {
centerX: 166, centerY: y - 5
radius: 5
fill: Color.WHITE;
effect : GaussianBlur {
radius: 6
}
},
Circle {
centerX: 250, centerY: y
radius: 23
fill: LinearGradient {
startX: 0.0
startY: 0.0
endX: 1.0
endY: 0.0
proportional: true
stops: [
Stop { offset: 0.0 color: Color.BLACK },
Stop { offset: 1.0 color: Color.GOLD }
]
}
opacity: 0.2
},


Circle {
centerX: 250, centerY: y
radius: 10
fill: Color.BLACK
},
Circle {
centerX: 244, centerY: y - 5
radius: 5
fill: Color.WHITE;
effect : GaussianBlur {
radius: 6
}
},
Circle {
centerX: 200, centerY: 180
radius: 100
fill: Color.SIENNA
opacity: 0.1

},
Polyline {
stroke:Color.BLACK
points: [
200,160,
220.0,220.0,
180.0,220.0
]
},
Path {
fill: LinearGradient {
startX: 0.0
startY: 0.0
endX: 1.0
endY: 0.0
proportional: true
stops: [
Stop { offset: 0.0 color: Color.BLACK },
Stop { offset: 1.0 color: Color.RED }
]
}
elements: [
MoveTo { x: 160 y: 240 },
ArcTo { x: 250 y: 240 radiusX: 100 radiusY: 100},

]
},

]
}
}

2+2=4 and so 2*2

Last week, our office celebrates OpenSource Mela. In code war, we got a programming contest in which the problem statement is :

5 * 4 / 2 - 5 + 2 = 7 (evaluated from left to right). So, input format is:

5 4 2 5 2 7

and output is to put into a valid expression format(all possible format). So, if its 2 2 4, then 2+2=4 and 2*2=4 is possible. I have written some code for this, which goes here :

package problemstatement1;

import java.util.List;

public class Main {

String input = "2 0 2";
String output = new String(); // 5 * 4 / 2 - 5 + 2 = 7
int resultVal = 0;
String operatorseq = new String();
int result = 0;
int totalcounter = 0;
boolean flag = true;

// converting input into easy format

String[] inputtoken = input.split(" ");
int[] numberseq = new int[inputtoken.length - 1];
int totaloperator = numberseq.length - 1;

public void isValid() {
if (inputtoken.length < 3) {
System.out.println("Usages ... Input Parameter should be three or more ");
System.exit(0);
}
}

public void processInput() {
try {
resultVal = Integer.parseInt(inputtoken[inputtoken.length - 1]);
} catch(NumberFormatException e) {
System.out.println("Parsing error" + " " + e);
System.exit(0);
}
for (int i = 0; i < numberseq.length; i++) {
try {
numberseq[i] = Integer.parseInt(inputtoken[i]);
} catch(NumberFormatException e) {
System.out.println("Parsing error" + " " + e);
System.exit(0);
}
}
}

public void showInput() {
for (int i = 0; i < numberseq.length; i++) {
// System.out.println(numberseq[i]);
}
}

public void getPermutation() {
GenerateOperators gen = new GenerateOperators("+-*/", totaloperator);
List v = gen.getVariations();
System.out.println("Possible Solutions");
for (int i = 0; i < v.size(); i++) {
operatorseq = v.get(i);
manupulate();
}
}

public void manupulate() {

result = 0;

for (int i = 0; i < operatorseq.length(); i++) {
if (i == 0) {
if ((operatorseq.charAt(i)) == '+') {
result = result + (numberseq[i] + numberseq[i + 1]);
}
if ((operatorseq.charAt(i)) == '-') {
result = result + (numberseq[i] - numberseq[i + 1]);
}
if ((operatorseq.charAt(i)) == '*') {
result = result + (numberseq[i] * numberseq[i + 1]);
}
if ((operatorseq.charAt(i)) == '/') {
try {
result = result + (numberseq[i] / numberseq[i + 1]);
} catch(Exception e) {
flag = false;
// don't do anything
}
}
} else {
if ((operatorseq.charAt(i)) == '+') {
result = result + numberseq[i + 1];
}
if ((operatorseq.charAt(i)) == '-') {
result = result - numberseq[i + 1];
}
if ((operatorseq.charAt(i)) == '*') {
result = result * numberseq[i + 1];
}
if ((operatorseq.charAt(i)) == '/') {
try {
result = result / numberseq[i + 1];
} catch(Exception e) {
flag = false;
// don't do anything
}
}
}
}
if (result == resultVal && flag == true) {
totalcounter++;
System.out.println("");
for (int i = 0; i < numberseq.length - 1; i++) {
System.out.print(numberseq[i] + "" + operatorseq.charAt(i));
}
System.out.print(numberseq[numberseq.length - 1]);
System.out.print("= " + result);
}
}

public void count() {
if(totalcounter == 0 ) {
System.out.println("NO EXPRESSION POSSIBLE");
System.exit(0);
}
else {
System.out.println("");
System.out.println("Total Possible Solution :" + totalcounter);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
Main main = new Main();
main.isValid();
main.processInput();
main.showInput();
main.getPermutation();
main.count();
}
}


and one more file which is :

package problemstatement1;

import java.util.List;
import java.util.ArrayList;

public class GenerateOperators {

private String a;
private int n;

public GenerateOperators(String a, int n) {
this.a = a;
this.n = n;
}

public List getVariations() {
int l = a.length();
int permutations = (int) Math.pow(l, n);
char[][] storeCombination = new char[permutations][n];
for (int x = 0; x < n; x++) {
int temp = (int) Math.pow(l, x);
for (int p1 = 0; p1 < permutations;) {
for (int al = 0; al < l; al++) {
for (int p2 = 0; p2 < temp; p2++) {
storeCombination[p1][x] = a.charAt(al);
p1++;
}
}
}
}

List result = new ArrayList();
for (char[] permutation : storeCombination) {
result.add(new String(permutation));
}
return result;

}

public static void main(String[] args) {
GenerateOperators gen = new GenerateOperators("AAAMMBR", 7);
List v = gen.getVariations();
for (int i=0;i String s1 = v.get(i);
System.out.println(s1);
}

}
}

Feel free to use this code :-).

JavaFX Reflection Game !

On the way to exploring little more API of JavaFX, I reached to a fair animation. That is reflection. Here is the output of "crying baby".
Here is the code:

import javafx.application.Frame;
import javafx.application.Stage;
import javafx.scene.geometry.Circle;
import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
import javafx.scene.image.ImageView;
import javafx.scene.image.Image;
import javafx.scene.effect.*;

Frame {
title: "Crying Baby"
width: 400
height: 700
closeAction: function() { java.lang.System.exit( 0 );
}
visible: true

stage: Stage {
fill: Color.WHITE
content: [
ImageView {
x: 100
y:10
image: Image {
url: "http://www.powermixradio.com/GGG-SAD-CARTOON.jpg"
}
effect: Reflection {
bottomOpacity:0.1
fraction: 1
topOffset: 50
}
},
ImageView {
x:0
y:300
image: Image {
url: "http://www.toyotapartsstore.com/images/71111_2_%20mirror_8CE1.jpg"
}
opacity:0.5
}
]
}
}

Things to watch:

1. Effect: Reflection -

bottomOpacity:0.1 - set the opacity of image in reflection.

fraction: 1 - set how much part of the image should come in reflection.

topOffset: 50 - How far image from the focus. There are some more useful parameters in this.

2. Opacity of second Imageview allow me to see the reflection of first image, else it will cover the reflection.

On the way to make some moving animation, but I don't know what happened to the support of gif image. gif image works like static image, don't know why ?

Play with Flickr API in Java !

I decided to play with Flickr API's for Java FX coding. But in between I found myself in hell and I started with Java :-). As all of you know Flickr Support hell lot of API to view Image, to search image, to search comment, Image translation, Image upload and many more. Check out here for detailed API. Now using these API's are not at all tough, because its all a game of XML.

Here I have written a small code, which do this :

1. It search one image(it can work for more than one image) from search API of Flickr.
2. It writes the search data on a XML, which I am copying at D:\Hello1.xml.
3. And finally the code is using XML parsing techniques to get the information required for image view.
4. Then I use JDK6 feature of Desktop and open the default browser with the parsed URL. And
Congratulations, you can see the image.

Code, can look little big because of bad coding and writing lot of repetitive things :D.

package flickrapp;

import java.awt.Desktop;
import javax.xml.namespace.QName;
import javax.xml.stream.XMLEventReader;
import javax.xml.stream.XMLInputFactory;
import javax.xml.stream.events.Attribute;
import javax.xml.stream.events.StartElement;
import javax.xml.stream.events.XMLEvent;
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
import java.util.*;

public class Main {

public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception {
URLConnection uc = new URL("http://api.flickr.com/services/rest/?method=flickr.photos.search&api_key=e3471e67d4ac10c64055420d9b211b4f&per_page=1&text=Bangalore").openConnection();
DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(uc.getInputStream());
FileWriter fw = new FileWriter(new File("D:\\Hello1.xml"));
String nextline;
String[] servers = new String[10];
String[] ids = new String[10];
String[] secrets = new String[10];
while ((nextline = dis.readLine()) != null) {
fw.append(nextline);
}
dis.close();
fw.close();
String filename = "D:\\Hello1.xml";
XMLInputFactory factory = XMLInputFactory.newInstance();
System.out.println("FACTORY: " + factory);

XMLEventReader r = factory.createXMLEventReader(filename, new FileInputStream(filename));
int i = -1;
while (r.hasNext()) {

XMLEvent event = r.nextEvent();
if (event.isStartElement()) {
StartElement element = (StartElement) event;
String elementName = element.getName().toString();
if (elementName.equals("photo")) {
i++;
Iterator iterator = element.getAttributes();

while (iterator.hasNext()) {

Attribute attribute = (Attribute) iterator.next();
QName name = attribute.getName();
String value = attribute.getValue();
System.out.println("Attribute name/value: " + name + "/" + value);
if ((name.toString()).equals("server")) {
servers[i] = value;
System.out.println("Server Value" + servers[0]);
}
if ((name.toString()).equals("id")) {
ids[i] = value;
}
if ((name.toString()).equals("secret")) {
secrets[i] = value;
}
}
}
}
}
System.out.println(i);
String flickrurl = "http://static.flickr.com/" + servers[i] + "/" + ids[i] + "_" + secrets[i] + ".jpg";
try {
URI uri = new URI(flickrurl);
Desktop desktop = null;
if (Desktop.isDesktopSupported()) {
desktop = Desktop.getDesktop();
}

if (desktop != null) {
desktop.browse(uri);
}
} catch (IOException ioe) {
ioe.printStackTrace();
} catch (URISyntaxException use) {
use.printStackTrace();
}
}
}

Now see this line :

URLConnection uc = new URL("http://api.flickr.com/services/rest/?method=flickr.photos.search&api_key=e3471e67d4ac10c64055420d9b211b4f&per_page=1&text=Bangalore").openConnection();

Here some important thing to see :

http://api.flickr.com/services/rest/?method=flickr.photos.search -> this is the way to write Flickr API.

api_key=e3471e67d4ac10c64055420d9b211b4f -> required for service. This is my api_key, you can have your own. Just go to flickr service and generate your API_key

per_page=1 -> Here is what I meant one image, if you can change this to 10. It will gather information of top 10 images in XML file.

text=Bangalore -> Sorry, I have hard coded it for now. This is the search string.

Now, look at the XML file get generated in D:\Hello1.xml. You can see one entry with tag photo inside photos. So, we need to take some data from this XML file and add in proper style to get the correct URL and that is here:

String flickrurl = "http://static.flickr.com/" + servers[i] + "/" + ids[i] + "_" + secrets[i] + ".jpg";

Again, lot of things are hard coded(which I will correct in next post). Since only one image (i=0). I am assuming its a jpg image :D. Now calling Desktop API, you can load this image on default browser.

Now, this is still a live question, for certain keyword search, it gives the same result like when I search for keyword "Vaibhav", code and search box of Flickr provided the same result(which is not my photo :-( ) whereas if I search on things like "Bangalore", result is not similar for many cases. I don't know how Flickr handles it internally.

Probably next I will try to upload image or translate image but in Java FX :-)

Navigation Code in JavaFX

So finally I am able to write a small code with the new Java FX API and Builder provided in NB 6.1. I have also seen one bug got fixed (maybe initially it was handled on a different way). Initially when we make any FX project in Netbeans, it basically store the *.fx code into classes folder as well. There is no way one can find the .class file of the .fx file, which is not a problem now.

I have written one small navigation code of map from key control. Which moves the map left, right, up and down from the corresponding key. And the most part of the code line is to handle the boundary condition like the image should not move left when it is already in left most region and so on. Thanks to Vikram for helping me out in writing boundary condition, this is always confusing for me :-D. Here is the small code:

import javafx.application.Frame;
import javafx.application.Stage;
import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
import javafx.input.KeyEvent;
import javafx.input.KeyCode;
import javafx.scene.image.Image;
import javafx.scene.image.ImageView;
import javafx.input.MouseEvent;
import javafx.scene.transform.Translate;
import java.lang.*;
import javafx.scene.geometry.Line;

var x1 : Number = 0;
var y1 : Number = 0;
//var myImage = Image { url: "{__DIR__}/./earth-map-big.jpg" };
var myImage = Image { url: "http://arstechnica.com/reviews/4q00/macosx-pb1/images/earth-map-big.jpg" };
var line: Line;

Frame {
title: "MyApplication"
width: 500
height: 500
resizable: false

closeAction: function() {
java.lang.System.exit( 0 );
}
visible: true
stage: Stage {
fill:Color.BLACK
content: [
ImageView {
image : myImage
transform : [
Translate { x : bind x1, y : bind y1 }
]
onKeyPressed: function( e: KeyEvent ):Void {
System.out.println(x1 + " " + y1);
if(
e.getKeyText() == "Left")
{
if(x1 < 0) {
System.out.println(x1);
x1+=50;
}
}
if(
e.getKeyText() == "Right")
{
if(Math.abs(x1 - 500) < myImage.width) {
System.out.println(x1);
x1-=50;
}
}
if(
e.getKeyText() == "Down")
{
if(Math.abs(y1 - 500) < myImage.height) {
System.out.println(y1);
y1-=50;
}
}
if(e.getKeyText() == "Up")
{
if(y1 < 0) {
System.out.println(y1);
y1+=50;
}
}
}
opacity:1
}
]
}
}

I am loading the image from URL itself, so it will take sometime(because Image size is 3200 X 1600). Rest all is mathematics :-). Still lot more fancy job to do !

Original Post

Small Java FX example

OK, nothing to laugh. I know my animation sense is little poor. But here I tried to move a ship, in the way they show in movies -D. Nothing like that, I have tried to give a sinusoidal movement of a ship. In the comment section, you can see there is a sea image as well. Animation was looking little ugly with sea, so I removed it :-). But point to note, you can give any animation to a image based on any mathematical methods. And if you have a complex equation, you can fit that in, in place of my simple sin curve. Here is the code:

package move;

import javafx.application.Frame;
import javafx.application.Stage;
import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
import java.lang.Math;
import javafx.animation.KeyFrame;
import javafx.animation.Timeline;
import javafx.scene.image.ImageView;
import javafx.scene.image.Image;

var time : Number = 0.0;


var timeline : Timeline = Timeline {
repeatCount: Timeline.INDEFINITE
keyFrames :
KeyFrame {
time : 5ms
action: function() {
time += 0.02;
}
}
};
Frame {
title: "MyApplication"
width: 1200
height: 500
closeAction: function() {
java.lang.System.exit( 0 );
}
visible: true

stage: Stage {
fill: Color.AQUA
content: [
/* ImageView {
image: Image {
url: "http://birdblog.merseyblogs.co.uk/sea21206.jpg"
}
},
*/
ImageView {
x:bind(100 + time * 10)
y:bind(100 + Math.cos(time) * 10)
image: Image {
url: "http://lal.cas.psu.edu/Research/visualiz/images/boat.gif"
}
}
]

}
}
timeline.start();


Just 3-4 drags from Netbeans 6.1 FX viewer :

1. One Timeline and an action inside it.

2. One Frame.

3. One Image.

Thats it ! Set the code logic and rest leave all the work on binding :-). Quite simple, just that I am not able to make some good animation out of it !

Originally posted on http://blogs.sun.com/vaibhav

JDK6 comparing with JDK1.4.2

Again a comparison and reason why JDK6. Weeks back one of our team member gave a presentation on JVM performance improvement in Mustang. I have just collected a useful point here and try to compare with older JDK version. Here is the code:

import java.util.*;

public class RuntimePerformanceGC {

public static void main(String[] args) {
RuntimePerformanceGC ob = new RuntimePerformanceGC();
Vector v = new Vector();
java.util.Date now = new java.util.Date();
long t1 = now.getTime();
ob.addItems(v);
java.util.Date now1 = new java.util.Date();
System.out.println(now1.getTime()-t1);
}
public void addItems(Vector v) {
for(int i =0;i<500000;i++)
v.add("Item" + i);
}
}

And the output in ms is:

JDK1.4.2: 984

JDK 6: 578

You can see a massive difference. 37 percent improvement in time. Why ? Here goes :

This is because of Runtime Performance Optimization. The new lock coarsening optimization technique implemented in hotspot eliminates the unlock and relock operations when a lock is released and then reacquired with no meaningful work done in between those operations. And this is what happening in our example. Since, Vector do thread safe operation, it takes the lock for add, release the lock and then takes it again.

So, I just tried to give one more reason why use JDK6 ;-). This is off course not the only reason for big improvement, I will try to cover some more in upcoming blogs :-)

Disk Space Check

Take care of disk space when you are writing a big program :). Use JDK 6 features:

import java.io.File;

public class DiskSpaceCheck {
public DiskSpaceCheck() {
File file = new File("E:");
System.out.println("E:");
System.out.println("Total:  " + file.getTotalSpace());
System.out.println("Free:   " + file.getFreeSpace());
System.out.println("Usable: " + file.getUsableSpace());

file = new File("E://movie");
System.out.println("E://movie");
System.out.println("Total:  " + file.getTotalSpace());
System.out.println("Free:   " + file.getFreeSpace());
System.out.println("Usable: " + file.getUsableSpace());

file = new File("/");
System.out.println("n/");
System.out.println("Total:  " + file.getTotalSpace());
System.out.println("Free:   " + file.getFreeSpace());
System.out.println("Usable: " + file.getUsableSpace());
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
new DiskSpaceCheck();
}
}

I was actually very suprised that why this feature came so late.

Nimbus Look And Feel !

Good news for all the user, using JDK6. Though I am little late in writing blog on this but its OK ;). JDK6 current update comes with a new L&F(Look And Feel) called Nimbus.

Nimbus provide more lively look and feel in Swing UI. Here are some examples:

Default Look And Feel(Click to see enlarged mode)
Nimbus Look And Feel((Click to see enlarged mode)

Since the image is little small and related to my Online Java Project(which I can't change), so I provide another example here from my last blog code.

Default Look And Feel
Nimbus Look And Feel
Something more interesting is focus traversal on components. For Default L&F, you can see that there is a dotted rectangle on Button 3, which says "Focus is here" whereas in Nimbus you can see Button 1 with little bluish highlight which says "Look at my focus" :)

Quickest way to try, command line:

Run my previous (or any UI code) with the following option:

java -Dswing.defaultlaf=com.sun.java.swing.plaf.nimbus.NimbusLookAndFeel LayoutCheck

Off course, you can do it with code :

UIManager.setLookAndFeel(
    "com.sun.java.swing.plaf.nimbus.NimbusLookAndFeel");

Use try, catch and respect Exception handling as well.

Compiler Optimization Can cause problem

Last week, I was created a presentation on Multi-threading in Java. Though this fact, I have covered in presentation but still wanted to blog on same. In multi-threading world, compiler optimization can cause serious problems. Just check my small code:

public class NonVolatileProblem extends Thread{

ChangeFlag cf;

public static void main(String[] args) {
ChangeFlag cf = new ChangeFlag();
NonVolatileProblem th1 = new NonVolatileProblem(cf);
NonVolatileProblem th2 = new NonVolatileProblem(cf);

th1.start();
th2.start();

}
public void run() {
cf.method1();
cf.method2();
}

public NonVolatileProblem(ChangeFlag cf) {
this.cf = cf;
}
}

class ChangeFlag {

boolean flag = false;

public void method1() {
flag = false;
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch(Exception e) { System.out.println("Don't want to be here"); }
if(flag) {
System.out.println("This can be reached ");
}
System.out.println("Value of flag" + flag);
}

public void method2() {
flag = true;
}
}

Check out the reason in bold. Now if compiler optimize the code and remove the part of if(flag), thinking of that flag value will always be false. Then we have a situation here(FBI style of speaking :-D), because other thread can change its value and can make the flag value true. Just run this code 5-6 may be 10 times, you will be able to see the SOP statement "This can be reached". Just for the shake of getting that I have added sleep statement. Here what I got on my 3rd run of the code :)

Value of flag:false
This can be reached
Value of flag:true

Handling such type of situation is not difficult, specification says to add a word volatile before the variable flag which will tell the compiler not to optimize its code just by seeing some initial value or declaration.

Java - No Pass by Reference

Back to Basics :)

I still see some of my friends get confused with Pass by Reference in Java. Only point to note, there is no pass by reference in Java, we only have pass by Value and sometime we pass the object reference by Value(that doesn't mean pass by Reference).
Year back I had a big discussion on my Orkut community about this and I am again posting the same code for clearing the confusion.

class MyClass {
String name;
int nameCode;

public MyClass(String name, int nameCode) {
this.name = name;
this.nameCode = nameCode;
}
public String toString() {
System.out.println(name + " : " + nameCode);
return(name+nameCode);
}
}
public class NoCallByReference {
public static void swap(MyClass a, MyClass b) {
MyClass temp = a;
a = b;
b = temp;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
MyClass myclass = new MyClass("Ramu", 7);
MyClass yourclass = new MyClass("Mohan", 1);
swap(myclass, yourclass);
myclass.toString();
yourclass.toString();
}
}


A very simple code where I tried to swap two object of myClass. But you will surprise to see the output because after swapping even the value of myclass and yourclass will remain the same. Because the copy of myclass and yourclass has been created and get swapped rather than actual myclass and yourclass. It's like

myclass --- copyofmyclass
yourclass --- copyofyourclass


Swapping is done on copyofmyclass and copyofyourclass. Better to go for a homework and run the command

javap -c NoCallByReference and try to figure our how assemble is going on :-).

For more details and hot talk check the orkut link here.