Playing with JRubyFX

I started looking at JRubyFX as a combination of using a proven UI solution with Ruby as the programming language and I have to admit that I am impressed with how little it takes to get a UI done -- especially when it is driven by FXML.

Unfortunately the learning curve is steep, as one has to learn JavaFX and the special way JRubyFX calls the JavaFX classes and methods. And unfortunately, Google is not returning too much results here.

Anyway: this little code already creates GUI and populates a TreeView with elements it pulls from a remote server.

require 'jrubyfx'
require 'hawkular_all'

fxml_root File.dirname(__FILE__)

class HawkFx < JRubyFX::Application

  def start(stage)
    with(stage, title: 'Hello World!', width: 800, height: 600) do
      fxml HawkFxController
      show
    end

    stage.show()
  end
end

class HawkFxController
  include JRubyFX::Controller
  fxml 'fxmain.fxml'

  def login # callback from the login button
    creds = { :username => 'jdoe' ,
              :password => 'password' }
    url = 'http://localhost:8080/hawkular/inventory'
    @inventory_client = Hawkular::Inventory::InventoryClient.new(url, creds)
    @tenant = @inventory_client.get_tenant
    @FXMLtextArea.text = "Tenant: #{@tenant}"
    feeds = @inventory_client.list_feeds

    show_initial_tree(feeds)

  end

  def show_initial_tree(feeds)
    tree_root = tree_item('Feeds') do
      feeds.each do |feed|
        item = tree_item(feed) # this already adds the item to the root
      end
    end
    # bind to the view from fxml
    @FXMLtreeView.setRoot(tree_root)

    tree_root.setExpanded true
  end
end

HawkFx.launch