Building and Deploying Java Client Desktop Applications with JDK 17 and Beyond

So you've decided you need to build a desktop app? Find out your next steps as we emphasize getting started in the right direction when choosing and using the Java platform UI toolkits. We present lots of techie details as well as content to help you choose an appropriate UI technology for your current and future business needs. Should you choose Java? Should you use Swing or JavaFX? Can you mix and match? What are each of them best for? How do you deploy the desktop app in your enterprise? We show how easy it is to use Swing and/or JavaFX, and run through as many of the fantastic capabilities as we can.

Presented by Philip Race & Kevin Rushforth - Oracle

Tags: #Java #JavaFX #OpenJFX #UI #Desktop #userinterface

[youptralala]

Glad to see Desktop apps Java get some well deserved exposure. It really needs it in a world where Electron and web dev took it's lunch

[onebeartoe]

It is cool to see the InterOp feature. I remember having to know the differences between light and heavy weight (AWT/Swing) components. Thanks and great work!

[tempxyzzy]

24:09 - Deploying. Thank Goodness for this tutorial and jpackage. Since JavaFX was ripped out of the JDK after Java8, distributed Jar files no longer worked if you used JavaFX. The Jar had to be passed through platform-specific unreliable 3rd party tools before distribution. This is why I had to stop using Java to create desktop apps and switch to Qt.
Glad to witness Java's comeback.

[jonathangriffin]

Great video! Enjoyed seeing how to integrate Swing and JavaFX in the same application. Really enjoyed seeing how to use jlink to create a custom jdk and everything bundled with jpackage.

[dennisvanmierlo]

Great presentation! And nice to see the Swing and JavaFX are so easily interchangeable. The question I have is, when using both, why not stick with just JavaFX? Better for maintainability and to avoid confusion.

[VincentGroenewold]

Tiny remark about one vs the other; JavaFX was part of the JDK and not taken out because of the JavaFX team... :) I'm working on a JavaFX app, but it definitely needs more funding for that team to actually give me something up to modern standards.

[cvasilak]

thanks for the valuable information! Would you please share the link to the source code of the example? Unfortunately the link shown in the slide is broken :(

[Japplis.]

Great presentation! Thanks!
I'm now full time working on Swing applications and enjoying every moment of it 🙂
Other advantages of desktop applications vs web apps: Less worries about monitoring, performance, cost, scalability or GDPR as it's running on the client computer.


One of the problem you may have encountered is to find which class name to instantiate when a Jar file is attached. What you call "theUI" on slide 23. What I've done for "Applet Runner" IDE plug-ins if a Jar file is provided as url, is to read the meta-inf/manifest.mf file and if the "Main-Class" attribute is a class that extends Applet, create it and add it to my JPanel. I'm also adding any Jar file specified in the "Class-Path" attribute to my class loader.

[wajahatraza]

Good video. What is future of AWT and swing APIs in terms of desktop development?

[StarfireResearch]

Nice demonstration of what can be done. But we really need some deep, detailed documentation of JLink and JPackage an d how to get them to actually work. The number one flaw of Java since the start (mid 1990s) has been the inability to produce a native application: something easy to distribute / sell that doesn't break any time the user fiddles with (updates) Java.

[bryanjbuchanan]

Some interesting use cases. Thanks for the presentation. For those looking for source code, see the URL shown at 26:20. The download contains everything.

[dailylifeclub]

I am making a Java Application using Java Swing and Jframe with a external video library . I am using window 11 JDK 19.0.2 . I want to create standalone application I tried using Launch4j but it is giving version conflict. Window 11 and this version of Java dont come with JRE seperatly how can create portable standalone project

[CPEDGG]

What companies employ for remote desktop app developers?

[sigmacgk]

Great job! If you can share the source code, it will be greatly appreciated. Note: the link at 26:20 don't work. Thanks in advance.

[edwinkipruto]

lets say you gst your java desktop app and you want to distribute which are the best platforms to reach most clients

[olayemimichael]

Great work through. Can we get the source code ?

[ingframin]

There are too many electron apps around that could have been a lot better as JavaFX apps

[tudogeo]

I thought Swing was going to be deprecated.

[ABHISHEKSINGH-nvse]

I like swing because I don't have to install external javafx. 🙂

[VisruthCV]

Great! Very informative presentation.
Thanks for publishing!
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