JavaFX 18 Highlights

JavaFX version 18 has been released. We’ve tailored down some of the most exciting parts of the release in this document.

New features:

  • JavaFX Media now has support for H.265/HEVC
  • Node’s managed property can now be styled using CSS
  • Convenience factory methods for Border and Background

Improvements:

  • JavaFX modules include version information
  • JavaFX Webview supports transparent backgrounds
  • Improvement in selection performance for TableView

Removal and Clean up:

  • JavaFX GTK 2 library has been deprecated for removal

The community came together to fix 74 bugs in the last 6 months with nearly half of them going into the ‘controls’. Following are major bug-fixes that went into 18:

  • Skin and behavior fixes in multiple controls:

    • Misbehavior on switching skin has been fixed for TextField, TableView and TreeTableView
    • NPE on calling startEdit on TextFieldXXCell, TableCell and TreeTableCell
    • Better support for disposing skin elements across controls

  • MediaPlayer had the following fixes:

    • No speakers connected to the PC while playing an mp4 video results in no display
    • Video stops, but audio continues to play when stopTime is reached on MacOS

A more comprehensive list of all the changes in JavaFX 18 can be found on Github.

Kudos go to the fine people at Gluon who took care of the bulk of the work on JavaFX 18. Do check their JavaFX Long Term Support services.