How to create a javafx 2.0 application MDI

Question

How to implement something kinda internal frame in JavaFx 2.0 specifically?

My attempt is as so..

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.event.ActionEvent;
import javafx.event.EventHandler;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Button;
import javafx.scene.layout.StackPane;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class Main extends Application {

    ConnectDb connection;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Application.launch(args);
    }

    @Override
    public void start(Stage stage) throws Exception {
        final Stage stage1 = new Stage();
        StackPane pane = new StackPane();
        Button btn = new Button("Click Me");
        btn.setOnAction(new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {
            @Override
            public void handle(ActionEvent event) {
                connection = new ConnectDb();
                try {
                    connection.start(stage1);
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    e.printStackTrace(); 
                }
                System.out.println("Fire some thing..");
            }
        });
        pane.getChildren().add(btn);
        stage.setScene(new Scene(pane ,200, 300));
        stage.show();
    }
}

ConnectDb.java

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.event.ActionEvent;
import javafx.event.EventHandler;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Button;
import javafx.scene.layout.StackPane;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class ConnectDb extends Application {

    @Override
    public void start(Stage stage) throws Exception {
        StackPane pane = new StackPane();
        Button btn = new Button("Click On Button which is me");
        btn.setOnAction(new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {
            @Override
            public void handle(ActionEvent event) {
                System.out.println("Something here..");
            }
        });
        pane.getChildren().add(btn);
        stage.setScene(new Scene(pane ,200, 300));
        stage.show();
    }
}

Answer 1

1. Create parent AncorPane.
2. Add several children AnchorPanes to it. They will serve as internal frames. Add different content to these.
3. Set children AnchorPanes invisible.
4. Add buttons to hide, resize or close children AnchorPanes. When needed, call function to set all children AnchorPanes invisible, except for one.

Answer 2

First of all, for your approach, you don't really need to (and therefore should not) extend ConnectDb from Application as you just use the start method to create new stages. You just need one Application class (in your case Main). You could just as well create the new stage/scene in your first event handler.

Secondly, there is no real MDI support in JavaFX 2.1. Right now, you can just have multiple Stages (which is the equivalent to having multiple windows/frames). But you cannot have something like an internal frame in a desktop pane.

I guess you could take the following actions:

• Just use multiple Stages (windows) with the drawback that they will float quite uninspiredly on your desktop
• Use Swing as a container (with JDesktopPane and JInternalFrame) and integrate JavaFX (here's a nice How-To)
• Implement your own framework that emulates MDI behavior
• Find a framework that provides MDI behavior
• Wait for a future release of JavaFX that hopefully provides MDI support (as far as I know, there's a change request pending...)