Javafx How can I hide/unhide tabs on a tabpane

Question

I have tabpane and depending upon what is going on I'd like to make certain tabs invisible and others visible. The scene and tabs are all defined in FXML.

I know I can use:

tabPane.getTabs().add(0, tab1);

and

tabPane.getTabs().remove(tab1);

but all my tabs, including tab1 are defined in FXML. If I could get and save all the defined tabs and save them so I could re-add them later that would be OK.

Answer 1

Your solution above is fine. Just make sure that in your FXML you give an ID to each tab you want to manipulate.

 <Tab fx:id="myTab1">....</Tab>

For this example I used the closing policy of the tab control to remove tabs from the scene. But this should give you enough information to start with. Here is a working solution that might point you in the right direction:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<?import javafx.scene.control.Button?>
<?import javafx.scene.control.ButtonBar?>
<?import javafx.scene.control.Tab?>
<?import javafx.scene.control.TabPane?>
<?import javafx.scene.layout.AnchorPane?>

<AnchorPane prefHeight="250.0" prefWidth="400.0" xmlns="http://javafx.com/javafx/8.0.111" xmlns:fx="http://javafx.com/fxml/1" fx:controller="application.TestController">
   <children>
      <TabPane fx:id="tabPane" layoutX="14.0" layoutY="14.0" prefHeight="294.0" prefWidth="446.0" AnchorPane.bottomAnchor="30.0" AnchorPane.leftAnchor="0.0" AnchorPane.rightAnchor="0.0" AnchorPane.topAnchor="0.0">
        <tabs>
          <Tab fx:id="tab1" text="Tab 1">
            <content>
              <AnchorPane minHeight="0.0" minWidth="0.0" prefHeight="180.0" prefWidth="200.0" />
            </content>
          </Tab>
          <Tab fx:id="tab2" text="Tab 2">
            <content>
              <AnchorPane minHeight="0.0" minWidth="0.0" prefHeight="180.0" prefWidth="200.0" />
            </content>
          </Tab>
            <Tab fx:id="tab3" text="Tab 3">
               <content>
                  <AnchorPane minHeight="0.0" minWidth="0.0" prefHeight="180.0" prefWidth="200.0" />
               </content>
            </Tab>
            <Tab fx:id="tab4" text="Tab 4">
               <content>
                  <AnchorPane minHeight="0.0" minWidth="0.0" prefHeight="180.0" prefWidth="200.0" />
               </content>
            </Tab>
        </tabs>
      </TabPane>
      <ButtonBar layoutX="138.0" layoutY="216.0" prefHeight="40.0" prefWidth="200.0" AnchorPane.bottomAnchor="0.0" AnchorPane.rightAnchor="0.0">
        <buttons>
          <Button mnemonicParsing="false" onAction="#saveTabs" text="Save" />
            <Button mnemonicParsing="false" onAction="#openTabs" text="Open" />
        </buttons>
      </ButtonBar>
   </children>
</AnchorPane>

Main Class:

    package application;

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader;
import javafx.scene.Parent;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.stage.Stage;


public class Main extends Application {
    @Override
    public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
        try {
            FXMLLoader loader = new FXMLLoader();
            Parent node = loader.load(Main.class.getClassLoader().getResource("fxml/TestFXML.fxml").openStream());
            Scene scene = new Scene(node,400,400);
            scene.getStylesheets().add(getClass().getResource("application.css").toExternalForm());
            primaryStage.setScene(scene);
            primaryStage.show();
        } catch(Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

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

Controller:

    package application;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.stream.Collectors;

import javafx.fxml.FXML;
import javafx.scene.control.Tab;
import javafx.scene.control.TabPane;

public class TestController {

    @FXML
    private TabPane tabPane;

    @FXML
    private Tab tab1, tab2, tab3, tab4;

    Collection<Tab> tabs = new ArrayList<>();
    Collection<String> openTabIds = new ArrayList<>();

    @FXML
    private void initialize() {
        tabs.add(tab1);
        tabs.add(tab2);
        tabs.add(tab3);
        tabs.add(tab4);
    }

    @FXML
    void openTabs() {
        openTabIds.stream().forEach(string -> {
            tabs.stream()
                .filter(tab -> tab.getId().equals(string)).findFirst()
                .ifPresent(tab -> tabPane.getTabs().add(tab));
        });
    }

    @FXML
    void saveTabs() {
        openTabIds = tabPane.getTabs().stream().map(tab -> tab.getId()).collect(Collectors.toList());
    }

}