ControlsFX Usage Guide

ControlsFX adds a broad set of higher-level JavaFX UI controls to Aussom under fx.controlsfx.*. It fills in many gaps left by the standard JavaFX control set, especially around selection controls, popovers, notifications, advanced layout containers, and data-oriented widgets.

In Aussom the ControlsFX surface is split across several modules so the wrapper files stay manageable:

• fx.controlsfx.controlsfx
• fx.controlsfx.FontAwesome
• fx.controlsfx.BasicControls
• fx.controlsfx.SelectionControls
• fx.controlsfx.LayoutControls
• fx.controlsfx.AdvancedControls

What It Is Good For

• richer forms and settings screens
• popup help and toast notifications
• multi-select and searchable selection widgets
• split-pane, master-detail, and hidden-side layouts
• advanced controls such as PropertySheet and GridView

Key Concepts

Getting Started

Include the modules for the controls you plan to use:

include fx;
include fx.Label;
include fx.VBox;
include fx.ToggleButton;
include fx.controlsfx.controlsfx;
include fx.controlsfx.BasicControls;
include fx.controlsfx.SelectionControls;
include fx.controlsfx.LayoutControls;
include fx.controlsfx.AdvancedControls;

Example 1: Notification Pane and Toast Notification

include fx;
include fx.Label;
include fx.VBox;
include fx.controlsfx.controlsfx;
include fx.controlsfx.BasicControls;

app = fx.fxApp("ControlsFX Notifications", 540, 280);

body = new Label("Main content");
pane = new NotificationPane(body);
pane.setText("Inline notification");

root = new VBox();
root.add(pane);

app.setLayout(root);
app.show(true);

pane.showText("Saved locally");

controlsfx.newNotifications()
    .owner(app)
    .title("Saved")
    .text("ControlsFX notification")
    .position("BOTTOM_RIGHT")
    .hideAfterMillis(1500)
    .showInformation();

fx.shutdown();

Example 2: Searchable Combo, Toggle Switch, and Range Slider

include fx;
include fx.VBox;
include fx.controlsfx.BasicControls;
include fx.controlsfx.SelectionControls;

app = fx.fxApp("ControlsFX Form", 480, 360);

toggle = new ToggleSwitch("Enabled");
toggle.setSelected(true);

range = new RangeSlider(0.0, 100.0, 20.0, 80.0);

combo = new SearchableComboBox(["Alpha", "Beta", "Gamma"]);
combo.select("Beta");

root = new VBox();
root.add([toggle, range, combo]);

app.setLayout(root);
app.show(true);
fx.shutdown();

Example 3: Property Sheet and Grid View

PropertySheet is intentionally thin in v1. It is most useful once you have AJI-backed PropertySheet.Item objects to feed into it.

include fx;
include fx.VBox;
include fx.controlsfx.AdvancedControls;

app = fx.fxApp("ControlsFX Advanced", 700, 520);

sheet = new PropertySheet();
sheet.setSearchBoxVisible(true);
sheet.setModeSwitcherVisible(true);
sheet.setMode("CATEGORY");
sheet.setTitleFilter("cpu");

grid = new GridView(["A", "B", "C"]);
grid.setCellWidth(90.0);
grid.setCellHeight(50.0);
grid.setVerticalCellSpacing(8.0);

root = new VBox();
root.add([sheet, grid]);

app.setLayout(root);
app.show(true);
fx.shutdown();

Example 4: PopOver Anchored to a Node

include fx;
include fx.Label;
include fx.VBox;
include fx.controlsfx.BasicControls;

app = fx.fxApp("ControlsFX PopOver", 420, 240);

anchor = new Label("Hover target");
popover = new PopOver(new Label("Popover content"));
popover.setTitle("Popover");
popover.setHeaderAlwaysVisible(true);
popover.setCloseButtonEnabled(true);
popover.setDetachable(false);

root = new VBox();
root.add(anchor);

app.setLayout(root);
app.show(true);

popover.showForNode(anchor);

fx.shutdown();

Tips and Gotchas

• ControlsFX is broad, so only include the wrapper modules you actually need.
• Popup-style controls such as PopOver and CfxNotifications behave differently from normal scene-graph nodes. They are shown relative to another node or owner window.
• PropertySheet is intentionally conservative in the current wrapper. Feed it raw AJI or custom PropertySheet.Item objects when you need real editable property rows.
• For headless tests, keep large render layouts separate from mutation-heavy runtime tests. Some large ControlsFX scenes can trigger non-fatal renderer issues in headless JavaFX.
• ControlsFX wrappers are thin by design. If a method is missing, use .obj and AJI rather than blocking on a wrapper addition.
• The ControlsFX glyph wrapper now lives at fx.controlsfx.FontAwesome.