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//java present and future/
Because the JavaFX components are not distributed anymore via the JDK, they need to be
distributed in another way. Gluon has undertaken doing this; it makes sure builds of the JavaFX
modules are uploaded to Maven Central, and JavaFX SDKs are also built that contain all the
modules including the native libraries (which is useful, for example, for developers who do not
use Maven or Gradle). This last step is especially convenient for developers who want to use
jlink to create a JDK runtime that includes the relevant modules from the JDK and the JavaFX
modules that their application needs.
While the distribution model had to be changed, the OpenJFX community took the oppor-
tunity to make a few more changes at the same time. For example, because many of today’s
popular software components are developed on GitHub, a mirror of the OpenJFX repository has
been created there. This step has brought in more new contributors who are accustomed to the
GitHub development model but thought the OpenJDK procedures were too intimidating. As a
result, there is now more traffic on the OpenJFX developer mailing list than before this change.
In addition, continuous testing and building is now an integral part of OpenJFX develop-
ment. Whenever a developer creates a pull request on the GitHub mirror, both AppVeyor and
Travis jobs are run to see that all code still builds and the tests pass.
Combined, all these changes, which ultimately led to the JavaFX 11 release, have created the
foundation for future development.Moving Forward
JavaFX follows the same release cadence as OpenJDK, and the benefits are similar: Features that
are ready for a release will make it into a release. Features that require more time can be added
in later releases. JavaFX 12 is planned for release in March 2019.
There are myriad companies using JavaFX in a wide variety of environments—for example,
medical, automotive, scientific, military, and entertainment. Similar to how the core JDK tries to
stay small enough to be maintainable, JavaFX does not include vertical market-specific exten-
sions. There is a big ecosystem in the JavaFX world, and different companies and individuals
provide (free and commercial) libraries and extensions.