Frontend Development with JavaFX and Kotlin: Build State-of-the-Art Kotlin GUI Applications

Build elegant, responsive, and stable Java Virtual Machine-based client applications (Fat Clients) with modern user interfaces. This book introduces JavaFX as a frontend technology and utilizes Kotlin instead of Java for coding program artifacts to boost code expressiveness and maintainability. Author Peter Späth employs a hands-on approach, providing practical examples and code to demonstrate each concept. Mid-level Java programming knowledge and a basic understanding of Kotlin are the only prerequisites; experience with JavaFX and frontend coding is not essential.

JavaFX is a modern frontend programming toolkit equipped with containers, menus, buttons, sliders, text fields, and various other controls necessary for communicating with your users, all of which are covered here. Despite its name, JavaFX applications can be coded with programming languages other than Java. The central requirement is that any language targeting JavaFX compiles to artifacts runnable on a Java Virtual Machine. Over the course of this book, you’ll learn firsthand why Kotlin, with its elegant and concise syntax, is a perfect match.

After completing Frontend Development With JavaFX and Kotlin, you will be able to build frontends of mid-to-high level complexity, depending on present Java skills, and use Kotlin as a language for addressing GUI programming needs and accessing the JavaFX API.

What You Will Learn

• Create a JavaFX + Kotlin development pipeline for Gradle, Eclipse and IntelliJ
• Use JavaFX scenes, stages, and nodes/controls
• Master JavaFX event handling, effects, and animation using Kotlin
• Understand the JavaFX Concurrency Framework and Kotlin Coroutines for JavaFX

Who This Book Is For

Low- to mid-level Java or Kotlin developers with or without JavaFX experience who wish to learn how to build JavaFX applications with Kotlin.

About the Author

Peter Späth graduated in 2002 as a physicist and soon afterward became an IT consultant, mainly for Java-related projects. In 2016, he decided to concentrate on writing books on various aspects, but with the main focus on software development. With two books about graphics and sound processing, three books on Android app development, and a beginner’s book on Jakarta EE development, the author continues his effort in writing software development-related literature.