The last week has seen some discussion on the web related to the future of JavaFX. Many people got the impression that JavaFX will be put on ice by Oracle. This was primarily caused by a blog post written by Shai Almog (Codename One) called “Should Oracle Spring Clean JavaFX”. It was “inspired” by a blog that I had written a little bit earlier where I was emphasizing the benefits of JavaFX.

I believe that Shai simply tried to emphasize that Oracle could do more / could do better when it comes to JavaFX but the conclusion that some companies were drawing after reading it was that JavaFX is dead. This is simply not true.

Oracle’s Commitment

I have asked on the openjfx mailing list today for a statement from Oracle and Donald Smith was kind enough to reply. Donald is a Senior Director of Product Management at Oracle Corporation:

Oracle is still committed to JavaFX and it will still be around for a while. As of 7u6 we bundled JavaFX with the Oracle JDK, we’ve open sourced 100% of the code, we continue developing for it, etc. I understand that

while there is both Swing and JavaFX available that people will continue to question the existence of each — so be it. Each has it’s own niches and benefits and our strategy, as it has been for years now, is to continue with each. – Don

Built Into JavaSE

JavaFX is part of JavaSE. This means that it is a core component of Java and that it will be installed wherever Java is installed. If I remember correctly then no API has ever been actually removed from Java, so why would anyone think that this will happen with JavaFX?

I received an email today from Shai where he is confirming this, too.

Once something is classified as a “product” (as JavaFX is) its there for the next 20 years.

Conclusion

JavaFX is here to stay and it is a great piece of technology if you want to implement a desktop client (fat / rich client). I have personally worked on several JavaFX projects for the last two years and I have seen my own JavaFX frameworks being used by others. So far each one of these projects has been a big success and JavaFX was able to equally convince the developers and the end users. It might not be ready for prime-time on mobile or embedded devices, yet, but with the current activities in these areas it might eventually become a major player there, too.