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Quick-start guide

For the impatient, here’s how to get started using ScalaFX in your development (link to complete code at the bottom).

If you are reading this Quick-start Guide you probably already know how to use Scala in your project and probably have your favorite IDE or build setup to program in Scala. If not, details will be explained later. Here we assume that project is defined using SBT

To create a ScalaFX application you need to add a dependency on the ScalaFX library and corresponding version of the JavaFX. In the example we will use JavaFX “16” and ScalaFX “16.0.0-R24”.

To add dependency on ScalaFX add the following line:

libraryDependencies += "org.scalafx" %% "scalafx" % "16.0.0-R24"

JavaFX binaries are system dependent. We can detect the current system type and determined needed JavaFX binaries using following code:

libraryDependencies ++= {
  // Determine OS version of JavaFX binaries
  lazy val osName = System.getProperty("os.name") match {
    case n if n.startsWith("Linux") => "linux"
    case n if n.startsWith("Mac") => "mac"
    case n if n.startsWith("Windows") => "win"
    case _ => throw new Exception("Unknown platform!")
  }
  Seq("base", "controls", "fxml", "graphics", "media", "swing", "web")
    .map(m => "org.openjfx" % s"javafx-$m" % "16" classifier osName)
}

Now you are ready to type-in and run you first ScalaFX application:

import scalafx.application.JFXApp3
import scalafx.geometry.Insets
import scalafx.scene.Scene
import scalafx.scene.effect.DropShadow
import scalafx.scene.layout.HBox
import scalafx.scene.paint.Color._
import scalafx.scene.paint._
import scalafx.scene.text.Text

object ScalaFXHelloWorld extends JFXApp3 {
  override def start(): Unit = {
    stage = new JFXApp3.PrimaryStage {
      //    initStyle(StageStyle.Unified)
      title = "ScalaFX Hello World"
      scene = new Scene {
        fill = Color.rgb(38, 38, 38)
        content = new HBox {
          padding = Insets(50, 80, 50, 80)
          children = Seq(
            new Text {
              text = "Scala"
              style = "-fx-font: normal bold 100pt sans-serif"
              fill = new LinearGradient(
                endX = 0,
                stops = Stops(Red, DarkRed))
            },
            new Text {
              text = "FX"
              style = "-fx-font: italic bold 100pt sans-serif"
              fill = new LinearGradient(
                endX = 0,
                stops = Stops(White, DarkGray)
              )
              effect = new DropShadow {
                color = DarkGray
                radius = 15
                spread = 0.25
              }
            }
          )
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

It will display a window like this:

You can find the complete project in the scalafx-hello-world sample in GitHub. You can clone the repo or download the sample code from the Release page.

Alternatively you can create a simple ScalaFX project using SBT’s “new” command and ScalaFX template:

$ sbt new scalafx/scalafx.g8

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