Group in a grid pane

Question

Are there any examples for rendering a group of objects in a GridPane so that they are positioned properly ?
        Path path = new Path();
        path.getElements().add(new MoveTo(341,21));
        path.getElements().add(new CubicCurveTo(300, 20, 300, 20, 440, 300));
        PathTransition pathTransition = new PathTransition();
        pathTransition.setDuration(Duration.valueOf(3000));Does code like this require a Group in order to work ? Actually I want to add to a Group and also position using a GridPane or something like that.
I think I have the answer. I didn't need a Group to animate. I just added individual components to a GridPane.
Thanks,
Mohan
Edited by: Mohan on Nov 8, 2011 1:30 AM

Answer 1

Currently CSS in JFX can't really be used for layout (or sizing). It's one of those grey areas between what is styling (which should be in the CSS) and what is layout (which should be in the FXML). I think I remember Richard once mentioning in a forum or article that he did want to add alignment stuff to the CSS at some point, but don't quote me on that. You could have a search through Kenai to see if there is a feature request for it, and if not add one.
You could maybe fake it by having the labels stretch to take up the available space in the GridPane. To do this you need to disable the max size restriction (i.e. setMaxWidth and setMaxHeight to Integer.MAX_VALUE) and ensure your GridPane constraints are such that the label will fill the cell. Once you have a stretched label the alignment will come into play as the text is aligned relative to the area of the label (as opposed to a layout manager that aligns the whole label relative to its parent). I find putting a border on the label while debugging useful to work out what is going on.
Another, more flexible but less contained alternative might be to use variables in your FXML files. You can do this in a number of ways. One is to create a bean that has all your variables on it with getters and then you can pass this to the namespace of your FXML Loader and then reference it using stuff like ${myConstants.gridAlignment}. Another is to create static methods on a class that take a node, these can then be called from the FXML using similar notation to GridPane.alignment. This second approach only works for things where you want to work on the Node directly, but for your scenario that should be ok I think. And then there's always the option to enable a scripting language in your FXML, which allows you to do most anything.
Hope that helps,
zonski