Table cell flashing

Question

Hi,
Before I start to hack away a solution that might not be fx-like, I'd like to get your expert opinion about implementing cell flashing for a table view.
I have done this several times in Swing (using a timer, a customer renderer, switching the bg/fg colors 3 times, and firing up an even table cell update), but how do implement this feature in JavaFX?
* The table cell renderer (override def call (...)) could be used
* The bg/fg color switch can be done using different css styles
* what would be the best way to implement the timer and ask the view to "repaint" a specific cell?
Thx v much

Answer 1

Below is a bit of code that does something like what you want (the port to groovy should be easy). It may need some testing/tweaking for a real scenario and I'm not sure just how many animated cells you could have going at a time before performance becomes an issue (maybe someone from the JFX team could comment on this?).
Also, regarding the use of styles for animating the change, you should be aware of this: Removing CSS style classes?
Basically you need to make sure your 'default' style has values set for everything your 'highlight' style messes with, otherwise the highlight won't get turned off.
import javafx.animation.FadeTransition;
import javafx.animation.Timeline;
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.beans.value.ChangeListener;
import javafx.beans.value.ObservableValue;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Label;
import javafx.scene.control.TableCell;
import javafx.scene.control.TableColumn;
import javafx.scene.control.TableView;
import javafx.scene.control.cell.PropertyValueFactory;
import javafx.scene.layout.BorderPane;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.util.Callback;
import javafx.util.Duration;
public class TestApp extends Application
    public static void main(String[] args)
        Application.launch(args);
    @Override
    public void start(Stage stage) throws Exception
        BorderPane root = new BorderPane();
        TableView<Person> table = new TableView<Person>();
        table.getItems().addAll(
                new Person("Cathy", "Freeman"),
                new Person("Albert", "Namatjira"),
                new Person("Noel", "Pearson"),
                new Person("Oodgeroo", "Nooncal")
        TableColumn<Person, String> firstNameCol = new TableColumn<Person, String>("First Name");
        firstNameCol.setCellValueFactory(
                new PropertyValueFactory<Person, String>("firstName")
        table.getColumns().add(firstNameCol);
        TableColumn<Person, String> lastNameCol = new TableColumn<Person, String>("Last Name");
        lastNameCol.setCellValueFactory(
                new PropertyValueFactory<Person, String>("lastName")
        lastNameCol.setCellFactory(new Callback<TableColumn<Person, String>, TableCell<Person, String>>()
            public TableCell<Person, String> call(TableColumn<Person, String> column)
                final FlashingLabel label = new FlashingLabel();
                label.setStyle("-fx-background-color: #ffaaaa");
                TableCell<Person, String> cell = new TableCell<Person, String>()
                    protected void updateItem(String value, boolean empty)
                        super.updateItem(value, empty);
                        label.setText(value);
                        label.setVisible(!empty);
                cell.setGraphic(label);
                return cell;
        table.getColumns().add(lastNameCol);
        root.setCenter(table);
        Scene scene = new Scene(root, 800, 600);
        scene.getStylesheets().add("styles.css");
        stage.setScene(scene);
        stage.show();
    public class FlashingLabel extends Label
        private FadeTransition animation;
        public FlashingLabel()
            animation = new FadeTransition(Duration.millis(1000), this);
            animation.setFromValue(1.0);
            animation.setToValue(0);
            animation.setCycleCount(Timeline.INDEFINITE);
            animation.setAutoReverse(true);
            animation.play();
            visibleProperty().addListener(new ChangeListener<Boolean>()
                public void changed(ObservableValue<? extends Boolean> source, Boolean oldValue, Boolean newValue)
                    if (newValue)
                        animation.playFromStart();
                    else
                        animation.stop();
    public class Person
        private String firstName;
        private String lastName;
        private Person(String firstName, String lastName)
            this.firstName = firstName;
            this.lastName = lastName;
        public String getFirstName()
            return firstName;
        public String getLastName()
            return lastName;
}