JavaFX-8 GUI for desktop apps: Are there Look & Feels like in Swing?

Question

In Swing, there were some Look & Feels provided as a part of Java, e.g.:

Cross Platform:

• Nimbus
• Motif
• Metal

Specific to platforms:

• GTK+
• Windows XP
• etc.

Does Java 8 supply Look & Feels for JavaFX like it did for Swing? (I don't ask about a specific Look & Feel, I ask in general if there are Look & Feels additional to the default one)

Answer 1

I will answer my own question with a summary of the responses to this question and with a little research I made by myself:

• In JavaFX, there is no Look & Feel term anymore, but there are Stylesheets
• Until JavaFX-8 (I.e. the Java 8 version), there was only one provided stylesheet, named Caspian
• Starting from JavaFX-8, another stylesheet was added, named Modena. The Modena stylesheet is the default one in JavaFX-8

It is possible in to switch between Modena and Caspian stylesheets using the following commands:

setUserAgentStylesheet(STYLESHEET_CASPIAN); // Switches to "Caspian"
setUserAgentStylesheet(STYLESHEET_MODENA);  // Switches to "Modena"

Note that:

• setUserAgentStylesheet(String url) is a method of the class Application
• The constants STYLESHEET_CASPIAN and STYLESHEET_MODENA are class members of Application
• The code shown above should be called on the JavaFX Application thread

• STYLESHEET_CASPIAN and STYLESHEET_MODENA contain urls. You may use your own stylesheets using the method, passing it the url to your stylesheet

  • For example, if I created a stylesheet named DarkTheme.css and placed it in the project directory, under src/resources, I would use the following code to apply it: setUserAgentStylesheet(this.getClass().getResource("resources/DarkTheme.css").toExternalForm());

  • If you just want to extend the current stylesheet, and not to define it all from scratch, you may use instead: scene.getStylesheets().add(this.getClass().getResource("resources/DarkTheme.css").toExternalForm());