Release Notes for JavaFX 11

Introduction

The following notes describe important changes and information about this release. In some cases, the descriptions provide links to additional detailed information about an issue or a change.

As of JDK 11 the JavaFX modules are delivered separately from the JDK. These release notes cover the standalone JavaFX 11 release. JavaFX 11 requires either JDK 10 (which must be an OpenJDK build) or JDK 11. JDK 11 is recommended.

Important Changes

Running JavaFX applications

Now that the JDK no longer includes JavaFX, it is necessary to explicitly include the JavaFX modules that your application uses. Please refer to the Getting Started with JavaFX 11 page for instructions.

Add APIs to customize step repeat timing for Spinner control

The default duration that the mouse has to be pressed on a Spinner control arrow button before the value steps is modified in JavaFX 11. Two new properties, "initialDelay" and "repeatDelay", have been added to configure this behavior.

initialDelay: The duration that the mouse has to be pressed on an arrow button before the next value steps. The default is now 300 msec.

repeatDelay: The duration that the mouse has to be pressed for each successive step after the first value steps. The default is now 60 msec.

See JDK-8167096 for more information.

Standalone javafx modules no longer have permissions by default

The javafx.* modules are now loaded by the application class loader and no longer have permissions by default. Applications that want to run with a security manager enabled will need to specify a custom policy file, using "-Djava.security.policy", granting all permissions to each of the javafx.* modules. See JDK-8210617 for more information.

Switch default GTK version to 3

JavaFX will now use GTK 3 by default on Linux platforms where the gtk3 library is present. Prior to JavaFX 11, the GTK 2 library was the default. This matches the default for AWT in JDK 11. See JDK-8198654 for more information.

New Features

The following notes describe some of the enhancements in JavaFX 11. See the table at the end of the release notes for a complete list.

FX Robot API

Public FX Robot API was added to support simulating user interaction such as typing keys on the keyboard and using the mouse as well as capturing graphical information. See JDK-8090763 for more information.

Removed Features and Options

Remove support for libavcodec 53 and 55

FX Media support for libavcodec 53 and 55 was removed. These libraries are not present on supported Linux platforms by default, and are no longer needed. See JDK-8194062 for more information.

Known Issues

JavaFX crashes with OpenJDK 11 on Ubuntu 18.04 with Wayland

JavaFX crashes on Ubuntu 18.04 Linux machines when the XWayland window server is enabled. This happens whenever the FX window toolkit code uses GTK 3 on Linux, which is the default as of JavaFX 11.

The recommended workaround is to use the Xorg server instead of the Wayland server when running JavaFX applications. Note that Wayland is not supported by JDK 10 or JDK 11.

An alternative workaround is to explicitly force GTK 2 by passing the following system property on the command line:

    java -Djdk.gtk.version=2 ...

See JDK-8210411 for more information.

Swing interop requires qualified exports when run with JDK 10

To run FX / Swing interop applications using JavaFX 11 with an OpenJDK 10 release, the following four qualified exports must be added to the java command line.

--add-exports=java.desktop/java.awt.dnd.peer=javafx.swing
--add-exports=java.desktop/sun.awt=javafx.swing
--add-exports=java.desktop/sun.awt.dnd=javafx.swing
--add-exports=java.desktop/sun.swing=javafx.swing

See JDK-8210615 for more information.

Swing interop fails when run with a security manager with standalone SDK

FX / Swing interop applications will fail when run with a security manager enabled. An application that uses either JFXPanel or SwingNode must run without a security manager enabled. See JDK-8202451 for more information.

Swing interop fails when using a minimal jdk image created with jlink

A minimal Java image created using jlink that includes the javafx.swing module from the JavaFX 11 jmods bundle will fail to run FX / Swing interop applications. For example, an image created as follows will not work:

    jlink --output myjdk --module-path javafx-jmods-11 \
        --add-modules java.desktop,javafx.swing,javafx.controls

The javafx.swing module depends on a new jdk.unsupported.desktop module in JDK 11 that must either be explicitly added or included via the --bind-services option.

Workaround: create your image using one of the following two methods:

    jlink --output myjdk --module-path javafx-jmods-11 \
        --add-modules java.desktop,javafx.swing,javafx.controls,jdk.unsupported.desktop

    jlink --output myjdk --bind-services --module-path javafx-jmods-11 \
        --add-modules java.desktop,javafx.swing,javafx.controls

See JDK-8210759 for more information.

List of Fixed Bugs

List of Enhancements