Installing JavaFX 15 on Mac

Question

I'm trying to install JavaFX 15 on my Mac but I'm stuck.

Running MacOS Mojave 10.14.6

I've already installed Java 13 JDK and set the Home folder, downloaded the JavaFX SDK from https://gluonhq.com/products/javafx/ , I've already ran the code "export PATH_TO_FX=/Users/.../javafx-sdk-15/lib" in Mac terminal.

I'm using IntelliJ for programming and I tried to set the path at Project Structure - Libraries

but apps won't compile.

Could somebody help me? Thanks a lot in advance!

Solution 1

the second command that DomQ posted was incorrect:

brew tap bell-sw/liberica

brew install --cask liberica-jdk15-full

Solution 2

My experience is that homebrew-liberica just works:

brew tap bell-sw/liberica
brew cask install liberica-jdk15-full

Solution 3

You can either use the terminal or set up a launch configuration in VS Code.

To use the terminal, you can either install Liberica or download the latest JavaFX from Gluon (or the Early-Access build). To compile your *.java file, make sure to specify and set the --module-path and the -cp as command arguments for javac on the CLI.

For example, if you downloaded the JavaFX SDK to your ~/Downloads directory (i.e., you downloaded JavaFX 16 and extracted it in your ordinary Downloads folder), then you will run something like

javac --module-path "$(eval echo ~$USER)/Downloads/javafx-sdk-16/lib/*" -cp "$(eval echo ~$USER)/Downloads/javafx-sdk-16/lib/*" -d . JavaFXThing.java

Then, in order to run your program, you'll use:

java --module-path "$(eval echo ~$USER)/Downloads/javafx-sdk-16/lib"  --add-modules javafx.controls,javafx.fxml JavaFXThing 

Check what modules you need to specify for the --add-modules parameter here: API documentation for JavaFX 15

Here is a sample launch.json to enable debug launching in VS Code:

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "type": "java",
            "name": "Launch JavaFX Class",
            "request": "launch",
            "vmArgs": "--module-path \"/Users/kevinmou/Downloads/javafx-sdk-16/lib\"  --add-modules javafx.controls,javafx.fxml",
            "mainClass": "${file}"
        }
    ]
}

For JDK, I recommend using Liberica with Homebrew, since it is easy to keep up-to-date (yay, Homebrew! 🍻) and Liberica takes care of the paths and environment variables (including JavaFX). To install, in a shell, try:

brew tap bell-sw/liberica
brew cask install liberica-jdk15-full

Then, to update

brew update && brew cask upgrade

Solution 4

You need to take care with environment variables mixing with GUI applications on macOS. Setting PATH_TO_FX in the terminal likely didn't set the value for the IntelliJ IDE. You will note that the instructions at https://openjfx.io/openjfx-docs/#IDE-Intellij explicitly mention setting that value within the IDE, not from the Terminal.

I strongly suggest using Gradle or Maven with the code samples given at https://OpenJFX.io/ as a starting point. Confirm that the builds work from the command line before debugging what the IDE might be doing differently.

You can also install a JDK that includes the JavaFX modules. A few OpenJDK providers have such builds. For example:

• BellSoft produces a "Full JDK" Liberica JDK install, https://bell-sw.com/pages/downloads/
• Azul produces a "JDK FX" java package for Zulu builds of OpenJDK, https://www.azul.com/downloads/zulu-community/

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Comments

[Slaw]

Note that the latest release of JavaFX is version 14, which was released within the last month. JavaFX 15 is currently early-access (and will be for the next 5-6 months).

[user674669]

On Homebrew 3.2.8, I had to use: brew install --cask liberica-jdk8-full