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Getting acknowledged with "Spring boot + JavaFX" coop.

Was hoping to get answers for such questions:

  1. In the examples through out the web I've found only cases of "@SpringBootApplication" set to the "... extends Application" and by this overriding the "init()" method. But is there a way to have the initial annotation in another place and mark the "Application" bean as a component, thus starting it manually?

I'm not that good with 'JavaFX' yet, and I've tried to start that bean by calling the 'Application.start(UIClass.class)' and got no spring functionality(I get the idea that this doesn't start the object bean, but initiates it separately).

  1. How to properly initiate a spring app from even the 'extends Application'? The examples I've found suggest to override the 'init()' and place the 'ApplicationContext' there. This works, but didn't manage to use the autowiring and similar stuff(and I did verify that the bindings work and have the appropriate naming).

In a similar thread (Spring Boot Main and JavaFX) I've found a solution to use the:

ApplicationContext ctx = SpringApplication.run(Root.class); 
ctx.getAutowireCapableBeanFactory().autowireBean(this);

but I have the feeling that this is more of a workaround and I've made a mistake somewhere.

Thanks in advance.

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    Probably you need to learn the JavaFX application lifecycle before you dive into using it in conjunction with Spring [Boot]. The Application class (which is, as you've observed, instantiated for you when the application is launched) is the entry point for a JavaFX application, and really should do little more than manage the application lifecycle. So it's really the natural class to annotate with @SpringBootApplication anyway. If you need access to the Application instance anywhere else, you basically have your JavaFX application structured incorrectly. Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 15:52
  • Thank you for the reply. I understand that 'jumping from one point to another' isn't the best practice. Just wanted to make something simple(to start making 'bumps' and learning from them :) ), and struck into this point. Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 15:55
  • And I get the idea that the Application should be the focal point, but wanted to know 'what if I will need another approach at some day', in which the Application would needed to be called at some distant point of execution. Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 15:57
  • OK, so what's the question at this point? You can, as a workaround, manually inject the Application instance using the code block you have at the end; but in a real application you won't need this because you won't need the Application instance anywhere else in the application anyway... Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 15:58
  • Current question is that I'm going by the approach of Spring annotations for the Application, have an Init() with the 'SpringApplication.run()' and still require to call to the 'autowireBean(this)', in which are my doubts of proper use. Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 16:00

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In general, I'd make a case for arguing that if you are accessing the Application instance from another part of the application, you probably need to refactor your application. The role of the Application is just to manage application lifecycle, so accessing that object from elsewhere is a sign that you are likely violating design principles somewhere (single responsibility, at a minimum).

That said, there are some corner cases. I have one application where I needed to access the HostServices in a controller, and that is only generally available via the Application instance. In that case I used a similar solution/workaround to the one you propose in order to programmatically register the HostServices as a "Spring-managed" bean.

The bottom line here is that you have two toolkits/frameworks that are responsible for creating and managing object lifecycle to some degree. (JavaFX is more of a toolkit than a framework, and doesn't do much object lifecycle management, but it does some.) Any time you are in that situation and you want one framework to be aware of an object created and managed by the other framework, you need to do some programmatic wiring between the two frameworks. This is one example, because the Application instance is created for you by JavaFX, so if you want Spring to be aware of it, you have to explicitly tell Spring about it.

So in summary, properly structuring your application will minimize the need for the kinds of workaround you suggest, but there are cases where it might be necessary. There's generally no way to configure one framework to support objects created by another framework unless there is explicit support for the second framework in the first.

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Thanks. Will take your advice on the proper application structuring.

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