Using Netbeans Platform with JavaFX 2?

Question

I am building a desktop application on JavaFX 2, and want to speed up my development --

Is RCP the way to go? How steep is the learning curve?

Answer 1

There is the eFX project which tries to adapt the NetBeans Platform for JavaFX.

From what I know about the NetBeans Platform source code, I doubt though that they managed to get rid of the Swing dependencies. (This might be important once you want to deploy your application to a platform which doesn't support Swing. See: Compact Profiles and Project Jigsaw).

Also it uses the NetBeans Platform module system rather than OSGi (many Apache Commons libraries as well as other libraries come with OSGi meta data but not with NetBeans Platform meta data). There is a way to run OSGi bundle in a NetBeans Platform though, but, of course, this would mean that you have to know 2 module systems.

I also don't know if the NetBeans Platform Maven plugins work with eFX or if you have to use Ant.

As an alternative also note that (mainly for the concerns mentioned above) I've recently released an initial Early Access version of Drombler FX, a modular RCP for JavaFX based on OSGi and Maven (POM-first):

http://puces-blog.blogspot.ch/2012/12/drombler-fx-building-modular-javafx.html

http://wiki.drombler.org/GettingStarted