sub Window panel into canvas scene with javafx

Question

With other engineer, we create a software (www.openmole.org) to create and run complex workflow on a computer grid. With the gui, you can create and modify some complex drag and drop workflow like this :

You can also see a video here : http://www.openmole.org/files/crazyCoconut.webm

As you can see, it's possible to drag and drop and connect each task with each other to make a complex workflow. When task move, arrow move to follow the mouse movement. When you click on a task, a new panel open, so you can choose some option to configure each task.

Actually we use a Netbean library to draw all of this on a unique scene, but in the future we want to make the same thing using javafx api/object.

So, do you think is it possible to open new Javafx Nodes sub windows with Canvas scene and api, like in this simple use case, representative of our use case ?

If not, do you know some other libraries to make this possible ?

Answer 1

You can't place nodes in a Canvas as it is not Parent, therefore it is a leaf Node and can have no children.

You could place the Canvas in a Group then add other Nodes to the group to overlay the Canvas. Or you could take snapshot images of nodes and place the snapshots in the canvas. Though you may be better off rendering your UI in a standard scene graph rather than a canvas.

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Here are some simple samples of similar, though different, UIs constructed using a standard scene graph: Drag and drop connected nodes and Dynamically add draggable and resizable children.

yWorks created a JavaFX prototype of their excellent diagramming tool, so consider contacting them and licensing that rather than building your own.

See also the Dex JavaFX Visualization Framework which aids in data visualization UI construction.