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This How To features using streams in the Java programming language to make "safe" deep clones of collections of objects.The cloning (aka, copying) of objects in Java has been an arduous task since its inception. Partly due to the way the `Object#clone` method was designed then oddly paired with the `Cloneable` interface and also complicated by the way reference types, or objects, work in concert with collections in OOP based languages.
This article is a high level overview of the Java programming language intended for software developers proficient in other languages such as JavaScript, Python, C++, ect. The reader is expected to be familar with general programming constructs and the OOP paradigm. I draw some correlations among other language features here and there but, the intent is not to provide a comparative analysis between Java and other such languages.
The web is a preferred choice for software due to the ubiquity and accessibility of browsers but, exceptions exist necessitating the need for a quality desktop app platform such as the need to lockdown data to a few geographically close computers or desire to restrict internet connectivity from a particular app. Surprisingly, this can be common for high-tech fields like science and medicine which rely on the exceptional Java platform and JavaFX framework for quality desktop software.
In this second article I will be building out the Random Number generator app described in the opening blog post to give a gentle introduction of the JavaFX framework. For this article I will be forgoing the use of FXML views and the SceneBuilder design tool to give the reader a taste of how a Java code only approach is done. In the next post I will refactor using SceneBuilder and FXML view files to contrast this approach.
In this final article of an introductory series on building desktop apps using JavaFX with Gradle, Eclipse, and Scene Builder I refactor the previously built random number app using FXML along with the amazing Scene Builder design tool from Gluon. JavaFX's FXML views provide an excellent way to separate out UI presentation from the behavior and logic coded into controllers and models. When paired with Scene Builder the experience translates into efficient prototyping and full on design of UIs.
In this article I present an argument for using static factory methods to create objects (class instances) in Java, as opposed to the traditional new keyword and constructor duo, for the purpose of providing clarity, flexibility and, maintainability in designing Object Oriented programs.
The web has been an entropic explosion of data onto the world and, in recent years it has been shown that enormous value can be gleaned from even seaminly innocuous text data such as the blog post you're reading now. In this article I demonstrate how to use the Jsoup Java library to fetch and parse text data from web pages paired with simple query and display functionality wrapped in a JavaFX desktop app, named ScraperFX, running on OpenJDK 12.
In this How To article I demonstrate using the try-with-resources Java construct and compare it to the traditional try-finally paradigm. Both of these approaches aim to solve the problem of making sure resources get properly closed to avoid resource leaks but, this article intends to help make the case for why try-with-resources is preferrable.
In this How To article I demonstrate implementing the ChoiceBox
In this article I demonstrate using the new HTTP Client API introduced in Java 11 to consume RESTful web services in conjunction with the popular Google Gson serialization library. As a demonstration aid I utilize a JavaFX desktop app for inspecting and displaying key HTTP Request / Response data accessible via the HTTP Client API.
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