This is useful for e.g. embedding native views from phoebus such as displaybuilder, databrowser etc.

In order to be able to embed JavaFX views, the efxclipse compatibility layer must be configured on the branch you're attempting to use. The easiest way to check this is to check for the presence of an uk.ac.stfc.isis.ibex.javafx package - if this package is not present, you will not be able to embed javafx views. Currently this package is only available on the phoebus proof-of-concept branch.

To enable JavaFX support on a java installation, it must be patched with the JavaFX overlay. See https://github.com/ISISComputingGroup/ibex_developers_manual/wiki/Upgrade-Java#additional-steps for details of how to do this.

If you don't do this, you will get an error of the form:

java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
    at uk.ac.stfc.isis.ibex.ui.alarm.AlarmView.createPartControl(AlarmView.java:44)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.e4.compatibility.CompatibilityPart.createPartControl(CompatibilityPart.java:158)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.e4.compatibility.CompatibilityView.createPartControl(CompatibilityView.java:155)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.e4.compatibility.CompatibilityPart.create(CompatibilityPart.java:365)
[...]
Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: No toolkit found
    at com.sun.javafx.tk.Toolkit.getToolkit(Toolkit.java:280)
    at com.sun.javafx.application.PlatformImpl.startup(PlatformImpl.java:291)
    at javafx.application.Platform.startup(Platform.java:113)
    at javafx.embed.swt.FXCanvas.lambda$initFx$4(FXCanvas.java:356)
    at java.base/java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(AccessController.java:399)
    at java.base/java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(AccessController.java:460)
    at javafx.embed.swt.FXCanvas.initFx(FXCanvas.java:355)
    at javafx.embed.swt.FXCanvas.<clinit>(FXCanvas.java:272)

They key bit of code to do this is actually rather simple:

    @Override
    public void createPartControl(final Composite parent) {
    	FXCanvas fxCanvas = new FXCanvas(parent, SWT.NONE);
    	fxCanvas.setScene(new Scene(new AlarmTreeView(new AlarmClient("127.0.0.1:12345", "kafka_topic", null))));
    }

Where AlarmTreeView is a JavaFX UI class. Scene is a class provided by JavaFX (you can get this by depending on uk.ac.stfc.isis.ibex.javafx in the plugin's MANIFEST.MF). FXCanvas is the efxclipse class that enables SWT <-> JavaFX interoperability - again it is exported from uk.ac.stfc.isis.ibex.javafx - in particular it comes from javafx-swt.jar.

Note: we cannot currently get JavaFX from maven - although the dependency looks like it's there, it doesn't work for us due to the absence of javafx-swt.jar.

• Download javafx SDK from https://gluonhq.com/products/javafx/
• Put the jars in uk.ac.stfc.isis.ibex.javafx/lib
• Reference the jars on the plugin classpath and runtime-export any com.sun.javafx.* and org.openjfx.* packages from the plugin.