In today’s digital world, generating and printing reports and documents are still essential tasks in various industries. JavaFX, the popular Java framework for building rich desktop applications, provides a powerful set of tools for creating, manipulating, and printing documents. In this article, we will explore how to generate and print reports and documents using JavaFX Printing.
Why JavaFX Printing?
JavaFX is a robust framework for building desktop applications with a focus on providing a seamless user experience. It includes a variety of built-in features, including support for handling printing tasks. Whether you need to generate invoices, sales reports, or any other printable document, JavaFX provides the tools to accomplish these tasks efficiently.
Setting Up the JavaFX Environment
Before we dive into printing, let’s ensure that you have JavaFX set up on your machine. Here are the steps to get started:
- Install Java Development Kit (JDK): If you don’t have JDK installed, download and install the latest version from the Oracle website or adopt openJDK.
- JavaFX SDK: Download the JavaFX SDK from the OpenJFX website. Extract the SDK to a folder on your computer.
- Integrate JavaFX with IDE: If you’re using an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) such as Eclipse or IntelliJ, configure it to use the JavaFX SDK. Link the JavaFX libraries to your project.
Once your environment is set up, you’re ready to proceed with generating and printing reports and documents.
Creating the JavaFX Application
To begin, let’s set up a basic JavaFX application that we can use to demonstrate the printing functionalities. Create a new JavaFX project in your IDE and set up the main application class with a simple interface containing a button to initiate the printing process.
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.event.ActionEvent;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Button;
import javafx.scene.layout.BorderPane;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import java.io.IOException;
public class Main extends Application {
private final BorderPane parent = new BorderPane();
private Stage stage;
@Override
public void init() throws Exception {
super.init();
this.buildUI();
}
private void buildUI() {
Button print = new Button("Print Report");
print.setOnAction(this::printReport);
this.parent.setCenter(print);
}
private void printReport(ActionEvent actionEvent) {
}
@Override
public void start(Stage stage) throws Exception {
this.stage = stage;
this.setupStage(stage);
}
private void setupStage(Stage stage) throws IOException {
Scene scene = new Scene(this.parent, 640.0, 480.0);
// Sets the stage title
stage.setTitle("JavaFX Printing: Generating and Printing Reports and Documents");
// Sets the stage scene
stage.setScene(scene);
// Centers stage on screen
stage.centerOnScreen();
// Show stage on screen
stage.show();
}
}
Generating the Report
Before printing, we need to generate the report content. For the purpose of this example, let’s create a simple report using the VBox as our layout manager, and JavaFX’s Text and Label classes for paragraphs and headers, respectively. In a real-world scenario, you might generate more complex reports using libraries like JasperReports or Apache POI for Excel documents.
private VBox createSampleReport(double wrappingWidth) {
VBox report= new VBox(20);
Label header1 = this.createHeader("What is Lorem Ipsum?");
Label header2 = this.createHeader("Where does it come from?");
Label header3 = this.createHeader("Why do we use it?");
Text paragraph1 = this.createParagraph("Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. " +
"Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, " +
"when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. " +
"It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, " +
"remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of " +
"Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing " +
"software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.", wrappingWidth);
Text paragraph2 = this.createParagraph("Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. " +
"It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over " +
"2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, " +
"looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, " +
"and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the " +
"undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of \"de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum\" " +
"(The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of " +
"ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, " +
"\"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..\", comes from a line in section 1.10.32.", wrappingWidth);
Text paragraph3 = this.createParagraph("The standard chunk of Lorem Ipsum used since the 1500s is reproduced below " +
"for those interested. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 from \"de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum\" " +
"by Cicero are also reproduced in their exact original form, accompanied by English versions from the 1914 " +
"translation by H. Rackham.", wrappingWidth);
Text paragraph4 = this.createParagraph("It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a " +
"page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as " +
"opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page " +
"editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum' will uncover many web sites still in their " +
"infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).", wrappingWidth);
report.getChildren().addAll(
header1, paragraph1,
header2, paragraph2, paragraph3,
header3, paragraph4
);
return report;
}
private Label createHeader(String title) {
Label header = new Label(title);
header.setStyle("-fx-font-weight: bold");
return header;
}
private Text createParagraph(String text, double wrappingWidth) {
Text paragraph = new Text();
paragraph.setText(text);
// Sets the wrapping width
paragraph.wrappingWidthProperty().set(wrappingWidth);
return paragraph;
}
Initiating the Printing Process
With the report content generated, we can proceed to the printing process. JavaFX provides the PrinterJob class to manage printing tasks. We’ll create a method that opens the print dialog and handles the printing process:
private void printReport(ActionEvent actionEvent) {
Printer printer = Printer.getDefaultPrinter();
PageLayout pageLayout = printer.getDefaultPageLayout();
VBox report = createSampleReport(pageLayout.getPrintableWidth());
PrinterJob printerJob = PrinterJob.createPrinterJob();
if (printerJob != null && printerJob.showPrintDialog(this.stage)) {
boolean success = printerJob.printPage(report);
if (success) {
printerJob.endJob();
}
}
}
The Complete JavaFX Application
Below is the complete JavaFX application that generates and prints reports and documents using JavaFX:
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.event.ActionEvent;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Button;
import javafx.scene.control.Label;
import javafx.scene.layout.BorderPane;
import javafx.scene.layout.VBox;
import javafx.scene.text.Text;
import javafx.print.PageLayout;
import javafx.print.Printer;
import javafx.print.PrinterJob;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import java.io.IOException;
public class Main extends Application {
private final BorderPane parent = new BorderPane();
private Stage stage;
@Override
public void init() throws Exception {
super.init();
this.buildUI();
}
private void buildUI() {
Button print = new Button("Print Report");
print.setOnAction(this::printReport);
this.parent.setCenter(print);
}
private void printReport(ActionEvent actionEvent) {
Printer printer = Printer.getDefaultPrinter();
PageLayout pageLayout = printer.getDefaultPageLayout();
VBox report = createSampleReport(pageLayout.getPrintableWidth());
PrinterJob printerJob = PrinterJob.createPrinterJob();
if (printerJob != null && printerJob.showPrintDialog(this.stage)) {
boolean success = printerJob.printPage(report);
if (success) {
printerJob.endJob();
}
}
}
private VBox createSampleReport(double wrappingWidth) {
VBox report= new VBox(20);
Label header1 = this.createHeader("What is Lorem Ipsum?");
Label header2 = this.createHeader("Where does it come from?");
Label header3 = this.createHeader("Why do we use it?");
Text paragraph1 = this.createParagraph("Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. " +
"Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, " +
"when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. " +
"It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, " +
"remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of " +
"Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing " +
"software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.", wrappingWidth);
Text paragraph2 = this.createParagraph("Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. " +
"It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over " +
"2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, " +
"looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, " +
"and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the " +
"undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of \"de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum\" " +
"(The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of " +
"ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, " +
"\"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..\", comes from a line in section 1.10.32.", wrappingWidth);
Text paragraph3 = this.createParagraph("The standard chunk of Lorem Ipsum used since the 1500s is reproduced below " +
"for those interested. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 from \"de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum\" " +
"by Cicero are also reproduced in their exact original form, accompanied by English versions from the 1914 " +
"translation by H. Rackham.", wrappingWidth);
Text paragraph4 = this.createParagraph("It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a " +
"page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as " +
"opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page " +
"editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum' will uncover many web sites still in their " +
"infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).", wrappingWidth);
report.getChildren().addAll(
header1, paragraph1,
header2, paragraph2, paragraph3,
header3, paragraph4
);
return report;
}
private Label createHeader(String title) {
Label header = new Label(title);
header.setStyle("-fx-font-weight: bold");
return header;
}
private Text createParagraph(String text, double wrappingWidth) {
Text paragraph= new Text();
paragraph.setText(text);
// Sets the wrapping width
paragraph.wrappingWidthProperty().set(wrappingWidth);
return paragraph;
}
@Override
public void start(Stage stage) throws Exception {
this.stage = stage;
this.setupStage(stage);
}
private void setupStage(Stage stage) throws IOException {
Scene scene = new Scene(this.parent, 640.0, 480.0);
// Sets the stage title
stage.setTitle("JavaFX Printing: Generating and Printing Reports and Documents");
// Sets the stage scene
stage.setScene(scene);
// Centers stage on screen
stage.centerOnScreen();
// Show stage on screen
stage.show();
}
}
Here’s an example report generated by the above program, printed using Microsoft Print to PDF:
Conclusion
JavaFX’s printing capabilities make it a powerful tool for generating and printing reports and documents in desktop applications. Whether you need to create invoices, generate sales reports, or print other types of documents, JavaFX provides the necessary APIs and components to fulfill your requirements. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can easily design, and print documents with JavaFX, providing a seamless and efficient printing experience for your users.
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