Writing Custom UI Controls

[Greg Brown]

> We are writing a new application using JavaFX 2.x. Our application needs
> some custom controls such as a searchfield, listoptions, ribbon,
> breadcrumbs, etc...
> 
> We decided to write common reusable controls; To do that we have 2 ways:
> 
>   1. Make our controls extends Control and create new skin
>   2. Extend some layout container or other control

JavaFX 2.2 contains some new features that make #2 much easier if you are defining the structure of your custom controls using FXML. See the "Custom Components" section of the "Introduction to FXML" document in the 2.2 Javadoc for more information.

Greg