Missing Mac APIs in JavaFX

[Neil Brown]

Hi,

Short version: I believe JavaFX is lacking some Mac-related APIs which 
cannot be worked around without an internal com.sun.* call, and would 
like to request that the APIs be added/made public for JDK 9, perhaps as 
part of Jonathan Giles' work around JEP 253.

I stand to be corrected on any of this...

Long version: On Windows and Linux, files are generally opened via 
command-line arguments.  On Mac, there is a file-open event issued to an 
application, e.g. you double-click a .txt file, TextEdit gets a 
file-open event.  If TextEdit is not open, it will be launched, then a 
file-open event will be sent to it.

Pre-JavaFX, the Java solution to receive these events was to use the 
com.apple.eawt.* packages, which Oracle added in JDK 7.  However, it 
seems that these APIs don't play nice with FX.

I've put some source code at the end of the email for a simple 
application which I bundled with infinitekind's appbundler fork for 
testing (https://bitbucket.org/infinitekind/appbundler/).  No matter 
where you uncomment the setEAWTFileHandler call (search AAA, or BBB in 
the source), the .app always misses the initial load event which caused 
the application to open.  The net result is if the user double-clicks an 
associated file, the JavaFX application will launch, but not load the 
file in question unless the user double-clicks it again.  Needless to 
say, this is problematic.

If you look at the FX source code, you can see that FX does set a 
file-open event handler with an empty implementation 
(com.sun.glass.ui.Application, line 83 in 8u60).  Grepping the source 
code shows this method is not implemented anywhere in the source code, 
so FX is simply discarding the event.  The only Java way I've found to 
let an FX application listen to the open files event is using a com.sun 
call in the Application constructor (see CCC in the source, and 
setFXFileHandler).  Suggestions for a better work-around very welcome!


The second API is a similar problem.  JavaFX installs an application 
menu with standard options, including "Quit" (bound to Cmd-Q).  If you 
leave Platform.setImplicitExit to its default value of true, all is 
well.  Cmd-Q quits the application.  However, if you 
setImplicitExit(false) (see YYY in the source), as our actual 
application must, problems arise.  The quit handler now is a no-op, with 
no way of overriding it.  Pressing Cmd-Q or right-clicking the dock and 
selecting quit is now totally ignored by the application, and from the 
user's perspective the app is unquittable by these normal means.  The 
only work-around I've found is to set a quit handler in the same spot we 
set the file open handler (see ZZZ in the source: I've used 
Platform.exit for this example, in reality we have a nicer custom 
shutdown routine).


My proposal is fairly straight-forward: the 
com.sun.glass.ui.Application.EventHandler class (and associated 
setEventHandler call) needs to become a public API in JDK 9, or else 
these issues will be impossible to work around post-modularisation. 
Initial file open and quit handler are the only ones biting us at the 
moment, but I suspect that whole handler class should be public, either 
as-is or by repurposing it into an EventHandler with some sort of 
AppEvent extends Event class.

Thanks,

Neil.

======
src/example/OpenApp.java
======
package example;

import java.io.File;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.stream.Collectors;
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.application.Platform;
import javafx.collections.FXCollections;
import javafx.collections.ListChangeListener;
import javafx.collections.ObservableList;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Label;
import javafx.scene.control.Menu;
import javafx.scene.control.MenuBar;
import javafx.scene.layout.BorderPane;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class OpenApp extends Application
{
     private static ObservableList<File> requestedFiles = 
FXCollections.observableArrayList();

     public static void main(String[] args)
     {
         // AAA: Uncommenting here, we miss initial load events:
         //setEAWTFileHandler();
         launch(args);
     }

     @Override
     public void start(Stage stage) throws Exception
     {
         // YYY: this causes problems.
         //Platform.setImplicitExit(false);
         // BBB: Here also misses initial load events:
         //setEAWTFileHandler();

         BorderPane bp = new BorderPane();
         Label filename = new Label("");
         bp.setCenter(filename);
         Runnable updateFiles = () -> 
filename.setText(requestedFiles.stream().map(File::getAbsolutePath).collect(Collectors.joining("\n")));
         requestedFiles.addListener((ListChangeListener<? super File>)c 
-> updateFiles.run());
         updateFiles.run();
         bp.setBottom(new Label("Example Application"));
         MenuBar menuBar = new MenuBar(new Menu("My Custom Menu"));
         menuBar.setUseSystemMenuBar(true);
         bp.setTop(menuBar);
         stage.setScene(new Scene(bp));
         stage.show();
     }

     public OpenApp()
     {
         // CCC: Constructor is the only time we are at the right point in
         // FX control flow.
         //setFXFileHandler();
     }

     private static void setEAWTFileHandler()
     {
         com.apple.eawt.Application appleApp = 
com.apple.eawt.Application.getApplication();
         appleApp.setOpenFileHandler(e -> {
             List<File> files = new ArrayList(e.getFiles());
             Platform.runLater(() -> requestedFiles.addAll(e.getFiles()));
         });
     }

     private static void setFXFileHandler()
     {
         com.sun.glass.ui.Application glassApp = 
com.sun.glass.ui.Application.GetApplication();
         glassApp.setEventHandler(new 
com.sun.glass.ui.Application.EventHandler() {
             @Override
             public void 
handleOpenFilesAction(com.sun.glass.ui.Application app, long time, 
String[] filenames)
             {
                 List<File> files = 
Arrays.stream(filenames).map(File::new).collect(Collectors.toList());
                 Platform.runLater(() -> requestedFiles.addAll(files));
                 super.handleOpenFilesAction(app, time, filenames);
             }

             // ZZZ: add our own quit handler, too
             /*
             @Override
             public void handleQuitAction(com.sun.glass.ui.Application 
app, long time)
             {
                 Platform.exit();
                 super.handleQuitAction(app, time);
             }
             */
         });
     }

}

======
build.xml (needs appbundler in ant lib, built from 
https://bitbucket.org/infinitekind/appbundler/)
======
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project name="machandler" default="all">
     <taskdef name="bundleapp"
              classpath="appbundler-1.0ea.jar"
              classname="com.oracle.appbundler.AppBundlerTask"/>

     <target name="all">
         <mkdir dir="classes"/>
         <javac srcdir="src" destdir="classes">
             <compilerarg value="-XDignore.symbol.file=true"/>
         </javac>
         <jar destfile="openapp.jar" basedir="classes"></jar>
         <bundleapp
                 jvmrequired="1.8"
                 outputdirectory="."
                 name="OpenApp"
                 displayname="OpenApp"
                 executableName="OpenApp"
                 identifier="example.OpenApp"
                 shortversion="1.0"
                 version="1.0"
                 mainclassname="example.OpenApp">
             <classpath file="openapp.jar"/>
             <bundledocument extensions="dummyfx"
                             name="Dummy document"
                             role="editor">
             </bundledocument>
         </bundleapp>
     </target>
</project>