controlsfx Dialogs deprecated for what?

Question

ControlsFX class Dialogs is marked as deprecated.

What to use instead?

Answer 1

Now with java 8 update 60, even using old non-deprecated version of controlsfx doesn't work. So, the solution is using the native dialog API from javafx included in java 8 update 40 (doesn't need 3rd party libs). They aren't as straight forward and full of features as controls fx. But for faster coding, you could create a wrapper class, like this one I made:

package br.atualy.devolucaodevenda.util;

import javafx.scene.control.*;
import javafx.scene.control.Label;
import javafx.scene.control.TextArea;
import javafx.scene.input.KeyCode;
import javafx.scene.input.KeyEvent;
import javafx.scene.layout.GridPane;
import javafx.scene.layout.Priority;
import javafx.stage.StageStyle;

import java.awt.*;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.io.StringWriter;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Optional;

public class FxDialogs {

    public static void showInformation(String title, String message) {
        Alert alert = new Alert(Alert.AlertType.INFORMATION);
        alert.initStyle(StageStyle.UTILITY);
        alert.setTitle("Information");
        alert.setHeaderText(title);
        alert.setContentText(message);

        alert.showAndWait();
    }

    public static void showWarning(String title, String message) {
        Alert alert = new Alert(Alert.AlertType.WARNING);
        alert.initStyle(StageStyle.UTILITY);
        alert.setTitle("Warning");
        alert.setHeaderText(title);
        alert.setContentText(message);

        alert.showAndWait();
    }

    public static void showError(String title, String message) {
        Alert alert = new Alert(Alert.AlertType.ERROR);
        alert.initStyle(StageStyle.UTILITY);
        alert.setTitle("Error");
        alert.setHeaderText(title);
        alert.setContentText(message);

        alert.showAndWait();
    }

    public static void showException(String title, String message, Exception exception) {
        Alert alert = new Alert(Alert.AlertType.ERROR);
        alert.initStyle(StageStyle.UTILITY);
        alert.setTitle("Exception");
        alert.setHeaderText(title);
        alert.setContentText(message);

        StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
        PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(sw);
        exception.printStackTrace(pw);
        String exceptionText = sw.toString();

        Label label = new Label("Details:");

        TextArea textArea = new TextArea(exceptionText);
        textArea.setEditable(false);
        textArea.setWrapText(true);

        textArea.setMaxWidth(Double.MAX_VALUE);
        textArea.setMaxHeight(Double.MAX_VALUE);
        GridPane.setVgrow(textArea, Priority.ALWAYS);
        GridPane.setHgrow(textArea, Priority.ALWAYS);

        GridPane expContent = new GridPane();
        expContent.setMaxWidth(Double.MAX_VALUE);
        expContent.add(label, 0, 0);
        expContent.add(textArea, 0, 1);

        alert.getDialogPane().setExpandableContent(expContent);

        alert.showAndWait();
    }

    public static final String YES = "Yes";
    public static final String NO = "No";
    public static final String OK = "OK";
    public static final String CANCEL = "Cancel";

    public static String showConfirm(String title, String message, String... options) {
        Alert alert = new Alert(Alert.AlertType.CONFIRMATION);
        alert.initStyle(StageStyle.UTILITY);
        alert.setTitle("Choose an option");
        alert.setHeaderText(title);
        alert.setContentText(message);

        //To make enter key press the actual focused button, not the first one. Just like pressing "space".
        alert.getDialogPane().addEventFilter(KeyEvent.KEY_PRESSED, event -> {
            if (event.getCode().equals(KeyCode.ENTER)) {
                event.consume();
                try {
                    Robot r = new Robot();
                    r.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_SPACE);
                    r.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_SPACE);
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        });

        if (options == null || options.length == 0) {
            options = new String[]{OK, CANCEL};
        }

        List buttons = new ArrayList<>();
        for (String option : options) {
            buttons.add(new ButtonType(option));
        }

        alert.getButtonTypes().setAll(buttons);

        Optional result = alert.showAndWait();
        if (!result.isPresent()) {
            return CANCEL;
        } else {
            return result.get().getText();
        }
    }

    public static String showTextInput(String title, String message, String defaultValue) {
        TextInputDialog dialog = new TextInputDialog(defaultValue);
        dialog.initStyle(StageStyle.UTILITY);
        dialog.setTitle("Input");
        dialog.setHeaderText(title);
        dialog.setContentText(message);

        Optional result = dialog.showAndWait();
        if (result.isPresent()) {
            return result.get();
        } else {
            return null;
        }

    }

}

To use the dialogs:

FxDialogs.showInformation("Hi", "Good Morning y'all!");
if (FxDialogs.showConfirm("Choose one baby!", "Can i ask you a question?", FxDialogs.YES, FxDialogs.NO).equals(FxDialogs.YES)) {
    FxDialogs.showWarning(null, "Pay attention to my next question!");
    String answer = FxDialogs.showTextInput("Are you a pink elephant disguised as a flying pig?", "Tell me!", "No");
    FxDialogs.showError(null, "You should not have said " + answer + "!");
    FxDialogs.showException("Now i'm angry", "I'm going home...", new RuntimeException("Exception caused by angry dinossaurs"));
}