JavaFX 2.0 + FXML - strange lookup behaviour

Question

I want to find a VBox node in a scene loaded with FXMLoader thanks to Node#lookup() but I get the following exception :

java.lang.Cla

Answer 1

The easiest way to get a reference to the VBox is by calling FXMLLoader#getNamespace(). For example:

VBox myvbox = (VBox)fxmlLoader.getNamespace().get("myvbox");

Note that you'll need to create an instance of FXMLLoader and call the non-static version of load() in order for this to work:

FXMLLoader fxmlLoader = new FXMLLoader(getClass().getResource("test.fxml"));
AnchorPane page = (AnchorPane) fxmlLoader.load();

Answer 2

1. SplitPane puts all items in separate stack panes (fancied as SplitPaneSkin$Content). For unknown reason FXMLLoader assign them the same id as root child. You can get VBox you need by next utility method:

   public <T> T lookup(Node parent, String id, Class<T> clazz) {
       for (Node node : parent.lookupAll(id)) {
           if (node.getClass().isAssignableFrom(clazz)) {
               return (T)node;
           }
       }
       throw new IllegalArgumentException("Parent " + parent + " doesn't contain node with id " + id);
   }
   

   and use it next way:

   VBox myvbox = lookup(page, "#myvbox", VBox.class);
   myvbox.getChildren().add(new Button("Hello world !!!"));
   

2. you can use Controller and add autopopulated field:

   @FXML
   VBox myvbox;