JavaFX - Reusable FXML component

Question

I am building a GUI with Scene Builder, and the majority of my scenes have one element in common (an iOS type home button at the bottom). I was wondering if it was possible to define this component in a separate fxml file. From the research I conducted, there exists a similar process for declaring a reusable component but only within the same fxml file. How could I apply this principle for several fxml files?

Answer 1

You can do like this:

<AnchorPane xmlns:fx="http://javafx.com/fxml/1" fx:controller="de.example.MainController">
<children>
<fx:include fx:id="someId" source="NestedFXML.fxml"/>
</children>

<AnchorPane xmlns:fx="http://javafx.com/fxml/1" fx:controller="de.example.NestedFXMLController">
</AnchorPane>

Controller classes:

public class MainController implements Initializable {

    @FXML
    private NestedFXMLController someIdController;

    @Override
    public void initialize(URL location, ResourceBundle resources) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub

    }
}

and

public class NestedFXMLController implements Initializable {

    @Override
    public void initialize(URL location, ResourceBundle resources) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub

    }
}

Note that the nested controller can be injected via FXML annotation. The field name must match the fx:id attribute string + "Controller"!

Find a MWE here.

Answer 2

This can definitely be achieved by creating a separate FXML file and add a Node to it with a known unique Id, then accessing that node via the id, the tricky part is how are you going to do it application wide? probably creating the same function in a lot of your controllers but here is how you would get a a button from an FXML file.

All buttons are performing the same action?

Parent root = FXMLLoader.load(getClass().getResource("fileName.fxml"));

        ObservableList<Node> nodes = root.getChildrenUnmodifiable();
        String _id = "testButton";
        for (Node node : nodes) {
            if (node.getId().equals(_id)) {
                return node;
            }

        }
        return null;
}