The JavaFX ToolBar class (javafx.scene.control.ToolBar
) is a horizontal or vertical bar containing buttons or icons that are typically used to select different tools of a JavaFX application. Actually, a JavaFX ToolBar
can contain other JavaFX controls than just buttons and icons. In fact, you can insert any JavaFX control into a ToolBar
.
Creating a ToolBar
In order to create a JavaFX ToolBar
you must first instantiate it. Here is an example of creating a JavaFX ToolBar
instance:
ToolBar toolBar = new ToolBar();
That is all it takes to create a JavaFX ToolBar
.
Adding Items to a ToolBar
Once a JavaFX ToolBar
has been created, you can add items (JavaFX components) to it. You add items to a ToolBar
by obtaining its collection of items and adding the new item to that collection. Here is an example of adding an item to a ToolBar
:
Button button = new Button("Click Me");
toolBar.getItems().add(button);
Adding a ToolBar to the Scene Graph
In order to make a JavaFX ToolBar
visible, it must be added to the JavaFX scene graph. Here is a full example that shows the creation of a JavaFX ToolBar
and adding it to the JavaFX scene graph:
package com.jenkov.javafx;
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.*;
import javafx.scene.layout.VBox;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
public class ToolBarExample extends Application {
public static void main(String[] args) {
launch(args);
}
@Override
public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
primaryStage.setTitle("JavaFX App");
ToolBar toolBar = new ToolBar();
Button button1 = new Button("Button 1");
toolBar.getItems().add(button1);
Button button2 = new Button("Button 2");
toolBar.getItems().add(button2);
VBox vBox = new VBox(toolBar);
Scene scene = new Scene(vBox, 960, 600);
primaryStage.setScene(scene);
primaryStage.show();
}
}
The JavaFX GUI resulting from this ToolBar example would look similar to this:
Vertical Oriented ToolBar
By default a JavaFX ToolBar
displays the items added to it in a horizontal row. It is possible to get the ToolBar
to display the items vertically instead, so the ToolBar
becomes a vertical toolbar. To make the ToolBar
display its items vertically, you call its setOrientation()
method. Here is an example of setting the orientation of a ToolBar
to vertical:
toolBar.setOrientation(Orientation.VERTICAL);
Here is a screenshot of how the JavaFX ToolBar
from the previous section looks in vertical orientation:
Separating Items in a ToolBar
You can add a visual separator to a JavaFX ToolBar
. The visual separator is typically displayed as a vertical or horizontal line between the items in the ToolBar
. Here is an example of adding a separator to a ToolBar:
Button button1 = new Button("Button 1");
toolBar.getItems().add(button1);
toolBar.getItems().add(new Separator());
Button button2 = new Button("Button 2");
toolBar.getItems().add(button2);
Here is a screenshot of how a visual separator between items in a ToolBar looks: