JavaFX resize canvas in fxml

Question

I'm trying to resize a canvas in Javafx. I am using scene builder and fxml. So far, when the user clicks on the canvas the canvas turns black, and when I resize the screen and click on the canvas only the original size of the canvas turns black (canvas is not being resized). I'm not sure how to solve this. Any ideas or solutions would help alot.

Code:

Controller:

public class MainFXMLController implements Initializable
{

    @FXML
    private Canvas mainCanvas;

    @FXML

    public GraphicsContext gc;

    public void initGraphics()
    {
        gc = mainCanvas.getGraphicsContext2D();
    }

    public void drawClicked(MouseEvent me)
    {

        gc.clearRect(0, 0, mainCanvas.getWidth(), mainCanvas.getHeight());
        gc.setFill(Color.BLACK);
        gc.fillRect(0, 0, mainCanvas.getWidth(), mainCanvas.getHeight());
        System.out.println("Current mosue position: " + me.getX() + ":" + me.getY());
    }

    @Override
    public void initialize(URL url, ResourceBundle rb)
    {
        initGraphics();

    }  
}

Fxml:

<AnchorPane id="AnchorPane" prefHeight="600.0" prefWidth="750.0"  xmlns="http://javafx.com/javafx/8" xmlns:fx="http://javafx.com/fxml/1"  fx:controller="app.MainFXMLController">
 <children>
    <Canvas fx:id="mainCanvas" height="565.0" onMouseClicked="#drawClicked" width="750.0" AnchorPane.bottomAnchor="0.0" AnchorPane.leftAnchor="0.0" AnchorPane.rightAnchor="0.0" AnchorPane.topAnchor="35.0" />

Main Java file:

public class DrawFx extends Application
{

    @Override
    public void start(Stage stage) throws Exception
    {
        Parent root = FXMLLoader.load(getClass().getResource("MainFXML.fxml"));

        Scene scene = new Scene(root);
        stage.setTitle("DrawFx");
        stage.getIcons().add(new Image("/icon/icon.png"));
        stage.setScene(scene);
        stage.show();
    }

    /**
     * @param args the command line arguments
     */
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        launch(args);
    }

}

Answer 1

First some Javadocs :)

A Canvas node is constructed with a width and height that specifies the size of the image into which the canvas drawing commands are rendered. All drawing operations are clipped to the bounds of that image.

So every time the user resize the window we need to change the width of the canvas and then we need to re-draw the canvas.

Lets start by adding a fx:id to the root layout.

<AnchorPane fx:id="anchorPane" prefHeight="600.0" prefWidth="750.0" xmlns="http://javafx.com/javafx/8" xmlns:fx="http://javafx.com/fxml/1" fx:controller="app.MainFXMLController">
    <children>
        <Canvas fx:id="mainCanvas" height="565.0" onMouseClicked="#drawClicked" width="750.0"   AnchorPane.bottomAnchor="0.0" AnchorPane.leftAnchor="0.0" AnchorPane.rightAnchor="0.0" AnchorPane.topAnchor="35.0"/>
    </children>
</AnchorPane>

Next step is to add a change listener to the root layout which will set the new height and width to the canvas and then redraw it. We can do it inside the initialize() of the controller.

public class Controller implements Initializable {

    @FXML
    AnchorPane anchorPane;

    @FXML
    private Canvas mainCanvas;

    @FXML
    public GraphicsContext gc;

    public void initGraphics() {
        gc = mainCanvas.getGraphicsContext2D();
    }

    public void drawClicked() {
        gc.clearRect(0, 0, mainCanvas.getWidth(), mainCanvas.getHeight());
        gc.setFill(Color.BLACK);
        gc.fillRect(0, 0, mainCanvas.getWidth(), mainCanvas.getHeight());
    }

    @Override
    public void initialize(URL url, ResourceBundle rb) {
        initGraphics();

        anchorPane.prefWidthProperty().addListener((ov, oldValue, newValue) -> {
            mainCanvas.setWidth(newValue.doubleValue());
            drawClicked();
        });

        anchorPane.prefHeightProperty().addListener((ov, oldValue, newValue) -> {
            mainCanvas.setHeight(newValue.doubleValue());
            drawClicked();
        });
    }
}

I haven't created a new method for reDraw() since your drawClicked() wasn't doing anything. But, you can separate both the methods once it makes more sense.

The last thing is to bind to root layout's prefWidthProperty() and prefHeightProperty() to the scene's width and height respectively.

public class Main extends Application {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        launch(args);
    }
    @Override
    public void start(Stage stage) throws IOException {
        AnchorPane root = FXMLLoader.load(getClass().getResource("MainFXML.fxml"));

        Scene scene = new Scene(root);

        stage.setTitle("DrawFx");
        stage.setScene(scene);
        stage.show();

        root.prefWidthProperty().bind(scene.widthProperty());
        root.prefHeightProperty().bind(scene.heightProperty());
    }
}

Answer 2

If you want to resize canvas in fxml and presumably redraw its contents afterwards, the absolute minimum set is something like this:

test.fxml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<?import javafx.scene.canvas.Canvas?>
<?import javafx.scene.layout.Pane?>
<?import javafx.scene.layout.VBox?>

<VBox xmlns="http://javafx.com/javafx/11.0.1" xmlns:fx="http://javafx.com/fxml/1"
      fx:controller="test.TestController">
  <children>
    <Pane fx:id="pane" VBox.vgrow="ALWAYS">
      <children>
        <Canvas fx:id="canvas" height="${pane.height}" width="${pane.width}"
                onWidthChange="#redraw" onHeightChange="#redraw" />
      </children>
    </Pane>
  </children>
</VBox>

TestController.java

package test;

import javafx.fxml.FXML;
import javafx.scene.canvas.Canvas;
import javafx.scene.canvas.GraphicsContext;

public class TestController {
  @FXML
  private Canvas canvas;

  @FXML
  private void redraw() {
    double w=canvas.getWidth();
    double h=canvas.getHeight();
    GraphicsContext gc=canvas.getGraphicsContext2D();
    gc.clearRect(0, 0, w, h);
    gc.beginPath();
    gc.rect(10, 10, w-20, h-20);
    gc.stroke();
  }
}

---

Wrapping (it is not part of the functionality, just provided for completeness)

Test.java

 package test; import javafx.application.Application; import javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader; import javafx.scene.Parent; import javafx.scene.Scene; import javafx.stage.Stage; public class Test extends Application { @Override public void start(Stage primaryStage) throws Exception { FXMLLoader loader=new FXMLLoader(getClass().getResource("test.fxml")); Parent root=loader.load(); primaryStage.setTitle("Test"); primaryStage.setScene(new Scene(root)); primaryStage.show(); } public static void main(String[] args) { launch(args); } }

the test package is there for allowing modular magic,

module-info.java

 module cnvtest { requires transitive javafx.graphics; requires javafx.fxml; opens test to javafx.fxml; exports test; }

and there are really no more files.