Dynamically loading tabs designed with Scene Builder - tabs

Question

I am building a JavaFX app containing a few static tabs on a TabPane, and during startup will be dynamically adding different tabs with different content as driven by a configuration as needed.
Note, each dynamic tab could be different from each other and I will need to selectively pick which one of these dynamic tabs I want to instantiate/add.
I am using Scene Builder to design the GUI for the bulk of the app. So far everything for the static tabs works fine. Here's where my challenge starts.
How do I leverage Scene Builder to design the dynamic tabs, and only instantiate those tabs as desired at run time as configuration dictates?
Thanks Al

Answer 1

I would put the content of each tab into its own FXML file. You can load the ones that are always loaded in the "main" FXML file, using <fx:include>. Then in the initialize() method of the controller for the main fxml, read the configuration and load the other fxml files you need.
Something like
Main.fxml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?import javafx.scene.layout.BorderPane?>
<?import javafx.scene.control.TabPane?>
<BorderPane xmlns:fx="http://javafx.com/fxml" fx:controller="MainController">
<center>
<TabPane fx:id="tabPane">
<Tab>
<fx:include source="StaticContent1.fxml"/>
</Tab>
<Tab>
<fx:include source="StaticContent2.fxml"/>
</Tab>
<!-- etc -->
</TabPane>
</center>
</BorderPane>
and
MainController.java
public class MainController {
#FXML
private TabPane tabPane ;
public void initialize() {
Configuration config = readConfiguration(); // (pseudocode)
if (config.shouldLoadTab1()) {
FXMLLoader loader = new FXMLLoader(getClass().getResource("DynamicTab1.fxml"));
Tab tab = new Tab("Some title");
tab.setContent(loader.load());
tabPane.getTabs().add(tab);
}
// etc
}
}
The FXML files for each of the tabs (whether "static" or "dynamic") would just contain the content of the tab (not the tab pane, which is already defined in the main fxml file, or the tabs, which (the way I have set it up) are defined either in the main FXML or by the controller). So you would just have something like
StaticContent1.fxml
<?xml version=1.0 encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?import javafx.scene.layout.VBox?>
<VBox xmlns:fx="http://javafx.com.fxml">
<!-- nodes... -->
</VBox>
Obviously you can use any layout pane you want in place of the VBox.