Standard properties

Depending on the type of the property, there are up to 3 methods for a single property. Let <property> denote the name of a property and <Property> the name of the property with an uppercase first letter. And let T be the type of the property; for primitive wrappers we use the primitive type here, e.g. String for StringProperty and double for ReadOnlyDoubleProperty.

Method name	Parameters	Return type	Purpose
<property>Property	()	The property itself, e.g. DoubleProperty, ReadOnlyStringProperty, ObjectProperty<VPos>	return the property itself for adding listeners / binding
get<Property>	()	T	return the value wrapped in the property
set<Property>	(T)	void	set the value of the property

Note that the setter does not exist for readonly properties.

Readonly list properties

Readonly list properties are properties that provide only a getter method. The type of such a property is ObservableList, preferably with a type agrument specified. The value of this property never changes; the content of the ObservableList may be changed instead.

Readonly map properties

Similar to readonly list properties readonly map properties only provide a getter and the content may be modified instead of the property value. The getter returns a ObservableMap.

The following example shows the declaration of a property (StringProperty in this case) and demonstrates how to add a ChangeListener to it.

import java.text.MessageFormat;
import javafx.beans.property.SimpleStringProperty;
import javafx.beans.property.StringProperty;
import javafx.beans.value.ChangeListener;
import javafx.beans.value.ObservableValue;

public class Person {

    private final StringProperty name = new SimpleStringProperty();

    public final String getName() {
        return this.name.get();
    }

    public final void setName(String value) {
        this.name.set(value);
    }

    public final StringProperty nameProperty() {
        return this.name;
    }
    
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Person person = new Person();
        person.nameProperty().addListener(new ChangeListener<String>() {

            @Override
            public void changed(ObservableValue<? extends String> observable, String oldValue, String newValue) {
                System.out.println(MessageFormat.format("The name changed from \"{0}\" to \"{1}\"", oldValue, newValue));
            }
            
        });
        
        person.setName("Anakin Skywalker");
        person.setName("Darth Vader");
    }
    
}

This example shows how to use a readonly wrapper property to create a property that cannot be written to. In this case cost and price can be modified, but profit will always be price - cost.

import java.text.MessageFormat;
import javafx.beans.property.IntegerProperty;
import javafx.beans.property.ReadOnlyIntegerProperty;
import javafx.beans.property.ReadOnlyIntegerWrapper;
import javafx.beans.property.SimpleIntegerProperty;
import javafx.beans.value.ChangeListener;
import javafx.beans.value.ObservableValue;

public class Product {
    
    private final IntegerProperty price = new SimpleIntegerProperty();
    private final IntegerProperty cost = new SimpleIntegerProperty();
    private final ReadOnlyIntegerWrapper profit = new ReadOnlyIntegerWrapper();

    public Product() {
        // the property itself can be written to
        profit.bind(price.subtract(cost));
    }

    public final int getCost() {
        return this.cost.get();
    }

    public final void setCost(int value) {
        this.cost.set(value);
    }

    public final IntegerProperty costProperty() {
        return this.cost;
    }

    public final int getPrice() {
        return this.price.get();
    }

    public final void setPrice(int value) {
        this.price.set(value);
    }

    public final IntegerProperty priceProperty() {
        return this.price;
    }

    public final int getProfit() {
        return this.profit.get();
    }

    public final ReadOnlyIntegerProperty profitProperty() {
        // return a readonly view of the property
        return this.profit.getReadOnlyProperty();
    }
    
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Product product = new Product();
        product.profitProperty().addListener(new ChangeListener<Number>() {

            @Override
            public void changed(ObservableValue<? extends Number> observable, Number oldValue, Number newValue) {
                System.out.println(MessageFormat.format("The profit changed from {0}$ to {1}$", oldValue, newValue));
            }
        
        });
        product.setCost(40);
        product.setPrice(50);
        product.setCost(20);
        product.setPrice(30);
    }
    
}