JavaFX technology(Rich Internet Application)

The JavaFX technology enables you to develop rich internet applications (RIA) using the JavaFX programming language. The best way to start developing JavaFX applications is to use an integrated development environment (IDE). The NetBeans IDE 6.1 includes JavaFX support that enables you to develop, debug, and deploy JavaFX applications. It is a full featured development environment that comes bundled with the JavaFX Software Development Kit (SDK) and best practice samples to assist your software development project.

Pitched into the Rich Internet Application space as a competitor to Adobe’s Flex and Microsoft’s Silverlight, Sun’s JavaFX is one part of Sun’s strategy for addressing these issues for Java developers. JavaFX aims provide a new foundation platform for building Rich Internet Applications across desktop, internet and mobile devices. It also represents a significant shift in the way Sun engages with the Java product market, seeing them building up a complete solution rather than focusing solely on the underlying technology. The current technology preview comprises two major components: Project Nile, which focuses on designer/developer workflow, and JavaFX Script, a new declarative language for writing Java GUI applications.

Whilst both Flex and Silverlight use XML as their declarative language (MXML and XAML respectively) Sun have chosen to develop a new scripting language, JavaFX Script, for the task. Sun Staff Engineer Joshua Marinacci told us that Sun have no plans to add an XML dialect at this point:

"We have found a lot of people really hate using XML and wanted a more compact declarative syntax optimized for graphical interfaces. We think developers familiar with JavaScript will find JavaFX Script pretty easy to pick up."
JavaFX Script is a declarative, statically typed, compiled, Domain Specific Language (DSL) for creating user interfaces on top of the Java Standard and Micro Editions, with current Java packages accessible from the JavaFX environment. It targets two distinct user groups:

Java developers who are already familiar with Swing and are looking for a way of building feature rich interfaces in a faster, more productive way.
Web developers who are more familiar with other scripting languages such as JavaScript or ActionScript.
JavaFX Script has strong productivity features including some convenient predicate features for insert and delete operations (insert 10 before x[1]; for example). Other common problems are elegantly solved: binding UI components to a backend database is straightforward, for instance, and the language supports firing an event when the value of a variable changes, through a simplified listener-like mechanism referred to as an event trigger.


See more detail:
http://java.sun.com/javafx/index.jsp
http://java.sun.com/javafx/tutorials/jfx_nb_getting_started/