Is @FXML needed for every declaration?
for each
fx:id="somename"
you need a
@FXML
public SomeClass somename;
I prefer writing it in one line, because it's easier to read when there are many
@FXML public SomeClass somename;
without initializing
@FXML
public Label timerLabel = new Label(); // this is wrong
The @FXML
annotation enables an FXMLLoader
to inject values defined in an FXML file into references in the controller class. In other words, if you annotate your timerLabel
with @FXML
, then it will be initialized by the FXMLLoader
when the load()
method is called by an element in the FXML file with fx:id="timerLabel"
. As others have pointed out in the comments, this means you should never write code like
@FXML
private Label timerLabel = new Label();
Here timerLabel
will first be initialized to the new Label();
you create in the code, and will then almost immediately be re-initialized to the value defined in the FXML file. This is at best redundant, and at worst misleading. If you don't correctly match the variable names to the fx:id
, your variable will be referring to the wrong Label
and the error will be very difficult to track down.
To get to your actual question:
When the FXMLLoader
loads the FXML file, it will attempt to inject any elements that have an fx:id
attribute into the controller. It will look for
- Any
public
field with a variable name matching thefx:id
attribute, or - Any field (
public
or not) with a variable name matching thefx:id
attribute that is annotated with@FXML
.
So in your example, since all your fields are public
, you can omit all the @FXML
annotations (even the first) and it will still work.
However, if you follow good practice and make your fields private
, then each declaration must be annotated @FXML
for the injection to work.
So
@FXML
private Label timerLabel;
@FXML
private TextField mainTextField;
etc will work, but
@FXML
private Label timerLabel;
private TextField mainTextField;
will not.