How to get JavaFX and Java 11 working in IntelliJ

Question

This question already has answers here:

IntelliJ can't recognize JavaFX 11 with OpenJDK 11 (4 answers)

Closed 4 months ago.

With the recent Java 11 release, JavaFX is no longer included in the JDK. I have an existing JavaFX project. I am interested in learning how to change it from a Java 10 project to a Java 11. I am certain I have installed Java 11 correctly, and I am able to change the default SDK from Java 10 to Java 11. What I don't know is how I might get JavaFX working with Java 11.

I have downloaded the latest JavaFX release here. I have extracted it to my Java folder which contains my other JDK's, but I really don't know what to do at this point. I have read some lengthy guides that describe how to connect a project using Maven or Gradle, but I have never used these. Is there a way to add JavaFX support in the IntelliJ menus?

Answer 1

Download the appropriate JavaFX SDK for your operating system and unzip it to a desired location, for instance /Users/your-user/Downloads/javafx-sdk-11.

1. Create a JavaFX project

Create a JavaFX project Provide a name to the project, like HelloFX, and a location. When the project opens, the JavaFX classes are not recognized.

2. Set JDK 11

Go to File -> Project Structure -> Project, and set the project SDK to 11. You can also set the language level to 11. Set JDK 11

3. Create a library

Go to File -> Project Structure -> Libraries and add the JavaFX 11 SDK as a library to the project. Point to the lib folder of the JavaFX SDK.

Once the library is applied, the JavaFX classes will be recognized by the IDE.

Warning: If you run now the project it will compile but you will get this error:

Error: JavaFX runtime components are missing, and are required to run this application

This error is shown since the Java 11 launcher checks if the main class extends javafx.application.Application. If that is the case, it is required to have the javafx.graphics module on the module-path.

4. Add VM options

To solve the issue, click on Run -> Edit Configurations... and add these VM options:

--module-path %PATH_TO_FX% --add-modules=javafx.controls,javafx.fxml

Note that the default project created by IntelliJ uses FXML, so javafx.fxml is required along with javafx.controls. If your project uses other modules, you will need to add them as well. Click apply and close the dialog.

5. Run the project

Click Run -> Run... to run the project, now it should work fine.

Answer 2

You could download a version of java which includes JavaFX from https://www.azul.com/downloads/zulu/zulufx/. In that case there's no special setup involved to run JavaFx applications on Java 11. JavaFX will work just like on Java 8.