ScrollPane not showing as needed, FlowPane content

Question

I'm having some difficulty with ScrollPane in JavaFX 8 showing the scrollbar as needed. What I'm currently doing is simply creating a FlowPane with x number of elements, and setting that as the content of the ScrollPane.

The problem happens when I shrink down perpendicular to the orientation of the FlowPane. When elements begin to wrap and go out of bounds, the scrollbar does not appear. This does not happen when I shrink parallel to the orientation. I have a small Java program to exemplify the issue.

Start

Shrinking Parallel

Shrinking Perpendicular

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.ScrollPane;
import javafx.scene.layout.FlowPane;
import javafx.scene.layout.StackPane;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class Main extends Application {

       public static void main(String[] args) {
                    launch(args);
       }

       @Override
       public void start(Stage primaryStage) throws Exception {
             FlowPane flow = new FlowPane();
             flow.setStyle("-fx-border-color: red");
             addPanes(flow, 16);

             ScrollPane scroll = new ScrollPane(flow);
             scroll.setStyle("-fx-border-color: green");
             scroll.setFitToHeight(true);
             scroll.setFitToWidth(true);

             Scene scene = new Scene(scroll, 450, 450);
             primaryStage.setScene(scene);
             primaryStage.show();
       }

       public void addPanes(FlowPane root, int panes) {
             for(int i = 0; i < panes; i++) {
                    StackPane filler = new StackPane();
                    filler.setStyle("-fx-border-color: black");
                    filler.setPrefSize(100, 100);
                    root.getChildren().add(filler);
             }
       }
}

Answer 1

Have a look at the code below and tell me if that's what you want to achieve. I am still not sure what cause the problem, I will have to look the documentation of ScrollPane to find out. My suspicion is at setFitToWidth & setFitToHeight methods. Although I still believe it's not a bug.

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.beans.binding.Bindings;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.ScrollPane;
import javafx.scene.layout.FlowPane;
import javafx.scene.layout.HBox;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class Main extends Application {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        launch(args);
    }

    @Override
    public void start(Stage primaryStage) throws Exception {
        FlowPane flow = new FlowPane();
        flow.setStyle("-fx-border-color: red");

        addPanes(flow, 16);

        ScrollPane scroll = new ScrollPane(flow);
        scroll.setStyle("-fx-border-color: green");

        // Apparently this cause the issue here.
        // scroll.setFitToHeight(true);
        // scroll.setFitToWidth(true);


        // Instead just make the flow pane take the dimensions of the ScrollPane
        // the -5 is to not show the Bars when both of panes have the same dimensions  
        flow.prefWidthProperty().bind(Bindings.add(-5, scroll.widthProperty()));
        flow.prefHeightProperty().bind(Bindings.add(-5, scroll.heightProperty()));

        Scene scene = new Scene(scroll, 450, 450);
        primaryStage.setScene(scene);
        primaryStage.show();

    }

    public void addPanes(FlowPane root, int panes) {
        for (int i = 0; i < panes; i++) {
            HBox filler = new HBox();
            filler.setStyle("-fx-border-color: black");
            filler.setPrefSize(100, 100);
            root.getChildren().add(filler);
        }
    }
}

Looking documentation of the ScrollPane, and in specific the setFitToHeight you will find that :

Property description: If true and if the contained node is a Resizable, then the node will be kept resized to match the height of the ScrollPane's viewport. If the contained node is not a Resizable, this value is ignored.

And because the node inside the ScrollPane will be kept resized to match the width and height of the ScrollPane's viewport thats why the Vertical ScrollBar will never appear.

Answer 2

You can add the code below to always show your vertical scrollbar.

scroll.setVbarPolicy(ScrollPane.ScrollBarPolicy.ALWAYS);

Answer 3

When the required height of the FlowPane inside the ScrollPane is calculated a width value of -1 is passed. The flow pane will then report the height required when all its content fits into a single line.

As a workaround you could pass the width from the last layout calculation in this case.

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.ScrollPane;
import javafx.scene.layout.FlowPane;
import javafx.scene.layout.StackPane;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class Main extends Application {

       public static void main(String[] args) {
                    launch(args);
       }

       @Override
       public void start(Stage primaryStage) throws Exception {
             FlowPane flow = new FlowPane() {
                @Override protected double computeMinHeight(double width) {
                    double minHeight = super.computeMinHeight(width != -1 ? width : 
                        /* When no width is specified, use the current contol size*/ 
                        getWidth());
                    return minHeight;
                }
             };
             flow.setStyle("-fx-border-color: red");
             addPanes(flow, 16);

             ScrollPane scroll = new ScrollPane(flow);
             flow.maxWidthProperty().bind(scroll.widthProperty());
             scroll.widthProperty().addListener((observable, oldValue, newValue)->{
                 /* clearSizeCache */
                 flow.requestLayout();
             });

             scroll.setStyle("-fx-border-color: green");
             scroll.setFitToHeight(true);
             scroll.setFitToWidth(true);

             Scene scene = new Scene(scroll, 450, 450);
             primaryStage.setScene(scene);
             primaryStage.show();
       }

       public void addPanes(FlowPane root, int panes) {
             for(int i = 0; i < panes; i++) {
                    StackPane filler = new StackPane();
                    filler.setStyle("-fx-border-color: black");
                    filler.setPrefSize(100, 100);
                    root.getChildren().add(filler);
             }
       }
}