Hyperlink

A Hyperlink looks like a web link. When the user clicks it, you can open a website, change text, or perform any action.

FXML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<?import javafx.scene.control.Hyperlink?>
<?import javafx.scene.control.Label?>
<?import javafx.scene.layout.VBox?>

<VBox spacing="15"
      alignment="CENTER"
      xmlns="http://javafx.com/javafx/17"
      xmlns:fx="http://javafx.com/fxml/1"
      fx:controller="org.example.demo.HelloController">

    <Label text="Useful links:"/>

    <Hyperlink fx:id="googleLink"
               text="Open Google"
               onAction="#openGoogle"/>

    <Hyperlink fx:id="githubLink"
               text="Open GitHub"
               onAction="#openGitHub"/>

    <Label fx:id="statusLabel"
           text="No link clicked yet."/>

</VBox>

Controller

package org.example.demo;

import javafx.fxml.FXML;
import javafx.scene.control.Hyperlink;
import javafx.scene.control.Label;

import java.awt.Desktop;
import java.net.URI;

public class HelloController {

    @FXML
    private Hyperlink googleLink;

    @FXML
    private Hyperlink githubLink;

    @FXML
    private Label statusLabel;

    @FXML
    private void openGoogle() {
        openWebsite("https://www.google.com");
        statusLabel.setText("Google link clicked.");
    }

    @FXML
    private void openGitHub() {
        openWebsite("https://github.com");
        statusLabel.setText("GitHub link clicked.");
    }

    private void openWebsite(String url) {
        try {
            Desktop.getDesktop().browse(new URI(url));
        } catch (Exception e) {
            statusLabel.setText("Could not open: " + url);
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

What happens?

• Clicking "Open Google" opens Google in the default browser.
• Clicking "Open GitHub" opens GitHub in the default browser.
• The label changes to show which link was clicked.

More advanced example: one method for multiple links

Instead of making one method for every hyperlink, you can use a single method:

<Hyperlink text="Open Stack Overflow"
           userData="https://stackoverflow.com"
           onAction="#openLink"/>

<Hyperlink text="Open Oracle"
           userData="https://oracle.com"
           onAction="#openLink"/>

@FXML
private void openLink(ActionEvent event) {

    Hyperlink clickedLink = (Hyperlink) event.getSource();

    String url = clickedLink.getUserData().toString();

    openWebsite(url);

    statusLabel.setText("Opened: " + clickedLink.getText());
}

This is useful when you have many links.

Important methods

hyperlink.setText("My Link");
hyperlink.setVisited(true);
hyperlink.isVisited();
hyperlink.setDisable(true);

• setVisited(true) changes the link color to the "visited" style.
• isVisited() checks whether the link was already clicked.