TabPane

A TabPane is a container that holds multiple Tab objects, letting the user switch between different content panels, like browser tabs.

• Each Tab has a title and content.
• Tabs can be closable or fixed.

Basic Example

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Label;
import javafx.scene.control.Tab;
import javafx.scene.control.TabPane;
import javafx.scene.layout.VBox;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class TabPaneExample extends Application {

    @Override
    public void start(Stage stage) {

        // Create TabPane
        TabPane tabPane = new TabPane();

        // First Tab
        Tab tab1 = new Tab("Home");
        tab1.setContent(new Label("This is the Home tab"));
        tab1.setClosable(false); // cannot close

        // Second Tab
        Tab tab2 = new Tab("Settings");
        VBox settingsBox = new VBox(new Label("Settings content here"));
        tab2.setContent(settingsBox);

        // Third Tab
        Tab tab3 = new Tab("About");
        tab3.setContent(new Label("About this app"));
        
        // Add tabs to TabPane
        tabPane.getTabs().addAll(tab1, tab2, tab3);

        Scene scene = new Scene(tabPane, 400, 200);

        stage.setTitle("TabPane Example");
        stage.setScene(scene);
        stage.show();
    }

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

Result:

• Tabs appear horizontally at the top by default.
• Clicking a tab shows its content.

Key Properties and Methods

tab.setText("Title");          // set tab title
tab.setContent(Node);          // set content inside the tab
tab.setClosable(true/false);   // allow user to close the tab
tabPane.getTabs();             // list of tabs
tabPane.setTabClosingPolicy(TabPane.TabClosingPolicy.UNAVAILABLE); // disable closing for all tabs

TabClosingPolicy options:

• ALL_TABS → all tabs can be closed
• SELECTED_TAB → only selected tab can be closed
• UNAVAILABLE → no tab can be closed

FXML Version

<TabPane xmlns:fx="http://javafx.com/fxml" tabClosingPolicy="UNAVAILABLE">
    <tabs>
        <Tab text="Home">
            <content>
                <Label text="This is the Home tab"/>
            </content>
        </Tab>
        <Tab text="Settings">
            <content>
                <VBox>
                    <Label text="Settings content here"/>
                </VBox>
            </content>
        </Tab>
        <Tab text="About">
            <content>
                <Label text="About this app"/>
            </content>
        </Tab>
    </tabs>
</TabPane>

Use Cases

• Tabbed panels in settings or dashboards
• Browser-like interface
• Multiple document views
• Forms split into sections