In the next "JFX In Action", I'm returning to Televic, one of my former employers, to talk to Ramiro Domínguez Ayub. He explains how they create a tool with JavaFX that is used both internally and by their customers to update a lot of different types of devices on a train, tram, and/or metro.
About Ramiro
Ramiro Domínguez Ayub is a Java developer with a lot of experience in Java backend development. His roots are in Cuba, but after living in Spain and visiting Bruges a few times, he permanently moved to Belgium. Since then he is working at Televic Rail, working on the passenger information systems for trains. When he joined Televic, he started using JavaFX to develop the Televic Generic Update Tool (TGUT).
About Televic
Televic enables critical communication with in-house development technology. They develop high-end communication products and systems for specific niche markets (Education, Healthcare, Conference, and Rail) for over seventy-five years.
The Televic GSP (Rail) division, delivers the rail communication technology of tomorrow and is dedicated to providing innovative and reliable railway passenger information and communication systems. Its onboard technology can be found in over 60000 vehicles worldwide.
About TGUT
This tool is used internally at Televic Rail by the R&D, Quality, and production teams to test devices, check installed hardware en software in a train system, perform multiple simultaneous updates, etc. Based on an XML configuration file, the available devices and software packages get visualized for each project so it becomes impossible to apply wrong updates to devices.
The same tool and configuration files are used by the end-customer to update and maintain the Televic devices (speakers, amplifiers, passenger emergency panels, LED displays, TFT screens, servers,...) which are installed in a train.
Thanks to the thread handling in the Java backend of the application, it's possible to perform a lot of those updates at the same time and visualize the progress in the JavaFX UI. This way updating e.g. 30 TFT screens at the same time becomes a quick job that's fully managed by TGUT.
One of the main advantages of developing TGUT in Java with JavaFX, was the possibility to reuse existing Java libraries which were already developed by Televic to interact with its devices via different protocols (HTTP, TCP, UDP, SSH). Those libraries are also used in other Java applications that are installed on devices on the train and guarantee that e.g. application versions that are exchanged between multiple devices, and TGUT follow the same protocols and data structures.
Thanks to the reuse of existing Televic Java libraries, the thread system in Java, and the ease of developing a user interface with JavaFX, Televic could build the perfect application to maintain and update its devices on trains, metros and trams. By using a configuration file that defines the devices of a project and the expected software applications and setting files, the same application can be used across all its projects.
Video content
00:00 Who is Ramiro?
00:35 About Televic Rail
00:56 What is TGUT
01:41 Java Threads for simultanous updates
02:27 Getting started with JavaFX
03:03 Advantage of shared Java libraries
04:18 TGUT is used internally and by clients
Top comments (0)