How to create tabs with icons in JavaFX

Question

I want to create tabs panel with icons similar to the Firefox configuration panel with JavaFX:

Answer 1

Tabs, like many other elements in JavaFX, have a method called setGraphic(Node value), in which you can put any JavaFX node. Example:

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.geometry.Pos;
import javafx.scene.Group;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Label;
import javafx.scene.control.Tab;
import javafx.scene.control.TabPane;
import javafx.scene.layout.BorderPane;
import javafx.scene.layout.HBox;
import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
import javafx.scene.shape.Circle;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class TabPaneTest extends Application {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Application.launch(args);
  }
  @Override
  public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
    primaryStage.setTitle("Tabs");
    Group root = new Group();
    Scene scene = new Scene(root, 400, 250, Color.WHITE);
    TabPane tabPane = new TabPane();
    BorderPane borderPane = new BorderPane();
    for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
      Tab tab = new Tab();
      tab.setGraphic(new Circle(0, 0, 10));
      HBox hbox = new HBox();
      hbox.getChildren().add(new Label("Tab" + i));
      hbox.setAlignment(Pos.CENTER);
      tab.setContent(hbox);
      tabPane.getTabs().add(tab);
    }
    // bind to take available space
    borderPane.prefHeightProperty().bind(scene.heightProperty());
    borderPane.prefWidthProperty().bind(scene.widthProperty());

    borderPane.setCenter(tabPane);
    root.getChildren().add(borderPane);
    primaryStage.setScene(scene);
    primaryStage.show();
  }
}

Result:

Answer 2

How to add image directly from image url:

          Tab tab = new Tab();
          tab.setGraphic(buildImage("patch/to/image");

    // Helper method to create image from image patch
    private static ImageView buildImage(String imgPatch) {
            Image i = new Image(imgPatch);
            ImageView imageView = new ImageView();
            //You can set width and height
            imageView.setFitHeight(16);
            imageView.setFitWidth(16);
            imageView.setImage(i);
            return imageView;
        }

Answer 3

I know its an old thread, but i didnt find a direct answer anywhere. So i thought of posting it some that it will be helpfull for some searching for it.

This is what i did to get a tab like firefox preferences screen.

Add the image to the tab with setGraphics and add the following code to the application css file. My image size was 48x48. So i went for height as 70.

.tab-label {
    -fx-content-display: top;
}
.tab-pane {
    -fx-tab-min-height: 70;
    -fx-tab-max-height: 70;
}