Creating the desktop application

To build our application, we'll return to NetBeans and JavaFX. As in the previous chapters, we'll create a new Maven-based JavaFX application by clicking on File | New Project:

In the next step, call the project deskdroid-desktop, verify the package name, and click on Finish. While not strictly necessary, let's clean up the naming a bit, changing the controller to DeskDroidController, and the FXML file to deskdroid.fxml. We'll also need to modify the references to the FXML and the CSS in the controller, and the reference to the controller in the FXML. Click on Run | Run Project to make sure everything is wired up correctly. Once the app starts, we can immediately close it so we can start making changes.

Defining the user interface

Let's start by building up the user interface. Here's what the application will look like:

In the preceding screen, we'll have our list of conversations on the left, and we will display the selected conversation on the right. We will...