# Java's Getters And Setters are evil, JavaFX Script's not always

The reaction for the posts Getters and setters: an antipattern. JavaBeans and OO and Summary: Public getters and setters should be considered as an antipattern caused some interesting discussions and comments. There was one common sense: exposing private attributes over getters and setters is neither objectoriented, nor domain driven style. An interesting solution for this problem offers JavaFX script, sample:A class customer with 2 members and one update method:import
java.lang.System;



class
Customer{

private attribute firstName: String?;

private attribute lastName: String?;

operation update(newFirstName:String,newLastName:String);

}

 

operation
Customer.update(newFirstName:String,newLastName:String){

firstName = newFirstName;

lastName = newLastName;



}

The interesting part of the source code are "Replace Trigger" which can be associated with attributes: 

trigger
on Customer.firstName[oldValue] = newValue{

System.out.println("Old value was: {oldValue}, the new
value is: {newValue}");

}

 

trigger
on Customer.lastName[oldValue] = newValue{

System.out.println("Old value was: {oldValue}, the new
value is: {newValue}");

}

 The construction of an FX object: 

 

var
dukeCustomer = Customer{

firstName: "duke"

lastName: "mighty"

};Causes the following output:Old value was: , the new value is: dukeOld value was: , the new value is: mighty

The call of the following update method: 

dukeCustomer.update('java','javafx');writes the lines below: Old value was: duke, the new value is: javaOld value was: mighty, the new value is: javafxSo JavaFX Script allows, only if neccessary, the definition of "interceptors" called triggers, which can be used for validation etc.I like the idea, because most of the Java-Getters/Setters are empty. I'm curious, why these triggers aren't called "update aspects".It would be much better for the marketing :-).The method update isn't necessary, it is also allowed to access the attributes directly. It seem's like JavaFX now ignores the "private" keyword... Hint: to see the system output from the JavaFXPad, you have to activate the "Java Console" in the JNLP settings (System Settings, Java under Windows).