JavaFX Textfield is empty in eventhandler [closed]

Java expert, JavaFX noobie. Trying to setup a very simple search app. I don’t want to dive into fxxml or Scene Builder as the UI is fairly simple.

So everything works UI-wise. The issue is when I click the Search button, I have a basic EventHandler that I want to go and collect all the text values, string arrays off the screen…right now I’m just logging these values…thing is, everything is empty/null inside that btnSearch eventhandler. In the other eventhandlers, the values are there and are logged just fine.

Why is this 1 btnSearch eventhandler not able to grab certain textfield and ListView values? The other oddity, I actually output the Skip Items textfield value in the btnSearch eventhandler?? But the others come back as empty???

package org.jpo.ui;

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

import org.apache.logging.log4j.Level;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.Configurator;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.builder.api.AppenderComponentBuilder;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.builder.api.ConfigurationBuilder;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.builder.api.ConfigurationBuilderFactory;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.builder.api.LayoutComponentBuilder;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.builder.api.RootLoggerComponentBuilder;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.builder.impl.BuiltConfiguration;

import javafx.geometry.Insets;
import javafx.geometry.Pos;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Button;
import javafx.scene.layout.GridPane;
import javafx.scene.text.Text;
import javafx.scene.control.TextField;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
import javafx.event.EventHandler;  
import javafx.event.ActionEvent;  

/**
 * https://docs.oracle.com/javafx/2/ui_controls/list-view.htm
 * @author n0002501
 *
 */
public class UITextinator extends Application {
    protected Logger log = null;
    protected DefaultTheme  uiTheme = new DefaultTheme();

    @Override
    public void start(Stage stage) throws Exception {
        ConfigurationBuilder<BuiltConfiguration> log4jBuilder = this.log4JConfigure();
        Configurator.initialize(log4jBuilder.build());
        log = LogManager.getLogger();
        log.info("Launching...");

        // Labels
        Text directoryLabel = uiTheme.makeLabel("Starting Directory");
        Text searchLabel = uiTheme.makeLabel("Search for");

        // Text fields
        TextField tbxSearch = new TextField();
        tbxSearch.setPrefWidth(600);
        
        // Buttons
        Button btnSearch = uiTheme.makeButton("Search", "lightgray", "black");
        
        
        btnSearch.setOnAction(new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {  
            @Override  
            public void handle(ActionEvent arg0) {
                log.info("btnSearch.ActionvEvent  [" + arg0.toString() + "]");
                log.info("Search for...............................[]", tbxSearch.getText().trim());
                if(tbxSearch.getText().trim().length() > 0) {
                    log.info("File Types...............................[]");
                }
            }
        });

        // Creating a Grid Pane
        GridPane gridPane = new GridPane();
        gridPane.setAlignment(Pos.TOP_LEFT);
        gridPane.setMinSize(500, 500);
        gridPane.setPadding(new Insets(10, 10, 10, 10));
        gridPane.setVgap(5);
        gridPane.setHgap(5);

        // Arranging all the nodes in the grid
        // Row 0
        gridPane.add(searchLabel, 0, 0);
        gridPane.add(tbxSearch, 1, 0);

        // Arranging all the nodes in the grid
        // Row 1
        gridPane.add(btnSearch, 0, 1);

        // Setting the back ground color
        gridPane.setStyle("-fx-background-color: BEIGE;");

        // Creating a scene object
        Scene scene = new Scene(gridPane);
        stage.setTitle("Textinator");
        stage.setScene(scene);
        stage.show();
    }

    public ConfigurationBuilder<BuiltConfiguration> log4JConfigure() {
        ConfigurationBuilder<BuiltConfiguration> theBuilder = ConfigurationBuilderFactory.newConfigurationBuilder();

        LayoutComponentBuilder standard = theBuilder.newLayout("PatternLayout");
        standard.addAttribute("pattern", "%d [%t] %-5level: %msg%n%throwable");

        AppenderComponentBuilder console = theBuilder.newAppender("stdout", "Console");
        console.add(standard);
        theBuilder.add(console);

        AppenderComponentBuilder fileLog = theBuilder.newAppender("log", "File");
        fileLog.addAttribute("fileName", "target/textanator.log");
        fileLog.add(standard);
        theBuilder.add(fileLog);

        RootLoggerComponentBuilder rootLogger = theBuilder.newRootLogger(Level.DEBUG);
        rootLogger.add(theBuilder.newAppenderRef("stdout"));
        theBuilder.add(rootLogger);

        return theBuilder;
    }

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

package org.jpo.ui;

import javafx.scene.control.Button;
import javafx.scene.text.Text;

public class DefaultTheme {
    
    public Button makeButton(String theText, String theBackColor, String theTextColor) {
        Button theButton = new Button(theText);
        theButton.setStyle("-fx-background-color: " + theBackColor + "; -fx-textfill: " + theTextColor + ";");

        return theButton;
    }

    public Text makeLabel(String theText, String theStyle) {
        Text theItem = new Text(theText);
        theItem.setStyle(theStyle);
        return theItem;
    }

    public Text makeLabel(String theText) {
        return this.makeLabel(theText, "-fx-font: normal bold 15px 'serif' ");
    }

}

I suspect it’s something JavaFX related that I just am missing as a noob.

• Added minimal working code

Thx in advance