Grouping together JavaFX FXML Objects

Solution 1:

You could use fx:define and fx:reference to place the elements in a List and in the scene graph and inject the list to the controller:

<AnchorPane id="AnchorPane" fx:id="dashboard" prefHeight="400.0" prefWidth="600.0" stylesheets="@css/dashboard.css" xmlns="http://javafx.com/javafx/8" xmlns:fx="http://javafx.com/fxml/1" fx:controller="com.hassanalthaf.telemart.viewmodels.DashboardViewModel">
   <fx:define>
        <!-- create panes and store them in a list -->
        <ArrayList fx:id="panes">
            <AnchorPane fx:id="home" layoutY="29.0" maxHeight="-Infinity" maxWidth="-Infinity" minHeight="-Infinity" minWidth="-Infinity" prefHeight="371.0" prefWidth="600.0" />
            <AnchorPane fx:id="about" layoutY="29.0" maxHeight="-Infinity" maxWidth="-Infinity" minHeight="-Infinity" minWidth="-Infinity" prefHeight="371.0" prefWidth="600.0" />
            <AnchorPane fx:id="users" layoutY="29.0" maxHeight="-Infinity" maxWidth="-Infinity" minHeight="-Infinity" minWidth="-Infinity" prefHeight="371.0" prefWidth="600.0" />
        </ArrayList>
    </fx:define>
    <children>
        <MenuBar maxWidth="600.0" minWidth="600.0" prefWidth="600.0">
            <menus>
                <Menu mnemonicParsing="false" text="File">
                    <items>
                        <MenuItem mnemonicParsing="false" text="Close" />
                    </items>
                </Menu>
                <Menu mnemonicParsing="false" text="Help">
                    <items>
                        <MenuItem mnemonicParsing="false" text="About" />
                    </items>
                </Menu>
            </menus>
        </MenuBar>
        <!-- add panes in the list to scene graph -->
        <fx:reference source="home"/>
        <fx:reference source="about"/>
        <fx:reference source="users"/>
    </children>
</AnchorPane>

Controller

@FXML
private List<AnchorPane> panes;