What New in NetBeans IDE 5.0
NetBeans IDE 5.0 introduces comprehensive support for developing IDE
modules and rich client applications based on the NetBeans Platform,
the new intuitive GUI builder Matisse,
new and redesigned CVS support, Weblogic9 and JBoss 4 support, and a lot of editor
enhancements.
Here are some of the cool features in this release:
Developing NetBeans Modules |
Matisse GUI Builder
Servers |
Web Frameworks |
Web Services
Editor Enhancements |
Code Completion |
Refactoring
Version Control |
Debugging |
Other Usability Improvements |
New NetBeans Add-on Packs
NetBeans IDE offers comprehensive support for building IDE plug-in modules and
rich client applications on the NetBeans platform.
A lot of support for extending the IDE and creating applications on top
of the NetBeans Platform is provided. Using brand new templates in the
New Project wizard and New File wizard, you can generate all the basic
files and code you need. The Project Properties dialog box lets you
configure API dependencies, manifest entries, and other project
metadata. Code completion and other standard support provided by the
Source Editor is available for plug-in modules too.
Matisse extends the current NetBeans IDE 4.1 Form Editor to provide
simple and intuitive layout of GUIs without having to understand the
complexities of Swing layout managers. As you drag and drop components
into a form, the IDE automatically suggests allignment, spacing, and
resizing constraints. Unlike GridBagLayout, the positioning is
deteremined by the look and feel of the platform the app runs on. Resize
it, localize it, run it on a different platform; with Matisse, your GUIs
will always look great.
Watch the Matisse flash demo.
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As in the previous release, the Sun Java System Application Server 8.1
is supported, but that's not all -- you can now also register JBoss 4
and WebLogic 9 with the IDE. When you do so, you can deploy your web
applications to these servers, just as if you were deploying to the Sun
Java System Application Server. On top of that, support for the Tomcat
Web Server has been enhanced -- it is now much easier to work with this
server, for example, you can set Tomcat's JVM Options right inside the IDE.
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Although you've always been able to use JavaServer Faces (JSF) and
Struts in the IDE, it's never been easier. In NetBeans IDE 5.0, the New
Project wizard has been extended so that while you create a web application,
you can specify that you want to use JSF, Struts, or both. When you make
this selection, the IDE adds all the JSF and Struts libraries to your
application, as well as all their configuration files. While using the
configuration files, you have code completion to support you as well as
the ability to have menu items create all the tags the configuration
files need. The New File wizard has also been enhanced -- you can choose
templates for the creation of JSF Managed Beans, Struts Actions, and
Struts Form Beans. And what if you have existing web applications? Can
you add JSF and Struts support to them? Yes, of course. Use the new
"Frameworks" panel in the Project Properties dialog box.
Web service consumption has been enhanced so that you can now create web
service clients in J2SE applications too. All the libraries needed to
create and deploy a web service client are bundled with the IDE. Just deploy the J2SE application
and you have a web service client - no other steps required. In
web applications, you can now call web
service operations directly from a JSP page, so that you don't even need
to create a servlet anymore. Finally, a new wizard has been added -- you
can now create a WSDL file directly in the IDE and use it to generate
your web service files.
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Editor code completion is now faster and has been enhanced to offer you
more choices for code generation. In addition to completing classes,
methods, and fields, you can generate the following code snippets
through the code completion box:
- Code from customizable code templates (previously available only as
expandable abbreviations)
- Getters and setters
- Anonymous inner classes
- Method bodies for methods that you are overriding or implementing
In addition, you can type "camel-case" abbreviations to generate code (for
example, typing AIOO with the code completion box open would
generate ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException. You can now also
complete the text and close the pop-up by pressing period, semicolon, or
comma. Method parameters are now shown in a tooltip.
NetBeans 5.0 greatly expands on the number of refactoring actions
available. New refactorings include:
- Safe Delete
- Use Supertype where Possible
- Move Inner to Outer Level
- Pull Up
- Push Down
- Convert Anonymous to Inner
- Extract Method
- Extract Interface
- Extract Super Class
The following are some general editing improvements. See the sections
above for information on code completion improvements and new
refactoring operations.
- Java hints (marked with a lightbulb icon) that help you generate code - just press Alt-Enter to invoke the hint
- Component palette for dragging and dropping of HTML, JSP and database
code snippets onto a JSP or HTML page
- An error stripe that marks whether your file is compilable or not and
provides an overview of all errors, warnings, TODOs, and bookmarks in
your source code.
- Surround selected statement with a try-catch construct
- Improved new SQL editor with syntax highliting
- Cutting and pasting of selected text in the editor window via drag&drop
- Easier adding of XML DTDs and schemas for use in code completion and
XML validation
- XML navigator and improved automatic indentation and code folding in
the XML editor
- Ability to choose from pre-configured keyboard shortcut sets and color schemes (created
in accordance with well-known environments such as Emacs).
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CVS support has been totally reworked to integrate into your work-flow.
The IDE automatically recognizes CVS working directories and lists all
changed files in the Versioning window. The versioning support is also
integrated with both the projects system and refactoring actions.
Updating and committing files are
the most common activities you perform with CVS:
You can launch these actions from the main IDE navigation windows
(Projects, Files, and Favorites) or from the Versioning window.
Badges and color coding show the current status
of files, folders, packages and projects.
With the Diff command you quickly diff a single file
or an entire package, folder, or project.
The new CVS support makes it even easier
to share your project metadata
so that you can share not only your sources,
but your IDE settings as well.
Watch a flash demo of the new CVS support.
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Debugging has been enhanced to be better integrated in the Source
Editor. You can now enable and disable breakpoints in the Source Editor
and access breakpoints properties from Editor annotations. The Variables
window has been enhanced for easier display long arrays. The Evaluate
Expression dialog box lets you evaluate any expression on the fly, and
you can now run to any method in the Source Editor. There is also an Ant
debugger that you can use to step through the target calls in an Ant
script and examine the status of properties as the script is executed.
The JUnit test window now displays results as an expandable tree.
You can now use code completion in the New Watch and Breakpoint
Customizer dialog boxes.
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The Options window has been completely redesigned to make configuring the IDE much more user friendly.
The scanning of project classpaths now happens in the background, so you
don't have to wait for scanning to complete to use the IDE. The look and
feel on MacOS X has also been greatly improved.
NetBeans Developer Collaboration
lets you discuss and edit code with other developers live over the network.
Use the Mobility Pack
to write, test, and debug applications for Java Micro Edition platform
(Java ME platform) technology-enabled mobile devices.
The NetBeans Profiler helps you optimizing
your application's memory and CPU usage.
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