Reviewing NetBeans Book

This year, I received an email from Packt Publishing, inviting me to review one of the books based on NetBeans IDE, Java EE 5 Development with NetBeans 6. I was quite excited about this opportunity and after exchanging few mails with their Market Research Executive, accepted the invitation.

After nearly 2 months, I was able to finish reading the book and here’s my review of the book. Read it carefully and I feel you would enjoy reading the book as I did, because of its easy reading style and effectiveness of communicating complex topics.

Stay tuned..

New Year, New Beginning!

For the past few days, I have been receiving mails, lots of them from friends, relatives and mailing lists, with their greetings for the new year.. I replied, forwarded and even chatted (with some) to greet them for vacation break and new year..

Blogosphere

I even saw Amit and James blogging about how the year 2008 was, as they wait to see newer challenges in the near future..

Indeed, today its a New Year, New Beginning! So, expect the unexpected.. As I take you down my memory lane, to recapture some of the defining moments of my life this year..

Well, I missed blogging yesterday as I was busy preparing for a written exam that took place yesterday, before I could celebrate the new year.. Actually, this was my 8th (incl. of viva’s, presentations, exams) in almost 4 weeks time

Started with Emails..

2008 was an amazing year, so many up’s and down’s. It can’t get better than this..

Mails, Contests, T-shirts and DVDs..

I started off this year writing mails to dev@usersguide.netbeans.org and organizing events for JIIT Sun Club (later transformed into JIIT OSUM).

Soon, I shifted focus on competitions like Code For Freedom and NetBeans Innovator Grants.. succeeding in former one as NetBeans Community Significant Contributor and failing in the qualifying stages of the latter one

Also, I received some NetBeans T-shirts, some 6.0 DVDs for distribution and the rewards for above achievements.

Coordinator, Blog Contest and Dream Team..

Of course, how can I forget being appointed as Contribution Coordinator in May and tasting success along with some hiccups..

Also, during tough times I managed to come close to winning an international blog contest, though I ended as a runner-up

Then, an interview on my way to rising from ashes, made me feel good as I looked forward to more opportunities..

I feel lucky to have got the opportunity of becoming a NetBeans Dream Team Member, I am probably the youngest member of the team and still undergraduate

Reviews, Judgements, NetCAT and Projects..

While I joined “NetBeans Dream Team”, I reviewed “Dzone RefCardz”, judged some of the “NetBeans Innovator Grant” projects and qualified for participation in the “NetCAT Program” for the first time ever and it was an amazing experience..

Probably, this was the year I wouldn’t like to remember for the university and few other projects that involved coding as I couldn’t complete even a single project the whole year.. Strange!

I came close to finishing them all, but somehow circumstances forced me not to go further.. Simultaneously, I shifted focus from writing mails to blogging and as already mentioned, I was the runner-up at one of the contests as I looked for more..

NetBeans Birthday, Recognition and More…

“NetBeans Birthday Week” was something I will remember for a long, long time.. As I got recognized once again when “NetBeans Community Docs Program” got fully deserved recognition..

On the final day, I was looking forward to see the webpage dedicated to acknowledge people involved with NetBeans Project since its inception..

I was in for a surprise, as I saw my name amongst the list of outstanding community members for my leadership in “NetBeans Community Docs Program”..

Ended with Exams..

Coming back to yesterday’s exam, I was preparing for it for quite some time and indeed, its the first time that my friends from other colleges are on vacation, while I am still having classes the entire month of December, 2008..

Anyways, it will get over soon as I look forward to my internship at an Indian IT company this January.. There’s lot more coming up, stay tuned to my blog, as of today its a New Year, New Beginning!

Happy New Year

Learning Top 10 NetBeans API’s

Hey,

Are you following the Top 10 NetBeans API’s (Series of Screencasts) by Geertjan Wielenga, Technical Writer, Sun Microsystems.

The following screencasts introduce you to the main NetBeans APIs, why you would use them, and how to get started doing so.

Top 10 NetBeans API’s

http://platform.netbeans.org/tutorials/nbm-10-top-apis.html

Guys, get started with NetBeans Platform in the easiest way possible, I am learning a lot and ofcourse, you will too Give it a shot

Greatest Hits || Runner Ups

Happy NetBeaning!

NetCAT 6.5 Weekly | Final Report

Development Simplified, Once Again

Well, its on every blogosphere now, NetBeans 6.5 IDE has been officially released. Everyone have already given an overview of almost every feature. I thought of blogging something unique, as always

NetCAT Ends..

Jiri Kovalsky, NetCAT 6.5 Coordinator mailed us today at the NetCAT mailing list, points are calculated and results are out. Here’s what he says,

Hello folks,

I am glad to announce that final CAT points were calculated and published including a detailed breakdown of activity for every NetCAT participant.

Now, let me announce our winners! I think it’s actually not a surprise for those of you who were reading my NetCAT status reports regularly. So, in the “Most helpful NetCAT 6.5 member” category I am happy to congratulate to the following 3 NetCAT participants:

1. Saptarshi Purkayastha, India   1519 (13.09)
2. Rajiv Perera, Sri Lanka        1495 (13.35)
3. Eric Smith, USA                 710  (6.12)

Wow, first two are too close. Hats off to Jirka for the calculations, and Saptarshi, Rajiv, Eric congratulations for being the Most Helpful Members.

My Score..

Well, as you have seen some astonishing figures. I am way too behind them. I earned 253 points with 2.18 efficiency. I had opted to focus on PHP support and Documentation. I am glad to see community is liking the PHP support and they are applauding the efforts of PHP Team.

If you are interested to see breakdown of my points, have a look at this page; http://qa.netbeans.org/processes/cat/65/activity.html#55

I have filed 16 Bugs, 1 RFE and sent 157 mails. I took part in Top 6.5 Annoyances survey, Community Acceptance survey and Satisfaction survey.

I finished at 13th position out of 60 participants

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Blogs Summary..

Now, that it has come to an end, I would like to share my blogs which I posted since NetCAT began, specifically related to NetCAT.

Weekly Reports

• Report #1
• Report #2
• Report #4
• Report #5
• Report #6

Issues, Debates

• Getting your basics right?
• VW JSF and Woodstock

Special

• Article | Milestones OR Daily Builds…
• Day, full of news! (15 Hrs of Fame)
• Re-introducing 6.5 Beta
• PHP | Interesting Bundle
• Editor Hyperlinks (PHP to Javascript)
• PHP Editor Hyperlinks Review
• Get Trained and Assure Quality (NetBeans B’day)

Thank You

I enjoyed every bit of it and it was a great experience. Also, special thanks to NetBeans Team as they listen to several debatable issues and are keen to resolve them in right manner.

Here’s one instance, how they listen to community suggestions…

NetCAT 6.5 Weekly | Report # 6

Scripting on a roll…

I am developing a PHP Web Application, it feels good to be back at using PHP, thanks to the Team behind PHP Support, for letting me work on one IDE, instead of two for creating such an app.

What I missed…

Hahaha, again an awesome week. I didn’t miss anything, or did I?

What I did…

After the reviews, it was time to file bugs… Good news is that, they were few. So, how you would know, which bugs I filed, when we have an Issuezilla. Well, its not that easy for a general user to actually find bugs filed by a particular member. I don’t know about you? But, if you do know it, post a comment over here.

Anyways, I filed following bugs, man some of them got fixed so quickly, that I had to look into my mailbox archive, to dug out some of them. Why? Actually, when bugs filed by a user get fixed, they are not visible in “My Issues“, which is different for every user.

01 | Inconsistence behavior recognizing Javascript functions in PHP Webpages (This got fixed)

02 | Error in Hyperlink Detection when I mouseOver functions “require” and “include”

03 | Code Completion includes unused Javascripts methods

04 | String Break

See, they were few. There were some more which got fixed, but not required to be mentioned here, as they were reported by using Exception Reporter. So, some were already fixed earlier, and some got fixed by yesterday. The one’s reported by me. There were 2-3 reports. All were fixed.

So, they are obviously not showstoppers, but yes they can be a necessity, in longer run. Hey, did I mention, its going to be out as FCS for the first time. So, its an excellent effort by the team. These were the bugs, and enhancement(s), I felt while creating my PHP Web App.

Check this out for more info on my blog- http://nbguru.wordpress.com/category/web/php-web/

Others-

I shared my project idea with the community, and asked for their feedback. I got more than what I expected and still await some more.

Geetjan Wielenga was the 3rd guest on my blog!

DISCLAIMER
This NetCAT Weekly Report #6, is my personal report on what I experienced during a particular week.
Its not related in any respect with NetCAT organisers.

NetCAT | PHP Editor Hyperlinks Review

Few days back, I posted about navigating from PHP webpage to Javascripts. Today, lets examine more hyperlinks in PHP files and webpages!

PHP Files…

Its demonstrated through following usecases;

Usecase #1

Suppose, following is my php file-

Don’t get into the technicalities of the code, I am still a novice in PHP development, though this is one of the files, I used to logout of a session, in my first and the last project

Anyways, clicking on session_start, session_unregister (takes me to session.php) and sleep (takes you to standard.php).

Petr says,

“The session.php and standard.php files are our signature files, which contains just the function, class or variable signatures with appropriate phpdoc“

Following snap, just shows the result of above clicking-

Usecase #2

This actually looks like a bug to me-

I think when I mouseOver require, then I should be taken to file where its defined, and when I mouseOver the URL inside the parantheses, then I should be navigated to that file. Right now, what happens is the following, I am taken to only one file, as it detects only 1 hyperlink, not 2-

Petr agrees with this usecase, its indeed a bug!

Usecase #3

If in the above image, you click on $connect in line #4, then you are taken to line #2, where its created and initialized.

PHP Webpages…

For complete details, like bug reports and more usecases, you need to refer the frequently updated doc-
http://nbguru.wordpress.com/proj-netbeans/php-editor-hyperlinks-review/
Reviewed by Petr Pisl

Coming soon…

More editor-hyperlink’s usecases would be added there, so keep an eye on my blog, for updates!

stay Tuned for more acTion

NetCAT 6.5 Weekly | Report #5

Scripting the IDE

Don’t be surprised, actually I am reviewing the PHP for past week or so, and really having a good time

Also, do visit the official PHP support blog- http://blogs.sun.com/netbeansphp

What I missed…

Nothing much, finally I did everything I had to do Actually, I missed one thing, when Jiri Kovalsky updated the scores, I was at 171, probably now I see the after effects of missing in past weeklies.

What I did…

PHP and only PHP, also had a survey to fill up, did that as well. It was related to current Editor Support, and some NetCAT Members got invite to fill that up, I was the lucky one too

Continuing from where I left in the previous weekly. I would say, I joined php users mailing list, interacted with Petr Pisl, discussed some issues!

Check this out for more info on my blog- http://nbguru.wordpress.com/category/web/php-web/

PHP Editor Hyperlinks

Yesterday, I had setup this page, basically reviewing PHP Editor Hyperlinks. As you probably know by now, that I had posted 2 days back on navigation from PHP to Javascripts, that has lead to me write that page. I got it reviewed by Petr Pisl today. I have added his comments in between the content, along with various usecase’s I could come across.

Have a look, and comment if you like!

Others-

Article by James- NetBeans Community Docs (200 and counting)

Gregg Sporar was the 2nd guest on my blog!

DISCLAIMER
This NetCAT Weekly Report #5, is my personal report on what I experienced during a particular week.
Its not related in any respect with NetCAT organisers.

PHP | Interesting Bundle

At NetCAT

During NetCAT, I got a chance to review PHP support, although I had opted for it before-hand, still I just got started last week.

You can read my 4th edition of personal NetCAT Weekly Report. So, Tony and Yudi, reviewed it in early days of NetCAT 6.5, while I was reviewing VW JSF tutorials.

Kickstarter- WordPress Tutorial

Now, some of them are working, though I gave my personal opinions, what I felt after reviewing. By the way, it was Jan Chalupa’s WordPress Project Tutorial, that got me started finally to review PHP docs and editor support, etc.

WordPress Tutorial was a smooth sail…So, was the editor-guide. Though, I found 2-3 issues, reported them to the authors. The guides, as well as, relevant docs are updated for 6.5 Beta! Execute them, review and give feedback, on their mailing list- http://php.netbeans.org/servlets/SummarizeList?listName=users

Finally, I don’t have to maintain two projects, 1 on Dreamweaver and the other on NetBeans EA for PHP, remember?

Another Surprise!

Yesterday, I downloaded the Java bundle, and couldn’t find PHP support in the Plugin Manager, though I was used to download PHP support during NetCAT on daily builds. This time around, you need to download it separately, as a PHP bundle, which was available earlier too. Still, I got a habit of downloading it through Plugin Manager, in a Java bundle installation.

Anyways, what to do? After all, Habits diehard

<?eference

This is the reference section, have a look-

Blog- http://blogs.sun.com/netbeansphp

Learning Trails- http://www.netbeans.org/kb/trails/php.html

Quick Start- http://www.netbeans.org/kb/docs/php/quickstart.html

sTay Tuned for more…

NetCAT 6.5 Weekly | Report #4

6.5 Beta is out

Just blogged about it, also its all over the blogosphere too! Have a look- http://nbguru.wordpress.com/2008/08/13/re-introducing-65-beta/

So, have fun, play with it and give proper feedback, as its your feedback that’s gonna make it the best IDE ever!

Note, as no report was presented last week. So, this automatically becomes the 4th edition, there’s no 3rd edition!

What I missed…

Nothing much, probably testing Compile on Save, Deploy on Save…Sorry, but I was busy developing modules these days. So, can’t test any Java application, as well as, Web Application.

What I did…

This time, I did a lot of things, basically testing documentations. I did them last week, but blogging about them today! Actually, I reviewed 2 VW JSF tutorials,

Getting Started with VW JSF
Developing a VW JSF Application

and, 4 PHP Tutorials (only 3 were up for review)-

Getting Started with PHP Development in NetBeans
Setting Up a PHP Project
NetBeans IDE for PHP Editor: Brief Overview

Yes, the other one was a tutorial based on creating a WordPress project using NetBeans, so I followed each and every step, executed it with ease.

Configuring NetBeans Project For WordPress

Though, had a solitary issue, which was conveyed to the concerned author.

Others-

Announced Dream Team latest contributed docs- http://nbguru.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/netbeans-community-dream-team-docs/

Also, had a special blog entry yesterday, by none other than Adam Bien!

DISCLAIMER
This NetCAT Weekly Report #4, is my personal report on what I experienced during a particular week.
Its not related in any respect with NetCAT organisers.

VW JSF and Woodstock | NetBeans 6.5

Hello,

Nice to see the August build has a better support for VW JSF with Woodstock Components. It was a disappointing experience during last 2 weeks of July, since NetCAT began.

Features like On-Demand Binding Attribute were not working, syntax highlighting was not good, as well as, Deploy on focus.

Although, new feature Deploy on Save was announced, yet when I tested some July builds, they were deploying when either the JSP/Backing Bean got focus in Editor.

Tutorial | Getting Started with Visual Web JSF

This tutorial was up there for review at NetCAT, though needed some minor changes in the content, rest was fine. Tutorial was very good to really get started. Though, July builds were not satisfactory at least in this domain.

Recently, 29th July build raised some hopes, yet it was not on a good note, as I got a recurring exception, while editing. It was really annonying, though the support was better, still this exception was unwanted.

Today, I downloaded the 080801 Build and finally, I could see everything working smoothly. Thank God!

Also, special thanks to the NetCAT QE Team to get all the issues fixed quickly.

Now, I am loving the support Deploy-on-Save is an excellent feature to have. Glad, I am able to work smoothly without any hassles.

NetBeans 6.5 VW JSF support looking great…stay Tuned for more…

NetCAT 6.5 Weekly | Report #2

Wassup?

10 days gone, when 1st weekly was out. Huh, well there’s not much content I have for this week. I didn’t devote much time, except a docs review and as usual, arguing/debating on mailing lists, for good

What I missed…

Probably, when it was announced PHP Feature Freeze was reached, I still didn’t took time out for testing and reviewing, sorry! But, can’t help it, busy with some projects, deadlines approaching soon. However, I would review PHP and docs.

What I did…

Well, I did review one documentation, well not such a good figure for a docs coordinator. At least, this time I could afford to let the community review tutorials written by Sun Technical writers Its good to see lot of people with zeal, helping out the authors, who wrote the docs, reporting bugs/enhancements and more. So, it was by and large, happy ending! I have one pending doc in my list, I will do it soon.

Bugs Filed-

Sorry, I couldn’t file bugs, but would surely do, what I came across, esp. MySQL Node, remember? When I blogged about bug report, I had filed.

Others-

Hyperlink Navigation Renaissance, 15 hrs of Fame, and another Milestone accomplished at Community Docs. Also, reviewed the NetBeans 6.1 Java Editor RefCardz and more… check out the Nostalgia widget on my blog! Its a calendar embedded in this blog. Check out what all happened in the past 1 week.

DISCLAIMER
This NetCAT Weekly Report #2, is my personal report on what I experienced during a particular week.
Its not related in any respect with NetCAT organisers.

RefCardz | NetBeans 6.1 Java Editor

The only IDE you need! You’ll find this reference card helpful if you want to get as much out of the Java editor as its authors intended when creating it. It lists all the keyboard shortcuts in carefully thought out categories and it provides a thorough exposition of optimal handling of Java code in the editor, covering viewing, navigation, source handling, and refactoring.

Features include Getting NetBeans IDE, Development with NetBeans IDE, Keyboard Shortcuts and, Code Templates, Quick Options Windows Overview, Hot Tips and more.

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Being a Dream Team member, gave me the opportunity to review this RefCardz, before it was published. This is the first thing I did, after becoming Dream Team member, and I enjoyed every bit of it.

Lets take this opportunity to thank our beloved Geertjan and Patrick for all their hard work, they had put in for this, was fruitful!

Update: Jan 10, 2009

The NetBeans Java Editor Refcard has been updated to 6.5. Go here to download it. Based on a lot of useful comments received for the first release of this Refcard, which was for NetBeans IDE 6.1, several changes have been made.

NetBeans Rocking!

NetCAT 6.5 Weekly | Report #1

Beginning

NetCAT 6.5 began on 15th July, I got an unexpected amount of mails, many people (incl. of me) were shocked to recieve such amount of mails. Many newbie’s are taking part this time, even I’m participating for the 1st time!

It wasn’t a problem for the experienced NetCATian’s who are actually termed as NetCAT Veterans.

What I missed…

Jiri Kovalsky, NetCAT Coordinator had given the NetCAT Team, 1st task for the week, and it was a survey, to be taken by us. However, due to some unavoidable circumstances I couldn’t fill it up. Any issues, not at all I lost a chance to gain 5 points! Anyways, more tasks to follow soon and I would hopefully complete those…

What I did…

Answered a lot of mails, queried as well! It was a breath-taking first 2-3 days! Now, I have filtered mails (on my mail account), that I don’t want to read OR irrelevant to me, with respect to this program. Also, my primary focus is on PHP and Documentation (you know why ). Soon, I will review docs as well, as there are no at present…

Bugs Filed-
Filed 5 bugs, 2 were resolved for duplicacy However, 1 of the other 3, getting approved to be fixed for the next Milestone, probably Beta version (not sure, though).

Others-
Wrote an article on my other blog- Milestone OR Daily Builds!

New Features

This section would list the features I saw during the past 1 week-

• Milestone 1 –
  I am not using it anymore, click it for more info about the features.
• NetBeans Platform-
  I came across 1 feature, which I had also mentioned in my Milestone blog entry, that it was a bug.
• Actually, its not… I’m talking about “Install/Reload in Target Platform”. Its an enhancement that has been done for removing redundancy.
• When you create a Module, and for a preview, you click on the above Menu Item for result. Though, from now on you would see it disabled, and Module will install in Target Platform, only by F6!
• When the Module is running, see the Menu Item again, now its enabled for Reload. Cool, isn’t it?

NetBeans Builds…

• Milestones- Milestone 1
• Daily Builds- Dev Build 200807101204, Dev Build 200807170007

DISCLAIMER
This NetCAT Weekly Report #1, is my personal report on what I experienced during a particular week.
Its not related in any respect with NetCAT organisers.

NetCAT 6.5 Begins!

Howdy,

So, we begin, yes I am also now a member of NetCAT Team, more specifically for 6.5 Release!

Day One- Amazing start, great rush of mails, need to keep an hourly check to ease filtering. So many issues being filed, few enhancement requests, many new members (including me).

Maybe I am just a bit over excited, as its my first day and I guess, experienced NetCAT members would have a better idea, whether its good/bad start…

NetCAT 6.5 Coordinator- He’s the Technical Community Manager, NBIG Coordinator (I guess), and what not…..He’s Jiri (Jirka) Kovalsky. He’s managing this program again.

I myself posted 2 bugs, one of them turning out to be duplicate More information in my weekly reports. I just downloaded Dev Build (10th July), it has better splash screen than Milestone 1, and some cool features will post about them soon.

By the way, this is the beginning of a new era of blog series, it would be a weekly series, as I will write a report on my experience over here!

sTay Tuned for More…