Bravo!

Today, the NetBeans Dream Team page was updated, and I am now one of them. Yes, I was invited to join the team, and had accepted the offer. So, here I am as a NetBeans Community Docs Contribution Coordinator and Dream Team Member!

Second, Jiri Kovalsky, the Liaison officer, Technical Community Manager and NetCAT 6.5 Coordinator. List is surely long and I am sorry If I missed something

Highest Scorer

Today, he announced on demand of certain NetCAT participants, the points earned by every member. It was another shocker for me! I scored 83 points as of 25th July, 3:00 pm C.E.T.

Simply awesome! NetCAT has just completed 2 weeks, we are in for some more surprises, so wait till monday as I come out with 2nd edition of my own NetCAT weekly.

Summer Action Marathon continues…

Hey,

I have been blogging around for a while on hyperlinks in NetBeans IDE, what about the API’s, yeah the NetBeans API’s that helped me achieve a crucial milestone, i.e. activating the Opened panes! Also, the members of OpenIDE mailing lists, for giving accurate suggestions for making it possible.

Tricks

You must see numerous Developer FAQ’s based on Editor and Edited Files. Some of them referring to get access of relevant opened Window for editing. Still, something was missing. So, I would share what I experienced recently.

TopComponent[] comps = TopComponent.getRegistry().getOpened();
for (int i = 0; i < comps.length; i++) {
    Node[] arr = comps[i].getActivatedNodes();
    for (int j = 0; j < arr.length; j++) {
        EditorCookie ec = (EditorCookie)
arr[j].getCookie(EditorCookie.class);
        if (ec != null) {
            JEditorPane[] panes = ec.getOpenedPanes();
            if (panes != null) {
                // USE panes
            }
        }
    }
}

This has one issue, it no longers returns an array of TopComponent’s in the 1st line, in 6.0 and 6.1, I saw it returned Set<TopComponent>, so outer loop also changes like this-

Set<TopComponent> comps = TopComponent.getRegistry().getOpened();
for (TopComponent tc: comps) {
    Node[] arr = tc.getActivatedNodes();
    for (int j = 0; j < arr.length; j++) {
        EditorCookie ec = (EditorCookie)
arr[j].getCookie(EditorCookie.class);
        if (ec != null) {
            JEditorPane[] panes = ec.getOpenedPanes();
            if (panes != null) {
                // USE panes
            }
        }
    }
}

What about My Usecase?

Oh, yeah! I wanted to tell you about re-activating opened panes. After interacting with Wade on OpenIDE mailing lists. I created this method- verifyHyperlinkStatus(), please have a look, you might have to scroll a bit. So, I have commented 2 lines there-

//final int index = k;
/*
After some coding...
*/
//tc[index].requestActive();

tc[index] is a particular TopComponent instance obtained by iterating over an Array of TopComponent’s. Array? But, we have just discussed its Set<TopComponent> not an Array. You’re in for another surprise-

//To obtain an array, use this-
final TopComponent[] tc = TopComponent.getRegistry().
getOpened().toArray(new TopComponent[0]);
//As mentioned in the following reference tutorial.

Referenced Tutorial- http://wiki.netbeans.org/RevampedHyperlinkNavigation

final, but why?

Actually, when you deal with methods that required to run within a AWT Thread, invoked by various means, then the variables used, within their implemented run() method, if defined outside should be made final so as to prevent it from any modification. In Java, final modifier means that an identifier would be constant within a block of code. In this case, within a method- verifyHyperlinkStatus()

So, index was modified as final, and was used within an AWT Thread inside a if-block, which invoked tc[index].requestActive(), i.e. to activate that window, if its already opened.

Why I am doing this?

As I have to re-activate a opened editor window which was already opened by clicking a hyperlink in HTML file. So, I was earlier using setCaretPositon(), that’s why I had to requestActive(), to show that editor window again.

Tips to Remember

Vita suggested to use NbEditorUtilities instead of a combination of setCaretPosition() and requestActive(). So, I did that by commenting the following statements present in one of the setPosition() methods.

NbEditorUtilities.getLine(d, index, true).show(Line.SHOW_GOTO);
//pane[pos].setCaretPosition(index);

Here, index is found using indexOf(), and d is the document, whose contents were used to retrieve the index. This is indeed a great utility, why? Because, it opens/re-activates the opened document and places the cursor at the beginning of the line, that was searched.

Final thoughts

This time all was said and done, rather than the saying “All is said, more than done!”.

Howdy,

After lot of discussion on OpenIDE mailing lists, exploring Developer FAQ’s, exerting my wrist, flexing fingers and what not? Finally, hit the deck hard! Yeah, Hyperlink Navigation in NetBeans got smarter! Especially, for HTML documents.

While working on my Internship Project, I came across Hyperlink Navigation Tutorial, on platform.netbeans.org/tutorials!

Recently, I felt that the sample project needs revision, and should implement some more usecases, which are commonly used. Think about rendering of HTML pages on Web Browser, you click on an anchor name, it takes you to the exact position in either same OR referenced document. Also, when you click external links, browser opens New Tab, and presents that page.

Ever thought of having a similar functionality in NetBeans, yes your favorite IDE. Just follow the following tutorial, to master hyperlinking in the IDE.

Have a look at the tutorial-
http://wiki.netbeans.org/RevampedHyperlinkNavigation

Also, download following plugin, and it would add a sample project with all the code present in it, the one mentioned in tutorial, just Run that module, it will Install in Target Platform, and play with HTML files. Follow the instructions carefully.

Created in 6.0, compatible with 6.0, 6.1, 6.5 (daily builds)!

Samples | NetBeans Modules Project-
http://plugins.netbeans.org/PluginPortal/faces/PluginDetailPage.jsp?pluginid=11222

Recently,

I blogged about How to Hyperlink XML Layer, with the bit update on my project as well. So, DTD file, if exists, got opened when I click on ARGUMENT, opening TAG Token Id’s, like <filesystem><file name=”"></file></filesystem>

See the italics and bold faced text, they are hyperlinked. So, clicking them I am directed to the apt DTD file within the IDE. Earlier what happened, when I clicked the links again, file which is actually a TopComponent opened as Editor Window, was not requesting focus.

Navigation got smarter

However, now its working…If I click umpteen times, I will be directed to the doc same no. of times. You can get to see this feature in the Revamped Hyperlink Navigation Tutorial, based on a tutorial. I have developed a plugin for that for the time being, though expect the plugin to get updated soon.

NetBeans API’s (Lexer API) rocks!

Enjoy Technology…Enjoy NetBeans

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.

Just few days back, I talked about that its rather a good practice to debug, not to run! While following that, I discovered another thing, which was there for quite some time, but I didn’t notice it, as I didn’t debug

    <target name="debug-fix-nb" if="netbeans.home"
depends="init,-pre-debug-fix,compile-single">
        <nbjpdareload>
            <fileset includes="${fix.class}*.class"
dir="${build.classes.dir}"/>
        </nbjpdareload>
    </target>

You must be thinking, what’s “debug-fix-nb”, its actually an Ant target, ran while we apply Code fixes during Debugging! Shocking, Indeed! I felt the same way, actually while building a module to run it in Target Platform, I realized I could reload it as well, without building whole module again.

Goto Installation Directory, and look for harness/common.xml
It contains many Ant targets, including the above…

Similar functionality exists, when you want to reload while debugging, HOW? Here lies the trick, while I was debugging a Module in Target Platform, I realized an error just after a break-point, so thought of fixing code, just before error could be detected.

Then, I came across an Icon in Toolbar, whose tool-tip suggested its used for applying code fixes. So, I made changes wherever needed, and clicked on that Icon, it reloaded that class and the debugging continued, from same point!

Now, that’s what I call a utility. Amazing, never thought debugging could be fun

enJoy Technology…

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…

Hello,

As you know, I wrote in my previous post- NB Quiz | No More Quizzing!, I said that no more quizzing was possible, as Quiz came to an end!

Today, I announce Grand Prize Winner- Abdullah Chougle, he has won himself a Apple MacBook Air!

Wow, amazing another laptop goes from my reach. Jokes apart, lets congratulate Abdullah, and wish him good luck for future contests. I hope to win something next time.

It was a pleasure to bring this bi-weekly series to you all. Its time to end it here, and move on. Good Luck

NetBeans Quizzes - brought to you by NetBeans Guru!

Hi,

Why I wrote “Debug, don’t Run”? There lies the simplest of reasons, I am working on my internship project, and I was writing an algorithm to map PUBLIC_ID -> URI, read EntityCatalog for more info.

The idea present over there, lets a user to register a PUBLIC_ID in System Filesystem, same way I can retrieve the existent PUBLIC_ID from there.

Why not Run?

While creating the algo, I wrote a method, which would be invoked by the master method (which runs the algo), that would let me replace Whitespaces with Underscores!

I thought it looked good, eye-catchy, sleek, compact and nice utility. Though, when I ran the NBM, it choked, because of that method which ran into infinity.

Do Debug!

I didn’t knew what happened, made changes in rest of the code, thinking it to be fine, as it looked compact…Then, I realised to Debug it, to find the problem, and to my surprise, that sleek, compact looking method was the main cause!

GREAT!!!

I used to do a lot of debugging in C++/Java Applications, Database Applications (JDBC-enabled), I’m still new to NetBeans Platform, trying to learn as much as possible!

Always Remember…

So, always keep in mind, to debug umpteen times, before you get things right, it will surely save you a lot of time, and debug your programming practices too!

Hey,

As you know, I have been running a blog series on “Playing with XML Layer”. I have written 3 parts till now, that were tips and Tricks…

Its time for Part 4, though this isn’t any tips and Tricks, as its an abstract tutorial to hyperlink XML Layer, which conforms to any Document-Type-Definition.

Already there exists a tutorial to hyperlink the value contained within the HREF attribute (HTML files) in Platform Tutorials.

At the bottom of that Tutorial, they have mentioned what could be the Next Steps to follow, basically Work Ahead!

Working with JSP and XML documents. (Same principle as above.)

Implementation

As you can see they have mentioned in one of the points, that XML documents can follow the same principle. So, as part of my internship project, I worked to hyperlink the ELEMENT names and their ATTLIST attributes.

For instance;

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE filesystem PUBLIC "-//NetBeans//DTD Filesystem 1.1//EN" "http://www.netbeans.org/dtds/filesystem-1_1.dtd">
<filesystem>
    <folder name="Actions">
        <folder name="Tools">
            <file name="org-nvarun-tat-SayCheez.instance"/>
        </folder>
    </folder>
    <!--Remember SayCheez in earlier parts,
        this is just a snippet of that XML Layer-->
</filesystem>

Now, I made use of XMLTokenId, as the reference tutorial made use of HTMLTokenId, and did the implementation based on XMLTokenId constants.

Note-
The required HyperlinkProvider instance will be registered under text/xml, so any XML file with that MIME Type will hyperlink as suggested.

Features

• When you click on filesystem/folder/file, a Dialog Box prompts the user with a message that you have clicked right hyperlink, IDE opens the DTD file represented by PUBLIC_ID.
• For that to happen, click on PUBLIC_ID first to let the IDE know which DTD, does the XML is specified by, then PUBLIC_ID -> URI mapping takes place (redesigning, refer to XML Code Completion support).
• Also, it extracts the DTD file clicking the SYSTEM_ID (if present is hyperlinked) conforms to and hyperlinks it, clicking it will launch the Browser with the identified URL.

Work Ahead

When you click on filesystem/folder/file, locate the DTD file and open in NetBeans IDE, with specific caret position. As you know, Angad has already created a module for DTD-intra-hyperlinking! So, you would be able to enjoy both functionalities, similar to the one existing in IntelliJ IDEA!

Updated on July 14, 2008

sTay Tuned for More…

Hey,

Another tips and Tricks for today! Whenever you have created a JFrame in NetBeans, the auto-generated code which is in sync with Matisse Builder, has a method initComponents() initially, right?

When you make a switch to the Source view, you see a collapsed section of code, with a label on it- “Generated Code”. Ever thought, how it happens.

Here’s the trick

Write code between following comments;

        //<editor-fold defaultstate="$state" desc="$label">
        /* Place your code over here */
        //</editor-fold>

Replace $state with expanded/collapsed and $label with any name/phrase you choose. Also, replace the following;

        /* Place your code over here */

with your code, it could be either inside a method, or inside a Java class, wrapping various methods, variable declarations etc.

Tips to Remember

Keep in mind that, the editor-fold tags must be inside same block of code, either inside a Java class, or inside a method! You can’t opening tag inside a Java class, and closing tag inside a method OR vice-versa!

It works in all Java classes. Also, its basic use is to categorize the sections of code. Like, you may have an editor-fold for only variable declarations, and/or for user created methods, and/or for getter/setter methods!

eNjoy Technology…

Hey,

The wait is over, as NetBeans IDE 6.5 Milestone 1, is available for download! Yes, a new version is out, and I am really excited to see new features! Before I go any further, I must tell you what I missed in NetBeans 6.0, 6.1 IDE-

1. Action Wizard with no scrollbar, was really troublesome, as I had to change my system resolution to 1024 by 768, everytime I wanted to use this Wizard!
2. Proper Language Integration Framework, there have been a lot of discussion on the mailing lists, on having a unified language integration framework (I am still exploring Generic Language Framework).

Few months back, I have started exploring the NetBeans Platform for RCP and I have recently contributed a lot of documentation on XML Layer! So, the above points are related to NetBeans Platform, as I haven’t used the IDE for any other type of projects for so long!

Also, I missed out on NetCAT 6.0 and CA Survey 6.1! I was new to the community when NetCAT happened, and at the time of Survey, I was having exams! Anyways, I am enjoying dealing with RCP on a daily basis, and hope to make some cool features for the IDE, some day!

What I saw today?

General Changes

The Action Wizard has got a scrollbar, what a relief! Phew… I can feel it, its such an important enhancement, will save a lot of time. Though, I was not able to Install/Reload in Target Platform, it was disabled don’t know why, might be a bug! Plugin Manager had so many new plugins available, support for Scala, Groovy is also there! Many modules from contrib were present as well.

New font colors, for Java source files, XML Layer! I guess the font has changed as well.
FONT resembles the ONE used in Ubuntu!

Hey, I also saw Quick Search Toolbar, Geertjan had blogged about it recently, and there exists Dzone Articles as well. Though, it doesn’t seem to work in the Milestone 1, however expect all these features and many more listed on NetBeans.org, to be available in NB 6.5 IDE Beta Version!

Java Editor and GUI Matisse Builder

Better parsing; control over “Qualified Names of Classes“; enhanced visiblity of code; changes in Action- “Encapsulate Fields…”, more options now available such as Insert Point, Sort By, Javadoc…

Insert Point
Lets you insert the getter/setter’s OR both, above/below any existing method in code, by selecting an option from DropDown list.

Sort By
Lets you sort the getter/setter’s OR both, to be generated in a specific order, by selecting an option from its DropDown list.

Javadoc
Lets you create Javadoc for your getter/setter’s OR both, by selecting following options from DropDown list -

1. Create default comments
2. Copy from field
3. None

Refer this tips and Tricks, apply those steps in this Milestone, you would see a change. I will update that trick for this Milestone soon!

Suggestions

I would suggest you all to have a look and feel of the IDE, make some sample applications, test, review and give feedback! You may do it more efficiently by participating in NetCAT 6.5! I have applied and waiting for the selection results.

sTay Tuned for More Reviews…

Hey,

So, I am writing a third part, Wow Really, I must admit, I just didn’t thought I would write so frequently, and that too, on NetBeans Platform. Its something, that needs a lot of time to understand its usability, functionality and extensibility… Anyways, in my previous entry- Part Two of this series, I wrote on how to transform an Action type from one form to another- CallableSystem TO Cookie! By the way, I have already done the reversal in form of a tutorial, and contributed to the Community Docs.

Here, I present to you tricks to add/remove entries into/from XML Layer, that would enable/disable context-aware actions.

Pre-requisites

Just have a look at this webpage- Tryst with Platform! Its basically an index of what all documentations (11), I have contributed to the NetBeans Community, be it blogs, tutorials, articles, tips and Tricks, Dzone entries, etc, in the last week of June.

Tips and Tricks

Following tips/tricks apply to CookieAction, not CallableSystemAction! Also, check out the references section (at the end of this entry), this part of blog series is inspired by those references!

Syntax of the MIME Type: type/subtype

Tricks for Context Menu Items

Trick #1 - If making the action, file type context-sensitive. Then, you have to add an entry in folder “Loaders” as follows into XML Layer.

    <folder name="Loaders">
        <folder name="type">
            <folder name="subtype">
                <folder name="Actions">
                    <file name="org-nvarun-tat-SayCheez.instance"/>
                </folder>
            </folder>
        </folder>
    </folder>

Trick #2 - If making the action, editor context-sensitive. Then, you have to add an entry in folder “Editors” as follows into XML Layer.

    <folder name="Editors">
        <folder name="type">
            <folder name="subtype">
                <folder name="Popup">
                    <file name="org-nvarun-tat-SayCheez.instance"/>
                </folder>
            </folder>
        </folder>
    </folder>

Tips To Remember

In our case, I replaced type with text and subtype with x-java! What I did, I registered the Action into the Java Editor Context Menu, i.e. whenever you open a Java File, and do right-click, popup menu would show the above action. Also, when you expand relevant Package Node of a Project Node, to uncover Java File Nodes, right-click to see the Action in the popup menu!

However, it would be still be enabled, if you had earlier chosen EditorCookie, EditCookie, DataObject OR OpenCookie. It would be disabled, if you choose Project interface as Cookie class.

Now, what?

You can find out what all MIME Types are registered into the IDE, by clicking on Tools > Options, and click on button Advanced Options! There you expand nodes in this order- IDE Configuration —> System —> Object Types

Now, select any sub-node, and you could see its property sheet on right panel, where all possible MIME Types for that particular Object Type are listed. Try this on existing MIME Types, also you may do this for your own created languages (which you might like to integrate into the IDE).

References
[A] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIME#Content-Type
[B] Recognizing a File Type Tutorial
[C] http://wiki.netbeans.org/DevFaqActionAddEditorPopup
[D] http://wiki.netbeans.org/DevFaqActionAddFileMime

eNjoy Technology…

Hey,

Finally, NetBeans Quizzes comes to an end, the much awaited Grand Finale, promises to be the most spectacular end of a long series of quizzes spanning 11 weeks with 1 quiz per week, 11 winners and 96295 participants!

What amazing statistics! Anyways, time to tell you about the winner of the last quiz;

Week 11 -
Winner: Sourav Agarwal, Prize: Nintendo Wii

Who will win the Grand Prize? Prize: Apple MacBook Air
Wait, as I will unveil the Grand Prize winner over here, next week! Hey, you could still answer quizzes, to be eligible for Grand Prize, yes download the plugin, and answer all the quizzes you might have missed in reverse chronological order!

Sorry, but neither you nor can I participate in the quizzes, which we might have in backlog

Best of Luck!

NetBeans Quizzes - brought to you by NetBeans Guru!