Recent Posts by Geertjan Wielenga

In yesterday's window group, we used a TopComponent Group to manage two TopComponents. The two TopComponents belonged to the same module where I defined the group. However, it would also be cool if I could manage the windows provided by other modules. "Oh well," you might think, "That probably means you've got to hack the NetBeans sources, recompile various modules, find yourself in a world of confusion with conflicting dependencies, and tear all your hair out in...

In the IDE, when you're involved in GUI editing, several helper windows open together with the Design mode of the editor. For example, when you open a TopComponent in Design mode, the Palette and the Properties window open too. However, if you had previously opened the TopComponent in Design mode and closed the Palette, the Palette isn't opened when next you open the TopComponent. Basically, the helper windows (i.e., in this case, the Palette and Properties window) are only...

Section 3.4.3 of the "New Window System API Changes" (dated "January 8, 2004"), is pretty interesting. It describes how you can split a mode (i.e., a position in an application based on the NetBeans Platform, such as the IDE itself). To show what I mean, here you see, in addition to a TopComponent in my new banner mode, that the editor area has been split in two: By default, the editor area is not split. For this to happen, two things must happen. Firstly, the editor must be...

This is a detailed approach to creating a new mode (i.e., a position for a custom window component) in your Swing application. I encountered two problems with it, as explained in the instructions below, but at the end of it, you should have worked your way to a new position for a banner, for example, as shown in the day before yesterday's blog entry.  Close down the application (e.g., the IDE). Go to your user directory. (If you don't know where that is, start the...

The first NetBeans User Group event in Munich is over. I'm at the station waiting to catch my train to Prague in a few hours. Before I forget the impressions of today and the scribbled notes on the piece of paper that has been promoted to a beermat fade completely, I am taking this opportunity (a few hours of waiting) to update my blog. The presentations were really solid. First an enthusiastic introduction by Tim Cramer, then a pretty detailed overview of Java EE 5 tooling...

In NetBeans terminology, a "mode" is a position in a NetBeans platform application. (NetBeans IDE is one example of a NetBeans Platform application.) When you use the Window Component wizard to create a new TopComponent, the very first thing you're asked is the position where the TopComponent should be displayed. For example, there's an "editor" mode, which is where the Source Editor is found, there's an "explorer" mode, where the Projects window and Files window are found,...

One thing I've missed in NetBeans is a palette with code snippets for Java files. The Source Editor's Design view for Swing containers, such as a JFrame or a TopComponent, comes with its own palette with drag-and-drop Swing components. However, when you open a normal Java file, there's no palette. I'd like to be able to select a snippet of Java code, right-click in the Source Editor, and then say "Add to Palette", exactly like the module I created previously for adding HTML...

"Extending" a palette (i.e., one that you make yourself, not one provided by someone else) encapsulates four areas—the menu items in the palette's contextual menu, a category's contextual menu, and an item's contextual menu. But, also, the Palette Manager itself (under the Tools menu or by right-clicking in the palette, a category, or item) can be extended, by adding additional buttons to it. Each palette has its own manager, which requires zero programming on your part,...

I've often wondered if there was a way to influence the initial expanded/collapsed state of categories in a palette. By default, the first category is expanded, while all the others are collapsed. Well, yesterday I started learning about the NetBeans API PaletteController class's attributes. If you click the link in the previous sentence, you will see there are six attributes that can be set on a root node, category node, or item node. Here's a sneak preview from the...