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SDN Chat Sessions Transcripts Index
May 3, 2005 This is a moderated forum. MDR-EdO: Welcome to today's SDN chat on the NetBeans 4.1 IDE. The NetBeans 4.1 IDE, which is now available as a release candidate, delivers significant new capabilities for developing J2EE applications, EJB components, and web services. [Editors note: After this chat took place, the final version of the NetBeans 4.1 IDE became available.] In today's chat you'll be able to ask questions about these new capabilities and get answers from three key members of the NetBeans 4.1 team: Senior Product Manager, Judith Lilienfeld, Technical Lead, Ludo Champenois, and Engineering Manager, Petr Jiricka. Our guests are ready, so let's begin -- who has the first question? kendra: I have quite a specific question concerning NetBeans IDE 4.1 RC1. I want to use a stateless session bean as a client of a web service. I have encountered problems with adding a web reference to an EJB project. Is there a possibility to do this? Ludo Champenois: Yes, this should be possible. You could use the nbj2ee@NetBeans.org mailing list to ask technical questions: people are very responsive there. Fabrizio: What are the major differences between the 4.1 Beta, RC1 and RC2? Just bugfixing or new features? Ludo Champenois: Many many many bugs fixed. Also between Beta and RCs, the cobundled application server was upgraded to 8.1 Update Release 1.
vbrabant: I have a question from someone of the French community. Question was how to compile RMI in NetBeans 4.1. Seems that the RMI module disappears. Ludo Champenois: The RMI module was not really popular I guess... I need to check if it is still available in the auto update center. TheSteve0: What are the plans for JSF support in NetBeans? Ludo Champenois: NetBeans 4.1 provides basic JSF support when targeting the Sun Application server:
But you can start today, with the Sun Application Server 8.1 that bundles JSF libraries out of the box. Judith Lilienfeld: JSF is currently supported in Sun's Corporate Developer tool, Sun Java Studio Creator. kendra: Will there be a possibility to use the NetBeans IDE with JBoss and Apache Axis as well? Ludo Champenois: Out of the box, with advanced wizards, no, but I have seen blogs talking about how to register the axis libraries and create NetBeans projects to use Axis. As you might know, the NetBeans build system is purely based on Ant, so that you can integrate technologies like hibernate, xdoclet, and target other runtimes, as long as you can configure a proper build.xml file. Geertjan's Weblog is excellent. Judith Lilienfeld: Also check out Integrating NetBeans with other J2EE Vendors. vbrabant: Ludovic, you asked in your blog what we wanted for NB4.2. Lots of people posted their wishes. Any idea what will be integrated in 4.2? Ludo Champenois: I'll be in Prague next week and we'll kick start for real this 4.2 and 5.0 list of features. ideguy: Do the web services I want to consume need to be WS-I Basic Profile compliant? What about talking to "old" Axis web services? Judith Lilienfeld: Yes. We support J2EE 1.4 which is WSI Profile compliant. Glenn Holmer: How tightly integrated is the Sun app server? Can web services developed with NetBeans be deployed on other servers? Ludo Champenois: Yes, as long as the targeted server is JSR 109 compliant (i.e., a J2EE 1.4 one). The issue with it is that the tools for generating portable artifacts are not standardized yet. For the Sun Application Server 8.1, the tool is wscompile. For others, the build script has to be adapted. The resulting WAR or EAR created by NetBeans contains only deployable artifacts. vbrabant: When will the new book be available? Judith Lilienfeld: The new NetBeans Field Guide will be available at JavaOne. But, the first 300 people who come to NetBeans Day (the day before JavaOne) will be able to receive a copy FREE. Fabrizio: I'm an old school JBuilder programmer, and I feel comfortable with its keymappings and shortcuts. Has NetBeans a sort of keyboard mapping switching facility? Judith Lilienfeld: We are working on developing keyboard mapping switch facilities for JBuilder and other IDEs. ideguy: I see you can test web services. Can you test EJBs? Ludo Champenois: Not as easily as web services. For that, you need to create a simple web app with a Servlet, and use the "Call EJB" popup menu on this servlet Java file. You can then select which EJB you want to call. The IDE then adds the lookup code in the servlet, the ejb-ref in the web.xml dd file, and makes sure your web app can talk to your EJB... No need to understand complex DD elements or project dependances. Glenn Holmer: Will any of the Czech team be attending the NetBeans Software Day in San Francisco on June 26? Ludo Champenois: Yes many of them! Please attend! A free book on NetBeans 4.1 will be given for the first 300 people registering. Or, you can preorder it and pay for it, or read the draft pdf. ideguy: Do you have an update on Coyote (scripting support in NetBeans)? Ludo Champenois: The update I have is that the developers are now working on making it work for 4.1. Fabrizio: Are you planning to improve the refactoring features? For example, a "surround with try..catch"? Ludo Champenois: Yes, this one is asked often. We hear you! 4.2 will have more refactoring capabilities. vbrabant: Will any of the Czech team be present in the Belgium/Luxembourg event (25-26 May 2005)? Judith Lilienfeld: Yes. The lead developer for J2EE will be at the Belgium/Luxembourg event. Also, we are launching 4.1 at JAX 2005 in Germany and there will be a number of other NB developers there as well. Fabrizio: I'm not able to create a web service client for a Java Swing application without creating a J2EE web project. What's the correct way to do it? Ludo Champenois: In 4.1 only, the J2EE web services (JSR 109) are supported. We'll add support for web services clients in a J2SE application later. Again, NetBeans does not prevent you from doing that...as long as you can properly configure your J2SE project with the correct set up. But 4.1 does not provide wizards there yet. Petr Jiricka: Ideally you should create the web service client in a Java application project; however this is not yet supported in NB 4.1. Stay tuned for the next release. Mr. Bean: I'm debating whether to go to JavaOne this year -- can you tell me what sessions are planned there for NetBeans? Judith Lilienfeld: We have lots going on at JavaOne. We have 5 sessions and 6 BOFs devoted entirely to NetBeans. We also have 11 Hands-On Labs and let's not forget NetBeans Day - the day before JavaOne - where you will get to meet Java luminaries like James Gosling, as well as the NB engineers ideguy: I can't use Sun's app server, can Tomcat host web services developed using NetBeans? Which libraries should I add to Tomcat? Ludo Champenois: Our philosophy for 4.1 was to support the J2EE 1.4 specification, and Tomcat is only a web container; it does not support web services OOB, and the EJBs... Why can't you try the Sun Application server? It is free for Development, it is free for deployment, and recent benchmarks showed good numbers. This is the J2EE 1.4 Reference Implementation! Support for other Application Servers is in the plan. Stay tuned. ideguy: OK, I'll try convincing my management to use Sun's App Server. It does seem to be easier (although I won't be using EJBs). I need the technical and business reasons for doing so. How does it scale and perform under load? Ludo Champenois: Read this benchmark, and compare the price/performance ratio: Application Server 8.1 (which is the J2EE 1.4 Reference Implementation) is hard to beat there. vbrabant: Why isn't Sun spending more resource for the documentation of NetBeans in other languages like French or Spanish? Java is used a lot in South America. Judith Lilienfeld: NetBeans was recently represented at SunTech Days in Brazil and will be at the FISL conference. We are working on making NB easier to use throughout the world. lfo: What do you think about the integration with Maven using mevenide? Is it bad or not? Does it make it possible for Eclipse and NetBeans users to work together? Ludo Champenois: We'll be starting to use it on a large project internal to Sun. It is a nice way to move the private build systems dependencies from IDEs specificities to external tools like Maven and ANT so that the same project can be used by different developers: the vi ones, the eclipse ones, the NetBeans ones, etc... vbrabant: Is NetBeans 4.1 stable enough for the Java SE 6 platform? (NB3.5 and Tiger was a source of problems.) Ludo Champenois: Yes, very stable. In fact, the Java SE 6 Swing team is actively testing with NetBeans 4.1 as a criteria to code quality. They recently fixed a bug regarding Swing Redraw bufferization so that NetBeans feels like a native app on the Java SE 6 platform. Fabrizio: Does NetBeans have RAD features for web applications, such as the Studio Creator? Judith Lilienfeld: Creator is a tool for the corporate developer to quickly create applications in a Microsoft Visual Basic-like style. NetBeans is a free, open source project tool upon which Sun Studio and Creator are based. Sun Java Studio Enterprise is built on NetBeans and adds in capabilities for the enterprise developer, including UML and collaboration. vbrabant: What about the NetBeans 4.1 Platform? May I easily create my own application based upon that core? Petr Jiricka: Yes you can develop applications based on the platform. It is not yet "easy", but stay tuned. The NetBeans team is working on addressing the ease of development in this area too. ideguy: How is building NetBeans modules progressing (documentation and wizards)? Will we see something new at JavaOne? Judith Lilienfeld: Absolutely. ideguy: Will next versions of Creator and Java Studio Enterprise be available as NBMs to morph NetBeans into one of them? Ludo Champenois: Not decided yet, but possible, as it makes a lot of sense in terms of packaging, upgradability, etc. vbrabant: Java SE 6 will integrate the JDIC and JDNC APIs. Will NetBeans also support those new APs in the Form Editor? Ludo Champenois: The goal of NetBeans is to be the Tool for J2SE, J2ME and J2EE platforms. So new APIs or technologies introduced in J2SE and J2EE will have to be supported in NetBeans in one way or another. vbrabant: Why doesn't a specific project for Applets exist? It's not easy now to integrate an applet into a web application. Petr Jiricka: Good point. Yes, applet development could be more intuitive. A quick solution would be to create good HOWTOs and other documentation - would that work? vbrabant: You created a module helping Eclipse people to switch to NetBeans. Will you create a module helping NB3.6 people to switch to NB4.1? And what about other IDEs? Judith Lilienfeld: There is some documentation available for transitioning from 3.6 to 4.x. vbrabant: Any idea when the NB4.1 final release will be out? Any more blocking issues? or will the RC2 be the final release? Ludo Champenois: Decision is tomorrow. So far, no show stoppers. Keep your fingers crossed:-) [Editors' note: After this chat took place, the final version of the NetBeans 4.1 IDE became available.] Mr. Bean: It seems like more and more Eclipse/SWT folks are starting to make the move to NetBeans/Swing. I think the performance and functionality of 4.1 is a great convincer to make the move. Congratulations! Judith Lilienfeld: Thanks. Check out NetBeans.org/switch. We have testimonials of developers switching from Eclipse to NetBeans. ideguy: I'd like to see better support for Subversion. Any improvements planned (for versioning systems in general)? Petr Jiricka: Yes. This work is already under way. You will first see improved support for CVS and other major systems, and more will follow. This is high on the priority list. vbrabant: I know documentation exists, and is available for transition. But it's more difficult for a 3.6 user to switch to 4.1 than for an Eclipse user. Judith Lilienfeld: Thanks for the feedback Vincent, I will take this back to the team. vbrabant: Will you enhance the module development kit to facilitate creation of modules for NetBeans 4.1? Ludo Champenois: Yes, this is an area where you'll see significant enhancements. Now that the foundation is solid, NetBeans has to ease the development of new plugins so that the community can grow, both in terms of users as well as developers. vbrabant: And what about JBuilder and IDEa Switch module? Judith Lilienfeld: Stay tuned :-) ideguy: I'd like to have better Java Web Start support - auto-generated JNLP files, resources packaging, archive signing, and maybe even posting (ftp) to the web server. Is the Java Web Start team or NetBeans team looking into this? Petr Jiricka: Good suggestion, and in fact yes, there is some work being done in this area. vbrabant: Will Ant 1.6.3 be integrated into NB4.1 Final Release? Or available through the Update Center? Ludo Champenois: It will be in Auto Update Center. The trunk has already switched to ANT 1.6.3 (nightly builds or promoted 4.2 builds). vbrabant: How is NetBeans 4.x doing in market share, compared to 3.X? Judith Lilienfeld: We have made major strides. Our market share increased last year and that was even before 4.x had really taken off. vbrabant: What is the preferred feature that has been introduced in NetBeans 4.1? Ludo Champenois: J2EE Ease of Development: the Zero Configuration features that hides the complexity of the J2EE constructs. You do not need to see Deployment descriptors to be successful. Petr Jiricka: We are looking at doing a feature release every 4-6 months. These releases will be significant, not just minor bugfix releases. vbrabant: Will NetBeans continue to be open source or will we see more and more closed source modules like GC, J2ME? Ludo Champenois: The trend is to open source more and more stuff. In 4.1, the theme was to move J2EE support to open source. Mr. Bean: Is the focus of Netbeans 4.1 exclusively on on enterprise development, that is, J2EE? What about improvements for J2SE? Petr Jiricka: We are improving all areas, not just J2EE, or just J2SE. NetBeans wants to be the best IDE in all respects, which includes J2EE. The next release will address more of the basic J2SE stuff. vbrabant: What about a wiki or chat on NetBeans.org? Judith Lilienfeld: We are making plans for a wiki and forums in the future. Fabrizio: What about the creation of a web service consumer for a J2SE application? When it will be available? Ludo Champenois: I wish this for 4.2 if possible. We'll see. Petr Jiricka: We did not test this, but it should be possible. NetBeans works with JAX-RPC libraries, which work with Tomcat. So web services should work at least on Tomcat, after some manual setup steps. vbrabant: I mean that reports created by Ant task are XML or HTML reports. But obviously I can't click on that report to open the source in NetBeans as easily as it's done with JSP compiler errors. For example. Petr Jiricka: Sounds fixable. If you describe exactly what you need in IssueZilla and cc 'pjiricka', I'll let you know. Glenn Holmer: I've been using 4.1 but haven't built any apps that use web services. Can they be deployed on other servers than the bundled Sun app server? Ludo Champenois: For Apache AXIS support, someone created this tutorial. vbrabant: Will code completion enhancement be available through the Update Center? Petr Jiricka: What kind of enhancement do you have in mind? The goal is that all code completion features are already in the base IDE and you don't need to install extra stuff. Code completion must (and will) "just work". vbrabant: Just as conclusion: NetBeans 4.1 RC2 is very stable and nice enhancements have been done in the Source Editor. Hope to see more and more enhancements in NB4.2 Petr Jiricka: Thanks! MDR-EdO: Well, we've quickly come to the end of our session. I'd like to thank everyone who participated today. I thought we had a nice range of questions. And of course, I'd especially like to thank our guests Larry, Ludo, and Petr for their answers. Ludo Champenois: Thanks everyone for chatting today. Remember to give us feedback on these mailing lists: nbj2ee@NetBeans.org and nbusers@NetBeans.org. Judith Lilienfeld: Thanks to everyone. If you have any further questions or feedback, please contact us through our mailing lists. MDR-EdO: Petr says goodbye and thank you too. Judith Lilienfeld: And don't forget NetBeans Day - the day before JavaOne in SF. MDR-EdO: Moderator signing off. The forum is now unmoderated. | ||||
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