LAB-5540: Save Time—Build Desktop Applications Quickly with the NetBeans Platform

Last Updated: 4/29, 2009

The NetBeans Platform provides a reliable and flexible application architecture for desktop applications. Though it is known principally as the basis of NetBeans IDE, the end result does not need to look anything like it. It can save you years of development time. The NetBeans Platform gives you a time-tested architecture for free, together with a range of useful Swing components. An architecture that encourages sustainable development practices is provided out of the box, because the NetBeans Platform architecture is modular, making it easy to create applications that are robust and extensible.

This Lab will show you the most important APIs of NetBeans Platform. You will port a small Swing application to a new application based on the NetBeans Platform.

                            Copyright  2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Sun, Sun Microsystems,
                            the Sun logo, Solaris, Java, the Java Coffee Cup logo, JavaOne, the JavaOne logo,
                            and all Solaris-based and Java-based marks and logos are trademarks or registered
                            trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
                        

Prerequisites

This hands-on lab assumes you have some basic knowledge of, or programming experience in, the following technologies:

• Java™ language programming

You will need to refer to the accompanying presentation 5540_netbeansrcp.pdf during the lab.

System Requirements

• Supported OSes: Solaris™M 8/9/10 Operating System (OS), OpenSolaris™ Operating System (OS), Linux, Windows, Mac OS X 10.4+
• Memory requirement: 512MB
  
• Disk space requirement: 650MB
  

Software Needed For This Lab

Please install the following set of software. If you have any questions on installation, please feel free to send questions to the lab forum mentioned below.

• NetBeans IDE 6.7 - Java or All bundle
• JDK 5.0 Update 14 and higher
• 5540_netbeansrcp.zip file

Notations Used in This Documentation

• <lab_root> - directory into which lab zip file is unzipped
  • This document uses <lab_root> to denote the directory under which you have unzipped the lab zip file of this hands-on lab. The name of the lab zip file of this hands-on lab is 5540_netbeansrcp.zip.
  • Once you unzipped the lab zip file under <lab_root>, it will create a subdirectory called netbeansrcp. For example, under Solaris, if you have unzipped the lab zip file in the /home/meandmy directory, it will create /home/meandmy /netbeansrcp directory.

• The lab machines are running Java Desktop System over Solaris 10
• In order to open a terminal window in Java Desktop System, right click any point in the background of the desktop, and select Open Terminal in the pop-up menu.
• The following source code editors are provided on the lab machines
  • vi (type vi in a terminal window)
  • emacs (type emacs in a terminal window)
  • jedit (type jedit in a terminal window)
  • NetBeans IDE (either click NetBeans IDE icon or type netbeans in a terminal window)

Lab Exercises

• Exercise 0: Install and configure the lab environment
• Exercise 1: Port the Anagram Swing application to the NetBeans Platform
• Exercise 2: Extend the NetBeans Platform application using NetBeans IDE
• Exercise 3: Create an admin module for the Anagram Application
• Exercise 4: Package, publish, and update the application

Additional Resources

• Lab-5540 NetBeans RCP presentation
• NetBeans Platform
• NetBeans Platform Tutorials
• Definitive Guide to NetBeans Platform
• NetBeans Platform API Javadoc

Where To Go For Help

• For general questions and feedback on JavaOne Hands-On Labs, please use JavaOne_HOL_Forum .
• You can send technical questions via email to the authors of this Hands-on lab (and experts on the subject) or you can send your questions to the public users alias:
  • dev@openide.netbeans.org

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