Projects
At the heart of any IDE are its projects. These are, well, the projects you are working on.
They are built together, can be deployed together, and contain all your Java class files as well as any eXtensible Markup Language (XML) descriptors, packages, etc. necessary to execute your applications. Like all other IDEs, NetBeans has a methodology for setting up, managing, and configuring your projects. This version of NetBeans allows for considerable and easy customization.
Figure 5
Creating Projects
NetBeans 4.1 projects are extremely easy to use. Navigation of projects is familiar. I particularly liked how easy it was to edit config files, as well as being able to to customize Ant build scripts. The Project Navigator (Figure 5
) allows for easy access to all the necessary elements—both for browsing and editing. When browsing deployment descriptors, it opens to a simple tab-based dialogue (Figure 6
) that allows you to edit the elements without having to worry about XML syntax or knowing what element/attribute does what.
Figure 6
Overall, the process of creating a new project is what it should be: intuitive. The interface didn't get in the way of what I knew I needed to do. If anything, it made it easier. No Earth-shattering nuances, but certainly everything I needed where I needed it.
Importing Projects
The importation of projects is a key element to using, or switching to NetBeans—especially for Eclipse users. Whether it works or not will determine whether it's worthwhile to adopt a new environment. It can be difficult enough to learn the intricacies of a new IDE, but add difficulty in importing...that can be an insurmountable obstacle. In order to import Eclipse projects, download the Eclipse Project Importer. Instructions will explain how to do this and what to do afterwards. This allows you to import dependencies and looks for discrepancies in the project implementations.
Importing J2EE Applications
Importing Web projects seemed a straightforward enough task. That is to say, it the IDE should just pull all the included JSP files, Java classes, classpaths, all the necessary information, in and it should all be there, no messing around necessary. I imported a client's project that's currently in Eclipse. It took two steps.
Then, I proceeded to build and deploy the application on the Sun application server (I mean, it is J2EE-"build once, run anywhere," right?). The import and build? Easy. Deploying? Not so much. However, the issue was that my web.xml file had mis-ordered elements when verified against the DTD. Though this didn't I should probably fix anyway.
In addition, and not a small note, NetBeans is tightly tied into either TomCat (5 or 5.5) and Sun's J2EE application server. I found no discernable way to integrate with JRun (which I use), and a quick search at their Web site turned up virtually no results or plug-ins or anthing which could help me—or any other developer who has opted for a non-Sun backed J2EE application server. With all the great features in this IDE, this might be the Achilles heel.
Importing J2SE Applications
Importing a J2SE application would understandably be more tricky. The reason: NetBeans uses Swing, the UI layer in the J2SE specification, for building it's UI. Eclipse uses SWT to build it's UI. SWT was created by the Eclipse group to address the issue of performance when running Swing-based applications. I really want to see is just how NetBeans can handle importing SWT applications. This could be tough.
Importing is smooth enough. The project I imported successfully built, and I was able to run it from the IDE (though I wasn't able to at the command line). However, the SWT code is still there. It will be necessary to translate all that code into Swing. No easy task. Make no mistake: this will be a key factor for any J2SE developer porting to NetBeans from Eclipse with existing projects.
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