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NetBeans Visual Web Pack: Learning by Example
by Leonard Anghel
The NetBeans Visual Web Pack is a set of web components compiled specifically for Java developers who need to get their web apps up fast without sacrificing great results.
"Sounds great!" you say. "But what's the catch?"
The catch is that the NetBeans Visual Web Pack uses a bunch of different technologies in concert—things like JSP, AJAX, JSF, JavaScript, and so on. So in order to take advantage of what VWP offers, you'll need to learn to conceptualize your web apps "Visual Web Pack-style," and you'll need to be flexible enough to use the different technologies.
This article will demonstrate how to develop a complete web application using VWP—from scratch. The application you'll be building simulates a basic administrator interface for administrating a database of an ecommerce site. The app will:
- Display database products by category
- Insert new products
- Delete existing products
- Allow uploads of product images
- Be able to search for products by name and update their information
In the end, the application will look alarmingly like Figure 1:
Figure 1: The Completed Application
Let's get started!
Download and Install Visual Web Pack for NetBeans
It seems redundant to say that before installing VWP for NetBeans you have to install the NetBeans IDE, but you do need to. This article uses NetBeans 5.5.1 (recommended) and the server Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 (recommended) to deploy the application.
After you've installed NetBeans 5.5.1 and Sun Java System Application Server 9.1, it's time to download the NetBeans VWP kit (version 5.5.1). This is an .exe file, so you can install it in the usual manner (double-click the installer's icon). The wizard will guide you through the installation process.
| Author's Note: You'll need the J2SE 5.0 Update 6 or higher. If you're using Windows Vista, you'll need to use J2SE 5.0 Update 11 or higher. |
Check out www.netbeans.org if you enounter any problems while installing VWP.
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