Java beans

Using NetBeansTM IDE 5.5

Your Guide to Getting Work Done in NetBeans IDE
Welcome to the Using NetBeans™ IDE 5.5 guide. This guide is designed to give you a more detailed introduction to the IDE than is available in the Quick Start guide by exploring the main aspects of the IDE. This guide is geared mostly to newcomers to NetBeans IDE 5.5, whether you are new to using IDEs or an experiencedIDE user that is switching over from a different development environment. However, readers of this guide are assumed to have at least a basic understanding of the Java programming language and related technologies.

Note – This guide does not cover the IDE's Java EE features or module development features. For more information about using NetBeans IDE for these purposes, see the Java EEApplications Learning Trail and the NetBeans Modules and Rich-Client Applications Learning Trail at http://www.netbeans.org.

Setting Up Projects .......................................................................5 Basic IDE Concepts .................................................................6 Projects ................................................................................6 Ant......................................................................................9 Creating a Project ..................................................................10 Setting the Main Project ...................................................11 Importing Projects .............................................................12 Setting the Target JDK in a Project.......................................12 Managing a Project's Classpath .............................................13 Managing Dependencies Between Projects ......................15 Setting up Free-form Projects ................................................16 Editing and Running Ant Scripts ......................................16

Using NetBeansTM 5.5 IDE

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Managing the Classpath in Free-form Projects.....................18 Specifying the Classpath for Project Sources ...................18 Specifying the Classpath for Custom Tasks .....................19 Creating and Editing Files .........................................................21 Creating Java Files .................................................................22 Using File Templates ........................................................22Using GUI Templates .......................................................23 Editing Java Files in the Source Editor .................................23 Code Completion ..............................................................24 Code Templates ................................................................25 Special Code Template Syntax .........................................26 EditorHints .......................................................................26 Refactoring ........................................................................26 Working With Import Statements .....................................28 Formatting Java Source Code ...........................................29 Navigating in the Source Editor ............................................29 NavigatingWithin a Java File ..........................................29 Search and Selection Tools ...............................................31 Navigating Between Documents ......................................31 Configuring the Editor ...........................................................32 Building Applications .................................................................35 Using Ant BuildScripts .........................................................35 Building Projects, Packages, and Files ..................................36 Fixing Compilation Errors .....................................................37 Filtering Output Files .............................................................38 Customizing the Build Process ..............................................38 Build...