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Monday November 23, 2009

Are you a Java programmer in/near Zurich?

This week Thursday I'll be at this JUGS event with Toni Epple in Zurich:

To join us, register here!

Nov 23 2009, 07:18:10 AM PST Permalink

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Sunday November 22, 2009

Experian on the NetBeans Platform

Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended 31 March 2009 was $3.9 billion.

In Financial Applications on the NetBeans Platform I mentioned that Experian develops applications on the NetBeans Platform. (Their codebase consists of "over 100 NetBeans modules".) An interview done with them, about their work on the NetBeans Platform, some time ago, is being updated and should be ready for publication soon, now that permission has been received to publish it.

Here are two screenshots recently received from Experian, showing yet another NetBeans Platform application that doesn't look like an IDE at all, i.e., the NetBeans Platform is a generic framework for any kind of desktop application:

I especially like how the company-specific icons (within panels) have been integrated into the various components shown above.

In other news. Here's the interview referred to above: Enterprise Financial Management on the NetBeans Platform.

Nov 22 2009, 05:51:42 AM PST Permalink

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Saturday November 21, 2009

Lookup as OSGi Service Registry at Devoxx 2009

Picture of Toni and me at Devoxx, talking about Lookup as an OSGi service registry, which is available from Kenai (here):

More pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/JavaPolis.com/Devoxx2009

In other news. Watch a movie I made at the conference about interesting things learned at Devoxx: http://java.dzone.com/one-thing-from-devoxx.

Nov 21 2009, 04:30:54 AM PST Permalink

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Friday November 13, 2009

PBR of NetBeans Wicket Plugin

Tim Boudreau did a pub-based review (PBR) of the Wicket plugin last night and here are the (somewhat cryptic) notes I took of the session:

use treebuilder class
enable wicket error annotations
suggest next wicket id, based on what is closest
import statements should be filled in by template
talk to jlahoda about super class call problem
HTML editor weird annotation, talk to marek fukala

Told you they were cryptic. But at least I know what it all means. Need to do the above before 6.8 so that the Wicket plugin can be released around the same time.

Nov 13 2009, 04:09:51 AM PST Permalink

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Thursday November 12, 2009

Automotive Engineering on the NetBeans Platform

IAV in Berlin, Germany, "is one of the leading providers of engineering services to the automotive industry." Their core competencies include powertrain, electronics and vehicle development.

The NetBeans team gave a development group from IAV a NetBeans Platform Certified Training, in Prague, a few years ago. We contacted them about the progress of their work and today we got a very cool reply from them:

"Things are going very well so far! Our tool EasyDoE Toolsuite (PDF) has become a real big guy ;-). It provides a workflow for calibration engines (or, better, for its control unit) by using a method called Design of Experiments. The workflow guides the user through the whole process, starting at defining the task, making a test plan, importing data, making a mathematical model from the data, using the model in optimizations and calibrate maps that are directly exported to the engine control units."

They also sent some very cool screenshots (click to enlarge them):

Thanks to Berthold Barzantny and the rest of the IAV development team who created the above really professional looking application!

Nov 12 2009, 09:17:29 AM PST Permalink

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Wednesday November 11, 2009

Where is the "Top 10 NetBeans APIs" Screencast Series?

NetBeans screencasts can be found here, which is where you end up when you type "netbeans.tv" in your browser:

http://channelsun.sun.com/video/open-source/

Once you are there, click "NetBeans". If you click the small scrolling arrow below the thumbnails (look at the mouse pointer in the screenshot below) you can also get to the "Top 10 NetBeans APIs" screencast series.

Or, do it the easy way and simply go to the related page on netbeans.org, where the entire series is collected in one place:

http://platform.netbeans.org/tutorials/nbm-10-top-apis.html

Nov 11 2009, 09:31:26 AM PST Permalink

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Tuesday November 10, 2009

dev@platform.netbeans.org

dev@platform.netbeans.org is the new e-mail address for questions/answers relating to development on the NetBeans Platform. That means, dev@openide.netbeans.org is dead.

Why? Because NetBeans went through a massive migration process during the past week, during which many obsolete projects have been removed from the site and a lot of restructuring of everything has taken place. The good news is that the whole site is now under the control of the NetBeans team, rather than a third party. The so-so news is that several things still need to be tweaked to get everything working correctly now that the migration itself has come to an end. For example, currently, it's not possible to log into the Plugin Portal yet, though that should change within the next few hours.

New passwords and other info has been sent around to mailing lists as well as individual subscribers.

The complete story with all its ramifications can be found here: http://wiki.netbeans.org/NewNBOrg

If you encounter any problems, please report them to:

https://netbeans.org/bugzilla/enter_bug.cgi?product=www&component=Admin

There'll be several loose ends in the next few days, so please be patient as things are being ironed out. And, remember, from now onwards, use dev@platform.netbeans.org (instead of dev@openide.netbeans.org).

Nov 10 2009, 09:40:47 AM PST Permalink

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Monday November 09, 2009

More Vaadin Support in NetBeans IDE

I mentioned a few days ago the start of a plugin for the Vaadin framework in NetBeans IDE. The sources are found here, with the binary here.

I've added a few small additions to the sources (i.e., not in the binary yet):

First, there are new file templates specifically for Vaadin:

For example, simply by adding "SimpleAddressBook" (which adds one Java file to your source structure), you end up with an address book that includes a search feature in your web application:

Secondly, when you press Alt-Insert, you have a new code generator, named "Vaadin Button":

Press the "Vaadin Button" menu item and you have a new button, together with the implementing class added to the class signature, with a hint in the left sidebar for generating the abstract method that is invoked when the button is pushed:

Most importantly, now that these features have been added to the sources, someone else (e.g., from the Vaadin team) can take those sources and add MORE file templates and code generators to the plugin.

Nov 09 2009, 03:14:40 PM PST Permalink

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Sunday November 08, 2009

Griffon 0.2 and NetBeans IDE 6.8 Beta

I downloaded and unzipped Griffon 0.2 today. Because I set GRIFFON_HOME and added its bin to PATH, I could immediately begin using it in NetBeans IDE (to which end I recompiled the NetBeans Griffon plugin so that it now works in 6.8 Beta).

I didn't need to configure anything in NetBeans IDE at all. And, as always, my favorite feature of Griffon support in NetBeans IDE continues to be the fact that I can use "Open Project" and then simply open any Griffon project (i.e., without any kind of import procedure at all, simply open your Griffon project, since the Griffon plugin understands that the presence of a "griffon-app" folder indicates it is dealing with a Griffon application):

You then have a logical view for working with your Griffon applications, as well as menu items on top of the standard Griffon commands:

Best of all, no NetBeans metadata of any kind is added to your application. So, when you close NetBeans IDE you will have the same files as before you opened the project in the IDE. Nothing new is added, no small XML files or property files have been added to your project, or (even worse) proprietary files of any shape or form, either.

Plus, there are many other useful features, such as a dialog for browsing & installing plugins into your application:

Updated plugin for Griffon in NetBeans IDE 6.8 Beta is in the usual place:

http://plugins.netbeans.org/PluginPortal/faces/PluginDetailPage.jsp?pluginid=18664

ZIPs containing binary distributions of this and previous releases are available here on Kenai.

Nov 08 2009, 02:29:55 AM PST Permalink

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Saturday November 07, 2009

"Meeting in a Mongolian Tent"

September 2009: Hermine Deurloo (harmonica) and Han Bennink (drums), with Ernst Glerum (bass) and Maarten van der Grinten (guitar).

Nov 07 2009, 02:59:31 AM PST Permalink

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Friday November 06, 2009

Financial Applications on the NetBeans Platform

Experian and Société Générale both have invested in the NetBeans Platform, by using it as the basis of one or more of their applications. And these two are not exactly small organizations. Experian is a global leader in consumer and business credit reporting and marketing services and a constituent of the United Kingdom's FTSE 100 index, with revenues in excess of US$4 billion, while Société Générale is France's second-largest bank by market value.

How do I know that these organizations are using the NetBeans Platform? By looking in the dev@openide.netbeans.org mailing list:

However, getting screenshots, interviews, etc, out of financial organizations is understandably difficult, since (in the best case) long approval processes need to be completed, while in the worst case no information of any kind can be shared with the outside world, because of the confidential nature of the applications in question, in particular the confidential nature of the related customer data.

Nevertheless, in addition to the public statements around Brazilian financial auditing being done on the NetBeans Platform, there are a few smaller, more personal, applications relating to financing that could be mentioned in this context:

CashForward is just not your ordinary, cookie-cutter household budget software. Born from frustration with existing household financial tools, CashForward provides intuitive ways to track household cash flow and to create and compare spending plans:
GrisbiGraphs is a free reporting application for a personal accounting application called Grisbi. GrisbiGraphs imports Grisbi files (*.gsb) into an embedded database and then generates graphs and statistics to help the users keeping track of their finances:

Are there other financial applications out there that make use of the NetBeans Platform? Please let me know!

Nov 06 2009, 03:08:33 AM PST Permalink

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Thursday November 05, 2009

Microsoft Office Look for NetBeans Platform Applications

On NetBeans Zone I mentioned the OfficeLAF that developers at Exie in Norway worked on, so that they could end up with a NetBeans Platform application that looks like a member of the Microsoft Office package.

Yesterday I received a set of screenshots from the abovementioned developers, showing their Exie Builder, which I discussed recently, to illustrate the result of the Microsoft Office look in the context of their NetBeans Platform application. Here they are, click to enlarge them.

Thanks Exie developers. Now there's more than 'just' blueMarine as proof that building applications on top of the NetBeans Platform doesn't mean that the result necessarily ends up resembling NetBeans IDE.

Nov 05 2009, 03:40:19 AM PST Permalink

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Wednesday November 04, 2009

Possibly Another NetBeans Platform Application? (Part 2)

In part 1, it turned out I was right. Let's see about this one:

It comes from here, but that's all that I know about it:

http://p.blog.csdn.net/images/p_blog_csdn_net/chenweionline/366238/o_Tangram_build20080222_001.jpg

I believe it is a NetBeans Platform application... can anyone tell me whether I am right or not?

Nov 04 2009, 02:27:16 AM PST Permalink

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Tuesday November 03, 2009

Performance Management Analysis on the NetBeans Platform

Yet another NetBeans Platform application is a commercial application offered by Exie, in Norway. "Exie provides People-Driven Performance Management solutions architected for widespread adoption by companies serving dynamic markets. Exie drives financial outcomes and accountability across the company and thus effectively involve the entire organisation in the overall strategy. By making performance management available to everyone across the organisation, you create an organisational culture continuously striving to improve performance."

Here's a screenshot:

Reading the documents on the Exie site, it seems to me that Exie 2.0 is a pretty serious application, used amongst others by Norway's largest newspaper, VG: "With Exie we are able to change things quickly, and we could not have a rigid system. The service level Exie has shown is great."

However, on the face of it looking at the screenshot above, that doesn't really look like a NetBeans Platform application. However, firstly, it's architecture is clearly based on the NetBeans Platform:

A second reason why the NetBeans Platform is clearly being used at Exie is that two recent presentations at Jazoon were about some pretty advanced NetBeans Platform topics, both delivered by Exie employees:

Eclipse Modeling Framework and Netbeans Client - a forced marriage? (PPT), by Pål Stenslet and Gunnar Reinseth, Lead Architect and Technical Lead (GUI), Exie AS.
Creating attractive clients with NetBeans Rich Client Platform (PPT), by Mikael Tollefsen, Architect, Exie AS.

Here's the intriguing abstract for the latter presentation:

Engineer tools like the familiar IDEs (Eclipse/IDEA/NetBeans etc.) have user interfaces increasingly different from office tools like Microsoft Office. When creating applications for end users it is important to aim for the look and feel this group is comfortable with rather than what would be intuitive for the engineer. At Exie AS we have developed an open source Swing look and feel component that dramatically simplifies this task.
Just as it is important to utilize frameworks to improve productivity when developing web-based solution, so is the case with rich clients/desktop applications. A significant part of a desktop application consists of UI and IO plumbing. When should various menus, buttons and tool bars be enabled? Flexible docking frameworks, user preferences etc. There are various RCP frameworks available, however for a Swing based client the NetBeans RCP is perhaps the most complete.
How to create an NetBeans RCP client and make it look like a member of the Microsoft Office package? It is quite easy, and I am going to show you how.

And it would be great to get more screenshots, also one for the NetBeans Platform Showcase of this clearly very interesting application!

Nov 03 2009, 01:24:52 AM PST Permalink

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Monday November 02, 2009

Unknown NetBeans Platform Application

I don't know what "Fenix" is or what a "Fenix Client" should do, but here's clearly a NetBeans Platform application that is a "Fenix client".

Click to enlarge the (very cool!) pics: