New tutorial from Dongmei and Ken on how to use the latest NetBeans 6.1 to create a Web App using JSF and Hibernate on GlassFish. Tutorial is here; thanks to James for the tip. Note The tutorial uses GF v2; I suspect it would run on v3 also, but if somebody tries it, please let me know.

NetBeans 6.1 was just released and it is both a feature and a performance release. The feature part has to do with JavaScript support - the language everybody loves to hate (See Roberto's talk at JavaOne), MySQL improved support, Spring Framework support, Hibernate support, Axis 2, Sailfin support, and Jersey (RESTful Web Services) support.

It's also bringing back features lost in the translation from 5.5. to 6.0 such as JavaBeans support and the JSF CRUD Generator. NetBeans also now provides a more natural way to share libraries. All in all a lot of web and server-side features including support for the latest GlassFish v2ur2 release. The full list of features is here.

Performance is related to startup-time, completion speed, and memory consumption. Coming attractions include PHP support, JavaScript debugger, Groovy/Grails support, and more.

As always, the nice download matrix is available here. Congratulations to the team for yet another solid release!

Davis posted a screencast that shows how to plug GlassFish v3 (pre-TP2) into NetBeans 6.1 (RC). Check out the Note and the Screencast. Total elapsed time for the screencast is 2 minutes. And, if you pay attention you can also see the startup time for this (slow) version of GFv3 TP2 :-)

The NetBeans folks are releasing 6.1 Candidate Release (RC 1) today. That means they're pretty much on track for a final release in the next few weeks.

This release is a "performance release", brings back the JSF/JPA CRUD generator, provides much enhanced JavaScript support, integrated MySQL in the Database Explorer, introduces Sharable Libraries, and supports the latest version of GlassFish v2 (ur 2 builds in fact).

You can decide to download the 108-MB Web & Java EE bundle (or the all-you-can-eat bundle) and get GlassFish out of the box or simply add a separate GlassFish installation to NetBeans 6.1. You can also add Java EE and Web support to the 26-MB installer.

NetBeans 6.1 is looking really good! Unfortunately, I've been too busy recently to report on all the recent improvements but here is one from Tor: Improved JavaScript Support. The NetBeans support for languages other than Java is improving very quickly, besides Ruby and JavaScript there is also Groovy... plus whatever else has not yet been announced (JavaOne is around the corner, you know...).

The Woodstock JSF Component Library (Woodstock@TA) is open source and enterprise-ready, is used in the GlassFish AppServer and other projects and is included in the NetBeans IDE. Woodstock is changing in NetBeans 6.1 and James Branam is documenting the changes. There is a new Look to the Palette, and new Accordion and Bubble Help components. Expect more updates as we get closer to Woodstock 4.2 and NB6.1 final; see Roadmap.

You can download the Woodstock components manually from their Web Site, or you get them bundled with the NetBeans 6.x distributions, or you can download them automatically through the GlassFish Update Center.

Some additional Woodstock links include: the Live Preview site, the Documentation Hub and a list of the Browsers and Containers Supported. The latter include GlassFish - duh! - and also Tomcat 6, WebLogic 10 and JBoss 5.

NetBeans 6.1 Milestone 1 is feature-frozen. Vince reports on the improved integration with the sailfin project with : - Explicit reference to Sailfin in the 'Add Server Instance' dialog (vs. GlassFish) - SIP Servlet applications visible in the "Services" tab If you feel brave-enough to test the latest nightly builds, follow this link. As it stands, NetBeans 6.1 is stalled for the end of April. Previous coverage of sailfin is HERE.

NetBeans 6.0 is finally out. This is a big release; the main theme is The Only IDE You Need and it include support for JavaSE, Web and JavaEE, Ruby and Mobility. Check out the Home Page, Recent News and the Latest Newsletter Issue, and the Download Page. There are many people commenting on the release; including those from the Mobility Team, Winston, Roman, AlexisMP and Charles.

News from Barton: Netbeans now dual-licensed: GPL & CDDL. Also see: • License File, Bruno's Announcement and FAQ,

Similar to the Ask-The-Expert session recently held on GlassFish v2 (transcript), there will be a session on NetBeans 6 from October 22, 2007 to October 26, 2007. While NetBeans 5.5.1 remains the recommended and supported tool for GlassFish v2, there are several reasons to move to NetBeans 6 (beta 2 should be out real soon now): Totally rewritten code editor, Enhanced Metro/JAX-WS support with a new Web Services visual designer, RESTful Web Services support (JSR 311, Jersey implementation), and overall better GlassFish integration

More details here

The Divas had a tip for a video of Tor showcasing Java and Ruby Development. It is very nice, based on the demo at the JavaOne keynote. You can watch it, check the Script, or look at several other resources. But..

... I had not realized the NetBeans folks had done so much work at the NetBeans.tv site! The theme for the site is visual - videos and pictures. They have several sections emphasizing different areas: Members of the Community, Interviews with key Developers, Technology and Screencasts, Extending NB and Using the Platform and Trip Reports. Pretty nice!

NetBeans is planning to add GPLv2 w/CPE as a second license, in addition to CDDL. This is the same arrangement we have at GlassFish. Check out the original Mail from Bruno, the blogs from Lukas, Roman and Josh, and the FAQ.

NetBeans 6 now has its last Milestone (M10) available. If you haven't already tried NetBeans 6, you'll find a new editor (for Java, XML, JSP, etc...) and a new modularized installer among many other improvements. The archive varies from 23MB to 172MB depending on the features you request. GlassFish version 2 build 53 is integrated in the install process. GlassFish-related new features in M10 are described in this earlier post. Java EE improvements include: •  Integrated Visual Web designer for HTML, JSP, etc... •  Much improved Visual Web performance •  Enhanced JavaScript and CSS support •  Greater web services support •  Support Project Woodstock component library

Other new features are listed in the New and Noteworthy document. Overall stability and performance are also improved as with every Milestone. This is the last Milestone with a beta set for August and final bits in November.

Phobos (overview) is a lightweight framework for writing Web Applications using dynamic languages (JavaScript so far) exploiting the Java platform. Phobos builds can run either with GlassFish or with a plain Web Container, and in his latest blog, Mukesh shows in detail how to Run Phobos on Sun WebServer 7.0. Sun's WebServer uses the Web Container from Sun Java System 8.2 (GlassFish's Ancestor), but the contract between the Web Server and the Java Web Tier is clearly defined followed by the GlassFish web tier and I'll ask if they can to publish the steps needed to try this out.

JasperReports is a popular Open Source reporting framework (JasperSoft, SF Site); we previously had mentioned its Support of GlassFish and its Incoporation of EJBQL. In their later report, Craig and Marina describe the Integration of JasperReports in NetBeans 5.5. Check it out, and thanks to Marina for the tip.