NetBeans IDE 6.0 Beta 1 Release Notes

NetBeans IDE is a modular, standards-based integrated development environment (IDE), written in the Java programming language. The NetBeans project consists of an open source IDE written in the Java programming language and an application platform, which can be used as a generic framework to build any kind of application.

Contents

• Supported Technologies
• System Requirements
• Compatibility
• Known Issues: Installer
• Known Issues: Core IDE
• Known Issues: Web and Java EE
• Known Issues: Mobility
• Known Issues: UML
• Known Issues: Web Services
• Known Issues: SOA
• Known Issues: C/C++
• More Information

For information about new development features in NetBeans IDE, see What's New in NetBeans IDE 6.0.

Supported Technologies

NetBeans IDE 6.0 supports the following technologies and has been tested with the following application servers. If you plan to use versions of JBoss, WebLogic, or Struts other than those explicitly listed, please note that you may encounter unpredictable IDE behavior as a result of the technologies being external interfaces which the project team has little or no control over.

Supported technologies:

Tested application servers:

System Requirements

NetBeans IDE runs on operating systems that support the Java VM (Virtual Machine) and has been tested on the platforms listed below.

Note: The IDE's minimum screen resolution is 1024x768 pixels.

Supported Operating Systems

NetBeans IDE is also known to run on the following platforms:

• Java Desktop System 2
• Microsoft Windows Professional SP4
• Mac OS X 10.4.5 Intel
• Various other Linux distributions, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Required Software

NetBeans IDE runs on the J2SE (Java SE Development Kit) JDK 5.0 Update 12 and higher (including JDK 6.0 Update 1), which consists of the Java Runtime Environment plus developer tools for compiling, debugging, and running applications written in the Java language.

You can download the JDK for your platform from one of the sites listed below:

Note: You can download archived versions of the JDK

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Compatibility

When you first run the IDE, you can import a subset of the settings you used in NetBeans IDE 5.5. If you choose not to import settings from a previous release, the IDE opens using the default settings.

Note: The IDE only recognizes previous installations where the user directory resides in the default location. It does not recognize installations where you have specified a user directory using the --userdir switch. If you would like to import settings from an IDE that the installer does not recognize, download an archive version of the IDE instead of the installer.

Note:If you edit the Project Properties for a project that was created in NetBeans IDE 4.1 or earlier in NetBeans IDE 6.0, the project will no longer work in the earlier NetBeans IDE versions.

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Known Issues: Installer

The unresolved installer issues for this release are as follows:

• Cohabitation issues between Milestone 10 and Beta 1 builds.

  Description: You may encounter uninstallation problems if you have NetBeans 6.0 Milestone 10 and NetBeans 6.0 Beta 1 installed simultaneously.

  Workaround: If you encounter this behavior, specify the following command line option:

  -laf javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalLookAndFeel

• Issue #93568: On Solaris and Linux, installation hangs when the network connection is lost.

  Description: On Solaris and Linux platforms, if the network connection is lost, installation hangs when the installer is searching for a compatible JDK in network directories.

  Workaround: Restore the network connection and proceed with the installation.

• Issue #102781: On Macintosh platforms, you might experience installation problems when using JDK 6.

  Description: On Macintosh platforms, if you are using only JDK 6.0 you may experience some installation problems because this JDK version is not of FCS quality. The preferred JDK for teh Mac OS is 1.5.0_07.

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Known Issues: Core IDE

The unresolved issues for this release are as follows:

• Difficulties starting the IDE (Solaris x86 and Dual-Core Opteron).

  Description:On certain Solaris x86 and Dual Core Opteron configurations, you may encounter problems starting the IDE due to a JDK bug wit loading GTK look&feel; libraries.

  Workaround:If you encounter this behavior, specify the following command line option: -laf javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalLookAndFeel

• Characters do not display properly in some Asian locales.

  Description: When running the IDE with some Asian locales on Ubuntu 6.x and some other Linux distributions, the IDE's screen text may become unreadable. On certain Linux distributions multi-byte characters may display as a rectangle due to JDK font setting issues.

  Workaround: Because there is no known workaround for this issue, it is recommended to use an alternative Linux distribution if you must use a locale subject to this behavior. Note that this problem does not occur on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.

• Issue #64840: Network communication broken on Linux with IPv6 enabled.

  Description: Network communication broken on Linux with IPv6 enabled, preventing the IDE from connecting to bundled servers, Auto Update, etc.

  Workaround: If this happens, run the IDE using the -J-Djava.preferIPv4Stack=true' switch. Alternatively, disable IPv6 (in /etc/modules.conf or /etc/modprobe.conf).

  For more information see: Issue #5087907.

• Issue #62919: Profiled application can crash when taking a memory snapshot.

  Description:When profiling an application, the profiled application may crash when you attempt to take a memory snapshot.

  Workaround: Start the application you want to profile with the -Xnoclassgc switch.

• Issue #88776: Profiled application can crash when profiling using dynamic attach mode.

  Description:When running on JDK 1.6, profiling an application with dynamic attach mode can lead to the profiled application crashing.

  Workaround: Start the application you want to profile with the -Xshare:off switch.

  Also see: Issue #113847.

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Known Issues: Web and Java EE

The unresolved Web and Java EE issues for this release are as follows:

• Woodstock 4.1 JSF Components Release Notes

  Description: Woodstock 4.1 JSF Components Release Notes are located on the Project Woodstock web site. The build shipped with NetBeans IDE 6.0 is build 11.

• Developing Visual Web JSF Web Applications with J2EE 1.4.x

  Description: To create a Visual Web JSF project which is to be deployed to a 1.4 J2EE application server, you will first need to install the Visual Web JSF Backwards Compatibility Kit plugin. See Developing Visual Web JSF Web Applications with J2EE 1.4.x on the New and Noteworthy in NetBeans 6.0 wiki for instructions.

• Issue #114707: Unix users not able to open style editor.

  Description: On Linux under JDK 1.6 with the Synth Look and Feel, the Style Editor throws NPEs.

  Workaround: Launch the IDE with the following switch:

  netbeans --laf javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalLookAndFeel

• Issue #114951: Repeated close/saveall of a project renders project unsaveable.

  Description: Intermittent error, in which the IDE does not write the file, and eventually returns Source File Errors.

  Workaround: No workaround.

• Issue #114453: Deployment fails if NetBeans and GlassFish not running on same version of Java.

  Description: If NetBeans is running on JDK 1.6.x then Glassfish must be running on JDK 1.6.x. If GlassFish is running on an earlier JDK, deployment fails with a java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError.

  Workaround: No workaround.

• Issue #113888: Woodstock themes are incompatible with migration of projects from NetBeans IDE 5.5/5.5.1 to NetBeans 6.0. This issue is releated to Issue #99063, Missing Body Element switching to new Woodstock theme.

  Description: Projects with custom themes migrated to NetBeans IDE 6.0 will produce Missing Body Element errors.

  Workaround: Manually switch to the default theme before migrating. Custom themes will not work and will need to be rebuilt.

• Issue #92009: Missing support for JSF from Entity classes.

  Description: It is not possible to use JSF Pages from the Entity Class wizard to generate JSF pages.

  Workaround: No workaround. This functionality is currently unavailable in this release.

• Issue 94193: Not possible to edit bean properties in the Outline window or through source packages in the Projects window.

  Description: In NetBeans IDE 6.0, the Add Menu item is disabled in the Navigator window and there is no functionality for editing the properties through source packages.

  Workaround:

  1. Double click SessionBean1 (or other java file) to open the bean in the Java editor.
  2. Manually add the property, such as private String CustomerId;.
  3. Right click on the property and choose Generate Code.
  4. From the Generate popup menu, select Getters and Setters.

  5. In the Generate Getters And Setters dialog for SessionBean1, select your property and press OK.

     Public Getter and Setter methods are inserted after your property.

• Issue #95022: Resizing of textfield and other components does not work.

  Description: Due to a change in Woodstock components, resize handles have been removed from the following Woodstock components: TextField, TextArea,PasswordField, DropDown and ListBox. This issue impacts especially projects imported from Java Studio Creator and NetBeans Visual Web Pack 5.5/5.5.1. Resized components may look different from how they looked in previous releases.

  Workaround: For TextField and TextArea components, use the columns and rows attributes, respectively. DropDown and ListBox components are automatically resized to the size of the longest item by the browser.

• When displayed in IE7, all button components may be rendered with an incorrect width.

  Description: When a button is placed using absolute positioning, its width is incorrect. For example, when NetBeans IDE 6.0 uses absolute positioning to place components in Grid Layout Mode, this problem may occur.

  IE7 expects a value to be specified for the width of buttons. If a width attribute is not specified, the width is set to width:auto, which results in the button's width being set to the entire available width of the button's container element. For example, if the button style has left=130px then the button will start at 130px left and will expand to the width of the <body> element.

  Workaround: There are several different ways to solve this issue in NetBeans:

  • Specify the width property for the button, or resize the button in the IDE to make the IDE assign a width to the button.
  • In the IDE, drop the button into a Group Panel component to put the button inside a span tag. In this case there is no need to set the positioning as the IDE sets the positioning for the Group Panel component. For example, the JSP code of a Button inside a Group Panel component may look like this:

    <webuijsf:panelGroup binding="#{Page1.groupPanel1}" id="groupPanel1" style="position: absolute; left: 240px;
    top: 168px">
        <webuijsf:button binding="#{Page1.button1}" id="button1" text="Button"/>
    </webuijsf:panelGroup>

  Issue #114731: (Identity Management) Can't build Identity samples.

  Description: (Identity Management) When building the Stock Server sample application, you will get an error indicating missing am-deploy.xml.

  Workaround: Edit the build.xml file in the StockQuoteServer-war project and remove the following line: <import file="nbproject/am-deploy.xml"/>

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Known Issues: Mobility

NetBeans 6.0 Mobility enables you to develop for CDC and MIDP/CLDC devices.

The unresolved Mobility issues for this release are as follows:

• Mobility and the Sun Java Wireless Toolkit 2.5.2 for CLDC that is bundled with this release only support the Windows and Linux platforms.
• The Mobility pack will not run if the name of, or the path to the installation directory or user directory contains non-ASCII characters.

  Description: The Sun Java Wireless Toolkit does not support non-ASCII characters in project paths.

  Workaround: Make sure your user directory does not contain non-ASCII characters. If it does, start the IDE with a different default user directory specified.

• Issue #115481: Pre and Post-action code lost when using Source Editor in Visual Mobile Designer.

Description: Source Editor in Visual Mobile Designer losing Pre and post-action code - even after saving and closing.

Workaround: When changing the source code between guarded blocks (e.g. pre-action, post-action, etc) you must close the file in the Flow or Screen view for the changes to be preserved.

• The Sun Java Toolkit 1.0 for CDC is not bundled with the 6.0 release. To develop CDC applications, you need to download the Sun Java Toolkit from the Sun Developer Network.
• The Wireless Connection Wizard requires Java EE and Web Support and is not available in the standard Mobility distribution. If you need these features please download the Full distribution of the IDE.

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Known Issues: UML

NetBeans 6.0 UML lets you explore and evaluate the UML functionality in the IDE. We encourage you to get involved and give us feedback by logging any issues you encounter in the Issue Tracking system.

Note: NetBeans 6.0 UML is currently not supported on the Macintosh OS X platform. UML is available for the Macintosh OS X platform via the NetBeans Plugin Manager. Please see the NetBeans wiki for UML Mac issues, to get more information about the known Macintosh OS X issues and workarounds.

The unresolved UML issues on the supported platforms for this release are as follows:

• Issue #87639: When reverse engineering a Java project, the Generic type for attributes, operations, and operations in nested classes are lost.

  Description: The Generic type for attributes, operations, and operations in nested classes are lost when reverse engineering a Java source code into a UML project.

  Workaround: None.

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Known Issues: Web Services

This NetBeans Web Services 6.0 release lets you explore and evaluate new functionality in the IDE. We encourage you to get involved and give us feedback by logging any issues you encounter in the Issue Tracking system.

The unresolved Web Services issues for this release are as follows:

• Issue #75410: Web service client application code not refactored when package is changed.

  Description: When the package of the web service client is changed through the WSDL customization dialog, the generated classes exist in a different directory. Any user code that references the generated web service client classes (JAX-B and JAX-WS) are not refactored automatically.

  Workaround: User must edit code manually to reflect the change in the package.

• Issue #112736: Web service client code is not available in Code Completion.

  Description: When the package of the web service client is changed through the WSDL customization dialog, the generated classes exist in a different directory. Any user code that references the generated web service client classes (JAX-B and JAX-WS) are not refactored automatically.

  Workaround: User must edit code manually to reflect the change in the package.

• Issue #114954: For JAX-RPC clients, cannot call web service operation.

  Description: For JAX-RPC clients, user cannot select an operation when invoking the Call Web Service Operation dialog.

  Workaround: Use JAX-WS clients or manually add the invocation code.

• Issue #114164: Java Editor and code completions do not recognize generated classes including web service client classes in imported/included library projects.

  Description: In a project that has imported another project containing generated code, such as web service clients generated from WSDL files or code produced by the JAXB wizard, the generated classes are not available for code completion in the importing project. Wavy lines indicating coding errors will appear if the generated classes is referenced in code. This is harmless and the code will compile successfully.

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Known Issues: SOA

This NetBeans SOA 6.0 release lets you explore and evaluate new functionality in the IDE. We encourage you to get involved and give us feedback by logging any issues you encounter in the Issue Tracking system.

The unresolved SOA issues for this release are as follows:

• To use the Sun Java System Access Manager, you must install the full download of the IDE, and install Java Application Platform SDK Update 2 or later. For more information about the steps required to install the Access Manager, see Installing the Sun Java System Access Manager.
• Issue #114174: WSDL files manually edited by CASA throw Null Pointer Exception in the build.xml output.

  Description: CASA does not support user editing of its generated files, and provides no warning when a user does so.

  Workaround: Do not edit CASA-generated WSDL files. Manual editing of WSDL file is not supported and will cause unexpected results.

• Issue #107844: Root element in XML schema sometimes disappears.

  Description: When creating a new XML document based on XML Schemas, sometimes the root element combo box is empty.

  Workaround: Pick some other schema and then fix the document manually.

• Issue #115364: Applying Design Pattern while Design View is open kills the IDE.

  Description: Adding a design pattern in the Design View that creates new complext types, the IDE hangs.

  Workaround: Do not keep the Design view open while applying a design pattern.

• Issue #114941: Using comparisontype in the JBI test driver, the Copybase64BinaryInvoke test is shown as passed even if the results do not match.

  Description: In the test properties of a test case the values of comparisontype can be "equals", "identical" and "binary". In some tests where "equals" was used, the actual output of the test did not match the expected output, and the test was shown as passed.

• Issue #114116: IDE hangs after Complex Type rename.

  Description: Renaming an element or complex type in large schema files (>0.5MB) takes several minutes and the IDE will not respond during this time.

  Workaround: None. The user should wait for the process to complete rather than escaping from it.

• Issue #115150: Project fails to build after moving/undo file to/from another project.

  Description: The IDE returns validation errors indicating invalid schema elements and unresolveable expressions.

  Workaround: Open all the files participating in refactoring before doing an undo.

• Issue #115168: Move refactoring does not work with cut and paste.

  Description: the IDE displays an error dialog with a non-working OK button. Clicking OK does not dismiss the dialog; only killing the IDE helps.

  Workaround: No workaround exists for NetBeans 6.0. Avoid Cut/Paste moves when refactoring for schemas and wsdl.

• Issue #114171: Manually edited WSDL files generated by CASA throw Illegal State Exceptions.

  Description: If the user manually introduces errors into a WSDL files by CASA, the IDE throws Illegal State Exceptions.

  Workaround:It is best not to edit CASA-generated documents manually.

• Issue #110218: Slower machines with smaller amounts of RAM encounter synchronization problems with CASA.

  Description: The IDE throws NPE and IllegalState exceptions on slower machines with smaller amounts of RAM

  Workaround:If prompted to reload the WSDL file, do not.

• Issue #114617: WSDL validation throws Null Pointer Exceptions for missing attributes.

  Description: WSDL validation for SOAP Binding throws Null Pointer Exceptions for missing name attributes for message, porttype, and operation elements.

• Issue #84622: IDE does not roll back the retrieval of the WSDL file(s) after you cancel the PartnerLink dialog.

  Description: If you cancel the PartnerLink dialog that appears when you drag a WSDL file or a Web Service node from a NetBeans project onto a diagram, the IDE does not roll back the retrieval of the WSDL files(s).

  Workaround: If these files are not needed by the project, simply delete them manually from the Projects window, as you would delete any other project resource.

• Issue #113389: The XSLT Service Engine does not support the execution of XSLT services that are of the Service Bridge service type.

  Description: In this release, the XSLT Service Engine does not support the execution of XSLT services that are of the Service Bridge service type.

  Workaround: Install the latest version of the XSLT Service Engine and the Transform shared library:

  1. Download the XSLT Patch.
  2. Unzip the files containing the installer jars to a local folder.
  3. In the Services window, start the GlassFish V2 Application Server.
  4. Expand the Servers > GlassFish V2 > JBI > Service Engines node.
  5. Right-click sun-xslt-engine and select Uninstall.
  6. Expand the Servers > GlassFish V2 > JBI > Shared Libraries node.
  7. Right-click sun-transform-library and select Uninstall.
  8. Right-click the Shared Libraries node and select Install New Shared Library.
     Navigate to the local folder containing the downloaded installation jars, select transformlib.jar, and select Install.
  9. Right-click the Service Engines node and select Install New Service Engine.
     Navigate to the local folder containing the downloaded installation jars, select xsltserviceengine.jar, and select Install.

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Known Issues: C/C++

NetBeans 6.0 C/C++ support enables development of C and C++ applications on Microsoft Windows, Macintosh OS X, Linux, and the Solaris^TM Operating System. C/C++ developers can bring existing applications into the NetBeans project system, or develop new applications and libraries. NetBeans C/C++ support covers the end-to-end development cycle: projects and templates, an advanced language-aware editor, makefile-based builds, and debugging.

For information on installing and configuring the compilers and tools for NetBeans C/C++ support, see Installing and Configuring C/C++ Support.

The unresolved C/C++ issues for this release are as follows:

• C/C++ support has been fully tested on Microsoft Windows and Windows XP. Testing on Windows Vista is ongoing and is yet incomplete.
• Issue # 90120: Pause does not work well on Windows

  Description: Pause, or Pause followed by Finish Debugging, does not always work on Windows.

• Issue #103475: Watched variables do not expand to show children

  Description: A watch on an abstract data structure (class or struct) has all the information in the value field of the top-level-node. But when you click the turner, instead of the node expanding, the turner disappears.

• Issue #113893: Need to set environment variable to debug applications with dynamic libraries

  Description: On Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, you cannot debug an application with shared libraries without first setting an environment variable. On Windows, add the dll directory to $PATH. On Mac OS X, set the DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH variable.

• Issue # 115378: IDE fails while watching function with breakpoint

  Description: Do not put a function call in a watchpoint. Doing so might result in a corrupted call stack and a java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException.

• Issue #115346: Java exception in watch with empty string

  Description: Setting a watch with an empty string results in a java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException.

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More Information

You can find news, articles, additional modules, and other useful information on the NetBeans project web site. Since NetBeans is an open-source project, the web site also provides access to source code, a bug database, information on creating your own NetBeans modules, and much more.

Documentation

To get the most out of the new functionality in NetBeans IDE 6.0, check out the continuing series of web-based tutorials and flash videos. Keep checking these pages, as we are adding new content all the time.

• NetBeans IDE 6.0 Tutorials
• NetBeans IDE 6.0 Flash Videos

The built-in help system for NetBeans IDE 6.0 has not been updated to reflect the changes in the user interface since release 5.5. The built-in help system will be updated in time for Beta.

Community

You can also keep up to date on NetBeans IDE and interact with the NetBeans community by signing up for NetBeans project mailing lists.

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