NetBeansUserFAQ
NetBeans User FAQ
This User FAQ for NetBeans IDE 5.x and NetBeans IDE 4.x provides answers to frequently asked questions relating to the use of the NetBeans IDE. Don't see what you need here? Check the FAQ Index for more listings.
Only post a question if you also have an answer! If you have a question without an answer, send your question to a NetBeans Mailing List, such as nbusers netbeans or nbdev netbeans, or check into NetBeans Support Resources, and then share your new-found wisdom with the rest of the community here.
Here's How To Add FAQ Entries Important: If you add items to this FAQ page, use WikiWords beginning with Faq<Topic> for the topics - e.g. FaqInstallLibsLinux - that way they can be searched, aggregated, etc. Thanks.
Table of Contents
Installation
- I cannot download NetBeans. Is the NetBeans installer available on CD-ROM too?
- How do I run the graphical installer on Linux?
- Why does the NetBeans installer fail saying "No Java Development Kit (JDK) was found on this system"?
- I do have a suitable JDK installed correctly. How can I make the installer use it?
- What to do when the installer fails saying "The wizard cannot continue... could not load wizard specified in /wizard.inf (104)"?
- What to do if installation of AppServer fails on Mac OS X 10.4. w/ JDK 1.5.x?
- What is the admin username/password of the built-in Tomcat?
- Does the NetBeans installer run on Windows 98SE / Windows ME?
- How do I install NetBeans and packs on 64-bit Windows?
- What to do when NetBeans fails on Win XP with "IllegalStateException: Out of bounds"?
- How to install NetBeans Enterprise Pack 5.5 on a machine which has Sun Java Studio Enterprise 8.1 already installed?
- What are the right combinations of NetBeans and Packs (Profiler/Mobility Pack/Enterprise Pack/...)
- How do I uninstall NetBeans in Mac OS X?
- How to install the IDE if says the "Unpacked jars are corrupted"?
- How to install NetBeans 5.5 on Ubuntu?
- How do I perform a silent install for NetBeans IDE 5.5.1? / Can NetBeans Visual Web Pack 5.5 be installed and uninstalled silently, without user interaction?
- (?) I cannot log into NetBeans, after installing, even after specifying the user id and password from tomcat-user.xml?
Configuration
- What is the ".netbeans" directory? What is a ''userdir'' and where can I find it?
- Can I run NetBeans with an alternate ''userdir''? How can I move the ".netbeans" directory?
- Can I run multiple IDE instances simultaneously?
- What are the NetBeans startup parameters?
- How do I make my custom startup parameters permanent?
- Can I specify which Java Development Kit (JDK) NetBeans uses?
- Can I run NetBeans using only the Java Runtime (JRE)?
- The default font size used in menus, dialogs, views, etc. is too small. Can I make it bigger?
- Asian characters are garbled (shown as rectangle) on my Linux box, how can I fix this?
- Does NetBeans support bi-directional text?
- How can I use UTF-8 encoding in Java source files and JavaScript files in my project?
- Can I run NetBeans with a custom look and feel?
- Can I associate a file type with NetBeans to open files of that type from File Explorer?
- I have multiple monitors, why are context menus displayed on the wrong screen?
- Can I use JUnit 4 to run tests in my project?
- Can I use GCJ instead of the Sun JDK for a project?
- Can I use JDK 1.1 for my project?
- I have a Xalan under jre/lib and the IDE refuses to start. Why?
- Can I use environment variables to define some paths in my project?
- How can I run/debug a program in NetBeans with certain Java system properties set to certain values?
- How can I run/debug a program in NetBeans with certain environment variables set to necessary values?
- Can I use Ivy to download libraries for my project from a Maven repository?
- Can I use Maven Ant tasks to download libraries for my project from a Maven repository?
- How can I have two or more main classes with different arguments in one project?
- How can I get a new module from the Update Center?
- How can I download a module from the Update Center manually?
- How do I use the Update Center through a (company etc) firewall?
- How can I add new Update Center in the IDE?
- What is the difference between individual NetBeans Update Centers?
- How do I verify that a module was staged correctly on the NetBeans Update Center?
- Can I publish my own module on the NetBeans Update Center?
- Can I run an annotation processor from my project?
- Can I register Oracle's Application Server with this IDE?
- I have downloaded a localized netbeans; how can I run in that locale but see messages in English ?
- How can I setup the NetBeans working environment to be completely portable? (e.g. on a USB drive)
Migration -- Moving to NetBeans
- Is there any information available which would help me decide whether I should switch to NetBeans?
- Can I import an Eclipse project into NetBeans?
- Can I import a JBuilder project into NetBeans?
- How can I import projects from other IDEs?
- Is there any help for migrating from Eclipse RCP to NetBeans RCP?
- Where can I find plug-ins for NetBeans?
- Are there any plans to improve the editor in NetBeans?
- Is there a functionality similar to 'Generate Element Comment' (Alt+Shift+J) from Eclipse?
- Does Netbeans support Eclipse key mapping?
Performance
- My NetBeans IDE is slow. What can I do?
- What can I do if Netbeans IDE runs out of memory (OutOfMemoryError is thrown)?
- I get an OutOfMemoryError while building a project having more than 6000 source files. What do I do?
- How to decrease startup time of NetBeans (Disabling Netbeans modules)?
- What are memory requirements of Netbeans IDE?
- What is the usual memory usage of Netbeans IDE?
- How do I set the JVM's heap size to be smaller?
- Can I eliminate pauses caused by garbage collection?
- Can I have my files on network drives?
- What can I do if Netbeans IDE runs out of file descriptors?
- Editor does not reparse my source file fast enough to highligh errors when I am typing.
- Can I improve performance by changing the look and feel?
- How to prevent 99% CPU usage when browsing for a file from within any Dialog?
Project System (General)
- Why aren't my projects referring to each other using relative paths?
- How can I package and distribute my executable?
- Why are some project categories missing from the New Project dialog?
- Are there plans to be able to used Weblogic 8.x in Netbeans 6?
- How do I create a package using Netbeans IDE 5.5?
Ant
Do not forget the Apache Ant FAQ for questions not specific to NetBeans.
- Can I pass parameters into the Ant Script?
- My build script has lots of "private targets", can I prevent these from appearing in the Run Target menu?
- Is there support for the Java Remote Method Invocation API (RMI)?
- How Do I Define a Shortcut for an Ant Target?
- I like to edit my build script directly in the source editor as text; is there any code completion available?
- I am using an optional task such as FTP and it says it cannot create a task definition, and to check my classpath. What did I do wrong?
- My script works fine from the command line, after I set my =CLASSPATH=, but I cannot compile inside NetBeans. Why?
- ...but what if the classpath needed to compile with changes?
- ...but the script is not even mine, I just want to run it.
- My entity includes do not work. I just get a red "X" on the build script.
- My script really does not work inside NetBeans, and it does from the command line.
- Can I start the NetBeans debugger from an Ant script?
- Can I open a web browser on an HTML page generated by an Ant script?
- Can NetBeans write my build script for me?
- Can I use characters from my locale in netbeans projects and have them built using ant?
Freeform Projects
- Is there any documentation on freeform projects, or samples?
- Can I have multiple source roots in a freeform project?
- Why can't I add a library to the classpath of my freeform project?
- How can I set which JDK to use for my freeform project?
Navigation
- How Can I Quickly Navigate to Methods and Fields?
- I want to view/edit a file on my disk, but I don't want to set up a project for it. Is there a way to open random files?
- Can I view the package structure of my project as a tree?
- How do I quickly find the current file in Projects/Files/Favorites view?
- On Windows Vista, I cannot navigate to the files from NetBeans IDE via File -> Open File -> "Recent Items"
Editing
- I cannot type some characters or they appear in an unusual way.
- The code completion shortcut (Ctrl-Space) doesn't work or causes problems. Is there an alternative?
- The code completion shortcut produces a beep in files known to allow code completion and the code completion window disappears without warning while typing. What can I do?
- Scrolling in editor under Linux is slow. Is there any possibility to make it faster?
- Can I use back references when using regular expressions in the Find/Replace dialog?
- Is it possible to split editor and edit one file in two editor windows?
- What is hyperlinking and how can I use it?
- Can I compare (diff) two files outside version control?
- Can I Create Custom Code Folds?
- How various line separators (EOLs) are handled?
- Removing CRLF from all the java files of a project (Converting to Unix format)
- NetBeans 3.x used to remind me about methods to be added when implementing an interface. Is this feature gone in 4.x and 5.0?
- I want to use UTF-8 and multibyte characters in Netbeans.
- How can I insert newline characters using the 'search & replace' dialog?
Database Connectivity
- My database driver is in WEB-INF/lib but I still can't access the database. What do I do?
- "Cannot create JDBC driver of class '' for connect URL 'null'". What do I do?
- "Cannot load JDBC driver class 'org.gjt.mm.mysql.Driver'". What do I do?
- "Unable to read the data structure, connection is broken: Unsupported feature". What do I do?
- "How to connect to Java DB from JDK 1.6.0 with Netbeans 5.5
- "What is .netbeans-derby dir, what does it store, and how can I change its location?
- How to connect a MySQL database to an application using NetBeans IDE 5.5?
- How do I enable the sample Travel database for MySQL in NetBeans IDE 6.0?
- How do I connect a table element to a dataprovider from an Oracle DB. When I do a right click on the table element, choose table layout, and try to choose a data provider from an Oracle DB, this dpes not work. However, when it's a table from the Travel database, it perfectly works. What can I do?
Compiling and Building Projects
- I get an OutOfMemoryError while building a project having more than 6000 source files. What do I do?
- After I make an incompatible change to one class, do I need to do a Clean and Build to see what it broke?
- How can I customize what goes into my project's JAR file?
- Can I exclude some classes or packages from compilation?
- How can I sent arguments to a class
- I get an error when trying to build a project that has characters from my locale in the name of the project, package or class
- I get "Failed to load Main-Class manifest attribute" when trying to run a Jar file
- I want to use my own keystore when signing java project for javawebstart deployment
Debugging
- While debugging, how can I back up and repeat a step without starting over?
- Can I step into the JDK code during debugging?
- How do I attach NetBeans debugger to a running application?
- How do I debug NetBeans?
- How do I debug an applet?
- How do I debug an applet remotely?
- I'm running into problems when trying to debug. What can I do?
- Why can't I step into my source code when using the Ant debug target that I generated in the IDE for my free-form project?
- Printing debug messages
- Run Into Method
- How to use Method breakpoints?
- How to use Field breakpoints?
- Conditional Breakpoints
- Stack Operations
- Debugging in AWT hangs X-Windows
- Evaluation of complex expressions in Evaluator
- While debugging, F8 does not step over and F7 does not step into, they execute!
GUI Editor (Matisse)
- How can I use Date Choose (Date Components which give opportunity to select one date) for Arabic or Persian Calendar?
- Can I edit the blue, guarded blocks of code when developing a GUI?
- What is the .form file?
- Can I generate the .form file for an existing class?
- What is the Swing Layout Extensions library (swing-layout) and why do I need it?
- How to run/distribute my GUI application created in NetBeans?
- How to package the ''swing-layout-
.jar'' library into my application JAR? - Can I distribute NetBeans layout libraries with my application?
- Can I design my GUI without using the ''swing-layout'' library?
- How can I design forms with GridBagLayout?
- How can I use a custom subclass of a Swing component? Do I need to install it to the palette?
- When I select "Add to the palette", the answer is : "No Javabean found under selected nodes"
- I installed my component to the palette, but get some error message when trying to use it!
- How can I define a baseline rules for my custom component?
- How can I define an icon for my component added to the palette?
- How do I create a custom container bean?
- How do I create a radio button group?
- How do I set tab names in a JTabbedPane?
- How do I add more tabs in a JTabbedPane?
- Can I change the type of already created forms?
- Is there a way to restore the default palette?
- Can I create forms by extending other forms?
- How do I add several GUI components in one go?
- Can I define my own spacing scheme (default gaps between components)?
- What are Generate Mnemonics Code options for and how do they work?
- I can't open old form file, IDE reports "Unsupported form file version: 1.4. The form cannot be opened."
- How can I animate or repaint the screen to move a component?
- How can I internationalize the titles in a table model ?
- How do I fix the form if the GUI Builder doesn't recognize it anymore and the guarded blocks are gone?
- How can I create multiple JButton with a GridLayout ? The number of these components stay in a variable parameter.
- How have the same Look & Feel in Design and Execution?
- Can JavaBeans added to the palette have dependencies on multiple libraries or must all required jars be within a single library?
- How do I create Array of controls in Netbeans IDE 5.5?
Java EE Development
- Why do I get the 404 error message "The requested resource is not available"?
- How do I change the web browser for JSP and web module execution?
- Are the Enterprise Resource Wizards (e.g., Call EJB), available from JSPs as well as servlets?
- How do I create CMP bean that uses automaticaly PK generation feature
- Is there support for using a tag library in a web application?
Web Services Development
- How to customize generated schema for WSDL file
- How to use WSDL Customizer in NetBeans 5.5
- JAX-WS Web services on JBoss in NetBeans 5.5
- Can I define a WSDL SOAP binding as RPC style binding?
- How to change Web Service location at runtime
Web frameworks
Version Control Systems
CVS
- What's new in NetBeans 5.0 CVS Support?
- Which CVS support implementation do I use?
- How to set up the 5.0 CVS support?
- How can I setup&access; local CVS repositories?
- How do I configure CVS connection settings?
- How to set up CVS public key SSH authentication?
- How can I connect through firewall?
- How does CVS integrate with projects?
- Can I version my private project settings?
- How do I show the differences between two specific versions? ]
- Getting "cvs" is not recognized error?
- How can I commit changes into trunk/branch, but IDE doesn't allow me to do it?
- How can I change customization of status labels?
- How to make work other protocols provided by CVSNT?
Subversion
- How do I install and use subversion (in NetBeans 5.0)?
- What are the main features of NetBeans Subversion Support?
- What do I need for NetBeans Subversion Support?
- Are JavaHL and JavaSVN supported?
- What versions of working copies are supported?
- Why does NetBeans complain about missing subversion client?
- How to setup svn+ssh for subversion?
- How to show subversion branch/tag annotations?
- How to customize the subversion branch/tag annotations?
- How to customize the status coloring for Subversion?
- How to exclude new files by default from a commit?
- How can the file be added as binary?
- How can I avoid checking out the top folder from the repository? Can I use another name for it?
- How can I install subversion windows client (only) for NetBeans 6?
Profiler
- Do you have any profiling tips?
- Which JDK releases can be used with the Profiler?
- Will the Profiler run on Mac?
- What exactly does the Profiler Calibration mean?
- How do I run the calibration process on a remote machine?
- Can I save and later retrieve the results of profiling?
- How can I compare memory snapshots?
- How do I find who prevents certain objects in memory from being garbage collected?
- How do I read the data on garbage collection?
- I can't attach the Profiler to a running application. What did I do wrong?
- Can I use dynamic attach for standard JDK?
- If I want to attach the Profiler to a running application, why do I need to give the Profiler the "working directory" for this application? How do I find out what this directory is (say if my application is really an Applicaiton Server, launched by a complex script)?
- On Windows, if I attach to the running application using its PID, and then detach from it, my subsequent attempts to attach to it fail. What's the problem?
- When I attach to a running application, and want to do "Analyze Performance - Entire Application", why does it say it can give me profiling results only for threads started after I attached the Profiler to the application?
- When selecting part of an application to profile, is it possible to set the filter at the package level (rather than at the method level)?
- Why is the total memory not equal to the sum of live bytes?
- How does profiling via root methods work?
- How is object liveness tracked?
- How is object allocation data collected?
- How do I use different timers when profiling an application?
- How do I select an instrumentation scheme?
- How can I profile all threads in a multi-threaded application?
- How do I instrument/not instrument special Java methods?
- Which method of tracking methods should I use, exact or sampled?
Java ME/Mobility
- Where should I report issues about Mobility Pack?
- How do I specify a MIDlet icon?
- Why isn't the Mobility Pack available for Solaris and Mac OS X?
- Where can I find emulators that I can use with the Mobility Pack?
- How should I structure my project in NetBeans if I am using both Java ME and Java SE elements?
- How can I create two libraries from the same source code, one to be used in J2ME projects and the other one in J2SE projects?
- Can I change my MIDlet project's ''dist'' destination, so it puts the jar and jad straight onto a server rather than in my local ''dist'' directory?
- Does the IDE generate the necessary Ant targets to launch my J2ME app in the various configured emulators?
- How do I add BouncyCastle crypto libraries to my J2ME project?
- How do I specify resource files (images, sounds) to be added to the JAR build?
- Why can't I open existing source files in the Visual Designer?
- While using Mobile Visual Designer, can I test the developed form without creating build and starting my application on WTK emulator?
- When I develop form, new element is added to inspector view, but I don't see it edited on screen (in visual form). Changes are only visible after I create build and start emulator. Is this proper behavior?
- How can I develop MIDP 1.0-compliant application when my emulator only supports MIDP 2.0?
- How can I add Nokia SDKs if NetBeans Platform Manager does not recognize these SDKs as valid ones?
- How can I create block active only for NokiaAPI AND NokiaSound abilities (both active together)?
- Why cannot I remove an ability from 'Add Ability' dialog?
- When my application tries to access network I get a message from emulator where it asks for permission to use air time. None of the buttons work though. What is going on?
- How to increase debugger timeout?
- Change the colors of TableItem when it appears as black on device
- Why Midlet clients for Webservices / Web applications are not generated automatically?
- Execute Through OTA does not show previously deployed midlets
- Why Mobility Pack is not able to detect NetBeans install folder automatically?
- I developed J2ME application in NetBeans. When running it as .prc on my Palm Tungsten C, I get message "Alert does not accept commands - java.lang.IllegalStateException." What is going on?
- How Can I Change Behavior of Build Targets in Ant Build Script
- How Should I Use SVG Menu in My Application
- How Can I make Webservices (JSR 172) work in my CDC project?
NetBeans C/C++ Development Pack
- What is the NetBeans C/C++ Development Pack?
- What's the distinction between the NetBeans C/C++ Development Pack and the Sun Studio IDE?
- On which platforms can I run the NetBeans C/C++ Development Pack?
- Which compilers does the NetBeans C/C++ Development Pack support?
- Is the NetBeans C/C++ Development Pack tightly integrated with a C/C++ debugger?
- Does the NetBeans C/C++ Development Pack support refactoring?
- How do I go about moving my existing C++ project from Eclipse or GNU and bringing it into the NetBeans project system?
- I need a C/C++ IDE to host my development tool. Can I use the NetBeans C/C++ Development Pack for this purpose?
- I need a good tutorial to get started using Java Native Interface (JNI) other than "Beginning JNI with NetBeans C/C++ Pack 5.5, Part I"
- I can't successfully run the g++ compiler to configure the built-in source file parser. What can I do?
- Is it possible to use MinGW in C/C++ Development Pack?
UML
See also
- Known Issues in NetBeans 5.5, UML Modeling Module - Release Notes
- Can I use NetBeans UML Modelling on Mac OS too?
- How does reverse enginer handle data members and parameters that are Java 5 collections?
- I get a "Cannot create image:Java Heap space" error when I try to save my Class Diagram. Why?
- I get "Increase Heap Space Error" while Reverse Engineering large Java project to UML. Why?
- Why are diagrams missing from the generated model report on Solaris and Linux platforms?
- Why are exported JPEG diagrams empty on Solaris and Linux platforms?
NetBeans Community
- I can't find answer to my question in this FAQ. What can I do?
- Where can I find a NetBeans user chat?
- Where can I meet users who speak Japanese, Chinese, French, Russian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian... ?
- I found some nice tricks, how can I share them?
- Can I add new or update existing entry in this FAQ?
- How can I contribute to the NetBeans project?
- Why do I need to register to submit a bug?
- Why is the bug reporting process so difficult? It should be quick and easy to submit a bug!
- I registered but never got an email with my password, Or, I forgot my Password
- How to Generate a Thread Dump?
Mailing Lists
- Why should I join a mailing list?
- How do I subscribe?
- There are so many lists - which do I subscribe to?
- How do I unsubscribe?
- I can't unsubscribe!
- How do I find out which of my email addresses is subscribed?
- How do I update my subscription address?
- How do I send a message to the list?
- Can I post messages via the web?
- Can I access the lists via NNTP?
- I posted my question but nobody answered!
- My message didn't show up on the list!
- My messages sometimes take hours or days to show up on the list!
- I'd like to help out - can I help moderate a list?
Plugin Portal
- Where can I search for NetBeans Plugins, or publish my own?
- How do I install a plugin module into NetBeans?
- How do I log on to the Portal?
- How do I add my own Plugins?
- How do I update or delete my own Plugins?
- Which are the best and most popular Plugins? (Rating)
- Why can't I rate this plugin?
- What categories are there? And what is a tag cloud?
- Why is my module owned by "nbadmin"?
- What if I have a problem using the Plugin Portal or would like to suggest a change?
Licence
- NetBeans is released under the Common Development and Distribution License. What is it and why was it chosen?
- Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) in a nutshell
- Source Code (new files or modified files) contributed to the NetBeans repository must be covered under the CDDL. Why can't code be contributed under some other open source license?
- What if a NetBeans module needs to use source code that is not licensed under the CDDL, such as a library or another application?
- Do I need anything besides NetBeans source code to be able to compile and run the NetBeans IDE?
- Can my contribution to NetBeans be included in a commercial product?
- Can I modify NetBeans source code files and distribute the IDE for free or sell it?
- Can I sell the IDE with my custom modules added without disclosing my source code?
- Can I distribute the NetBeans IDE on a CD-ROM that I sell?
- Can I redistribute the Java Software Development Kit (SDK), any version, royalty-free with the NetBeans IDE?
- Is NetBeans configured only for the Sun SDK, or are there any other SDKs or compilers that NetBeans can work with?
- Would NetBeans consider a commercial support agreement with us for a particular version of the IDE?
- Can I use NetBeans images ( like play.png, pause.gif or refresh.png ) in my programs ?
- There are a lot of tutorials that can be found on NetBeans (under "Docs and support"). Can we use those materials in our Java course?
Contributor Agreement
- What is the Contributor Agreement ("CA")?
- Do I have to fill out a CA?
- How do I file a completed CA?
- Can I file my completed CA by e-mail?
- I've already signed a JCA; do I still have to sign the CA?
- I've already signed a CA for another Sun project, do I need to sign another one for NetBeans?
- I've already signed a recent version of the CA, do I need to sign the newest version?
- Do I have to file a CA for every contribution?
- Once I have a CA on file, can I change my mind and cancel?
- I tried to make a contribution to netbeans and signed a CA, but my contribution was not accepted. What is the result?
- Why does NetBeans request a CA?
- I have a CA or JCA on file and I have made a code contribution to netbeans. Can I get listed on the copyright notice?
- If my company wants me to contribute changes, who should sign the CA, me or my company?
- Can my company sign a blanket JCA for all its employees?
Other Languages
- Where can I meet users who speak Japanese, Chinese, French, Russian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, ... ?
- I have downloaded a localized netbeans; how can I run in that locale but see messages in English ?
- Why are Asian characters garbled (shown as rectangles) when running NetBeans on some Linux systems ?
- Can I see Japanese translations of these User FAQ?
Attachments
| install.log |  |
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