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摘要: This tutorial demonstrates how to build an HTML editor, without any Java coding whatsoever. The HTML editor that you create is a rich-client application built "on top of the NetBeans Platform". What this means is that the core of the IDE, which is what the NetBeans Platform is, will be the base of your application. On top of the NetBeans Platform, you add the plug-in modules that you need and exclude the ones that the IDE needs but that your application doesn't. Here you see some of the IDE's plug-in modules, added to the NetBeans Platform, which is its base
This tutorial demonstrates how to build an HTML editor, without any Java coding whatsoever. The HTML editor that you create is a rich-client application built "on top of the NetBeans Platform". What this means is that the core of the IDE, which is what the NetBeans Platform is, will be the base of your application. On top of the NetBeans Platform, you add the plug-in modules that you need and exclude the ones that the IDE needs but that your application doesn't. Here you see some of the IDE's plug-in modules, added to the NetBeans Platform, which is its base:
You will see for yourself how simple and easy it is to build, or to be more precise, to assemble a full-featured application on top of the NetBeans Platform. At the end, you are shown how to make the final product easily downloadable and launchable using WebStart.
Note: Even though it is a separate product, there is no need to download the NetBeans Platform separately for purposes of this tutorial. You will develop the rich-client application in the IDE and then exclude the plug-in modules that are specific to the IDE but that are superfluous to you application.
The following topics are covered below:
Once the software is installed, this tutorial can be completed in 20 minutes.
For more information on working with modules, see the NetBeans Development Project home on the NetBeans website. If you have questions, visit the NetBeans Developer FAQ or use the feedback link at the top of this page.
Before you begin, you need to install the following software on your computer:
Although this is a very simple demo application, it is not a toy! It is a real program that supports easy editing of HTML pages, with features such as code completion, validation, and predefined HTML snippets. To start the editor, make sure Java and WebStart are enabled on your computer and click on the following link:
After dealing with WebStart and seeing a splash screen, you should see the HTML editor:
So much for the end-user features. Let's now look at the code that runs this demo application. The source code is available in the NetBeans CVS repository and can be checked out or browsed online. The best way to study the source is to:
cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.netbeans.org:/cvs login cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.netbeans.org:/cvs co contrib/sampleapps/htmleditor
Once you have the sources, open the project in NetBeans IDE 5.x. After you open the project, you will probably need to use the Project Properties dialog box to set the right location of the NetBeans IDE to make the project compilable.
The whole source consists of about 30 files, including build scripts, property files, images, which were mostly generated automatically by the NetBeans IDE 5.x plug-in module development support. Not much work needed to be done to create the HTML editor— it was not written from scratch, but heavilly reuses the existing components provided by NetBeans IDE 5.x. As a result, you get a very complex and compelling application, without writing any lines of code.
Now that you know what the end result looks like, you will assemble the HTML editor from scratch and learn how to make it optimally webstartable.
Creating the HTML editor means generating an application skeleton, excluding the modules and user interface items that you do not need, and then setting the Favorites window as the window that will open by default when the IDE starts. All of these activities are supported by user interface elements in NetBeans IDE 5.x.
If you do not have a splash screen, use this one.
So, the selected modules in platform6 are as follows:
Actions APIs
Bootstrap
Core
Core - Execution
Core - UI
Core - Windows
Datasystems API
Dialogs API
Execution API
Explorer and Property Sheet API
Favorites
File System API
General Queries API
I/O APIs
JavaHelp Integration
Look & Feel Customization Library
Master Filesystem
Module System API
Nodes API
Output Window
Progress API & UI
Settings API
Settings Options API
Startup
Tab Control
Text API
UI Utilities API
Utilities API
Window System API
And, in ide6, make sure the following are selected:
Core - Component Palette
Editor
Editor Code Completion
Editor Code Folding
Editor Code Templates
Editor Hints
Editor Library
Editor MIME Lookup
Editor Settings
Editor Settings Storage
Editor Utilities
Error Stripe API
Error Stripe Core
Experimental Search API
HTML
HTML Editor
HTML Editor Library
Image
Plain Editor
Plain Editor Library
Project API
Project UI API
Tags Based Editors Library
User Utilities
After finishing this step, the application should be able to start both as a standalone application and as a web-startable application. In the Projects window, right-click the project and choose Run to run the rich-client application or Run JNLP Application to run it as a web-startable application.
You can keep or reject as much of the IDE's user interface as you want. Your HTML editor probably does not need any or all of the items under the Tools menu. Similarly, maybe there are toolbars or toolbar buttons that you can do without. In this section, you prune the IDE's user interface until you are left with a subset that is useful to your rich-client application.
In the <this layer in context> node, the IDE shows you a merged view of all virtual files that all modules register in their layers. To exclude items, you can right-click them and choose 'Delete', as shown below:
The IDE then adds tags to the plug-in module's layer.xml file which, when the plug-in module is installed, hides the items that you have deleted. For example, by right-clicking Menu Bar/Edit, you can remove menu items that are not necessary for the HTML Editor. By doing this, you generate snippets such as the following in the layer.xml file:
<folder name="Menu"> <folder name="Edit"> <file name="org-netbeans-core-actions-JumpNextAction.shadow_hidden"/> <file name="org-netbeans-core-actions-JumpPrevAction.shadow_hidden"/> </folder> </folder>
The result of the above snippet is that the JumpPrevAction and JumpNextAction actions provided by another plug-in module are removed from the menu by the plug-in module that you are creating.
By using the <this layer in context> node, you can not only delete existing items, but you can also change their content. For example, the HTML editor works on HTML files, so in contrast to the regular IDE, which works with Java source files and projects as well, it makes sense to show the Favorites window in the initial layout.
The definition of the window layout is also described as files in layers, all stored under the Windows2 folder. The files in the Windows2 folder are pseudo-human readable XML files defined by the Window System APIs. They are quite complex but the good news is that for purposes of the HTML editor it is not necessary to understand them fully, as shown below.
You will find two files:
Windows2/Components/favorites.settings Windows2/Modes/explorer/favorites.wstcref
The first file defines what the component is going to look like and how it gets created. As this does not need to be changed, there is no need to modify the file. The second is more interesting for your purposes, it contains the following:
<tc-ref version="2.0"> <module name="org.netbeans.modules.favorites/1" spec="1.1" /> <tc-id id="favorites" /> <state opened="false" /> </tc-ref>
Now open the Project Metadata file in the Important Files node. Notice that the two module dependencies have been declared as follows:
<dependency> <compile-dependency/> <build-prerequisite/> <run-dependency> ... </run-dependency> <dependency>
Since you have no Java classes in your project, you will generate build errors if you build the project while there are compile dependencies and build prerequisites. Prevent this problem by manually deleting the <compile-dependency> and <build-prerequisite> tags. However, since you are overriding these modules at runtime, you need to keep the <run-dependency> tags.
Finally, let's finetune the master.jnlp file that is generated the first time you start the application. Even though it does the job, it is not yet ready for distribution. At the very least, you need to change the information section to provide better descriptions and icons.
Another change to the standard JNLP infrastructure is the use of a shared JNLP repository on www.netbeans.org. By default, the JNLP application generated for a suite always contains all its modules as well as all the modules it depends on. This may be useful for intranet usage, but it is a bit less practical for wide internet use. When on the internet, it is much better if all the applications built on the NetBeans Platform refer to one repository of NetBeans modules, which means that such modules are shared and do not need to be downloaded more than once.
There is such a repository for NetBeans 5.x. It does not contain all the modules that NetBeans IDE has, such as for example the ant module, which is not JNLP ready, but it contains enough to make non-IDE applications like the HTML editor possible. To use the repository you only need to modify platform.properties by adding the correct URL:
# share the libraries from common repository on netbeans.org # this URL is for release50 JNLP files: jnlp.platform.codebase=http://www.netbeans.org/download/5_0/jnlp/
As soon as the application is started as a JNLP application, all its shared plug-in modules are going to be loaded from netbeans.org and shared with other applications doing the same.
Now that you have learnt a lot of nice tricks and have a working application built on the NetBeans Platform, you can look at the XML Layer node's subnodes some more. Without much work, you can continue finetuning your application, pruning and tweaking it until you have a solid, streamlined application that does exactly what you want it to do. Next, find out how easy it is to add your own plug-in modules to your application. The Tutorials for NetBeans Module (Plug-in) and Rich Client Application Development show you a wide variety of use cases for extending the HTML editor. For example, maybe you want to add your own menu items in the menu bar. Or maybe you want to provide additional HTML snippets in the component palette. Both these scenarios, and many more, are outlined in the tutorials in the Module Developer's Resources.
Also take a look at the
Introduction to Rich-Client Application Development, which shows
you how to create your own Paint Application. Finally, a slightly more complex application is
provided in the NetBeans IDE 5.x FeedReader Tutorial.
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