NetBeans Module Quick Start Tutorial

Installing the Sample

To see the end result of this tutorial, install the sample module and test the Google toolbar in the IDE:

1. Download and unzip the attached file.
2. In the IDE, choose File > Open Project (Ctrl+Shift+O) and browse to the location of the unzipped file. Select the module project and click Open Project Folder. The module project opens in the IDE and you should see the following in the Projects window (expand nodes as necessary):
   
   
3. Right-click the project node and choose Install/Reload in Target Platform. By default, the target platform is the IDE in which you are developing your module project. The target platform opens and the module is installed.
4. Verify that the module is correctly installed by testing its functionality as described below in Using the Module.

Now that you know what the end result looks like, you can create the module from scratch and learn about each part while creating it.

Creating the Action

1. Right-click the project node and choose New > Action (if Action is not displayed, access it by choosing Other, then in the New File wizard under Categories, select NetBeans Module Development). Click Next.
2. In the Action Type panel keep the default setting, which will let the IDE create an action that subclasses CallableSystemAction, as shown below:
   
   
   
   Click Next.
3. In the GUI Registration panel, select Edit from the Category drop-down list. The Category drop-down list controls where an action is shown in the Keyboard Shortcuts editor in the IDE. Next, deselect Global Menu Item and select Global Toolbar Button. In the Toolbar drop-down list, select Edit, then in the Position drop-down list, select Find... - HERE, as shown below:
   
   
   
   Click Next.
4. In the Name and Location panel, type GoogleAction as the Class Name and Google Action as the Display Name. Browse to an icon that has a dimension of 16x16 pixels. In fact, you will not use the icon - instead, you will display the JPanel Form that you create in the next section. However, the New Action wizard requires you to specify an icon. Therefore, the icon could be of any dimension, since you will not be using it. Click Finish. Note that GoogleAction.java is added to the org.myorg.googletoolbar package in the Projects window.

Creating the JPanel

1. Right-click the project node and choose New > Other. Under Categories, select Java GUI Forms. Under Projects, select JPanel Form. Click Next.
2. In the Name and Location panel, type GooglePanel as the Class Name and select the package from the drop-down list. Click Finish. GooglePanel.java is added to the package and is opened in the Design view in the Source Editor.
3. Place the cursor at the bottom right-hand corner of the JPanel, then select the JPanel and drag the cursor to resize it, so that its width and length resemble that of a toolbar, as shown below:
   
   
4. Drag a JTextField item and a JLabel item from the Palette (Ctrl+Shift+8) directly into the JPanel, then resize the JPanel and the other two items so that they fit snugly together. Finally, click the JLabel and change its text to Google:, then delete the default text in the JTextField. Your JPanel should now resemble the image shown below:
   
   
5. Make sure the Property Inspector is open (Window > Navigating > Inspector), then right-click the JTextField and choose Events > Key > keyTyped. This generates a jTextField1KeyTyped() method in the GooglePanel.java source code, which displays in the Source Editor, as shown below:
   
   
6. In the Source Editor, in the Source view of GooglePanel.java, fill out the jTextField1KeyTyped() method as follows (inserted text shown in bold):

       
   private void jTextField1KeyTyped(java.awt.event.KeyEvent evt) {
       int i = evt.getKeyChar();
       if (i==10){//The ENTER KEY
           // we display the google url.
           try{
               URLDisplayer.getDefault().showURL
                       (new URL("http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q="+jTextField1.getText()+"&btnG=Google+Search"));
           } catch (Exception eee){
               return;//nothing much to do
           }
       }
   }

If you need to, right-click in the Source Editor and choose Reformat Code (Ctrl+Shift+F).

Resolving Errors

Notice that several lines of code are underlined in red, indicating errors. This is because required packages have not been imported yet. Place your cursor over the light bulb icon displayed in the column to the immediate left of the red line for URLDisplayer. A tooltip displays, indicating the reason for the error:

In order to solve this, you need to make the HtmlBrowser.URLDisplayer class, included in the org.openide.awt package, accessible to your project. To do so, perform the following steps:

1. Right-click the project node in the Projects window and choose Properties. In the Project Properties dialog that displays, select Libraries under the Categories heading. Then, under Module Dependencies, click the Add button. The Add Module Dependency Dialog displays.
2. In the filter text box displayed at the top of the Add Module Dependency Dialog, start typing URLDisplayer and notice that the selection of returned modules narrows until the only remaining listing is the UI Utilities API:
   
   
   
   Click OK, then click OK again to exit the Project Properties dialog.
3. Right-click in the Source Editor and choose Fix Imports (Alt+Shift+F). The Fix All Imports dialog displays, listing suggested paths for unrecognized classes:
   
   
   
   Click OK. The IDE creates the following import statements for GooglePanel.java:

   import java.net.URL;
   import org.openide.awt.HtmlBrowser.URLDisplayer;               
               

   Also notice that all errors disappear from the Source Editor.

Overriding getToolbarPresenter()

Because the JPanel you just created is the actual component that will display the Google toolbar, you need to override the getToolbarPresenter() method in the action class. In GoogleAction.java, do the following:

1. Beneath the class declaration, declare and set the following variable:

   GooglePanel retValue = new GooglePanel();
               

2. Define the getToolbarPresenter() method to return the retValue variable:

   public java.awt.Component getToolbarPresenter() {
       return retValue;
   }