NetBeans IDE 6.0 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
• SQL and Databases
• Known Issues: Installer
• Known Issues: Core IDE
• Known Issues: Web and Java EE
• Known Issues: Mobility
• Known Issues: UML
• Known Issues: SOA
• Known Issues: C/C++
• More Information

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 2000 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), which consists of the Java Runtime Environment plus developer tools for compiling, debugging, and running applications written in the Java language.

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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 using 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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SQL Editor and Databases

There have been changes made to Visual SQL Editor and database functionality in NetBeans 6.0. They are as follows:

• Visual SQL Editor: Quoting
  NetBeans no longer quotes identifiers when creating database objects. As a result, you no longer need to worry about quoting identifiers when editing and executing SQL statements against objects created in the Database Explorer. If you do want your identifier to be quoted, you can do so by manually quoting the identifier in the Database Explorer when creating your table, column, index or view. Also, we no longer automatically quote identifiers when generating SQL, for instance when we create the SQL for the 'View Data' command. Instead, we only quote one or more characters in the identifier is a character that must be quoted (normally anything besides A-Z,a-z,0-9 and _).
• Databases: Saving the Connection Password
  As of NetBeans Release Candidate 1, when opening a database connection, you can opt to save the password. When a connection password is saved, when you choose Connect for the connection, the connection is automatically established without bringing up the dialog. If you want to disable saving the password, choose Properties... for the connection and un-check 'Save Password'. Then next time you connect, the connection dialog will come up and you can enter the password. The connection password is saved in your user directory in the the XML file for the connection. If you are saving passwords, make sure these files are secured by making them readable only for yourself and not for others. These files can be found under your user directory under config/Databases/Connections.
• Tested Drivers

  NetBeans 6.0 has been tested with the following databases and drivers.
  

  Driver	Version	Example URL
  JavaDB	Derby 10.3.1.4	jdbc:derby://localhost:1527/sample< (Network)
  Oracle	Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.3)	jdbc:oracle:thin:@//localhost:1521:ora9i
  PostgreSQL	8.2 Build 506	jdbc:postgresql://jbrave-pc1.sfbay.sun.com:5432/postgres
  MySQL	MySQL Connector/J 5.0.7	jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/sample

• Other Drivers

  The following drivers and databases have not been formally tested, but should work based on experience.

  Driver	Version	Example URL
  Microsoft	Microsoft SQL Server 2005 JDBC Driver 1.1	jdbc:sqlserver://localhost:1433;databaseName=travel;selectMethod=cursor
  IBM	Redistributable DB2 JDBC Type 4 driver v8 fixpack 13	jdbc:db2://localhost:50002/sample
  jTDS	jTDS 1.2.1	jdbc:jtds:sqlserver://rave-cheetah.sfbay.sun.com:1433/travel
  DataDirect	DataDirect Connect for JDBC - 3.6 DataDirect Connect for JDBC - 3.6.07	jdbc:datadirect:oracle://localhost;SID=ora9i jdbc:datadirect:sqlserver://localhost:1433;DatabaseName=travel;SelectMethod=cursor jdbc:datadirect:db2://localhost:50002;databaseName=sample

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Known Issues: Installer

The unresolved installer issues for this release are as follows:

• Cohabitation issues between NetBeans 6.0 Preview (M9) and Release Candidate 1 builds.

  Description: If you have NetBeans IDE 6.0 Preview (M9) and Release Candidate 1 installed simultaneously, you may encounter problems when uninstalling the M9 build. For reference, see Issues 102287 and 104852.

  Workaround: Before installing NetBeans IDE 6.0 Release Candidate 1, uninstall NetBeans IDE 6.0 Preview (M9).

• 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 the Mac OS is 1.5.0_07.

• Issue #117172: A blank window when running the installer on Ubuntu.

  Description: The installer appears as the blank/grey dialog when running on Ubunty with Beryl/Compiz/Compiz Fusion
  installed.

  Workaround: Execute the export AWT_TOOLKIT=MToolkit command before running the installer.

• Issue #119861, Issue #117334: Installation stops with error when the unpack200 command is executed.

  Description: Installation stops with error during execution of the unpack200 command. This error can be caused by the Logitech Process Monitor (Webcam Effects Helper) application.

  Workaround: If you have Logitech Process Monitor (Webcam Effects Helper) application (LVPrcSrv.exe) that is running on your system, switch it off before installation or uninstallation.

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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 with 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 Ubuntu 7.x, 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.net.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 #110074: Editor periodically freezes on Solaris.

  Description: When running the IDE on Solaris with JDK 6, 6u1 or 6u2, threads may become blocked for a long time and cause the editor to be unresponsive.

  Workaround: Upgrade your JDK 6 installation to Update 3 or newer.

• 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.

• Issue #122257: IDE hangs after changing file extension in Navigator window.

  Description:The NetBeans IDE hangs when you change the file extension from Schliemann non-supported file to supported in Navigator. For instance, when you reanem x.txt to x.jsp.

  Workaround: Will be included in patch.

• JDK 6 Issue #6389282: Chinese and Japanese Linux locales with JDK 6 may fail to run projects.

  Description: Projects created in NetBeans can not be run in Japanese and Chinese Linux locales with JDK 6 installed.

  Workaround: Use JDK 5.0 or run projects from English locale.

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Known Issues: Web and Java EE

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

• Visual Web JSF Backwards Compatibility Kit

  Description: The Visual Web JSF Backwards Compatibility kit provides supplemental libraries that are required by the Visual Web designer to support projects that are based on J2SE 1.4 or J2EE 1.4. These libraries are not open source and are therefore distributed as a separate NetBeans plugin. The kit will install the following libraries that are required for J2EE 1.4 projects:

  • JavaServer Faces 1.1 Reference Implementation (RI)
  • Rowset Reference Implementation (RI)
  • JAX-RPC libraries from JWSDP 1.6

  To get the Backwards Compatibilty Kit, in the main menu, choose Tools > Plugins.

• Woodstock 4.1 JSF Components Release Notes

  Description: Woodstock 4.1 JSF Components Release Notes are located on the Project Woodstock web site, at https://woodstock.dev.java.net/source/browse/*checkout*/woodstock/doc/release-notes.html. The build shipped with NetBeans IDE 6.0 is build 11.

• 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 #119105: Can't build StockQuoteService sample.

  Description: The identity sample projects are too fragile to patch for NetBeans 6.0 Release Candidate 1 and there will not be enough time to create brand new samples. Therefore, they are disabled for NetBeans 6.0 Release Candidate 1. The samples should be created for FCS.

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Known Issues: Mobility

NetBeans 6.0 Mobility enables you to develop Java ME based applications for MIDP, CLDC and CDC devices.

The unresolved Mobility issues for this release are as follows:

• MacOS, Solaris and other operating systems are not supported.

  Description: Mobility pack 6.0 and the Sun Java Wireless Toolkit 2.5.2 for CLDC bundled with this release only support the Windows and Linux platforms.

  Workaround: Users of MacOS and other unsupported operating systems that want to use the Mobility pack can refer to the instructions for installing zip distributions.

• Connected Device Configuration (CDC) application development requires the installation of a CDC platform emulator.

  Description: The Sun Java Toolkit 1.0 for CDC is not bundled with the 6.0 release as was the case with previous Mobility pack for CDC releases.

  Workaround: Download the Sun Java Toolkit 1.0 for CDC from the Sun Developer Network. The NetBeans FAQ has instructions describing how to install and register the CDC Toolkit in the IDE.

• End to End support not enabled with NetBeans 6.0 Mobility installation.

  Description: Mobile applications can not be connected to an enterprise using the Mobility distribution of NetBeans 6.0.

  Workaround: Install the Mobility End to End plugin.

  1. In the IDE's main menu go to Tools > Plugins.
  2. In the Plugins dialog click the Available Plugins tab.
  3. In the Name column of the Available Plugins, find Mobility End to End.
  4. Check the box next to Mobility End to End and click Install.
  5. The NetBeans IDE Installer dialog shows the plugins about to be installed. If additional plugins are necessary, the IDE selects them automatically. Click Next.
  6. A license agreement may appear next. To enable End to End functionality, accept the license agreement and click Install.

  Note: You can also enable End to End functionality by installing the full distribution of NetBeans 6.0.

• The Mobility pack will not run if a directory name, path to the installation directory, or user directory contain non-ASCII characters.

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

  Workaround: Make sure that your user directory does not contain non-ASCII characters. If it does, change the IDE's default user directory.

• Generating web service client from WSDL with "complex" class generates faulty and missing code.

  Description: When generating a web service client with complex classes, the IDE generates classes that are unable to compile.

  Workaround: Change QNames of first level elements names to be unique. For example, change them to return1, return2, etc.

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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 at http://www.netbeans.org/community/issues.html.

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, http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/UMLMacIssues to get more information about the known Macintosh OS X issues and workarounds.

The unresolved UML issues for this release are as follows:

• Issue #119403: Operation names are missing from messages on sequence diagrams created by reverse engineering.
  
  Description: If you perform reverse engineering on existing code, messages on generated sequence names will not include operation names .
  
• Issue #119290: Imported elements don't show up until IDE restart if imported package exists.

Description: If you import elements and then import a package, the imported elements will not show up until IDE restart. The same condition is true if you import a package and then import elements.

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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 at http://www.netbeans.org/community/issues.html.

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 3 Beta or later from http://java.sun.com/javaee/downloads/index.jsp. 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 #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 #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 #112344: Drag and Drop in the tree view of XML schema editor may throw exceptions.

  Workaround: Use JDK 1.6.0_02 or later.

• Issue #121834: I18N - A composite application that contains a module project whose name has multibyte characters (i.e., non-ascii) cannot be deployed.

  Workaround: Use ascii characters in module project names.

• 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 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:

• Issue # 121776: Sun Studio compiled code sometimes has problems being debugged with gdb

  Description: On the Solaris and Linux operating systems, code compiled with the Sun Studio compilers cannot always be correctly debugged with the gdb debugger. Most known problems are fixed in the Sun Studio 12 software but several more exist. If you run into problems debugging programs compiled with Sun Studio 12 compilers, the first thing you should do is apply the latest Sun Studio 12 product patches. If your problem still exists, please file a defect in Issuezilla and make this task depend on it.

  As problems are found, we will open new issues and update this task to depend on them, giving some idea of the current state of debugging programs compiled with Sun Studio 12 compilers using NetBeans and the gdb debugger.

  These problems do not affect debugging code compiled with Sun Studio 12 compilers using the Sun Studio 12 IDE and the dbx debugger.

• Issue #121775: Need latest Xcode for debugging on Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4)

  Description: When debugging on the Macintosh with Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4), the default version of the gcc and g++ compilers generates code with a bug in the debug output. Apple has released an updated Xcode package (version 2.5) with a fix for this problem. The correct versions of gcc, g++, and gdb are:
  
  gcc: 4.0.1 - Apple build 5367
  g++: 4.0.1 - Apple build 5367
  gdb: 6.3.50 - Apple build 573 (10/20/2006)
  

  To download this version of Xcode, see http://developer.apple.com/tools/download.

  This problem is not an issue on Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5).

  The symptoms of the problem are that executables compiled with the -gdwarf flag (the default for C/C++ application projects) have incorrect line information and breakpoints may be ignored.

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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. For more information, visit http://www.netbeans.org.

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