Much has been written about the NetBeans Platform. But the ultimate resource still remains the source code of the Platform itself! I have used plenty of open source libraries over the years. And I have ventured into the source code numerous times. Quite often the experience is one that leaves one dazed and confused. But I have found that the NetBeans source code is well structured and easy to follow. So even on your very first adventure, you can gain much wisdom! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
Reading source code is like reading a Physics text book. You can try to keep all of that information in your head, or you can experience it in practice. So in most cases, the easy way to find an answer is to debug into the source instead of just perusing it.<\/p>\n
How to set up the source code to be able to debug into it, depends on what type of project you are working with. For Ant-based module projects, download the source code of the same version as the platform that you are building on, and configure the platform to use it in the NetBeans Platform Manager (Tools > NetBeans Platforms). This gives you access to all of the source code in all of the modules.<\/p>\n
For Maven-based projects, you have to attach the source code for each of the dependencies. In project view, right-click on one of the NetBeans module dependencies and choose Download Sources.<\/p>\n
Now put a breakpoint somewhere in your own module to start from. So for example, if you wanted to explorer the behaviour of the TopComponent class, put a breakpoint into the constructor of a TopComponent subclass (created using the Window wizard). And step into for example the setName() method.<\/p>\n
Using this methodology, you can explore how the platform loads and uses things like nodes and actions and windows. That will provide you with much deeper insight into how these things work!<\/p>\n
Robert Bracko (robert [dot] bracko [at] vip [dot] hr) explored the behaviour of an old third party IDE module from the 6.9.1 days. He sent me the following points, describing his fascinating first adventure!<\/p>\n
Thanks for sharing, Robert! Some questions still remain unanswered in the steps above. Stay tuned for more about his next adventure!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Much has been written about the NetBeans Platform. But the ultimate resource still remains the source code of the Platform itself! I have used plenty of open source libraries over the years. And I have ventured into the source code numerous times. Quite often the experience is one that leaves one dazed and confused. But … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1v8WL-bZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/hermien\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/hermien\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/hermien\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/hermien\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/hermien\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=743"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/hermien\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":748,"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/hermien\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743\/revisions\/748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/hermien\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/hermien\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/hermien\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}