Addison-Wesley Professional - 9780132354806 - Rich Client Programming: Plugging into the NetBeans™ Platform

Overview

The open-source NetBeans Platform is an extraordinarily powerful framework for building "write once, run anywhere" rich client applications. Now, for the first time since the release of NetBeans IDE 5.0, there's a comprehensive guide to rich client development on the NetBeans Platform.

Written for Java developers and architects who have discovered that basic Swing components are not enough for them, this book will help you get started with NetBeans module development, master NetBeans' key APIs, and learn proven techniques for building reliable desktop software. Each chapter is filled with practical, step-by-step instructions for creating complete rich client applications on top of the NetBeans Platform and plugins for NetBeans IDE.

Rich Client Programming's wide-ranging content covers

Why modular development makes sense for small, medium, and large applications
Using NetBeans to accelerate development and improve efficiency
Leveraging NetBeans productivity features, from the Component Palette to Code Completion
Leveraging NetBeans' modular architecture in your own applications
Implementing loosely coupled communication to improve code maintainability and robustness
Managing user- and system-configuration data
Building reloadable components with solid threading models
Constructing sophisticated multiwindow applications and presenting rich data structures to users
Adding user-configurable options
Integrating Web services with NetBeans desktop applications
Automating module updates and providing user help

Foreword by Jonathan Schwartz
Foreword by Jan Chalupa
Preface
About the Authors and Contributors
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Getting Started with the NetBeans Platform
Chapter 2: The Benefits of Modular Programming
Chapter 3: Modular Architecture
Chapter 4: Loosely Coupled Communication
Chapter 5: Lookup
Chapter 6: Filesystems
Chapter 7: Threading, Listener Patterns, and MIME Lookup
Chapter 8: The Window System
Chapter 9: Nodes, Explorer Views, Actions, and Presenters
Chapter 10: DataObjects and DataLoaders
Chapter 11: Graphical User Interfaces
Chapter 12: Multiview Editors
Chapter 13: Syntax Highlighting
Chapter 14: Code Completion
Chapter 15: Component Palettes
Chapter 16: Hyperlinks
Chapter 17: Annotations
Chapter 18: Options Windows
Chapter 19: Web Frameworks
Chapter 20: Web Services
Chapter 21: JavaHelp Documentation
Chapter 22  Update Centers
Chapter 23: Use Case 1: NetBeans Module Development
Chapter 24: Use Case 2: Rich Unger on Application Development
Chapter A: Advanced Module System Techniques
Chapter B: Common Idioms and Code Patterns in NetBeans
Chapter C: Performance
Index

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The open-source NetBeans Platform is an extraordinarily powerful framework for building "write once, run anywhere" rich client applications. Now, for the first time since the release of NetBeans IDE 5.0, there's a comprehensive guide to rich client development on the NetBeans Platform.

Written for Java developers and architects who have discovered that basic Swing components are not enough for them, this book will help you get started with NetBeans module development, master NetBeans' key APIs, and learn proven techniques for building reliable desktop software. Each chapter is filled with practical, step-by-step instructions for creating complete rich client applications on top of the NetBeans Platform and plugins for NetBeans IDE.

Rich Client Programming's wide-ranging content covers

Why modular development makes sense for small, medium, and large applications
Using NetBeans to accelerate development and improve efficiency
Leveraging NetBeans productivity features, from the Component Palette to Code Completion
Leveraging NetBeans' modular architecture in your own applications
Implementing loosely coupled communication to improve code maintainability and robustness
Managing user- and system-configuration data
Building reloadable components with solid threading models
Constructing sophisticated multiwindow applications and presenting rich data structures to users
Adding user-configurable options
Integrating Web services with NetBeans desktop applications
Automating module updates and providing user help

Foreword by Jonathan Schwartz
Foreword by Jan Chalupa
Preface
About the Authors and Contributors
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Getting Started with the NetBeans Platform
Chapter 2: The Benefits of Modular Programming
Chapter 3: Modular Architecture
Chapter 4: Loosely Coupled Communication
Chapter 5: Lookup
Chapter 6: Filesystems
Chapter 7: Threading, Listener Patterns, and MIME Lookup
Chapter 8: The Window System
Chapter 9: Nodes, Explorer Views, Actions, and Presenters
Chapter 10: DataObjects and DataLoaders
Chapter 11: Graphical User Interfaces
Chapter 12: Multiview Editors
Chapter 13: Syntax Highlighting
Chapter 14: Code Completion
Chapter 15: Component Palettes
Chapter 16: Hyperlinks
Chapter 17: Annotations
Chapter 18: Options Windows
Chapter 19: Web Frameworks
Chapter 20: Web Services
Chapter 21: JavaHelp Documentation
Chapter 22  Update Centers
Chapter 23: Use Case 1: NetBeans Module Development
Chapter 24: Use Case 2: Rich Unger on Application Development
Chapter A: Advanced Module System Techniques
Chapter B: Common Idioms and Code Patterns in NetBeans
Chapter C: Performance
Index

Reader Reviews From Amazon (Ranked by 'Helpfulness')

Average Customer Rating:

based on 3 reviews.

lots of information; very little context, 2008-10-30

Reviewer rating:

I read a lot of computer books. This is one of the worst I have ever read. While it does contain some good information, it is presented with very little context. That makes it very difficult to absorb. The other issue is that the material has become dated as the NetBeans Platform has been improved. Unfortunately there isn't an alternative to this book now. Maybe there will be in 2009.

poor editing mars potentially useful book, 2008-10-29

Reviewer rating:

This is a book about how Netbeans, the application framework, works. Its intended audience is Netbeans framework users, people interested in frameworks generally and people who want to know how Netbeans works so they can, say, write plugins for it. Netbeans is mostly known for being a Java editor.

So what we have here is a book written about a technology by the people who created that technology. The worry for readers is there will not be enough editorial pushback against the experts to clarify their language; if they say "that's right" about something they wrote, then who is going to argue with them?

Unfortunately, that fear is well founded in this case. For instance, after a lengthy and rather abstract "manifesto" type chapter (chapter 4) on the (uncontroversial) benefits of modular applications and decoupling of abstraction from implementation, they introduce something called Lookup, which is, basically, a little database of keys and values, or, even more roughly, a "magic bag" of keys and values. Leaving aside the issue of whether Lookup is a Good Idea or not, the authors fail utterly in their illustrations of how and why Lookup is used to actually clarify its usage or purpose. The examples meant to clarify Lookup in Chapter 5 fail every test of good writing- they're chock full of references to Netbeans-specific classes and Netbeans-specific idioms that the reader could not possibly understand, unless of course the reader already understood the Netbeans framework, in which case, the chapter itself would presumably be moot. This is exactly the kind of thing a good editor should have caught.

Generally, the good point of this book is its written by the people closest to the technology, and is in that sense authoritative. The bad points are that such people are often terrifically bad at identifying what it is they understand that their readers don't, and crossing that chasm. The overall effect is, the authors sound didactic and overly repetitive, e.g. chapter 4, when they have a philosophical / architectural point they want to argue; they find too many ways to say simple things over and over.

On the other hand, when it comes to explaining the nuts and bolts of Netbeans, while they do give a good broad overview of its "parts", the more exacting task of transmitting clarifying details coherently, such that the reader could say after they've read the passage, "there, all that earlier abstract talk has been made concrete by a clear and forceful example, and I understand the technology,", well, that's the hard part of writing a book, and there they fail quite miserably.

Its get a star for its topic and another for its timeliness.

No serious Java programming collection should be without, 2007-07-07

Reviewer rating:

Tim Boudreau, Jaroslav Tulach, and Geertjan Wielenga's RICH CLIENT PROGRAMMING: PLUGGING INTO THE NETBEANS PLATFORM covers the open-source NetBeans Platform, which can be used to build rich client applications - and it's the first guide for NetBeans IDE 5.0, so no serious Java programming collection should be without it. Java developers receive a guide to advanced NetBeans module development, using proven real-world ideas for building reliable desktop software.

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