The NetBeans open source project is proud to announce the early access release of the NetBeans IDE 4.1 as the project delivers significant new development capabilities for the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition 1.4 (J2EE) including Enterprise Java Bean (EJB) components and Web Services.

For downloads of this release go to:

    * http://www.netbeans.org/downloads/index.html

For the quick start guide, see:

    * http://www.netbeans.org/kb/articles/quickstart-j2ee-41.html

Online 4.1 Early Access announcement and links to more information:

    * http://www.netbeans.org/community/releases/41/announce.html

This early access release has over 15 new modules for developing J2EE 1.4 applications and is built on the novel and breakthrough NetBeans 4.0 technology. Users can develop programs for Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE), Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME), and now J2EE EJBs and Web Services. Using the free Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 8.1 beta as the deployment runtime and with NetBeans guiding the developer and automatically building the underlying J2EE infrastructure, learning about and developing J2EE 1.4 applications has never been easier. To further assist the developer, there are numerous samples of J2EE applications easily accessible from within the IDE, as well contributions from the J2EE Java BluePrints catalog.

With a pure Java technology integrated development environment and cross platform availability for Windows, Linux and the Solaris Operating System, this is the best time to get a look at the future.

The next early access release is planned for January 2005.

Key Features

Create an EJB Module and EJB Session Beans

    * The NetBeans IDE guides the user through the process to easily learn how to write an EJB as well as deploy, package and test applications
    * A GUI is available to select an EJB and perform the required tasks such as adding business methods and editing deployment descriptors
    * All EJB infrastructure methods are generated automatically and are hidden in a power code fold
    * The resulting EJB module can easily be added to a J2EE application
    * The NetBeans project structure matches J2EE Java BluePrints standards and relies on the Ant open standard for the build system

Calling EJBs

    * It's easy for the developer to create a servlet and call an EJB from this servlet code
    * The Web Application can then be added to a J2EE Application that will also have the corresponding EJB Module and this J2EE Application is then deployed to the application server

Develop Web Services

    * Developers can create and modify Web Services and deploy, package and test them from the IDE
    * Developers can register existing Web Services to the IDE, and then easily add the code that will call these Web Services
    * Developers can test all the registered Web Services from the IDE by simply entering the input parameters of each operation
    * The NetBeans IDE guides the user through the process to easily learn how to write EJB and J2EE Applications to select a web service and perform required tasks

I love NB ; however I am trying to fugure out how they can have Early Access for 4.1 when 4.0 is still in Beta 2.

And , why don't any of the IDE's recognize that there is this thing called XDoclet which is a standard tool of trade for J2EE developers. Stop duplicating what Xdoclet does and instead provide a compatibility path.

I am sticking with 3.6 which allows me to mount and unmount Xodclet generated sources at will. The ability to mount /unmount any source folder into any project was very cool -- too bad 4.x doesn't have it.

why don't any of the IDE's recognize that there is this thing called XDoclet which is a standard tool of trade for J2EE developers. Stop duplicating what Xdoclet does and instead provide a compatibility path.

+1

My example is IDEA. I _love_ that tool!! but I've got no use for the EJB support since I also love XDoclet. The EJB management starts to feel like too much IDE relianceto me.

Having said that, I also know that a team I work near has considered moving from JBuilder to IDEA because of the EJB support. But they don't use XDoclet so phooey on them ;-)

I also know that a team I work near has considered moving from JBuilder to IDEA because of the EJB support. But they don't use XDoclet so phooey on them ;-)

Have they ever tried to develop an EJB in IDEA ? [b]IDEA's EJBs dont work, because IDEA generates wrong descriptors ![/b] You cannot even fix that, because IDEA overwrites any DD changes.

_That_ would be new to me... I found IDEA's EJB support very usable... not as sophisticated as JBuilder's, but then IDEA's general "cool" features can be applied to EJBs and together with its "special" EJB support this works _very_ well (and, great advantage, without any errors ;-))!
Which version of IDEA did you use?

regards,

Messi

Whats wrong with you guys ? This is a topic for netbeans4.1.

why don't any of the IDE's recognize that there is this thing called XDoclet which is a standard tool of trade for J2EE developers. Stop duplicating what Xdoclet does and instead provide a compatibility path.

+1My example is IDEA. I _love_ that tool!! but I've got no use for the EJB support since I also love XDoclet. The EJB management starts to feel like too much IDE relianceto me.Having said that, I also know that a team I work near has considered moving from JBuilder to IDEA because of the EJB support. But they don't use XDoclet so phooey on them ;-)

-1 ;)

Hi,

try the MyEclipse (www.myeclipseide.com) plugin with its built-in XDoclet support.

Gabriel

I love NB ; however I am trying to fugure out how they can have Early Access for 4.1 when 4.0 is still in Beta 2.

All of the J2EE support is the 4.1 build. I'm thinking 4.1 EA is just 4.0 Beta 2 with the J2EE support. It's going to essentially be the same product, with just straight up J2EE support.

I'm gathering that's why it's 4.1 as opposed to 5.0.

As far as XDoclet goes...what are you looking for in terms of support. Perhaps the AutoCommenter in NB could be extended to support it more directly. I know you can add in your own tags whenever, but, I'm guessing you want more direct support?

All of the J2EE support is the 4.1 build. I'm thinking 4.1 EA is just 4.0 Beta 2 with the J2EE support. It's going to essentially be the same product, with just straight up J2EE support.

That's correct at this point, although the final version of NetBeans 4.1 will have additional improvements and features, beyond J2EE support. Stay tuned.

As for the XDoclet support, we realize that this is something many people would like to have. We will not be providing XDoclet support as a part of the base product, but there is definitely room for external plugin writers in this area. Sun's plan for a future release is to provide support for EJB 3.0, whose approach is somewhat similar to XDoclet, plus it's standardized at the specification level.

There are many tools that generate code (XDoclet and Torque to name just 2). I for example don't like my own code to be mixed with generated code, the fact that in NB 4.x I can only use free-form projects to support this is not very developer-friendly, I therefor would like to see some support for these kind of tools, even when it is just the possibility to 'mount' additional directories that contain sources.
I realize that one possibility is to create another project (jar-project) that contains the generated code, and then add a dependency with this project... although there is a problem in NB 4.0b2 (which is already reported) that doesn't copy all dependencies from one project to others (including libraries) as part of the build.

Iwan

Here is my wishlist :

1) Maven POM : Load up the project from Maven POM . Retain Ant support but suport Maven as well : I suspect a lot of large projects are slowly moving over to Maven. Even if you don't provide direct maven support, initialize the NB projects with dependecies and libraries defined in Maven POM. No sense in me loading the lib jars manually when it can be done automtiaclly by interpreting Maven POM.


2) Automatically mount generated code : most people create a differetnt ditrectory/package for their generated code source code. and this diectory is often deleted and created again. Don't pop an error message when this happens; just know that this is a generated src and will need to be monted again .

3) Middlegen Plugin : out of the box plugin for Middlegen. or find a way to make OR mapping less tedious.

http://mevenide.codehaus.org/mevenide-netbeans-project/index.html

works with 4.0

I love NetBeans. I like Eclipse to for its massive support (plugins), but I find the NetBeans interface easier to use (Simplistic, Elegant, and Predicable).

The EMF hack with UML stuff is pretty cool in Eclipse. Maybe one day MDA will make its way into the NetBeans GUI.

Does any body know it support drag and Drop development for JSF?

Does any body know it support drag and Drop development for JSF?

I doubt it, since Sun has pretty much put their eggs into Sun Studio Creator.

If it's going to support it, it'll be through a community based plugin.

Oracle JDeveloper supports JSF drag and drop, but I don't particularly care for how it manages projects. I expect JDeveloper's support of JSF to improve quicker than NetBeans does since Sun is trying to sell a tool for JSF support.