Fr

NetBeans has several features that greatly simplify Java

EE development, but with many features and great
flexibility, Java developers can become overwhelmed by
the options available in NetBeans.

Java EE 7 Development with NetBeans 8 takes you

through the most important parts of Java EE programming
and shows you how to use the features of NetBeans that
will improve your development experience through clear,
careful instructions and screenshots. This book will take
you through the major Java EE APIs and how to get them
working in the NetBeans environment.

This is a practical guide that covers how to leverage

NetBeans 8 functionality to quickly and easily develop
enterprise applications compliant with the Java EE 7
standard.

The book is aimed at Java developers who wish to

develop Java EE applications while taking advantage
of NetBeans functionality to automate repetitive tasks.
Familiarity with NetBeans or Java EE is not assumed.

Develop Java web applications by leveraging

NetBeans' functionality
Build standard JSF applications by taking
advantage of NetBeans' features
Develop aesthetically pleasing JSF
web applications by leveraging JSF
component libraries

P U B L I S H I N G

pl

Quickly and easily develop applications taking

advantage of the Java Persistence API
Take advantage of NetBeans' functionality
to easily develop Enterprise JavaBeans,
including configuring transaction management
via annotations
Utilize NetBeans to easily add messaging
functionality to enterprise applications,
through the Java Messaging Service API
and through message-driven EJBs
Develop SOAP-based and RESTful
web services using NetBeans, including
exposing EJBs' functionality as web services

$ 49.99 US
30.99 UK

community experience distilled

Sa
m

Integrate NetBeans with a third-party RDBMS

C o m m u n i t y

David R. Heffelfinger

Who this book is written for

What you will learn from this book

Java EE 7 Development
with NetBeans 8

Java EE 7 Development
with NetBeans 8

ee

D i s t i l l e d

Java EE 7 Development
with NetBeans 8
Develop professional enterprise Java EE applications quickly and
easily with this popular IDE

Prices do not include

local sales tax or VAT
where applicable

Visit www.PacktPub.com for books, eBooks,

code, downloads, and PacktLib.

E x p e r i e n c e

David R. Heffelfinger

In this package, you will find:

The author biography

A preview chapter from the book, Chapter 1 'Getting Started with NetBeans'
A synopsis of the books content
More information on Java EE 7 Development with NetBeans 8

About the Author

David R. Heffelfinger is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Ensode Technology,
LLC, a software consulting firm based in the Greater Washington DC area. He has been
architecting, designing, and developing software professionally since 1995. He has been
using Java as his primary programming language since 1996. He has worked on many
large-scale projects for several clients, including the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and the U.S. Department of Defense. He has a
master's degree in software engineering from Southern Methodist University, Dallas,
Texas. David is the editor-in-chief of Ensode. net (
), a
website on Java, Linux, and other technologies. David is a frequent speaker at Java
conferences such as JavaOne. You can follow David on Twitter at
.

Java EE 7 Development with

NetBeans 8
Java EE 7, the latest version of the Java EE specification, adds several new features to
simplify enterprise application development. New versions of existing Java EE APIs have
been included in this latest version of Java EE. JSF 2.2 has been updated to better support
wizard-like interfaces via FacesFlows and has been enhanced to better support HTML5.
NetBeans supports JPA 2.1 features such as Bean Validation and many others. EJB
session beans can be automatically generated by NetBeans, allowing us to easily leverage
EJB features such as transactions and concurrency. CDI advanced features such as
qualifiers, stereotypes, and others can be easily implemented via NetBeans' wizards. JMS
2.0 has been greatly simplified, allowing us to quickly and easily develop messaging
applications. Java EE includes a new Java API for JSON Processing (JSON-P), allowing
us to quickly and easily process JSON data. NetBeans includes several features to allow
us to quickly and easily develop both RESTful and SOAP-based web services.
This book will guide you through all the NetBeans features that make the development of
enterprise Java EE 7 applications a breeze.

What This Book Covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started with NetBeans, provides an introduction to NetBeans, giving
time-saving tips and tricks that will result in more efficient development of Java
applications.
Chapter 2, Developing Web Applications Using JavaServer Faces 2.2, explains how
NetBeans can help us easily develop web applications that take advantage of the
JavaServer Faces 2.2 framework.
Chapter 3, JSF Component Libraries, covers how NetBeans can help us easily develop
JSF applications using popular component libraries such as PrimeFaces, RichFaces, and
ICEfaces.
Chapter 4, Interacting with Databases through the Java Persistence API, explains how
NetBeans allows us to easily develop applications taking advantage of the Java
Persistence API (JPA), including how to automatically generate JPA entities from
existing schemas. This chapter also covers how complete web-based applications can be
generated with a few clicks from an existing database schema.
Chapter 5, Implementing the Business Tier with Session Beans, discusses how NetBeans
simplifies EJB 3.1 session bean development.
Chapter 6, Contexts and Dependency Injection, discusses how the CDI API introduced in
Java EE 6 can help us integrate the different layers of our application.

Chapter 7, Messaging with JMS and Message-driven Beans, explains Java EE messaging
technologies such as the Java Message Service (JMS) and Message-driven Beans (MDB),
covering NetBeans' features that simplify application development taking advantage of
these APIs.
Chapter 8, Java API for JSON Processing, explains how to process JSON data using the
new JSON-P Java EE API.
Chapter 9, Java API for WebSocket, explains how to use the new Java API for
WebSocket to develop web-based applications featuring full duplex communication
between the browser and the server.
Chapter 10, RESTful Web Services with JAX-RS, covers RESTful web services with the
Java API for RESTful Web Services, including coverage of how NetBeans can
automatically generate RESTful web services and both Java and JavaScript RESTful web
service clients.
Chapter 11, SOAP Web Services with JAX-WS, explains how NetBeans can help us easily
develop SOAP web services based on the Java API for the XML Web Services (JAXWS) API.

Getting Started with

NetBeans
In this chapter, we will learn how to get started with NetBeans. The following topics
are covered in this chapter:

Introduction

Obtaining NetBeans

Installing NetBeans

Starting NetBeans for the first time

Configuring NetBeans for Java EE development

Deploying our first application

NetBeans tips for effective development

Introduction
NetBeans is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and platform.
Although initially, the NetBeans IDE could only be used to develop Java
applications, as of version 6, NetBeans supports several programming languages,
either through built-in support, or by installing additional plugins. Programming
languages natively supported by NetBeans include Java, C, C++, PHP, HTML, and
JavaScript. Groovy, Scala, and others are supported via additional plugins.
In addition to being an IDE, NetBeans is also a platform. Developers can use
NetBeans' APIs to create both NetBeans plugins and standalone applications.

Getting Started with NetBeans

For a brief history of NetBeans, see http://netbeans.org/

about/history.html.

Although the NetBeans IDE supports several programming languages, because

of its roots as a Java only IDE it is more widely used and known within the Java
community. As a Java IDE, NetBeans has built-in support for Java SE (Standard
Edition) applications, which typically run on a user's desktop or notebook computer;
Java ME (Micro Edition) applications, which typically run on small devices such
as cell phones or PDAs; and for Java EE (Enterprise Edition) applications, which
typically run on "big iron" servers and can support thousands of concurrent users.
In this book, we will be focusing on the Java EE development capabilities of
NetBeans, and how to take advantage of NetBeans' features to help us develop
Java EE applications more efficiently.
Some of the features we will cover include how NetBeans can help us speed up
web application development using JavaServer Faces (JSF), the standard Java EE
component based web framework by providing a starting point for these kinds of
artifacts. We will also see how NetBeans can help us generate Java Persistence API
(JPA) entities from an existing database schema (JPA is the standard object-relational
mapping tool included with Java EE).
In addition to web development, we will see how NetBeans allows us to easily
develop Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs); and how to easily develop web services.
We will also cover how to easily write both EJB and web service clients by taking
advantage of some very nice NetBeans features.
Before taking advantage of all of the aforementioned NetBeans features, we of course
need to have NetBeans installed, as covered in the next section.

[8]

Chapter 1

Obtaining NetBeans
NetBeans can be obtained by downloading it from http://www.netbeans.org.

[9]

Getting Started with NetBeans

To download NetBeans, we need to click on the Download button. Clicking on this

button will take us to a page displaying all NetBeans' download bundles.

NetBeans' downloads include different NetBeans bundles that provide different

levels of functionality. The following table summarizes the different NetBeans
bundles available and describes the functionalities they provide.
NetBeans Bundle

Description

Java SE

Allows development of Java desktop applications.

Java EE

Allows development of Java Standard Edition (typically

desktop) applications, and Java Enterprise Edition applications
(enterprise applications running on "big iron" servers).

C/C++

Allows development of applications written in the C or C++

languages.
[ 10 ]

Chapter 1

NetBeans Bundle

Description

HTML5 and PHP

Allows development of web applications using HTML5 and/or

the popular open source PHP programming language.

All

Includes functionalities of all NetBeans bundles.

To follow the examples in this book, either the Java EE or the All bundle is needed.
The screenshots in this book were taken with the Java EE bundle.
NetBeans may look slightly different if the All bundle is used,
particularly, some additional menu items might be seen.

The following platforms are officially supported by NetBeans:

Windows

Linux (x86/x64)

Mac OS X

Additionally, NetBeans can be executed on any platform containing Java 7 or newer

version. To download a version of NetBeans to be executed in one of these platforms,
an OS independent of NetBeans is available.
Although the OS independent version of NetBeans can be
executed in all the supported platforms, it is recommended to
obtain the platform specific version of NetBeans for your platform.

The NetBeans download page should detect the operating system being used to
access it, and the appropriate platform should be selected by default. If this is not
the case, or if you are downloading NetBeans with the intention of installing it in
another workstation on another platform, the correct platform can be selected from
the drop down labeled appropriately enough as Platform.
Once the correct platform has been selected, we need to click on the appropriate
Download button for the NetBeans bundle we wish to install; for Java EE
development, we need either the Java EE, or the All bundle. NetBeans will
then be downloaded to a directory of our choice.

[ 11 ]

Getting Started with NetBeans

Java EE applications need to be deployed on an application server.

Several application servers exist in the market; both the Java EE and
the All NetBeans bundles come with GlassFish and Tomcat bundled.
Tomcat is a popular open source servlet container, which can be used to
deploy applications using JSF. However, it does not support other Java
EE technologies such as EJBs or JPA. GlassFish is a 100 percent Java EE
compliant application server. We will be using the bundled GlassFish
application server to deploy and execute our examples.

Installing NetBeans
NetBeans requires a Java Development Kit (JDK) Version 1.7 or newer to be
available before it can be installed.
Since this book is aimed at experienced Java developers, we will not
spend much time explaining how to install and configure the JDK. We
can safely assume that the target market for the book is more than likely
to have a JDK installed. Installation instructions for the Java Development
Kit can be found at http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/
webnotes/install/index.html.

NetBeans installation varies slightly between the supported platforms. In the following
few sections we explain how to install NetBeans on each supported platform.

Microsoft Windows
For Microsoft Windows platforms, NetBeans is downloaded as an executable
file named something like netbeans-8.0-javaee-windows.exe (exact name
depends on the version of NetBeans and the NetBeans bundle that was selected
for download). To install NetBeans on Windows platforms, simply navigate to the
folder where NetBeans was downloaded and double-click on the executable file.

Mac OS X
For Mac OS X, the downloaded file is called something like netbeans-8.0-javaeemacosx.dmg (exact name depends on the NetBeans version and the NetBeans bundle
that was selected for download). In order to install NetBeans, navigate to the location
where the file was downloaded and double-click on it.

[ 12 ]

Chapter 1

Linux
For Linux, NetBeans is downloaded in the form of a shell script. The name of the file
will be similar to netbeans-8.0-javaee-linux.sh (exact name will depend on the
version of NetBeans and the selected NetBeans bundle).
Before NetBeans can be installed on Linux, the downloaded file needs to be
made executable, which can be done using a command lineby navigating to
the directory where the NetBeans installer was downloaded and executing the
following command:
chmod +x filename.sh

Substitute filename.sh in the preceding command with the appropriate filename

for the platform and NetBeans bundle. Once the file is executable it can be installed
from the command line as follows:
./filename.sh

Other platforms
For other platforms, NetBeans can be downloaded as a platform independent ZIP
file. The name of the ZIP file will be something like netbeans-8.0-201403101706javaee.zip (exact filename may vary, depending on the exact version of NetBeans
downloaded and the NetBeans bundle that was selected).
To install NetBeans on one of these platforms, simply extract the ZIP file to any
suitable directory.

Installation procedure
Even though the way to execute the installer varies slightly between platforms, the
installer behaves in a similar way between most of them.
One exception is the platform independent ZIP file, in which there is
essentially no installer. Installing this version of NetBeans consists of
extracting the ZIP file to any suitable directory.

[ 13 ]

Getting Started with NetBeans

After executing the NetBeans installation file for our platform, we should see a
window similar to the one illustrated in the following screenshot.

The pack shown may vary depending on the NetBeans bundle that was downloaded.
The preceding screenshot is for the Java EE bundle.
At this point, we should click on the button labeled Next> to continue the installation.

[ 14 ]

Chapter 1

NetBeans is dual licensed, licenses for NetBeans include the GNU Public License
(GPL) Version 2 with the classpath exception, and the Common Development and
Distribution License (CDDL). Both of these licenses are approved by the Open
Source Initiative (OSI).
To continue installing NetBeans, click on the checkbox labeled I accept the terms in
the license agreement and click on the button labeled Next>.

[ 15 ]

Getting Started with NetBeans

NetBeans comes bundled with JUnit, a popular Java unit testing framework. JUnit's
license differs from the NetBeans license, so it needs to be accepted separately.
Clicking the Next> button takes us to the next step in the installation wizard:

At this point the installer will prompt us for a NetBeans installation directory, and
for a JDK to use with NetBeans. We can either select new values for these or retain
the provided defaults.
Once we have selected the appropriate installation directory and JDK, we need to
click on the button labeled Next> to continue the installation.
NetBeans uses the JAVA_HOME environment variable to populate
the JDK's directory location.

[ 16 ]

Chapter 1

The installer will now prompt us for an installation directory for the GlassFish
application server, as well as for the JDK to use for GlassFish; we can either enter
a custom directory or accept the default values and then click on Next>.

[ 17 ]

Getting Started with NetBeans

If we chose to install Tomcat, the installer will prompt us for a Tomcat installation
directory. Again, we can either enter a custom directory or accept the default values
and then click on Next>.

At this point, the installer will display a summary of our choices. After reviewing the
summary, we need to click on the button labeled Install to begin the installation.

[ 18 ]

Chapter 1

As the installation begins, the installer starts displaying a progress bar indicating the
progress of installation.

After NetBeans and all related components have been installed, the installer indicates
a successful installation, giving us the option to contribute anonymous usage data as
shown in the preceding screenshot. After making our selection we can simply click
on the Finish button to exit the installer.
On most platforms, the installer places a NetBeans icon on the desktop; the icon
should look like the following:

We can start NetBeans by double-clicking on the icon.

[ 19 ]

Getting Started with NetBeans

Starting NetBeans for the first time

We can start NetBeans by double-clicking on its icon. We should see the NetBeans
splash screen while it is starting up.

Once NetBeans starts, we should see a page with links to demos, tutorials, and
sample projects, among others.

[ 20 ]

Chapter 1

Every time NetBeans is launched, it shows the default start page as illustrated in the
preceding screenshot. If we don't want this page to be displayed automatically every
time NetBeans is started, we can disable this behavior by un-checking the checkbox
labeled as Show on Startup at the top of the page. We can always get the start page
back by going to Help | Start Page.

Configuring NetBeans for Java EE

development
NetBeans comes preconfigured with the GlassFish application server, and with the
JavaDB RDBMS. If we wish to use the included GlassFish application server and
JavaDB RDBMS, then there is nothing we need to do to configure NetBeans. We can,
however, integrate NetBeans with other Java EE application servers such as JBoss/
WildFly, WebLogic, or WebSphere and with other relational database systems such
as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, or any RDBMS supported by JDBC, which pretty
much means any RDBMS.

[ 21 ]

Getting Started with NetBeans

Integrating NetBeans with a third-party

application server
Integrating NetBeans with an application server is very simple. To do so, we need to
perform the following steps:
In this section, we will illustrate how to integrate NetBeans with
JBoss, the procedure is very similar for other application servers
or servlet containers.

1. First, we need to click on Window | Services.

[ 22 ]

Chapter 1

2. Next, we need to right-click on the node labeled Servers in the tree inside
the Services window, and then select Add Server... from the resulting
pop-up menu.

3. Then we need to select the server to install from the list in the resulting
window, and click on the button labeled Next>.

[ 23 ]

Getting Started with NetBeans

4. We then need to enter a location in the filesystem where the application

server is installed and click Next>.

5. Finally, we need to select a domain, host, and port for our application server,
then click on the Finish button.

[ 24 ]

Chapter 1

The Services window should now display our newly added application server:

That's it! We have successfully integrated NetBeans with a third-party

application server.

Integrating NetBeans with a third-party RDBMS

NetBeans comes with built-in integration with the JavaDB RDBMS system.
Additionally, it comes with JDBC drivers for other RDBMS systems such
as Oracle, MySQL, and PostgreSQL.
To integrate NetBeans with a third-party RDBMS, we need to tell NetBeans the
location of its JDBC driver.
In this section, we will create a connection to HSQLDB, an open source
RDBMS written in Java, to illustrate how to integrate NetBeans with
a third-party RDBMS; the procedure is very similar for other RDBMS
systems such as Oracle, Sybase, SQL Server, among others.

[ 25 ]

Getting Started with NetBeans

Adding a JDBC driver to NetBeans

Before we can connect to a third-party RDBMS, we need to add its JDBC driver
to NetBeans. To add the JDBC driver, we need to right-click on the Drivers node
under the Databases node in the Services tab.

We then need to select a JAR file containing the JDBC driver for our RDBMS,
NetBeans guesses the name of the driver class containing the JDBC driver. If more
than one driver class is found in the JAR file, the correct one can be selected from the
drop-down menu labeled Driver Class. We need to click on the OK button to add
the driver to NetBeans as shown in the following screenshot:

[ 26 ]

Chapter 1

Once we have followed the preceding procedure, our new JDBC driver is displayed
in the list of registered drivers.

Connecting to a third-party RDBMS

Once we have added the JDBC driver for our RDBMS into NetBeans, we are ready to
connect to the third-party RDBMS.
To connect to our third-party RDBMS, we need to right-click on its driver under the
Services tab, then click on Connect Using... on the resulting pop-up menu as shown
in the following screenshot:

[ 27 ]

Getting Started with NetBeans

Then we need to enter the JDBC URL, username, and password for our database.

After clicking on the Next> button, NetBeans will ask us to select a database schema.
In this case, we select PUBLIC from the drop-down menu.

[ 28 ]

Chapter 1

In the next step in the wizard, we are allowed to enter a user-friendly name for our
database connection, or we can simply accept the default value.

After clicking on the Finish button, our database is shown in the list of databases in
the Services window. We can connect to it by right-clicking on it, selecting Connect
from the resulting pop-up menu, then entering our username and password for the
database (if we chose not to allow NetBeans to remember the password when we
added the database).

We have now successfully connected NetBeans to a third party RDBMS.

[ 29 ]

Getting Started with NetBeans

Deploying our first application

NetBeans comes pre-configured with a number of sample applications. To make
sure everything is configured correctly, we will now deploy one of the sample
applications to the integrated GlassFish application server that comes bundled
with NetBeans.
To open the sample project, we need to go to File | New Project, then select
Samples | Java EE from the Categories list in the resulting pop-up window. Once
we have selected Java EE from the categories list, a list of projects is displayed in the
Projects list; for this example we need to select the JavaServer Faces CDI project.
This sample is a simple project involving both JSF and Contexts and Dependency
Injection (CDI).

[ 30 ]

Chapter 1

After clicking on the Next> button, we are prompted to enter a project location in the
next pop-up window. In this case, the default value is sensible.

Once we click on the Finish button, our new project is displayed in the
Projects window:

[ 31 ]

Getting Started with NetBeans

We can compile, package, and deploy our project at one go by right-clicking on it

and selecting Run from the resulting pop-up menu.

At this point, we should see the output of the build script. Also, both the integrated
GlassFish application server and the integrated JavaDB RDBMS system should
automatically start.

[ 32 ]

Chapter 1

As soon as our application is deployed, a new browser window or tab automatically

starts, displaying the default page for our sample application.

If our browser is displaying a page similar to the preceding one shown, then we can
be certain that NetBeans and GlassFish are working properly and we are ready to
start developing our own Java EE applications.

NetBeans tips for effective development

NetBeans offers a wide array of features that make Java and Java EE development
easier and faster. In the following few sections, we cover some of the most
useful features.

Code completion
The NetBeans code editor includes a very good code completion feature,
for example, if we wish to create a private variable, we don't need to type the
whole private word, we can simply write the first three letters (pri), then hit
Ctrl + Space and NetBeans will complete the word private for us.

[ 33 ]

Getting Started with NetBeans

Code completion also works for variable types and method return values, for
example, if we want to declare a variable of type java.util.List, we simply need
to type the first few characters of the type, then hit Ctrl + Space NetBeans will try to
complete with variable types in any of the packages we have imported in our class.
In order to make NetBeans attempt to complete with any type in the classpath, we
need to hit Ctrl + Space again.

As we can see in the preceding screenshot, NetBeans displays JavaDoc for the class
we selected from the code completion options. Another time-saving feature is that
the class we selected from the options is automatically imported into our code.
Once we have the type of our variable, we can hit Ctrl + Space right after the variable
and NetBeans will suggest variable names.

[ 34 ]

Chapter 1

When we want to initialize our variable to a new value, we can simply hit Ctrl +
Space again and a list of valid types is shown as options for code completions
as demonstrated in the following screenshot:

[ 35 ]

Getting Started with NetBeans

In our example, our type (java.util.List) is an interface, therefore, all classes

implementing this interface are shown as possible candidates for code completion.
Had our type been a class, both our class and all of its subclasses would have been
shown as code completion candidates.
When we are ready to use our variable, we can simply type the first few characters
of the variable name, then hit Ctrl + Space.

[ 36 ]

Chapter 1

When we wish to invoke a method in our object, we simply type a period at

the end of the variable name, and all available methods are displayed as code
completion options.

Notice how the JavaDoc for the selected method is automatically displayed.

Code templates
Code templates are abbreviations for frequently used code snippets. To use a
code template, we simply type it into the editor and hit the Tab key to expand the
abbreviations into the full code snippet it represents.
For example, typing sout and pressing the Tab key will expand into
System.out.println("");, with the caret placed between the two double quotes.

[ 37 ]

Getting Started with NetBeans

Some of the most useful code templates are listed in the following table, please note
that code templates are case sensitive.
Abbreviation
Psf

fore

Example expanded text

Description

public static final

Useful when declaring

public, static, and
final variables.

for (Object object : list) {

Use the enhanced for

loop to iterate through a
collection.

ifelse

Generate an if-else
conditional statement.

if (boolVar) {
} else {
}

psvm

public static void

main(String[] args) {

Generate a main method

for our class.

soutv

System.out.println("boolVar =
" +
boolVar);

Generate a System.out.
println() statement
displaying the value of a
variable.

trycatch

try {

Generate a try-catch
block.

} catch (Exception exception) {

}

whileit

while (iterator.hasNext()) {
Object object =
iterator.next();
}

[ 38 ]

Generate a while loop to

iterate through an iterator.

Chapter 1

To see the complete list of code templates, click on Tools | Options, click on the
Editor icon, then on the Code Templates tab.

We can add our own templates by clicking on the New button. We will be prompted
for the template's abbreviation. Once we enter it, our new template will be added to
the template list and will automatically be selected. We can then enter the expanded
text for our template in the Expanded Text tab.

[ 39 ]

Getting Started with NetBeans

Code templates can be used not only for Java but for HTML, CSS, and all other
editors in NetBeans. To view/edit templates for other languages, simply select the
desired language from the Language drop-down menu under the Code Templates
tab as indicated in the following screenshot:

Keyboard shortcuts
NetBeans offers several keyboard shortcuts that allow very fast navigation between
source files. Memorizing these keyboard shortcuts allows us to develop code a lot
more effectively than relying on the mouse.
Some of the most useful NetBeans' keyboard shortcuts are listed in
this section, but this list is by no means exhaustive. The complete
list of NetBeans' keyboard shortcuts can be obtained by clicking on
Help | Keyboard Shortcuts Card.
[ 40 ]

Chapter 1

One useful keyboard shortcut that allows us to quickly navigate within a large Java
file is Ctrl + F12. This keyboard shortcut switches focus to the Navigator window,
which displays an outline of the current Java file and shows all its methods and
member variables.

When the Navigator window has focus, we can simply start typing to narrow down
the list of member variables and methods shown. This keyboard shortcut makes it
very fast to navigate through large files.
Hitting Alt + F12 will open the Hierarchy window, which outlines the class hierarchy
of the current Java class.

We can use the previous shortcut to quickly navigate to a superclass or a subclass of

the current class.

[ 41 ]

Getting Started with NetBeans

Another useful keyboard shortcut is Alt + Insert. This keyboard shortcut can be
used to generate frequently used code such as that for constructors, getter and
setter methods, among others.

The code will be generated at the current location of the caret.

Additionally, when the caret is right next to an opening or closing brace, hitting Ctrl
+ [ results in the caret being placed in the matching brace. This shortcut works for
curly braces, parenthesis, and square brackets. Hitting Ctrl + Shift + [ has a similar
effect, but this key combination not only places the caret in the matching brace, it
also selects the code between the two carets:

Sometimes, we would like to know all the places in our project where a specific
method is invoked. Hitting Alt + F7 while the method is highlighted allows us to
easily find out this information.

[ 42 ]

Chapter 1

The keyboard shortcuts works with variables as well.

NetBeans will indicate compilation errors in our code by underlining the erroneous
line with a squiggly red line as shown in the following screenshot. Placing the caret
over the offending code and hitting Alt + Enter will allow us to select from a series
of suggestions to fix our code:

Sometimes navigating through all the files in a project can be a bit cumbersome,
especially if we know the name of the file we want to open but we are not sure of
its location. Luckily, NetBeans provides the Shift + Alt + O keyboard shortcut that
allows us to quickly open any file in our project:

Additional useful keyboard shortcuts include Shift + Alt + F to quickly format

our code, Ctrl + E (Cmd + E on Mac OS) to erase the current line, much faster than
highlighting the line and hitting backspace. Sometimes we import a class into our
code and later decide not to use it. Frequently, the lines where the class is used are
deleted but we forget to delete the import line at the top of the source file. NetBeans
will generate a warning about the unused import; hitting Ctrl + Shift + I will delete
all unused imports in one fell swoop, plus it will attempt to add any missing imports.
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Getting Started with NetBeans

One last thing worth mentioning, even though it is not strictly a keyboard shortcut, a
very useful feature of the NetBeans editor is that left-clicking on a method or variable
while pressing Ctrl will turn the method or variable into a hyperlink. Clicking on this
hyperlink will result in NetBeans taking us to the method or variable declaration.

Understanding NetBeans visual cues

In addition to offering keyboard shortcuts, code templates, and code completion,
NetBeans offers a number of visual cues that allow us to better understand our code
at a glance. Some of the most useful cues are illustrated in the following screenshot:

When there is a warning in our code, NetBeans will alert us in two ways, it will
underline the offending line with a squiggly yellow line, and it will place the
following icon in the left margin of the offending line:

The light bulb in the icon indicates that NetBeans has a suggestion on how to fix the
problem. Moving the caret to the offending line and hitting Alt + Enter, as discussed
in the previous section, will result in NetBeans offering one or more ways of fixing
the problem.
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Chapter 1

Similarly, when there is a compilation error, NetBeans will underline the offending
line with a red squiggly line, and place the following icon on the left margin of
said line.

Again, the light bulb indicates that NetBeans has suggestions on how to fix
the problem. Hitting Alt + Enter in the offending line will allow us to see the
suggestions that NetBeans has.
NetBeans not only provides visual cues for errors in our code, it also provides other
cues, for example, placing the caret next to an opening or closing brace will highlight
both the opening and closing brace, as shown in the populateList() method. This
is demonstrated in the previous screenshot.
If one of our methods overrides a method from a parent class, the following icon will
be placed in the left margin next to the method declaration:

The icon is an upper case "O" inside a circle, the O stands for "override".
Similarly, when one of our methods is an implementation of a method declared
on an interface, the following icon will be placed in the left margin of the
method declaration.

The icon is an uppercase "I" inside a green circle, which stands for "implements".
NetBeans also provides visual cues in the form of fonts and font colors, for example,
static methods and variables are shown in italics, member variables are shown in
green, and Java reserved keywords are shown in blue.
Another nice feature of the NetBeans editor is that highlighting a method or variable
highlights it everywhere it is used in the currently open file.

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Getting Started with NetBeans

Accelerated HTML5 development support

NetBeans has the capability to update deployed web pages in real time as we edit
the markup for the page. This feature works both for HTML files and for JSF facelets
pages (discussed in the next chapter).
In order for this feature to work, we need to use either the embedded WebKit
browser included with NetBeans, or Google's Chrome browser with the NetBeans
Connector plugin. To select the browser to run our web application, we need to click
on the browser icon on the NetBeans toolbar, then select one of the options under
With NetBeans Connector, as shown in the following screenshot:

The accelerated HTML5 development support feature works "out of the box"
with the embedded WebKit browser. To test it, select the embedded WebKit browser,
then run the application we deployed earlier in this chapter in the Deploying our
first application section. It will run inside NetBeans when using the embedded
WebKit browser.

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Chapter 1

To test the accelerated HTML5 development functionality, let's make a simple

change to one of the pages on the application. Open the file called home.xhtml
and look for a line containing the text Number.
<h:panelGrid border="1" columns="5" style="font-size: 18px;">

Number:
<h:inputText id="inputGuess" value="#{game.guess}"
required="true" size="3"
disabled="#{game.number eq game.guess}"
validator="#{game.validateNumberRange}">
</h:inputText>
<h:commandButton id="GuessButton" value="Guess"
action="#{game.check}"
disabled="#{game.number eq game.guess}"/>
<h:commandButton id="RestartButton" value="Reset"
action="#{game.reset}" immediate="true" />
<h:outputText id="Higher" value="Higher!"

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Getting Started with NetBeans

rendered="#{game.number gt game.guess and
game.guess ne 0}"
style="color: red"/>
<h:outputText id="Lower" value="Lower!"
rendered="#{game.number lt game.guess and
game.guess ne 0}"
style="color: red"/>
</h:panelGrid>

Replace the string Number with the string Your Guess, so that the markup now looks
like this:
<h:panelGrid border="1" columns="5" style="font-size: 18px;">

Your Guess:
<h:inputText id="inputGuess" value="#{game.guess}"
required="true" size="3"
disabled="#{game.number eq game.guess}"
validator="#{game.validateNumberRange}">
</h:inputText>
<h:commandButton id="GuessButton" value="Guess"
action="#{game.check}"
disabled="#{game.number eq game.guess}"/>
<h:commandButton id="RestartButton" value="Reset"
action="#{game.reset}" immediate="true" />
<h:outputText id="Higher" value="Higher!"
rendered="#{game.number gt game.guess and
game.guess ne 0}" style="color: red"/>
<h:outputText id="Lower" value="Lower!"
rendered="#{game.number lt game.guess and
game.guess ne 0}" style="color: red"/>
</h:panelGrid>

Save the file, and without redeploying the application or reloading the page,
go back to the embedded browser window. Our change will be reflected on
the rendered page.

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Chapter 1

In order for the accelerated HTML5 development feature to work in Chrome, we

need to install the NetBeans Connector plugin from the Chrome Web Store. If we
select Chrome as our web browser (under the With NetBeans Connector section
on the menu) and attempt to run our application, NetBeans will prompt us to install
the plugin.

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Getting Started with NetBeans

Clicking on the button labeled Go to Chrome Web Store takes us directly to the
download page for the NetBeans Connector plugin:

Clicking on the button labeled Free at the upper-right corner results in a pop-up
window displaying the permissions for the NetBeans connector plugin:

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Chapter 1

Clicking on the Add button automatically installs the plugin. We can then run our
project on the Chrome browser and any changes we make to the markup will be
instantly reflected on the browser.

As we can see in this screenshot, when running our application through the
NetBeans connector, Chrome displays a message alerting us of the fact.

Summary
In this chapter, we learned how to download and install NetBeans.
We also learned how to set up NetBeans with third-party Java EE application servers
and with third-party relational database systems, including how to register a JDBC
driver for the RDBMS in question.
We built and deployed our first Java EE application by using one of the sample
projects included by NetBeans.
Finally, we covered some of the NetBeans' features such as code completion, code
templates, keyboard shortcuts, and visual cues that allow us to do our job more
effectively as software developers.

[ 51 ]

Get more information Java EE 7 Development with NetBeans 8

Where to buy this book

You can buy Java EE 7 Development with NetBeans 8 from the Packt Publishing
website.
Alternatively, you can buy the book from Amazon, BN.com, Computer Manuals and most internet
book retailers.
Click here for ordering and shipping details.

www.PacktPub.com

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