NetBeans Wiki

NetBeans User FAQ

This User FAQ for NetBeans IDE 6.0 and previous versions provides answers to frequently asked questions relating to the use of the NetBeans IDE. Don't see what you need here? Check the FAQ Index for more listings.

Only post a question if you also have an answer! If you have a question without an answer, send your question to a NetBeans Mailing List, such as nbusers@netbeans.org or nbdev@netbeans.org, or check into NetBeans Support Resources, and then share your new-found wisdom with the rest of the community here.

Here's How To Add FAQ Entries

Table of Contents


Installation

When I download the NetBeans installer for Windows, the file lacks the "exe" extension and won't run. How can I run the installer? I cannot download NetBeans. Is the NetBeans installer available on CD-ROM/DVD too? Is there a platform-independent NetBeans installer? How do I run the graphical installer on Linux? Why does the NetBeans installer fail saying "No Java Development Kit (JDK) was found on this system"? I do have a suitable JDK installed correctly. How can I make the installer use it? What to do when the installer fails saying "The wizard cannot continue... could not load wizard specified in /wizard.inf (104)"? What to do if installation of AppServer fails on Mac OS X 10.4. w/ JDK 1.5.x? What is the admin username/password of the built-in Tomcat? Does the NetBeans installer run on Windows 98SE / Windows ME? How do I install NetBeans and packs on 64-bit Windows? What to do when NetBeans fails on Win XP with "IllegalStateException: Out of bounds"? What are the right combinations of NetBeans IDE 5.5 and Packs (Profiler, Mobility Pack, C/C++ Pack/...) ? How do I uninstall NetBeans in Mac OS X? How to install the IDE of the same version several times ? How to solve problems with exceptions in unpack200 during NetBeans 6.x installation? How to install NetBeans on Ubuntu? The JavaDoc popup remains empty, how do I install documentation? How to install and run correctly the NetBeans 6.1 IDE on Windows Vista How to avoid problems with installation of plugins on Windows Vista How do I perform a silent installation of NetBeans IDE? When I installed on Vista, why did it not install NetBeans?

Configuration

What is the ".netbeans" directory? What is a ''userdir'' and where can I find it? Can I run NetBeans with an alternate ''userdir''? How can I move the ".netbeans" directory? Can I run multiple IDE instances simultaneously? What are the NetBeans startup parameters (a.k.a. command-line options)? How do I make my custom startup parameters permanent? Can I specify which Java Development Kit (JDK) NetBeans uses? Can I run NetBeans using only the Java Runtime (JRE)? The default font size used in menus, dialogs, views, etc. is too small. Can I make it bigger? Asian characters are garbled (shown as rectangle) on my Linux box, how can I fix this? Does NetBeans support bi-directional text? How can I use UTF-8 encoding in Java source files and JavaScript files in my project? Can I run NetBeans with a custom look and feel? Can I associate a file type with NetBeans to open files of that type from File Explorer? I have multiple monitors, why are context menus displayed on the wrong screen? Can I use JUnit 4 to run tests in my project? Can I use GCJ instead of the Sun JDK for a project? Can I use JDK 1.1 for my project? I have a Xalan under jre/lib and the IDE refuses to start. Why? How can I run/debug a program in NetBeans with certain Java system properties set to certain values? How can I run/debug a program in NetBeans with certain environment variables set to necessary values? Can I use Ivy to download libraries for my project from a Maven repository? Can I use Maven Ant tasks to download libraries for my project from a Maven repository? How can I have two or more main classes with different arguments in one project? How do I create own update center? How can I get a new module from the Update Center? How can I download a module from the Update Center manually? How do I use the Update Center through a (company etc) firewall? How can I add new Update Center in the IDE? What is the difference between individual NetBeans Update Centers? How do I verify that a module was staged correctly on the NetBeans Update Center? Can I publish my own module on the NetBeans Update Center? Can I run an annotation processor from my project? Can I register Oracle's Application Server with this IDE? I have downloaded a localized netbeans; how can I run in that locale but see messages in English ? How can I setup the NetBeans working environment to be completely portable? (e.g. on a USB drive) How to run web application in NetBeans IDE, with in the bundeled Tomcat? How to improve graphics of DnD on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) with Quartz switch? How do I set or modify the language encoding for a project? How to customize Plugin Manager? How do I use Templates? What substitutions can be made in Templates? I am using a Japanese System. How do I change the Generated JavaDoc to Englist?

Migration -- Moving to NetBeans

Performance

Project System (General)

Ant

Do not forget the Apache Ant FAQ for questions not specific to NetBeans.

Freeform Projects

Navigation

Editing

I cannot type some characters or they appear in an unusual way. The code completion shortcut (Ctrl-Space) doesn't work or causes problems. Is there an alternative? The code completion shortcut produces a beep in files known to allow code completion and the code completion window disappears without warning while typing. What can I do? Scrolling in editor under Linux is slow. Is there any possibility to make it faster? Can I use back references when using regular expressions in the Find/Replace dialog? Is it possible to split editor and edit one file in two editor windows? What is hyperlinking and how can I use it? Can I compare (diff) two files outside version control? Can I Create Custom Code Folds? How various line separators (EOLs) are handled? Removing CRLF from all the java files of a project (Converting to Unix format) NetBeans 3.x used to remind me about methods to be added when implementing an interface. Is this feature gone in 4.x and 5.0? I want to use UTF-8 and multibyte characters in Netbeans. How can I insert newline characters using the 'search & replace' dialog? Where can I get an overview of keyboard shortcut changes from 5.5 to 6.0? How do I set or modify the language encoding for a project? How are file templates defined in NetBeans IDE 6? What is FreeMarker? Can you give me a list of all the predefined variables for templates, like ${user} and ${date}? How to globally change the user name that is used in file templates? I'd like to distribute my file templates to my users. What must I do?

Database Connectivity

Compiling and Building Projects

Debugging

GUI Editor (Matisse)

Can I edit the blue, guarded blocks of code when developing a GUI? Components unexpectedly moved in container during design What is the .form file? Why can't I open this old .form file? Can I generate the .form file for an existing class? What is the Swing Layout Extensions library (swing-layout) and why do I need it? How to run/distribute my GUI application created in NetBeans? How to package the ''swing-layout-<version>.jar'' library into my application JAR? Can I distribute NetBeans layout libraries with my application? Can I design my GUI without using the ''swing-layout'' library? How can I design forms with GridBagLayout? How do I create a custom container bean? Can I create forms by extending other forms? How can I use a custom subclass of a Swing component? Do I need to install it to the palette? How can I define a baseline rules for my custom component? Can I define my own spacing scheme (default gaps between components)? I installed my component to the palette, but get some error message when trying to use it! How can I define an icon for my component added to the palette? Is there a way to restore the default palette? How do I create a radio button group? How do I set tab names in a JTabbedPane? Can I change the type of already created forms? How do I add several GUI components in one go? How do I create array of GUI controls? How can I dynamically create a variable number of GUI components? What are Generate Mnemonics Code options for and how do they work? New Record on detailTable is not working Why can't I run my Java Desktop Application with Postgress database? How to instantiate Master/Detail Form in NetBeans 6.0 How do I use an IDENTITY column in a Java Desktop Application? Why does my Java Desktop Application fail to launch?

Java EE Development

Web Services Development

See also

SOA

Version Control Systems

CVS

Subversion

ClearCase

Mercurial

Profiler

Do you have any profiling tips? Which JDK releases can be used with the Profiler? Will the Profiler run on Mac? What exactly does the Profiler Calibration mean? How do I run the calibration process on a remote machine? Can I save and later retrieve the results of profiling? How can I compare memory snapshots? How do I find who prevents certain objects in memory from being garbage collected? How do I read the data on garbage collection? I can't attach the Profiler to a running application. What did I do wrong? Can I use dynamic attach for standard JDK? If I want to attach the Profiler to a running application, why do I need to give the Profiler the "working directory" for this application? How do I find out what this directory is (say if my application is really an Applicaiton Server, launched by a complex script)? On Windows, if I attach to the running application using its PID, and then detach from it, my subsequent attempts to attach to it fail. What's the problem? When I attach to a running application, and want to do "Analyze Performance - Entire Application", why does it say it can give me profiling results only for threads started after I attached the Profiler to the application? When selecting part of an application to profile, is it possible to set the filter at the package level (rather than at the method level)? Why is the total memory not equal to the sum of live bytes? How does profiling via root methods work? How is object liveness tracked? How is object allocation data collected? How do I use different timers when profiling an application? How do I select an instrumentation scheme? How can I profile all threads in a multi-threaded application? How do I instrument/not instrument special Java methods? Which method of tracking methods should I use, exact or sampled?

Java ME/Mobility

Where should I report issues about Mobility Pack? How do I specify a MIDlet icon? Why doesn't NetBeans Mobility support Solaris and Mac OS X? How can I develop mobile applications with NetBeans using MacOS? Where can I find emulators that I can use with the Mobility Pack? How should I structure my project in NetBeans if I am using both Java ME and Java SE elements? How can I create two libraries from the same source code, one to be used in J2ME projects and the other one in J2SE projects? Can I change my MIDlet project's ''dist'' destination, so it puts the jar and jad straight onto a server rather than in my local ''dist'' directory? Does the IDE generate the necessary Ant targets to launch my J2ME app in the various configured emulators? How do I add BouncyCastle crypto libraries to my J2ME project? How do I specify resource files (images, sounds) to be added to the JAR build? Why can't I open existing source files in the Visual Designer? While using Visual Mobile Designer, can I test the developed form without creating build and starting my application on WTK emulator? When I develop form, new element is added to inspector view, but I don't see it edited on screen (in visual form). Changes are only visible after I create build and start emulator. Is this proper behavior? How can I develop MIDP 1.0-compliant application when my emulator only supports MIDP 2.0? How can I add Nokia SDKs if NetBeans Platform Manager does not recognize these SDKs as valid ones? How can I create block active only for NokiaAPI AND NokiaSound abilities (both active together)? How can I use the Sony Ericsson SDK to remotely manage Java ME resources from within NetBeans? Why cannot I remove an ability from 'Add Ability' dialog? When my application tries to access network I get a message from emulator where it asks for permission to use air time. None of the buttons work though. What is going on? How to increase debugger timeout? Change the colors of TableItem when it appears as black on device Why Midlet clients for Webservices / Web applications are not generated automatically? Execute Through OTA does not show previously deployed midlets Why Mobility Pack is not able to detect NetBeans install folder automatically? I developed J2ME application in NetBeans. When running it as .prc on my Palm Tungsten C, I get message "Alert does not accept commands - java.lang.IllegalStateException." What is going on? How can I change behavior of Build Targets in Ant Build Script How Should I use SVG Menu in My Application How Can I make Web Services (JSR 172) work in my CDC project? How do I install the Sun Java Toolkit for CDC in NetBeans? What version of Proguard obfuscator is used by the IDE? Where can I find out more about Java ME development using Mobility pack? Mobility pack doesn't run on Ubuntu 7.10?

NetBeans C/C++ Development Pack

NetBeans C/C++ Development Pack FAQ and HOW-TOs

General

Projects, Building and Running your code

Debugging

Code assistance

PHP

UML

See also

NetBeans Community

Bug Reporting, Registration

Contributing, This FAQ

Community, Chat

Blogs

Mailing Lists

Plugin Portal

License and Legal Questions

Support and Training

Contributor Agreement

Other Languages

Attachments


You are viewing a mobilized version of this site...
View original page here

Mobilized by Mowser Mowser