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NetBeans IDE 5.5 Release Notes

Welcome to NetBeans IDE 5.5. NetBeans IDE is a modular, standards-based integrated development environment (IDE), written in the Java programming language. The NetBeans project consists of:

An open source IDE written in the Java programming language. An application platform, which can be used as a generic framework to build any kind of application. Add-on packs, such as Mobility and Profiler that enable you to extend NetBeans IDE's functionality.

For release information about NetBeans Add-on packs, see:

Mobility Pack Release Notes Profiler Release Notes Visual Web Pack Release Notes Enterprise Pack Release Notes UML Modeling Module Release Notes

Supported Technologies System Requirements Compatibility Known Issues Documentation More Information

Note: If you are looking for information about installing the NetBeans IDE 5.5, see the NetBeans IDE 5.5 Installation Instructions.

Supported Technologies

NetBeans IDE 5.5 supports the following technologies:

Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) 3.0 JAX-WS 2.0 Java Persistence (JSR-220) JavaServer Faces 1.2 (JSR-252) Java Servlet 2.5 JavaServer Pages (JSP) 2.1 Struts 1.2.9 Java API for XML-based Remote Procedure Calls (JAX-RPC) 1.1 Java APIs for XML Registries (JAXR) 1.0 Java API for XML Processing (JAXP) 1.2 JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library 1.1

Note: using versions of JBoss, WebLogic, or Struts other than those explicitly listed could result in unpredictable IDE behavior because they are External interfaces and not controlled by the project team.

NetBeans IDE 5.5 has been tested with the following application servers:

Sun Java System Application Server PE 9.0 Update Release 1 Sun Java System Application Server PE 8.2 Tomcat 5.5.17 JBoss 4.0.4 WebLogic 9.1

If you are using the GlassFish application server, note that it is recommended to run the final build of GlassFish V1 UR1 (build 14) in order to work with NetBeans IDE 5.5 .

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System Requirements

Supported Operating Systems

NetBeans IDE runs on operating systems that support the Java VM. Below is a list of platforms that NetBeans IDE has been tested on.

Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 Solaris operating system (SPARC and x64 Platform Editions) version 10 Mac OS X 10.4.5 PPC Red Hat Fedora Core 3 (except when running in the zh_CN locale and possibly other Asian locales)

NetBeans IDE is also known to run on the following platforms:

Java Desktop System 2 Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP4 Mac OS X 10.4.5 Intel Various other Linux distributions, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux Open VMS 7.2-1 or later

Minimum Hardware Configurations

Note: The IDE's minimum screen resolution is 1024x768 pixels.

Microsoft Windows operating systems:

Processor: 500 MHz Intel Pentium III workstation or equivalent Memory: 512 MB Disk space: 850 MB of free disk space

Linux operating system:

Processor: 500 MHz Intel Pentium III workstation or equivalent Memory: 512 MB Disk space: 450 MB of free disk space

Solaris OS (SPARC):

Processor: UltraSPARC II 450 MHz Memory: 512 MB Disk space: 450 MB of free disk space

Solaris OS (x86/x64 Platform Edition):

Processor: AMD Opteron 100 Series 1.8 GHz Memory: 512 MB Disk space: 450 MB of free disk space

Macintosh OS X operating system:

Processor: PowerPC G4 Memory: 512 MB Disk space: 450 MB of free disk space

Recommended Hardware Configurations

Microsoft Windows operating systems:

Processor: 1.4 GHz Intel Pentium III workstation or equivalent Memory: 1 GB Disk space: 1 GB of free disk space

Linux operating system:

Processor: 1.4 GHz Intel Pentium III or equivalent Memory: 1 GB Disk space: 850 MB of free disk space

Solaris OS (SPARC):

Processor: UltraSPARC IIIi 1 GHz Memory: 1 GB Disk space: 850 MB of free disk space

Solaris OS (x86/x64 platform edition):

Processor: AMD Opteron 100 Series 1.8 GHz Memory: 1 GB Disk space: 850 MB of free disk space

Macintosh OS X operating system:

Processor: PowerPC G5 Memory: 1 gigabyte Disk space: 850 megabytes of free disk space

Required Software

NetBeans IDE runs on the J2SE JDK 5.0 (Java SE Development Kit), which consists of the Java Runtime Environment plus developer tools for compiling, debugging, and running applications written in the Java language.

You can download the JDK for your platform from one of the sites listed below:

Solaris: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.html Windows: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.html Linux: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.html Mac OS X: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/javaupdate142.html (Mac OS X 10.3.4 or later). Mac OS upgrades are also available via Apple's Software Update mechanism. Open VMS: http://h18012.www1.hp.com/java/download/index.html

Note: You can download archived versions of the IDE at http://java.sun.com/products/archive/index.html.

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Compatibility

When you first run the IDE, you can import a subset of the settings you used in NetBeans IDE 5.0. If you choose not to import settings from a previous release, the IDE opens using the default settings.

Note: The IDE only recognizes previous installations where the user directory resides in the default location. It does not recognize installations where you have specified a user directory using the --userdir switch. If you would like to import settings from an IDE that the installer does not recognize, download an archive version of the IDE instead of the installer.

Though it is possible to import settings from a previous IDE installation into NetBeans IDE 5.5 , it is not possible to import settings from NetBeans IDE 5.5 into an earlier IDE release.

Note:If you edit the Project Properties for a project that was created in NetBeans IDE 4.1 or earlier in NetBeans IDE 5.5 , the project will no longer work in the earlier NetBeans IDE versions.

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Known Issues

Note: The NetBeans IDE and Sun Java System Application Server bundle creates the admin user with password adminadmin by default. Users should use these settings to log in via the web console.

The unresolved issues for this release are as follows:

Issue #26965: IDE installer crashes.

Description: If you have an incompatible version of sax.jar in your JDK installation, the IDE installer crashes with the following message: "The wizard cannot continue because of the following error: could not load wizard specified in /wizard.inf (104)"

Workaround: Temporarily remove jre/lib/endorsed/sax.jar from the JDK directory during IDE installation.

Issue #64771: Startup fails on Linux with SELinux (Security-enhanced) option enabled.

Description: When starting NetBeans with the SELinux (Security-enhanced) Linux option enabled, startup fails (Linux only).

Workaround: If this happens, disable SELinux temporarily by typing #setenforce 0 from the command line. Note that this requires root privileges. Then add selinux=0 to your kernel command line to disable SELinux at boot up.

Issue #64840: Network communication broken on Linux with IPv6 enabled.

Description: Network communication broken on Linux with IPv6 enabled, preventing the IDE from connecting to bundled servers, Auto Update, etc.

Workaround: If this happens, run the IDE using the -J-Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true' switch. Alternatively, disable IPv6 (in /etc/modules.conf or /etc/modprobe.conf).

For more information see: Issue #5087907.

Issue #75967: Out of memory error when working with large WSDL files.

Description: When creating a Web Service client or Web Service from WSDL, the IDE returns an OutOfMemoryError and may become unusable temporarily.

Workaround: If you encoutner this problem, edit the -J-Xmx128m startup parameter in $NB_HOME/etc/netbeans.conf to be -J-Xmx256m.

Issue #71959:Code completion fails for sources outside a project.

Description: When you open a Java source file that is not in a project and try to invoke code completion for standard Java classes, the code completion box does not offer anything.

Workaround: Create a project for sources that you want to edit in the IDE.

Characters do not display properly in some Asian locales.

Description: When running the IDE on Red Hat Fedora Core 3 in the zh_CN locale and possibly some other Asian locales, the text may be unreadable because of rendering problems. This problem is a result of font support issues with the JDK on the Fedora Core distribution, so this problem also might apply to other Java applications running on Fedora Core.

Workaround: There is no safe workaround for the rendering problem on Red Hat Fedora Core 3, so it is best to use a different Linux distribution or operating system in these locales. We have verified that this problem does not occur on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.

Issue #75562:Keymap import from NetBeans IDE 5.0 to does not work.

Description: The IDE does not correctly import all user-created keymap profiles or thanges to the standard keymap profiles.

Workaround: None.

Issue #77129: Alt keyboard bindings do not work on Macintosh platforms.

Description: None of the keyboard combinations that use the Alt key work on Macintosh.

Workaround: Use the menu items to invoke the commands.

Issue #85361: NetBeans 5.5 installer does not start on Windows Vista.

Description: On systems running Windows Vista, the NetBeans 5.5 installer fails to start and a message suggesting running with the "silent" or "console" flag appears.

Workaround: To correct this, run the installer on JDK 6.0 build 96 or newer.

If you encounter further difficulties, disable Compatibility Mode manually. You can do this by right-clicking the .exe installer file and choosing Properties from the pop-up menu, then deselecting Compatibility Mode in the Compatibility tab of the File Properties dialog. Note that if Compatibility Mode was turned on automatically, it is necessary to disable it for both the current user AND all users. To do so, click the "Show Settings for All Users" button, then deselect the Compatibility Mode checkbox in the "Compatibility for All Users" dialog.

Issue #86858: Repaint problems on MacOS with JDK 1.6.

Description: When dragging a tab a black square area appears. After dropping the tab, problems with Welcome screen repainting occur.

Workaround: Set -J-Dapple.awt.graphics.UseQuartz=true or use Java 1.5 for running the IDE.

Issue #87247: Copying class does not add required import statements.

Description: When copying and pasting a class from one package to another, the required import statements are not added.

Workaround: If you encounter this behavior, invoke the Fix Imports action on the class.

Issue #6986: Code not properly updated when bean property is renamed.

Description: When renaming a bean property with read and write methods, the source code is incorrectly updated.

Workaround: Ensure that a complete metamodel for the bean exists, then find and change the setter/getter pattern. Note that this workaround will not work if you have already edited the methods' code.

Issue #83712: Project with non-ASCII pathname cannot be built on JDK 6.

Description: When running the IDE on JDK 1.6 (regardless of what Java version you use to build your projects), and the file path to your project contains national characters not in the ASCII character set, you may encounter an error when building or running your project. This is a bug in Ant 1.6.5 triggered by newer XML parsers.

Workaround: If this occurs, you may use any of the following workarounds:

Place your project in a folder which does not use such characters by renaming the Project using the project's contextual menu. Run the IDE under JDK 5. Download Ant 1.7.0. Then switch the Ant Home paramter to point to the 1.7.0 Ant installation in Tools > Options > Miscellaneous > Ant. Add the xercesImpl.jar to the IDE's classpath by navigating to Tools > Options > Miscellaneous > Ant and clicking Manage Classpath. Then click Add JAR/ZIP and select the file xerces-<<version>>.jar from the directory ide<<number>>/modules/ext in your NetBeans installation.

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Documentation

For information about using the IDE, see the following resources:

Getting Started:

NetBeans IDE 5.5 Installation Instructions NetBeans IDE 5.5 Quick Start Guide

Learning Trails:

For Basic Java Applications For Java GUI Applications For NetBeans Modules and Rich-Client Applications For Web Applications For Java EE Applications For SOA Applications For Mobile Applications

Complete list of NetBeans IDE 5.5 Documentation:

http://www.netbeans.org/kb/index.html

Note: If you are running the NetBeans IDE on Mac OS X, see Using NetBeans on Mac OS X for more information about keyboard equivalents, tips and tricks, and other Mac-specific topics.

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More Information

You can find news, articles, additional modules, and other useful information on the NetBeans project web site. Since NetBeans is an open-source project, the web site also provides access to source code, a bug database, information on creating your own NetBeans modules, and much more.

For more information, visit http://www.netbeans.org/.

You can keep up to date on NetBeans IDE and interact with the NetBeans community by signing up for NetBeans project mailing lists at http://www.netbeans.org/community/lists/.

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