NetBeans 7.1 Swing Application Support discontinued

[Glenn Holmer]

On Thu, 2012-05-10 at 00:09 +0200, Geertjan Wielenga wrote:

[Fabrizio Giudici]

On Thu, 10 May 2012 14:48:01 +0200, Glenn Holmer <address-removed>
wrote:

[Gregg Wonderly]

On 5/9/2012 8:07 AM, Jens Technau wrote:

[Thomas Wolf]

The thread that will never die, it seem

[Bayless Kirtley]

Similarly, several years ago I worked for a consulting firm. We had a couple of clients with huge projects they insisted be written in Java and developed using IBM

[Wade Chandler]

On 05/10/2012 10:07 AM, Gregg Wonderly wrote:

[zx5000]

I just converted a program from SAF to pure Swing and it was a pain. It was almost a re-write as even the sub-forms came over with remnants of SAF in the form. It also starting throwing the following error on a machine that it previously worked on in it's previous life. (WinXP dual head nvidia).

I am keeping a copy of NB 6.9.1 for this reason. I have dozens of SAF based applications in production here and I do not have the time to add cost without adding value to any process. I actually don't get paid to write programs. I get paid to produce solutions.

Swing runtime error from Netbeans 7.1.1 application

[wizardbj]

Certainly everybody can see there are multiple facets to the problem of dropped support for anything. The religious (yes, if you look back in this thread, you'll Eclipse-vs-NetBeans posts), and the nasty/rude stuff notwithstanding, multiple cogent arguments are present. And some posters are more eloquent and more thoughtful and respectful than others.

I just installed 7.1.2, upgrading from my 7.0.1, and of course was surprised to find that my Swing project -- the one I learned Swing on in just the last 6 months -- wouldn't load. That's when I went searching on the Forum, and of course found this thread.

The weirdest things I've found that don't seem to jive are:

1. It clearly states in the release notes that there's improvements to Swing in the new version, so why not just continue the support of SAF until it's decided to fully stop the improvements?

2. There's nothing suggesting how to mitigate the dropped support -- what to supplant, or how.

3. If the intent is for JavaFX2 to supplant Swing, then why if I go to produce a new project in it, does it tell me that I need to install it through some weird machinations? (And the instructions don't quite fit to the NetBeans screens, by the way.)

I installed the "ALL" product, selecting all the options. Don't we all agree that upon selecting everything to install, should imply that if it's presented as usable (not grey/disabled) in the NetBeans interface, it should be there?

I'm new to Java, and new to Swing. I can't possibly know everything about everything, and do expect that my chosen tools will at the very least assist me without the necessity to read all about everything prior to upgrading. When I chose the New Project in my 7.0.1, it did indeed say that SAF would eventually disappear, and I took my chances -- boy, "eventually" sure came soon, huh?

Not having even close to the investment that others have had in Swing, I'm quite willing to bite the bullet and learn how to translate what I've done. It does scare me that zx5000 had as bad an experience, and thus I'd like to jump in and completely move to JavaFX2, not even do a Swing-non-SAF port.

As one of the posters said, I get paid for producing solutions, not whether they're created in any one given technology. So, I'm going by feel here, but doing my homework -- Concurrency in Practice, Effective Java, etc. -- and expect that not everything is glad-handed to me.

So OK -- something somewhat vital was dropped (and nobody should think that such doesn't happen in paid-license products). I'm willing to learn the alternative, but I don't want my tools to throw up roadblocks on the path that I'm supposed to take; instead, I expect my tools to prepare and assist me with the correct path. So I just need to know with this situation: How is NetBeans helping me to find the Yellow Brick Road?

[Glenn Holmer]

On Thu, 2012-06-07 at 16:30 -0400, wizardbj wrote:

[wizardbj]

No, I meant what I said: If you're going to continue to support the underpinnings anyway, why not continue to include the wrapper; it doesn't mean you must improve the wrapper. At least then, things will continue to compile, and the underpinnings (Swing components) might still have bug fixes, you just know that the convenience wrapper will stay static from that point on, and thus you should just start looking for alternatives to your use of the wrapper... not alternatives to your IDE. Then you work with your many, many users to wean them off the particular wrapper (which they will start to do anyway, because you clearly state that the support is being sunsetted over time, and there are no more bug fixes).

[cybercat2]

Anyone got time for a newbie question for clarification?

History - I'm an old systems admin (programmer back in Fortran days). I still try to play with new technology. I've built several small apps using the Swing GUI builder (Matisse?). Like the posts above, my latest imports fail, first because of a swing reference (which it then fixed via download), then the infamous support message.

Two questions -

1. I looked up some Platform demos, but all had hand-coded gui builds! Is a GUI builder available for the new Platform?

2. I started a new generic app, and then did some sort of Add-Other function (found on the net), and suddenly the gui editor was there. It allowed swing form creation, etc. However the forms didn't work until I called the form from the main app, then they appeared to work. Is this a safe process, and will all form functions work?

Thanks,
Chris

[alekoc]

Hello Forum,
I would like to provide you a link and some information about the [Bug 204661] Continue to support the Swing Application Framework (JSR 296)
Yesterday I received next e-mail from onkentes@netbeans.org:

[Javier Ortiz]

Finally this can be closed. As I stated in an earlier reply, the only way to handle this kind of stuff is having the community take over. The only thing I would really appreciate is if all features of the IDE are designed as standalone so any one of them can be taken over by the community if needed.



Senior Software Quality Engineer
ArthroCare Corporation
7000 William Cannon Drive
Austin, TX 78735
Phone: 512-358-5996
email: address-removed

-----Original Message-----
From: alekoc [mailto:address-removed]
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2012 5:54 PM
To: address-removed
Subject: [nbusers] NetBeans 7.1 Swing Application Support discontinued

Hello Forum,
I would like to provide you a link and some information about the [Bug 204661] Continue to support the Swing Application Framework (JSR 296)
Yesterday I received next e-mail from address-removed:

Code:

I have built the plugin (thanks to Tomas) and made it available as a plugin for 7.2:
http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/43853/swing-application-framework-support
I guess we can finally close this report as fixed.
Bela



I have already installed NetBeans 7.2 RC1. Next I’ve downloaded recommended plugin and tried SAF for my Swing projects. It is working! Of course, I did not check everything. I just open few forms without the nasty error

Code:

“NetBeans support of SFA has been discontinued. Please, use NetBeans 7.0 if you want to use this framwork”



and was happy. Also I found some difference between NB 7.0.1 and 7.2 RC1 view, but new version looks fine to me. Next I am going to try GUI and coding.
So, you can go same way - try Bela’s plugin.

Plugin information:
Community Contributed Plugin
Link: http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/43853/swing-application-framework-support
Version: 1.16.0.4.1
Author: NetBeans project (build by Bela Onkentes)
Date: 7/11/12
Source: 1341985500_org-netbeans-modules-swingapp.nbm
Homepage: http://www.netbeans.org/

My PC info:
Product Version: NetBeans IDE 7.2 RC1 (Build 201206272359)
Java: 1.7.0_03; Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM 22.1-b02
System: Windows 7 version 6.1 running on amd64; Cp1251; en_US (nb)




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[Gregg Wonderly]

On 7/13/2012 8:00 AM, Javier Ortiz wrote:

[Rick Fincher]

Hi All,

I was glad to see in the thread below that some in the community picked
up Swing Application Framework. I never used it, but this issue and the
dropping of Visual Web Framework (VWF) a few years ago caused more
dissetion in the community than any other issues I can remember.

As a humble suggestion, maybe the NetBeans developers can come up with a
better procedure to hand off things like this.

Perhaps announce that in three months the Oracle NetBeans Team
involvement with a project will cease. Then devote the next three
months to handing off the project to the community.

That way, anyone interested can step up and get the source code learn
how to build it, and find out who the others are that have an interest
in the project so they can get organized.

This would give the interested parties time to get some detailed help
from the original developers before they are tasked with other projects.

Rick




On 7/13/2012 9:00 AM, Javier Ortiz wrote: