Netbeans RCP

CENG 3505 - GUI Programming

12.01.2015

Mert Kahyaoğlu

Instructor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bekir Taner Dinçer

1107090001

What is RCP?

A rich client platform is a programmer tool that makes it easier to integrate independent software components, where most of the data processing occurs on the client side. It is a software consisting of the following components:

A core , lifecycle manager
A standard bundling framework
A portable widget toolkit
File buffers, text handling, text editors
A workbench (views, editors, perspectives, wizards)
Data binding
Update manager

Netbeans Platform

Netbeans Platform is a generic framework for swing apps. Building a desktop app on top of the Netbeans Platform saves years of development time.

Features:

Modular System (also OSGi Support with Felix)
Rich API Support
Netbeans IDE features like connecting actions to menu items, toolbar items, keyboard shortcuts, window management (dockable, drag and drop, maximize, minimize.. )
Lifecycle management ( noneed main method, storing user settings easily)
Swing & JavaFX UI Support (CSS integration)
Matisse GUI Builder

OSGi & Netbeans

NetBeans Module System and OSGi are kind of similar. They provide a way to write modular applications.

You can install, uninstall, start, and stop different modules of your application dynamically without restarting the container.
Your application can have more than one version of a particular module running at the same time.
OSGi container implementations such as Knopflerfish, Equinox, and Apache Felix allow you to break your application into multiple modules and thus more easily manage cross-dependencies between them.

Netbeans vs. Eclipse

	NetBeans Platform	Eclipse RCP
UI Toolkit	Standard Swing toolkit	SWT
UI Design	Free, award winning, Matisse GUI Builder	Commercial alternatives
Module System	Standard OSGi module system or NetBeans-specific module system	Standard OSGi module system
Build System	Out of the box, Maven or Ant	Proprietary
JDK Support	VisualVM, a NetBeans Platform application, is in the JDK, so many JARs from the NetBeans Platform are in the JDK too	No equivalent support
Training	Free community-based trainings for non-commercial organizations	No equivalent support