Extreme Java

Given any Node on a NetBeans Platform Application, you can create a “new action” by adding “SystemAction.get(NewAction.class)” to your node’s actions (overriding Node.getAction). You must also override the Node.getNewTypes.

Everything is simple and obvious - except one detail: be careful when overriding the node’s lookup. This works:

public class MyNode extends AbstractNode {
  public MyNode() {
    super(Children.LEAF);
  }
}

But this don’t (you will only get a grayed “Add” menu):

public class MyNode extends AbstractNode {
  public MyNode(MyElement a) {
    super(Children.LEAF, Lookups.fixed(a));
  }
}

The answer is not obvious (I took hours to find out) - you must add “this” to the node lookup, using the old InstanceContent recipe:

public class MyNode extends AbstractNode {
  public MyNode(MyElement a) {
    this(a, new InstanceContent());
  }
  public MyNode(MyElement a, InstanceContent ic) {
    super(Children.LEAF, new AbstractLookup(ic));
    ic.add(this);
    ic.add(a);
  }
}

In a previous post, I’ve told that I want to use NetBeans and share projects with developers that still use Eclipse. Since we have a custom requirements, I plan to customize the way NB handle these projects.

As you will notice, every NB project customization will go into the layer file, under “Projects” folder. You will be surprised on how easy it goes.

In this post, my task is to make a “config” folder visible under “Projects” tab of NetBeans. Assuming you already have a NetBeans module project ready, steps are:

1. Create an utility class with this method:

   public static boolean isMyProject(Project proj) {
     // check if it is a nb project
     if (proj.getProjectDirectory().getFileObject("nbproject") ==
       null) {
       return false;
     }
     // check if our custom folder exists
     return (proj.getProjectDirectory().getFileObject("config") !=
       null);
   }

2. In your layer.xml, create an entry named “Projects / type-of-your-desired-project / Nodes”. You can look into “Important Files / XML Layer / Projects / org-netbeans-modules-xxx-project / Nodes” and right click on it to add a new file - NB will add the “folder” tags automatically;
3. Inside “Nodes”, add a file named “org-mycompany-MyCompanyNodeFactory.instance” (or rename the file if you created it on step 1);
4. Now, create a class named “org.mycompany.MyCompanyNodeFactory” that implements NodeFactory. This is a pretty small one:

   public class MyNodeFactoryImpl implements NodeFactory {
     public NodeList createNodes(Project proj) {
       if (MyUtils.isMyProject(project) {
         try {
           MyFilesNode nd = new MyFilesNode(proj);
           return NodeFactorySupport.fixedNodeList(nd);
         } catch (DataObjectNotFoundException ex) {
           Exceptions.printStackTrace(ex);
         }
       }
       // if we can't use it, return an empty list
       return NodeFactorySupport.fixedNodeList();
     }
   }

5. Create the MyFilesNode. It must be a child of Node. You can do anything you want here (just Google it and you will see what I mean). Mine is:

   public class MyFilesNode extends AbstractNode {
     private static Image smallImage =
             Utilities.loadImage("/path-to/icon-8x8.gif"); // NOI18N
   
     public MyFilesNode(Project proj) {
       super(Children.create(new MyChildFactory(proj), true);
     }
     public String getDisplayName() {
       return "My Files";
     }
     // A bonus: this snippet will merge NB folder icon and
     // your 8x8 icon
     @Override
     public Image getIcon(int type) {
       DataFolder root = DataFolder.findFolder(
         Repository.getDefault().getDefaultFileSystem().getRoot());
       Image original = root.getNodeDelegate().getIcon(type);
       return Utilities.mergeImages(original, smallImage, 7, 7);
     }
     @Override
     public Image getOpenedIcon(int type) {
       DataFolder root = DataFolder.findFolder(
         Repository.getDefault().getDefaultFileSystem().getRoot());
       Image original = root.getNodeDelegate().getIcon(type);
       return Utilities.mergeImages(original, smallImage, 7, 7);
     }
   }

   And, of course, the ChildFactory is:

   public class MyChildFactory extends ChildFactory<String> {
     private Project proj;
   
     public TransitFilesChildren(Project proj) {
       this.proj = proj;
     }
   
     /* Since a node is the visual representation of
      * something else, this method builds the list
      * of "something else"s we want to show. If this
      * was a business application, the "key" could be
      * a value object. In this module, the key will
      * be the name of the custom folder.
      */
     @Override
     protected boolean createKeys(List<String> keys) {
       keys.add("ant");    // another folder - why not?
       keys.add("config");
       return true;
     }
   
     @Override
     protected Node createNodeForKey(String key) {
       // 1. Find the FileObject for the folder
       FileObject fo = proj.getProjectDirectory().getFileObject(key);
       // 2. Find the DataFolder for the FileObject
       DataFolder df = DataFolder.findFolder(fo);
       // 3. Create a custom filter
       DataFilter filter = new MyDataFilter();
       // 4. Get DataFolder children (with filter)
       Children children = df.createNodeChildren(filter);
       // 5. Create a proxy lookup
       Lookup lookup = new ProxyLookup(new Lookup[]{
         df.getNodeDelegate().getLookup(), proj.getLookup()
       });
       // 6. Create a filter node
       return new FilterNode(df.getNodeDelegate(), children, lookup);
     }
   
     /**
      * Filter DataObjects that must not be shown (like .svn folders)
      */
     static final class MyDataFilter implements ChangeListener,
       ChangeableDataFilter {
   
       private final ChangeSupport changeSupport =
         new ChangeSupport(this);
   
       public MyDataFilter() {
         VisibilityQuery.getDefault().addChangeListener(this);
       }
       public boolean acceptDataObject(DataObject obj) {
         FileObject fo = obj.getPrimaryFile();
         return VisibilityQuery.getDefault().isVisible(fo);
       }
       public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent e) {
         changeSupport.fireChange();
       }
       public void addChangeListener(ChangeListener listener) {
         changeSupport.addChangeListener(listener);
       }
       public void removeChangeListener(ChangeListener listener) {
         changeSupport.removeChangeListener(listener);
       }
     }
   }

6. Now, go toproject properties and add the following modules (you can also search for the needed classes):
   1. Datasystems API (ChangeableDataFilter, DataFilter, DataFolder and DataObject);
   2. Filesystem API (FileObject);
   3. General Queries API (VisibilityQuery);
   4. Nodes API (ChildFactory, Children, FilterNode and Node);
   5. Project API (Project);
   6. Utilities API (ChangeSupport, Lookup and ProxyLookup);

Now, if you run the project, you will notice the new folder under Projects view.

In my job, they officially use Eclipse Europa to develop. I really dislike Eclipse - it is a matter of taste. Because of this, I’m using NetBeans ability to share projects (like in this demo) - and it works like a charm.

But, since even rose has its thorn, they have some custom tasks here:

1. Inside every project, there’s a “config” folder with some files that must be copied to a “/var/xxx” folder before running the application;
2. A custom ant build script to create a ZIP file that will go to test and production environments; and
3. The file from step 2 must be transfered via SFTP to specific servers, on a folder named like “/var/deploy/xxx”.

These are manually-repeated tasks that must be done for every project. Eclipse users (here) must do it step-by-step. NetBeans users will use a (custom) brand-new module that I developed to do these tasks.

Just to enumerate, we need to solve these problems:

1. The “config” folder must be visible in “Projects” tab (it is under “Files” tab, but it is ugly);
2. An ant task in a custom build script must be called whenever I want;
3. The “config” folder must be copied to “/var/xxx” when the project is compiled;
4. An ZIP file must be sent via SFTP to a “/var/deploy/xxx” folder;
5. I don’t want to hardcode the “xxx” - what about a new tab on project properties?

OK. We have a lot of things to cover here. But, they are very simple. Since it could become a large post, I’ll cover them in other posts (that will be have a pingback here, on comments section).