New Documentation for Maven-Based NetBeans Platform Development

With the release of NetBeans Platform 6.9, a lot of work has been done to help Maven-based development get started on the NetBeans Platform. One related enhancement to the NetBeans team is that a technical writer (Ken Ganfield) has been assigned to work on specifically this area of the NetBeans Platform, i.e., a technical writer working on not much more than Maven-based tutorials and other documentation for NetBeans Platform developers.

The main task has involved taking some of the most widely used NetBeans Platform tutorials and converting them from being Ant-based to Maven-based. Concretely, that has resulted, so far, in the following three in depth tutorials on how to use the NetBeans Platform to create Maven-based applications:

• NetBeans Platform Quick Start. This document is based on the Ant-based NetBeans Platform Quick Start for NetBeans Platform and illustrates the differences between using Ant and Maven to develop NetBeans Platform applications.


• Working with NetBeans Module Suites. This document is based on the Ant-based NetBeans Selection Management Tutorial and illustrates the differences between using Ant and Maven to develop NetBeans Platform module suites.


• Creating a NetBeans Platform CRUD Application. This document is based on the Ant-based NetBeans CRUD Application Tutorial for NetBeans Platform and illustrates the differences between using Ant and Maven to develop NetBeans Platform applications. (A completed Maven-based CRUD sample is also included in the IDE, as well as an Ant-based CRUD sample.)


• Creating a NetBeans Module Using Maven. This document is based on the Ant-based NetBeans File Type Tutorial and illustrates some of the differences between using Ant and Maven to develop NetBeans Platform modules.

More tutorials in this area will be forthcoming. Be aware that the above tutorials should be considered "drafts" at this point and, hence, anyone reading this is strongly encouraged to read through the above tutorials and, even better, follow the steps and provide comments... feel free to do so at the end of this blog.

Thanks Ken for these great tutorials and the work you've put into this area!