ThinNB - Thinlet support for NetBeans

1. Description & Features
2. Installation Instructions

Description & Features

ThinNB is actually two things: an umbrella project for the ThinNB family of NetBeans modules and also the module responsible for installing the ThinNB Update Center in the IDE.

The ThinNB family of NetBeans modules provides support for Thinlet in the NetBeans IDE. The currently supported NetBeans versions are 4.1, 5.0 and 5.5. Here is a more detailed description of each module:

ThinNB Jar

Makes Thinlet's jar available to other modules.

ThinNBSupport

This module adds support for Thinlet xml files. They are displayed with their own icon as shown below:

Thinlet xml files are currently recognized if they contain the following DOCTYPE declaration:

<!DOCTYPE panel 
         PUBLIC '-//Thinlets 1.0//EN' 
         'https://thinlet.dev.java.net/thinlet.dtd'>
      

Actually, only the public id is used to identify the xml file, so you could use another DTD location if it is necessary. It introduces support for two new context actions (also shown by right-clicking inside the text editor in the Tools menu): Open in visual editor and Preview:

This module implements both the Preview and the Preview in new window actions, but the Open in visual editor item is simply a hook that is implemented in another module, ThinNBEditor, described below.

The Preview mode works inside the editor, as shown below:

The Preview in new window action displays the xml file in a dialog, either using its preferred size or a fixed size, as shown below:

In order to change the window size or to make the xml be shown using its preferred size, hold the CTRL key while clicking on the action. The following dialog will appear:

The module also adds a simple template that creates a new xml file with a panel as its root element:

ThinNB ThinG

Makes ThinG's jar available to other modules.

ThinNBEditor

Provides an implementation for the Open in Visual Editor action by integrating ThinG into the IDE:

It is also possible to configure how the xml file will be generated by the editor:

ThinNB

Install a new Update Center that makes it possible to download the other modules:

Installation Instructions

1. Download the main ThinNB module, saving it to your hard disk;
2. Install it by going to Tools -> Update Center, selecting Install Manually Downloaded Modules (.nbm Files), clicking on Next > and adding the downloaded net-java-dev-thinnb.nbm file from the location you saved it. Do not forget to mark the Include checkbox before clicking on Finish;
3. Once you see the Turning on modules...done. in your status bar, go back to Tools -> Update Center, make sure Check the Web for Available Updates and New Modules and ThinNB Update Center are selected and click on Next >;
4. Select any modules you want to install and enjoy! :-)