Inspiration and Expression

Netbeans Platform referencing other module in layer.xml Tips

How do you reference some some instance from other module in the current module layer.xml ? In my case, I need this functionality/features because I create a module that act as branding module. In this branding module I declare the shortcut, windows, menu, etc. The other module is pure API and pure components.

Because of the above requirement I need to find a ways to reference or create instance of something from other module in the branding module, so nbres:// protocols was come to rescue.

In the example below, the settings and wstcref file of the TopComponent is located at other module (Core Module) and the layer.xml below is in the Branding module.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Alkitab, Java, Netbeans | No Comments »

Tracking Java Versions using Google Analytics

Finally someone posting howto or tutorial for tracking Java version using google analytics. Here is the url for more detailed info
http://cowwoc.blogspot.com/2008/11/tracking-java-versions-using-google.html

So now you can track your visitors who have java installed. The nice things regarding this tips and tricks is that this tips also capture the java version eg: Java 1.5, 1.6, etc. So no more wondering or guessing regarding Java installed base.

Posted in Java | No Comments »

Netbeans 10th Birthday Celebration

If you haven’t realized, Netbeans is going to celebrate its 10th birthday. This event will be started from October 20, 2008. Here is the excerpt from the Netbeans Event Site.

Since 1998, NetBeans has grown from a student project into an award winning Open Source project, IDE and application platform. With millions of downloads a year worldwide, the NetBeans community boasts an active and diverse following of software developers, students, instructors and partner companies.

For our 10th birthday bash we plan to highlight some of the key initiatives and individuals whose contributions and dedication have kept the NetBeans momentum going strong. There will be unique content—video greetings, community profiles and more—available during the week-long retrospective.

We’ve also come up with a fun way for the community to celebrate with us—the NetBeans Decathlon! Ten interactive activities that let NetBeans users show and share what the NetBeans project means to them.

Participants will be entered to win a cool limited edition NetBeans T-shirt. Stay tuned for details of the Decathlon and the official birthday kickoff!

Visit Netbeans 10th Birthday Celebration Site.

Posted in Java, Netbeans | No Comments »

Netbeans Platform Localization as Plugins

This is another series of Netbeans Platform i18n and localization trick. You can read the other series in here and here. This methods is used to localize Netbeans Platform based Application which can be updated using Update Center. It also have an entry on the Plugins List. However, please note this may be somekind of HACK. The proper localization should be following Netbeans Localization Project.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Alkitab, Java, Netbeans | 5 Comments »

Alkitab Bible Study 0.9

We just released Alkitab Bible Study 0.9. Alkitab Bible Study is open source and free desktop based Bible Study tool. It features rich and user friendly Bible study tools. Alkitab supports parallel view, commentaries, lexicons, dictionaries, glossaries, and daily devotions. It also come with powerful search capability. Alkitab is an alternative front end to the JSword project. Alkitab also build on top of Netbeans Platform

What’s new:

• Add Sword AugmentPath and DownloadDir
• Add Strongs and Morphology User Preferences or Options
• Add Source Viewer
• Various UI Improvement
• Various Bug Fixes
• [Installer] add options to install some books:
  KJV, StrongsHebrew, StrongsGreek, Robinson Morph

This release improve the stability a lot, it fixes many bugs. The next release will be 1.0 final, so if you find any bugs, questions, etc please do not hesitate to drop me a note, it help me a lot to stop the bugs before 1.0 final.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Alkitab, KIYUT | 9 Comments »

Standalone Module Branding tips

Just a simple tip regarding module branding splash during development or debugging.

If you build a “standalone” module for your Netbeans RCP based application, during development you will notice that it will display the original Netbeans IDE/RCP splash screen rather than your branded application splash screen.

To enable your own branded splash during development you can add the following on the module project properties

# replace the token with your own branding token
branding.token=alkitab
branding.dir=none

Note: it is tested on Netbeans 6.1

Posted in Alkitab, Java, Netbeans | 1 Comment »

Citra FX Photo Effects 2.5 Released

KIYUT just released Citra FX Photo Effects 2.5, a photo filter effects for digital photos or images. It allows anyone, regardless of experience, to turn digital images into unique artistic looks. Creating impressive photo effects have never been this easy and fun. It is well suited for everything from simple to advanced digital photo or image filtering.

• Many Photo Filter and Photo Effects.
• Easy, simple, and fun to create impressive photo effects.
• But suprisingly powerful.

What’s new:

• Add Crop Tool
• Add Selection Resize Tool
• Add Zoom (ctrl-key) and Pan (shift-key) with MouseWheel support
• Add Handle Size Options Preferences
• Add Menu – File – Revert
• Add Menu – File – Save As
• Improved Rotate Tool (shift-key)
• Improved Canvas
• Other bug fixes and enhancements

Citra FX Photo Effects Information

Product Page
http://www.kiyut.com/products/citra/index.html

Features Page
http://www.kiyut.com/products/citra/features.html

Screenshots Page
http://www.kiyut.com/products/citra/screenshots.html

Posted in Citra FX, KIYUT | No Comments »

Netbeans Platform Ant based build system trick

If you build an application on top of Netbeans Platform, you probably already know that it is using Apache Ant as the build system. Thanks to this flexibility of Netbeans Platform (ant based build system), this system allow us to do various trick to automate stuff. For example

• Netbeans Platform Branding and version info
• Netbeans Platform and Default User Directory Settings
• Deploy Netbeans Platform based Application using IzPack Installer

This time the trick is how to override build-zip ant target to add your own files eg: license file, properties or configuration files, etc

Basically it is just

1. zip as specified by the build-zip target
2. unzip the result of build zip
3. do your stuff eg: copy, move, delete, etc
4. zip again

<!-- step (1) see depend suite.build-zip -->
<target name="build-zip" depends="suite.build-zip">
  <property name="nbdist.dir" value="dist"/>
  <property name="release.dir" value="${nbdist.dir}/${app.name}"/>
 
  <!-- step (2) unzip the result  -->
  <unzip src="${nbdist.dir}/${app.name}.zip" dest="${nbdist.dir}"/>
 
  <!-- step (3) do your copying stuff here, check the ant doc for copy, move, etc file -->
 
  <!-- step (4) zip again -->
  <zip destfile="${nbdist.dir}/${app.name}-updated.zip">
      <zipfileset dir="${release.dir}" prefix="${app.name}"/>
  </zip>
 
  <echo message=" "/>
  <echo message="cleaning and finalizing release" />
  <delete dir="${release.dir}"/>
</target>

Posted in Java, Netbeans | 3 Comments »

Netbeans Platform localization and branding trick

This is the second part of Netbeans Platform i18n and localization trick. The first part is available at Netbeans Platform i18n and localization.

This approach is using branding trick to override the Netbeans Platform default localization. I think this is a HACK, use with caution. The proper localization should be following Netbeans Localization Project. Please see

• http://translatedfiles.netbeans.org/
• http://translatedfiles.netbeans.org/index-platform.html
• http://translatedfiles.netbeans.org/index-l10n.html

So for example, you want to localize Menu – File – Exit to Keluar (Indonesian localization for exit), this could not be done with layer.xml trick because that Menu Action is not localized through layer.xml, it is using NbBundle.getBundle instead. So what you need to do is using the Netbeans Platform branding feature to localize that Menu Action.

Note: This is tested on Netbeans 6.0.1

Step 1: Find out the localization location

You need to know where it is localized and the name of jar, in this case it under
org.netbeans.core.actions.Bundle
with key Exit=E&xit
jar name = org-netbeans-core.jar

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Java, Netbeans | 2 Comments »

Java Web Start Application

Finally, we just build Java Web Start for Sketsa SVG Editor and Citra FX Photo Effects. Last time, we disabled Java Web Start due to the Netbeans Bug: 96928 which is now fixed. However, there are another Java Web Start related bug which is not fixed yet:

• 96928 – fixed
• 76196 – not fixed yet
• 76197 – not fixed yet

For us the above bugs effect the external web browser module, so we just disabled this external web browser module for our application web start.

Now, you can try our application as Java Web Start (no installation required)

• Sketsa SVG Editor Web Start
• Citra FX Photo Effects Web Start

Note: this is still experimental

If you have any feedback, please do not hesitate to drop me a note.

Posted in Citra FX, Java, KIYUT, Netbeans, Sketsa, SVG | 2 Comments »