NetBeans 7.3 helps with web-centric development

Oracle has released version 7.3 of its NetBeans open source IDE; this is mainly used in Java development, but also works with PHP and C/C++. The new release's features cater predominantly to the needs of programmers who increasingly need to include HTML5, JavaScript and CSS in their desktop and mobile applications. As a consequence, the majority of new features affect the web development and mobile capabilties of the IDE. The highlight of these enhancements is the new JavaScript editor and debugger that is based on the Nashorn project; Nashorn is the new JavaScript implementation for the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

NetBeans now also supports HTML5 and offers automatic code completion for HTML5 elements (Project Easel). Code completion is also available for the jQuery JavaScript framework and for CSS3. Deep integration with WebKit and Chrome is also a theme of NetBeans 7.3: HTML previews in the IDE are handled by an internal WebKit-based browser, while a Chrome browser extension allows debugging of web applications from within NetBeans. The plugin makes use of WebKit's debugging protocol to enable this. The IDE can also generate JavaScript client code to access a server's Java-based REST services.

The development of code for the Java platform is now aided by new recommendations and refactorings in the editor and by new options for editing FXML files in JavaFX projects. The Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) and its associated GlassFish reference implementation are enhanced by the new JPQL (Java Persistence Query Language) editor that allows queries to be launched and tested straight from within the editor. Finally, the new version supports the profiling of Java applications on Linux ARM systems, including the Raspberry Pi.

NetBeans 7.3 is available to download for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and is licensed under CDDL v1.0 and GPLv2.

(fab)