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<title>Basic Terms for NetBeans Rich Client Application Development</title> | |
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<h1>Basic Terms for NetBeans Rich Client Application Development</h1> | |
<p><small><a href="mailto:nbdocs_feedback@usersguide.netbeans.org?subject=Feedback:%20NetBeans%20IDE%20Glossary%20for%20NetBeans%20Modules">Feedback</a></small></p> | |
<p>The NetBeans Platform tutorials assume that you are familiar with some of the | |
basic terms that relate to NetBeans module development. The terms are few | |
and not very difficult. Once you have grasped the concepts below, you should | |
consider reading <a href="nbm-idioms.html">Introduction to the NetBeans Idioms and Infrastructure</a>. | |
<p>The basic terms used in module development are as follows: | |
<ul> | |
<p><li><b>NetBeans Platform.</b> | |
The skeleton application that provides everything most applications need and little | |
of what they don't. The NetBeans Platform provides an application's common requirements -- | |
such as menus, document management, and settings -- right out of-the-box. Building an | |
application "on top of NetBeans" means that, instead of writing applications from scratch, | |
you only provide the parts of your application that the NetBeans Platform doesn't already have. | |
At the end of the development cycle, you bundle your application with the NetBeans Platform, | |
saving you time and energy and resulting in a solid, reliable application. | |
<p><li><b>System Filesystem.</b> | |
The general registry that contains NetBeans configuration information, built from the | |
layer.xml configuration files of the registered modules. NetBeans stores a wide variety | |
of configuration information in the System Filesystem. For example, the System Filesystem | |
contains a folder called Menu, which contains subfolders with names such as File and Edit. | |
These subfolders contain files that represent Java classes which implement the actions that | |
appear in the "File" and "Edit" menus in the IDE. | |
<p><li><b>Module.</b> | |
A group of Java classes that provides an application with a specific feature. For example, | |
the feature provided by the Java classes in the <a href="nbm-feedreader.html">Feed Reader Tutorial</a> is an RSS/Atom feed reader. The | |
Java classes use the manifest.mf file to declare the module and the layer.xml configuration | |
file to register their functionality in the System Filesystem. In NetBeans terminology, "plugin" | |
is an adjective, while "module" is a noun. There is no discernible difference in meaning between them. | |
<p><li><b>NetBeans APIs.</b> | |
The public interfaces and classes which are available | |
to module writers. They are divided into specific APIs for dealing with different types of functionality. | |
The contents and behavior of the Java source packages and its subpackages, as specified in the API reference | |
documentation, are the APIs. For the full NetBeans API List, click <a href="https://netbeans.org/download/dev/javadoc/">here</a>. | |
<p><li><b>Module Suite.</b> | |
A group of interdependent modules that are deployed together. The IDE helps you to brand the suite | |
-- for example, you can add a splash screen and you can specify the parts of the NetBeans Platform | |
that you don't want your application to provide. | |
</ul> | |
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