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        <h1>Meet a NetBeans Module Writer: Tonny Kohar</h1>
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                <tr>
                    <td align="center"><img border="1" src="nbm_interviews/tonny/tonny2.png" alt="Tonny's picture" align="middle">
                        
                    <br><b>Tonny Kohar</b></td>
                </tr>
                <td>Tonny's Hot Links:
                	 <ul>
<li><a href="http://blogs.kiyut.com/tonny/category/java/netbeans/">My Blog with NetBeans Platform Tricks</a>
		 </ul>
	
                
            </tbody>
        </table>
        

<p>Citra FX is a filter effects tool for digital photos or images. It
allows anyone, regardless of experience, to give unique artisitic looks
to their digital images. In other words, it is a dark room for
digital photos. 

<p>Since Citra FX is not a general purpose photo editing software, like
industry leader Adobe Photosho or the GIMP open source graphics package,
the user interface flow is totally different. It does not have
a complex layer tool, brush, and so on.  Instead it tries to simplify the user
experience radically. This simplistic user interface experience allows anyone,
with or without graphics expertise, to use Citra FX to produce
impressive photo effects.

<p><img src="nbm_interviews/tonny/citra.png" alt="citra pic" align="middle">

<p>Using the <a href="https://platform.netbeans.org">NetBeans Platform</a> for the
base framework,
<a href="http://www.jhlabs.com/ip/filters/index.html">JHLabs</a>
for the image filter math, and JDK 6, Tonny Kohar and his team have been able able to produce
Citra FX as a cross platform tool, making it easy to develop and extend via
plugins, with advanced graphics filtering capabilities.


<h3>First, Tonny, what has been your role on this project?</h3>

<p>I am the product manager for Citra FX. I have been with the project since the
beginning of April 2007.

<h3>And what are the new features in this release?</h3>

<ul>
    <li>New background -> plain or checkerboard
    <li>New Boolean Selection, shift key (union) ctrl key (subtract)
    <li>New Filter Blur -> Smart Blur
    <li>New Filter Blur -> Unsharp Mask
    <li>New Filter Mask -> Mask Effects
    <li>New command line open options
    <li>Migration to NetBeans Platform 6 RC1
</ul>

<p>This is also the first of our products that utilizes NetBeans Platform 6 features,
such as the new <a href="http://bits.netbeans.org/dev/javadoc/org-openide-util/org/openide/util/NbPreferences.html">NbPreferences</a> class
in the <a href="http://bits.netbeans.org/dev/javadoc/org-openide-util/overview-summary.html">Utilities API</a>,
the <a href="http://bits.netbeans.org/dev/javadoc/org-netbeans-modules-sendopts/overview-summary.html">Command Line Parsing API</a>,
and the new positioning attribute in the <tt>layer.xml</tt> file.

<h3>What are some things you've learned while working on this release,
in terms of project management as well as in terms of coding?</h3>

<p>If you still remember <a href="https://platform.netbeans.org/articles/nbm_interview_tonny.html">our
last interview</a>, at that time I was learning and appreciating
the NetBeans Platform <a href="http://bits.netbeans.org/dev/javadoc/org-openide-util/org/openide/util/lookup/package-summary.html">Lookup</a>
package, which is part of the <a href="http://bits.netbeans.org/dev/javadoc/org-openide-util/overview-summary.html">Utilities API</a>. 
This time I've learned a lot about NetBeans Platform branding. We 
can now totally brand our application, from the splash screen,
to the About dialog, even all the way down to the updater splash screen.
So, now we can comply completely with our branding specification!

<p>As I go along with our projects, I usually write blog entries about
things I've learned. The blog is here:


<p><a href="http://blogs.kiyut.com/tonny/category/java/netbeans/">http://blogs.kiyut.com/tonny/category/java/netbeans/</a>

<p>I also really appreciate the NetBeans Platform backward
compatibility design, it is excellent and well thought through. 
Initially, we developed Citra FX on top of NetBeans Platform 5.5.1, then in the
middle period we switched to NetBeans Platform 6 M10, NetBeans Platform 6 Beta 1, and
then NetBeans 6 RC1. Each time, the migration process ran very smoothly. Things
that surprised me was there were no errors at all, only warnings (which were
easy to fix), although
it is a migration from the NetBeans 5.5.1 to 6 series. This is a real
productivity boost in the project management area. 

<p>We also appreciate the NetBeans Platform 6 Command Line Parsing API and
the NbPreferences API. Only a few lines of code added and voila our application
suddenly has a new feature. 

<h3>Can you give us a code snippet or other technical Java tip that you would like to share, as a result of something learned on this project?</h3>

<p>This is how we implement Command Line Parsing API to parse command line argument
to automatically open file when the application started.

<pre>
citra myphoto.jpg
citra -open myphoto.jpg
citra -o myphoto.jpg
</pre>

<pre>

public class CitraOptionProcessor extends OptionProcessor {

    private Option openOption = Option.defaultArguments();
    private Option openOption2 = Option.additionalArguments('o', "open");

    public Set&lt;Option&lt; getOptions() {
        HashSet&lt;Option&gt; set = new HashSet&lt;Option&gt;();
        set.add(openOption);
        set.add(openOption2);
        return set;
    }

    public void process(Env env, Map values) throws CommandException {
    
        List&lt;String&gt; filenameList = new ArrayList&lt;String&gt;();
    
        Object obj = values.get(openOption);
        if (obj != null) {
            filenameList.addAll(Arrays.asList((String[]) obj));
        }
        
        obj = values.get(openOption2);
        if (obj != null) {
            filenameList.addAll(Arrays.asList((String[]) obj));
        }

        if (filenameList.isEmpty()) {
            return;
        }
        
        File file = new File(filenameList.get(0));
        if (!file.isAbsolute()) {
            file = new File(env.getCurrentDirectory(), filenameList.get(0));
        }

        if (!file.exists() || !ImageUtilities.isFileImage(file)) {
            return;
        }
        
        try {
	    // replace the below line with your own, for example DataObject open cookie:
            //FXContextManager.getInstance().open(file);
            
        } catch (OutOfMemoryError ex) {
            String msg = Application.getMessage("MSG_OutOfMemoryError.Text");
            NotifyDescriptor nd =  new NotifyDescriptor.Message(msg, NotifyDescriptor.ERROR_MESSAGE);
            DialogDisplayer.getDefault().notify(nd);
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            NotifyDescriptor nd =  new NotifyDescriptor.Message(ex.getMessage(), NotifyDescriptor.ERROR_MESSAGE);
            DialogDisplayer.getDefault().notify(nd);
        }
        
    }
}

</pre>

<p>To use the Command Line Parsing API, you basically need to do the following:

<ol>
    <li>Create a <tt>META-INF/services</tt> folder in the source folder. 
    <li>Put a file there with the name <tt>org.netbeans.spi.sendopts.OptionProcessor</tt>.
    <li>Inside that file put the text <tt>kiyut.citra.CitraOptionProcessor</tt> on the first line.
    <li>Then implement that class.
</ol>

<h3>Can you show us some more screenshots?</h3>

<p>Of course! Here are two:

<p><img src="nbm_interviews/tonny/citra-02.jpg" border="1" alt="citra pic" align="middle">

<p><img src="nbm_interviews/tonny/citra-03.jpg" border="1" alt="citra pic" align="middle">


<h3>So is this product free? Can anyone use it without restrictions?</h3>

<p>Citra FX Photo Filter is shareware, so you are free to try it. However, if
you decide to keep the software, a payment is required. Note that
if you are a non-profit, non-commercial, or educational institution, you
can get a license for free, just contact our sales department (sales at kiyut dot com).

<h3>What are the plans for the next release?</h3>

<p>In the short term, we would like to upgrade Citra FX to NetBeans 6 Final
Release (currently it is using NetBeans 6 RC1) and add more image
filters.

<h3>Where can I download the current release?</h3>

<p>The latest release is available at
<a href="http://www.kiyut.com/products/citra/index.html">http://www.kiyut.com/products/citra/index.html</a> under the download
section.

<h3>Any other final thoughts to share?</h3>

<p>We are glad that we are using NetBeans Platform, it really helped us a
lot during the development and got us faster to market. The NetBeans Platform lets us focus on our application instead of wasting resources
on developing our own framework.


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