<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<!-- -*- xhtml -*- -->
  <title>Paint App Tutorial</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://netbeans.org/netbeans.css">
  <meta name="AUDIENCE" content="NBDEV">
  <meta name="TYPE" content="ARTICLE">
  <meta name="EXPIRES" content="N">
  <meta name="indexed" content="y">

<!--      Copyright (c) 2005 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. -->
<!--     Use is subject to license terms.-->
</head>
<body>

<h1>Paint App Tutorial</h1>
<font size="-2">Tim Boudreau<br>
October 14, 2005<p>
</font>

This tutorial will demonstrate creating a simple application that allows the user to paint on the screen
and save the results.  The initial version is far from a full fledged paint application, but it demonstrates
a very simple case of creating an application.  At the time of this writing (5.0 beta just launched), there
are a few very minor glitches which should be fixed before 5.0 is released.  These are marked 
<font color="red">in red</font>.

<p>

Finished sources for the entire tutorial are in the platform project on NetBeans.org, in 
<code>samples/paint-application"</code>.  These and other samples are available via anonymous
CVS:

<p>

<pre class="examplecode">
cvs -d:pserver:anoncvs@cvs.netbeans.org:/cvs co platform_nowww
</pre>

<p>

<center>
<img src="screenshot.png">
<br><i>The finished application</i>
</center>

<p>

We will assume you are using NetBeans 5.0's module development support.

<h2>Getting Started</h2>
The very first task is to create a <i>module suite</i>.  A module suite does several things for us:
<ul>
<li>It enables us to compile and deploy a group of modules as a unit - we will have two modules</li>
<li>A suite lets us customize <i>branding</i> - i.e. supply our own splash screen, our own 
    application name, etc., and choose which modules from all of NetBeans we actually want to 
    include.</li>
<li>A suite has actions such as &quot;Create ZIP Distribution&quot; and &quot;Build JNLP Application&quot;
    which enable us to package up the resulting application and distribute it to users.</li>
</ul>

So, to start, choose <b>File | New Project | NetBeans Module Projects | Module Suite</b>.
<p>
<center>
<img src="newsuite.png">
</center>
<p>

In the second pane of the wizard, pick a directory on your hard drive to put your work in,
and create the suite there.  For the rest of this tutorial, we will assume you put it in
<code>C:\demo</code>, and the directory for the suite is C:\demo\PaintApp.

<p>

Now we need a module that will contain the actual code we're going to write.  So we'll create 
another project using the new project wizard - this time, a regular module - invoke
<b>File | New Project | NetBeans Module Projects | Module Project</b>.  On the second pane 
of the wizard, make sure the <b>Add to Module Suite</b> radio button is selected, and that
it is actually added to PaintApp.  Name the module <code>org.netbeans.paint</code> - this will
be the <i>code name</i> of the module (the name other modules that might depend on it would
use to refer to it), and will also be the name of a java package inside it.

<p>
<center>
<img src="newmodule.png">
</center>
<p>

One of the benefits of building on the NetBeans Platform is that its UI is based on Swing - the
standard UI toolkit for Java.  Since Swing has been around for a long time, there are a lot
of Swing components we can reuse in our application.

<p>

For this tutorial, we will reuse an existing color chooser JavaBean (you can find the source
for it in NetBeans CVS under <code>contrib/coloreditor</code>).  Download <code>ColorChooser.jar</code>
for the color chooser <a href="ColorChooser.jar">here</a>, and save it in <code>
C:\demo\PaintApp</code>.

<p>

Incorporating a third party library into NetBeans is simple:  We create a <i>library wrapper 
module</i>.  A library wrapper module is a module whose JAR contains no code - really it is
just a pointer to the library.  What it does is, it makes the library into a NetBeans module - 
so all the protections of the NetBeans classloader system apply to it - without modifying the
original JAR file.  Your module can then depend on the library just as if the library were
a NetBeans module.  And if new versions of the library become available, you can distribute 
them without needing to distribute anything except a single <code>nbm</code> file for the
wrapper library.

<p>

To do this, we will invoke the New Project Wizard one last time.  Choose 
<b>File | New Project | NetBeans Module Projects | Library Wrapper Module Project</b>.
On the second pane, specify the <a href="ColorChooser.jar"><code>ColorChooser.jar</code></a>
file, wherever you saved it on disk.  Name it <code>ColorChooserLib</code>.

<p>
<center>
<img src="newwrapper.png">
</center>
<p>

Now we have all of the modules we will be working with.
<p>
The next step is to set up the dependencies the Paint module will have - it will be using the
wrapper library we just created, and it will also be using some standard NetBeans APIs to
interact with the windowing system, install actions, and so forth.  A NetBeans module can 
only see classes in another NetBeans module if the first module says it needs the second
module - that way, the system will never load a module that can't work because something it
needs is missing or is the wrong version.  So our Paint module needs to say what other modules
it uses.

<p>

Right click the Paint module's icon in the Projects tab, and choose <b>Properties</b> from the
popup menu.

<p>
<center>
<img align="right" src="paintpopup.png">
</center>
<p>

This will display the Properties dialog for your module.  Click the <b>Libraries</b> item in 
the list of panels on the left to set up dependencies.

<center>
<img src="properties-libraries.png">
</center>

Click the <b>Add Button</b> beside the <b>Module Dependencies</b> list, which will pop up a 
smaller dialog that lets you choose what modules to depend on.

<p>
<center>
<img src="dependencies.png">
</center>
<p>

This dialog will let you multi-select modules your module needs to depend on.  It will also let
you type a class name, and show you a list of modules that contain a class with that name - so,
for example, if you type <code>WindowManager</code> in this window, it should come up with 
&quot;Window System API&quot; as a match.

<p>

For this tutorial we'll want the list of modules shown in the above screen shot, as dependencies.
You can ctrl-click to select more than one library from the list.  The Paint module should have the
following dependencies:
<ul>
<li><i>ColorChooserLib</i> - the library wrapper module for the color chooser component, which we just
    created</li>
<li><i>Datasystems API</i> - The NetBeans module <code>org.openide.loaders</code>, which contains the
    <code>DataObject</code> class, which we will use </li>
<li><i>Dialogs API</i> - </li>
<li><i>File System API</i> - </li>
<li><i>Nodes API</i> - </li>
<li><i>UI Utilities API</i> - The <code>StatusDisplayer</code> class, which we'll use to write to
    the statusbar in the main window lives here</li>
<li><i>Utilities API</i> - We'll use this module for a few things like the <code>WeakListeners</code>
    utility class</li>
<li><i>Window System API</i> - Contains the <code>TopComponent</code> JPanel subclass, which we will
    subclass to make our component that can be opened in a tab in the main window.</li>
</ul>

<p>

The next thing we are going to need is the actual component that the user can paint on.  Since this
class involves no NetBeans classes - it's just a pure Swing component - we'll skip the details of
its implementation and provide the final version of it.  Create a new java class in the 
<code>org.netbeans.paint</code> package called <code>PaintCanvas</code>.  Now
<a target="source" href="PaintCanvas.java">download the source for it</a> and paste it into
the NetBeans editor.  If you used a package name other than <code>org.netbeans.paint</code>, then
correct the package statement in the source.

<p>

The color chooser bean, which we created the library wrapper module for, is used in the source code
for this panel - when you run the finished application, you will see it in the toolbar of the
panel for editing images.

<p>

<h2>Implementing the module</h2>

Now we'll write our first class that touches NetBeans APIs.  It is a <code>TopComponent</code>.
A <code>TopComponent</code> is just a JPanel which NetBeans' windowing system knows how to talk to - 
so it can be put inside a tabbed container in the main window.

<p>

Create a new class using the <b>Java Class</b> template (there is a template for creating window
system components, but this use case is so simple we don't need to use it).  Call it 
<code>PaintTopComponent</code>.  Once it's open in the editor, modify the class declaration so 
it looks like this:

<pre class="examplecode">
public class PaintTopComponent extends TopComponent implements ActionListener, ChangeListener {
</pre>

<p>

Press Alt-F (on Macintosh, Ctrl-F) to invoke Fix Imports.  Position the caret in the class
declaration line - you should see a small lightbulb icon in the margin.  Press Alt-Enter to
display a small popup that says <b>Implement All Abstract Methods</b>.  Press enter to generate
method skeletons for <code>ActionListener.actionPerformed()</code> and <code>ChangeListener.stateChanged()</code>.

<p>

Add three variable declarations to the top of the <code>PaintTopComponent</code> class:
<pre class="examplecode">
    private PaintCanvas canvas = new PaintCanvas(); //The component the user draws on
    private JComponent preview; //A component in the toolbar that shows the paintbrush size
    private static int ct = 0; //A counter we use to provide names for new images
</pre>

There are also two boilerplate methods we need to implement - the first tells the windowing system to
forget about any open windows when the application shuts down.  We could have it remember them,
but then we would need to write some persistence code to make this happen - and it's actually
not typical for painting applications to reopen everything that was opened before when they
are opened the next time.

<p>
So add the following methods to <code>PaintTopComponent</code>
<pre class="examplecode">
    public int getPersistenceType() {
	return PERSISTENCE_NEVER;
    }

    public String preferredID() {
        return "Image";
    }
</pre>

<p>
<blockquote><font color="red">
<b>Bug Workaround</b>
The second method, <code>preferredId</code> is not strictly 
necessary, since it is only needed if the component <i>is</i>
going to be persisted, but a warning will be printed to the console without it.  Most
NetBeans-based applications <i>do</i> persist open windows on shutdown.  This problem is 
tracked as <a href="https://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=66809">issue 66809</a>.
</font></blockquote>

<p>

Now we're ready to write the constructor for our component:

<pre class="examplecode">
    public PaintTopComponent() {
	initComponents();
        
        String displayName = NbBundle.getMessage(
                                PaintTopComponent.class, 
                                "UnsavedImageNameFormat",
                                new Object[] { new Integer (ct++) }
                             );
        
	setDisplayName (displayName);
    }
</pre>

The code here is pretty simple.  The first call is to a method we haven't written yet, 
<code>initComponents()</code>, which will add a toolbar and a <code>PaintCanvas</code>
to our <code>TopComponent</code>.

<p>

The only code that might be of interest here is how the display name is constructed.
We could have written something simpler, such as:

<pre class="examplecode">
setDisplayName ("Image" + (ct++));
</pre>

and gotten the same effect - but the result would not have been localizable - it couldn't
be translated into other languages.

<p>

Java has a standard mechanism for managing localized strings - 
<code>ResourceBundle</code>.  <code>NbBundle</code> is a subclass of 
<code>ResourceBundle</code> which plays nicely with NetBeans module classloaders,
saves some typing, and provides optimized caching of bundles.  And <code>NbBundle</code>
works with the <i>branding</i> mechanism in NetBeans - which is what is going to let
us set the name of our application, so its window doesn't say &quot;NetBeans&quot;.

<p>

The variant of <code>NbBundle.getMessage()</code> we're calling here takes arguments
of <code>Class, String, Object[]</code>.  The third argument is an array of objects, 
which are substituted into the resulting string - since word order can be different
in different languages, doing something like 
<p>

<pre class="examplecode">
setDisplayName ( localizedString + (ct++));
</pre>

<p>

might not work for languages that would want the number to come first.

<p>

For fetching simple strings, there is another variant we will use below:
<pre class="examplecode">
NbBundle.getMessage (Class theCallingClass, String bundleKey);
</pre>

<p>

Now we need to edit the <code>Bundle.properties</code> file in our module (it was
generated by the wizard, and already contains the localized display name of our
module).  It is in the package <code>org.netbeans.paint</code>.  Add the following
line of text at the end of it:

<p>

<pre class="examplecode">
UnsavedImageNameFormat=Image {0}
</pre>

<p>

Now we're ready to write the <code>initComponents()</code> method that will install
components in our panel, so the user has something to interact with.  Add the following code:

<p>

<pre class="examplecode">
    private void initComponents() {
	setLayout (new BorderLayout());
	JToolBar bar = new JToolBar();
        
	ColorChooser fg = new ColorChooser();
        preview = canvas.createBrushSizeView();
        
        //Now build our toolbar:

        //Make sure components don't get squished
	Dimension min = new Dimension (32, 32);
        preview.setMaximumSize(min);
	fg.setPreferredSize (new Dimension (16, 16));
	fg.setMinimumSize (min);
	fg.setMaximumSize(min);
        
	JButton clear = new JButton (
               NbBundle.getMessage(PaintTopComponent.class, "LBL_Clear"));
        
	JLabel fore = new JLabel (
               NbBundle.getMessage (PaintTopComponent.class, "LBL_Foreground"));
        
	fg.addActionListener(this);
	clear.addActionListener (this);
        
	JSlider js = new JSlider ();
	js.setMinimum(1);
	js.setMaximum(24);
	js.setValue (canvas.getDiam());
	js.addChangeListener(this);
	
	
	fg.setColor (canvas.getColor());
	

        bar.add (clear);
	bar.add (fore);
	bar.add (fg);
        JLabel bsize = new JLabel (
                NbBundle.getMessage (PaintTopComponent.class, "LBL_BrushSize"));
        
	bar.add (bsize);
	bar.add (js);
	bar.add (preview);
        
	JLabel spacer = new JLabel ("   "); //Just a spacer so the brush preview 
                                            //isn't stretched to the end of the 
                                            //toolbar
        
	spacer.setPreferredSize (new Dimension (400, 24));
	bar.add (spacer);

        //And install the toolbar and the painting component:
    	add (bar, BorderLayout.NORTH);
	add (canvas, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    }
</pre>

<p>

Now we need to implement the two listener methods - what they do is quite
straightforward:

<p>

<pre class="examplecode">
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
	if (e.getSource() instanceof JButton) {
	    canvas.clear();
	} else if (e.getSource() instanceof ColorChooser) {
	    ColorChooser cc = (ColorChooser) e.getSource();
	    canvas.setPaint (cc.getColor());
	}
	preview.paintImmediately(0, 0, preview.getWidth(), preview.getHeight());
    }

    public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent e) {
	JSlider js = (JSlider) e.getSource();
	canvas.setDiam (js.getValue());
	preview.paintImmediately(0, 0, preview.getWidth(), preview.getHeight());
    }
</pre>

<p>

The next step is to edit <code>Bundle.properties</code> again, to add the
bundle keys we referenced above - add the following lines to it:

<p>

<pre class="examplecode">
LBL_Clear=Clear
LBL_Foreground= Foreground 
LBL_BrushSize= Brush Size
</pre>

Lastly, we'll implement a few methods for saving the image to disk - next, we will write
actions to install in the menus and toolbars to call these.

<pre class="examplecode">
    public void save() throws IOException {
        if (getDisplayName().endsWith(".png")) {
            doSave(new File(getDisplayName()));
        } else {
            saveAs();
        }
    }
    
    public void saveAs() throws IOException {
	JFileChooser ch = new JFileChooser();
	if (ch.showSaveDialog(this) == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION && 
                ch.getSelectedFile() != null) {
            
	    File f = ch.getSelectedFile();
            if (!f.getPath().endsWith(".png")) {
                f = new File (f.getPath() + ".png");
            }
	    if (!f.exists()) {
		if (!f.createNewFile()) {
                    String failMsg = NbBundle.getMessage (
                            PaintTopComponent.class,
                            "MSG_SaveFailed", new Object[] { f.getPath() }
                            );
		    JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, failMsg);
		    return;
		}
	    } else {
                String overwriteMsg = NbBundle.getMessage (
                        PaintTopComponent.class,
                        "MSG_Overwrite", new Object[] { f.getPath() }
                        );
                if (JOptionPane.showConfirmDialog(this, overwriteMsg) 
                    != JOptionPane.OK_OPTION) {
                            
                    return;
                }
            }
            doSave (f);
	}
    }

    private void doSave(File f) throws IOException {
        BufferedImage img = canvas.getImage();
        ImageIO.write(img, "png", f);
        String statusMsg = NbBundle.getMessage (PaintTopComponent.class,
                "MSG_Saved", new Object[] { f.getPath() });
        StatusDisplayer.getDefault().setStatusText(statusMsg);
        setDisplayName (f.getName());
    }
</pre>

<p>

Now add a few more entries to <code>Bundle.properties</code>:

<p>

<pre class="examplecode">
MSG_SaveFailed=Could not write to file {0}
MSG_Overwrite={0} exists.  Overwrite?
MSG_Saved=Saved image to {0}
</pre>

<p>

We've completed the UI that the user will work in - now all that's left to do is add
some actions to the main menus.

<p>

<h2>Defining Actions, Menu Items and Toolbar Buttons</h2>

From here it's quite simple - we just need to define some actions to allow us to open and close
components.  We will create actions to 
<ul>
<li>Create a new image</li>
<li>Save As functionality</li>
<li>Save functionality</li>
<li>Exit the application</li>
</ul>

<p>

Note that NetBeans does have standard action classes for all of these functions.  For 
simplicity's sake, and to teach a little bit about how context sensitive actions
are used, we will not be using them.  A future sequel to this tutorial may cover
that.  The standard NetBeans new action involves a wizard and templates - this 
application is so simple it does not need that.  Secondly, it allows us to teach a 
little bit about context sensitive actions.  Lastly, we will actually remove the 
<code>core/ui</code> module from the set of modules in our application.  <code>core/ui</code>
defines basic menus for NetBeans - more of them than we need for this simple
application.  So rather than using branding to hide the menus we don't need, 
we will just omit their definition from being part of our application at all.

<p>

So the first step is simply to create our action classes.  Right now, we will create
four action classes using the template for NetBeans actions.  Right click the 
<code>org.netbeans.paint</code> package and choose <b>New | File/Folder</b> to bring
up the new file wizard.  Select <b>NetBeans Module Projects | Action</b>.

<p>

<center>
<img src="create-action.png">
</center>

<p>

On the second pane of the wizard, specify <b>Always Enabled</b> for the actions.  In fact,
two of the actions will not be always enabled, but we'll address that later.  

<p>

<center>
<img src="create-action-step2.png">
</center>

<p>

On the third pane, specify that the action should be on the File menu.

<p>

<center>
<img src="create-action-step3.png">
</center>

<p>

The fourth and final step in the wizard allows us to specify a class name and a display
name for each action.  Repeat the above steps four times, creating the following classes:

<ol>
<li>NewCanvasAction</li>
<li>SaveAction</li>
<li>ExitAction</li>
</ol>

<blockquote>
<font color="red"><b>Note:</b> At the time of this writing, the new wizard does not generate
properly localized display names for actions.  This does no particular harm for the tutorial,
but in a real application, you would want to go through each of the generated action classes
and change the <code>getName()</code> method to use <code>NbBundle</code>.  See
<a href="https://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=66802">Issue 66802</a>.
</font></blockquote>

Getting the simple things out of the way first, let's define the Exit action first - we
just need to add one line of code to the <code>performAction()</code> method:
<pre class="examplecode">
LifecycleManager.getDefault().exit();
</pre>
LifecycleManager is a NetBeans class for shutting down the application (calls to 
<code>System.exit()</code> are trapped and will not work in a NetBeans based app - 
otherwise library code a module uses could unexpectedly close the application).

<p>

Next we'll handle the New and Save actions.  These actions have icons, so first, 
lets get these included.  Create a new package, <code>org.netbeans.paint.resources</code>.
Now download the <a href="newFile.gif">newFile.gif</a> and 
<a href="save24.gif">save24.gif</a> images, and save them there.

<p>

In the constructor of <code>NewAction</code>, add the following line:
<pre class="examplecode">
	setIcon(new ImageIcon (
            Utilities.loadImage ("org/netbeans/paint/resources/newFile.gif")));
</pre>
This is relatively straightforward.  The class you want to import here is 
<code>org.openide.util.Utilities</code> - it is a utility method for loading images,
which handles NetBeans classloaders, branding, and returns memory-efficient
images, and does intelligent caching of images.

<p>

Implementing the functionality of this action is quite simple:

<p>

<pre class="examplecode">
    public void performAction() {
        PaintTopComponent tc = new PaintTopComponent();
	tc.open();
	tc.requestActive();
    }
</pre>

<p>

What this does is simply to create a new instance of our image editing component,
open it, so it appears in the main window, and activate it (sending keyboard
focus to it and selecting its tab).

<p>

The only complex action here is <code>SaveAction</code>.  Change its class signature as
follows:

<pre class="examplecode">
public final class SaveCanvasAction extends CallableSystemAction 
                                 implements PropertyChangeListener {
</pre>

Press Alt-Shift-F to fix the imports, and then Alt-Enter, Enter to generate implementations
of the missing method from <code>PropertyChangeListener</code>.

<p>

Now we will modify the constructor as follows:

<p>

<pre class="examplecode">
    public SaveCanvasAction() {
	setIcon(new ImageIcon (
              Utilities.loadImage ("org/netbeans/paint/resources/save24.png")));
        
	TopComponent.getRegistry().addPropertyChangeListener (
                WeakListeners.propertyChange(this,
		TopComponent.getRegistry()));
        
	updateEnablement();
    }
</pre>

<p>

The main code of interest is the adding of the property change listener.
<code>TopComponent.Registry</code> is a registry of all opened 
<code>TopComponent</code>s in the system - all the opened tabs.  What
we want to do is listen on it for changes, and enable and disable the
action depending on what has focus.

<p>

<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" width="100%">
<tr>
<td>

Note that rather than directly attaching a property change listener,
we call <code>WeakListeners.propertyChange()</code>.  What this does is
generates a property change listener that weakly references our action.
While in practice, our action will live as long as the application is
open, it's a good practice, and future-proofing to use a weak listener
if you're attaching a listener and there is no code that ever detaches
it.  Otherwise, we've got a potential memory leak - our action could
never be garbage collected because the registry is holding a reference
to it in its list of listeners.
</td>

<td bgcolor="#DDDDFF">
<u><b>About Actions and SystemActions</b></u>
<p>
In fact all of the action classes we have here could be direct subclasses
of <code>javax.swing.AbstractAction</code> and not bother with NetBeans
action classes at all.  This is perfectly legal to do, and some legacy
applications may want to do this to avoid rewriting code.
<p>
The major thing we get from using <code>CallableSystemAction</code> here is
the ability to associate context sensitive help with individual actions.
</td>

</tr>
</table>

<p>

The last call is a method we will implement now:

<p>

<pre class="examplecode">
    private void updateEnablement() {
       setEnabled (TopComponent.getRegistry().getActivated() 
               instanceof PaintTopComponent);
    }
</pre>

<p>

Finally we want to implement <code>performAction()</code>:

<p>

<pre class="examplecode">
    public void performAction () {
        TopComponent tc = TopComponent.getRegistry().getActivated();
        if (tc instanceof PaintTopComponent) {
            try {
                ((PaintTopComponent) tc).saveAs();
            } catch (IOException ioe) {
                ErrorManager.getDefault().notify (ioe);
            }
        } else {
            //Theoretically the active component could have changed
            //between the time the menu item or toolbar button was
            //pressed and when the action was invoked.  Not likely,
            //but theoretically possible
            Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().beep();
        }
    }
</pre>

<p>


We now have a working module!  
Right click the PaintApp node in the projects tab and choose Run.  A copy of
the NetBeans IDE will come up with our module intstalled.

<h2>Branding</h2>

Of course, we want to create an application, not an IDE - so there are a couple of 
final steps to perform.  Right click the PaintApp node, and choose <b>Properties</b>
from the context menu.  First we'll set up a splash screen (if you want, first, run PaintApp
again as is, size the main window fairly small, and draw a splash screen and save it).
Select the Basic Branding category.

<p>

<center>
<img src="branding1.png">
</center>

<p>

Here, define the <b>Name</b> as <code>paintit</code> and the <b>Title</b> as 
<code>Paint It!</code>.  Now switch to the <b>Splash Branding</b> category if
you have created a splash screen, and click the <b>Browse</b> button to locate
the image file.  Then adjust the position of the startup text and progress bar
to taste.


<p>

<center>
<img src="branding2.png">
</center>

<p>

<h2>Removing Unneeded Modules</h2>

The last step in making this our own application is to remove the IDE vestiges
from it.  That means disabling most modules from the IDE, leaving only those 
things we really are using. Select the <b>Module List</b> category in the 
suite properties dialog.
<p>

<center>
<img src="branding3.png">
</center>

<p>

First, uncheck all of the checkboxes that are unchecked in the above screen shot
(the exact list of categories you have may be different, but the only one that
should remain checked is the one starting with &quot;platform&quot;).

<p>

That removes all of the IDE-specific modules.  Now we'll remove the remaining
modules that we don't need.  A large number of modules can be turned off.
Only the modules checked off in the screen shot below should remain on.

<p>

<center>
<img src="enabledmodules.png">
</center>

<p>

Close the Properties dialog and we are ready to run our application <i>as</i>
our application!  Just right click the PaintApp node again and choose <b>Run</b>
from the popup menu to try it.


<blockquote><font color="red">
<b>Bug workaround:</b>
There is a minor bug that affects the behavior of our application:  Our 
branding removes the <code>core/ui</code> module, which not only defines menus,
but also provides a definitions of all of the basic places tabbed containers
should appear in the windowing system (the explorer area, the editor area,
etc.).  That is more-or-less fine, since the windowing system knows how to
create the editor area, which is all we need.  However, at the time of this
writing, the first time a PaintTopComponent is opened, it never becomes 
active.  This means that our Save action is never enabled.  Invoking the
new action again to create a second component fixes the problem.
<p>
The workaround is to do two things:  Add the a new text file called
editor.wsmode to the <code>org.netbeans.paint</code> package.  Paste in the
text you find <a target="source" href="editor.wsmode">here</a>.  Now add 
the following to the <code>layer.xml</code> file in <code>org.netbeans.paint</code>
(the wizard generated this file when you created the module), inside the
<code>filesystem</code> element:
<pre class="examplecode">
    &lt;folder name="Windows2"&gt;
        &lt;folder name="Modes"&gt;
            &lt;file name="editor.wsmode" url="editor.wsmode" /&gt;
            &lt;folder name="editor"/&gt;
        &lt;/folder&gt;
    &lt;/folder&gt;
</pre>
<p>
This problem is tracked in 
<a href="https://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=66797">issue 66797</a> and
<a href="https://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=66813">issue 66813</a>.
</font></blockquote>

<h2>Creating a distribution</h2>
At this point, it's just a matter of choosing a distribution medium.  Right click
the PaintApp node and choose one of the options, such as <b>Create ZIP Distribution</b>
to package the entire application, with all needed modules and files, as a zip file,
or <b>Build JNLP Application</b> to create a JavaWebStart&trade; version you can put
on a web server and link to directly from a web page (you will need to set a correct
URL - the generated descriptor uses <code>file:</code> protocol so you can test your
web-startable distribution locally).

</body></html>