The IDE is comprised of many parts that work together to help you develop your applications. This section gives you a quick overview of those parts you will most likely use during your application development.
When you start the IDE for the first time, the following elements appear:
In the IDE's main window, you can find the menu bar, several toolbars, and the status bar. From this window you can access the:
The menus in the menu bar give you access to the most commonly called commands in the IDE. The menu bar also gives you access to top-level IDE windows, such as the Source Editor, the Form Editor, the Properties window, and the Debugger window.
Many of the commands you need when working in the IDE are also available through contextual menus. Contextual menus appear when you right-click in the Source Editor, Form Editor, Debugger window, or on a selection in the Filesystems window. The commands in the contextual menu pertain only to the current screen region or selection.
You can also activate the most commonly called commands in the IDE from the various toolbars in the main window. Each toolbar provides a group of related commands.
Toolbars are fully customizeable in the IDE, allowing users to create customized configurations of toolbar buttons as well as control their position and visibility.
The IDE's status bar is located in the bottom left corner of the IDE. Information about the IDE's activity appears in the status bar when you compile applications, debug applications, run version control commands, and so on.
The Filesystems window appears on the left hand side of the IDE. The Filesystems window displays a tree of nodes representing directories and objects that comprise the IDE's mounted filesystems.
The Filesystems window shares space with other windows, such as the Runtime and Project windows when they are opened. You can display a hidden window by clicking on its tab.
The Runtime window displays runtime information on such things as currently running processes, debugging sessions, and external services that are connected to the IDE.
The properties of most files and objects represented in the IDE's various
windows can be viewed in a Properties window. You can open the Properties
window by choosing Window Properties.
The Properties window displays the properties of the currently selected node. If you are working in the Source Editor, the properties of the code currently in focus are displayed.
The Source Editor is a full-featured text editor that is integrated with the Form Editor, Filesystems window, compiler, and debugger. The Source Editor is automatically opened when a new and editable object is created from the available templates in the IDE. It can also be opened by double-clicking the node of an editable object in the Filesystems window.
The Build menu contains commands for compiling applications. You can choose to compile all the files in the program or only those files that are new or have changed since the last compile. You can also access the most common compiling actions by using the commands in the Build toolbar or by using the keyboard equivalents.
When you compile, the Output window appears at the bottom of the IDE and displays the status of the compilation.
The Debug menu gives you access to the different debug functionalities available in the IDE. You can set breakpoints and watches, step through code, examine and modify variables, examine classes and the callstack, follow threads, and run multiple sessions. You can also use the Debug toolbar or keyboard equivalents to perform the most common debugging actions.
When you start a debugging session, the Debugger windows and the Output window are displayed.
The Form Editor is a visual tool for creating and editing GUI code written in the JavaTM programming language. The Form Editor opens a design-time view of your GUI form in a Source Editor tab. The Form Editor also opens the Inspector window, the Palette window, and the Properties window. GUI items, such as panels, scrollbars, and layout managers that are part of the JavaTM Foundation Classes/Swing technology ("JFC/Swing"), are available in the Palette window. They can be added to the Form Editor to help you quickly develop and visually examine a GUI. The Java source code that implements your GUI is automatically generated and updated via the Source Editor.