Key Concepts

See Also

Before you begin work in the IDE, you should be familiar with the following concepts:

Filesystems and the Java Class Path

A filesystem is a virtual representation of a file hierarchy in the IDE. You can view the file hierarchies of local directories, network directories, or archive files after you mount them in the IDE. Mounted filesystems determine the Java class path used by the IDE to compile, debug, and run your Java applications.

Mounting Filesystems

All the source files, libraries, and archive files needed by your applications must be mounted as filesystems before the IDE can recognize and use them. After you mount a filesystem, it is, by default, added to the classpath for compiling, running, and debugging your applications in the IDE. For additional information, see Filesystems and Application Development.

Accessing Files Using the Filesystems window

The Filesystems window shows the hierarchical organization of the mounted filesystems and allows you to expand filesystem nodes to view the objects contained within them. Right-clicking an item in the Filesystems window allows you to view an object's properties, modify the properties, change the object itself, and more.

Templates

Templates determine the initial appearance and behavior of the objects you want to create. They help reduce the amount of time and effort involved in creating your application. Java components, such as Swing and Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) containers, are provided as standard templates. Templates are also provided for applets, classes, dialog boxes, HTML files, text files, and bookmarks.

Projects

You can use IDE projects to simplify the process of application development. For example, when you compile a project, you compile all of the Java source files in it. You can, however, begin working in the IDE without creating a project first. You can create the files required to produce an applet or an application first, and later create the project within which to organize your files.

See Also
IDE Overview
Starting with the Basic IDE Tasks

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