For this project you will install and then explore three IDEs: Eclipse, NetBeans, IntelliJ IDEA. In any case, you will need to have installed the JDK too, which in turn includes a JRE. In addition, you will learn and explore using the non-GUI project and dependency management tool, Maven.
Complete directions for installing all software as used in the classroom can be found in the course resources, in the Java Setup link. (Those directions have not been updated for nearly a year, but they might still be useful.) What follows are the brief directions for setting up the three IDEs and Maven.
For each IDE (and Maven), you must modify the generated Java file: make changes, make various errors, and learn to use the tools to fix such errors. Unmodified Java files will not count for full credit!
eclipse-inst-win64.exe
link to download the Windows 64-bit installer.
(Notice the “.dmg” download link for Mac
OS X users.)
Run the installer.
For our class, choose either the Java SE or Java EE
packages.
(The EE package includes everything in the SE
package.)
An alternative to the installer is to download a zip of the version you want, from www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages/. The zip version can be installed on a flash drive, so you can take Eclipse with you and use from any computer!
For Windows, download the “zip” file for Eclipse (the 64-bit
version, if you have the 64-bit JDK) and extract
the contents into “C:\Program Files”.
This creates a new sub-directory “eclipse”.
Open that folder and right-click on the file eclipse.exe.
Choose “Copy”.
Next you might want to make a short-cut on the start button.
With Windows 7, right-click on the
“Start→All Programs”
button and click on “Open”.
Next open the “Programs” folder.
Right-click in this window and choose
“Paste Shortcut”.
With Windows 10, open the File Explorer and navigate to the folder
where Windows 10 stores your program shortcuts:
%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs.
Right-click in this window and choose
“Paste Shortcut”.
(You can add additional short-cuts to your desktop or pin eclipse to the
quick launch bar, if desired.)
Documents\Eclipse-workspace”.
(You can click the button to make Eclipse remember your choice.)
You can also read the Eclipse Documentation online, especially the Workbench User Guide and the Java Development User Guide.
Additionally, you can read this tutorial which I found to be well-written: www.vogella.com/tutorials/Eclipse/article.html.
jar files placed into the
Eclipse install directory.
There are hundreds available to extend Eclipse with additional
functionality, such as
XML editors,
Junit test case editors,
UML
GUI drawing
tools (that generate Java code for you), and Java EE tools.
A collection of these projects useful for Java and Java EE development has been bundled together, which is what you have installed (the current version of Eclipse). To install other Eclipse plug-ins not included with your installer bundle:
Install New Software...”.
Now tell Eclipse where to look for the new plug-ins.
You should select “--All Available Sites--”, but to
add some third-party plug-in you need to add their site to the list,
by clicking on the “Add...” button.
Install... button.
For example, try adding Gonsole or the latest version of the
Web Tools Platform (WTP), and
click “Next”.
This shows a summary of all the items that will be installed
based on your choices.
Click “Next” show the license screen; be sure to
select the “I agree ...” button, then click on the
“Finish” button to start the install.
Feel free to explore other available plug-ins. Even more plug-ins can be found at marketplace.eclipse.org. (Warning: You should learn the basic Eclipse platform first, because adding plug-ins complicates the user interface.) I like adding SpotBugs (replaces FindBugs).
Hello.
(Be sure to check the “Generate comments” checkbox.)
You should see a new file “Hello.java”
in the Package Explorer window.
Right-click on it and chose
open (or double-click it), and create a hello world (or other simple)
application.
Oracle gave NetBeans to the Apache foundation. Apache recently (end of 2018) released the new version that works with Java 11. However, the website is not polished, and they are still working on porting the old documentation and updating it; much of it is very old.
netbeans) into
“C:\Program Files”.
To launch, double-click netbeans.exe.
Follow the same steps as with Eclipse to add shortcuts to your Start
menu or desktop.
I don't believe there is any official Apache NetBeans download for Mac OS X at this time, so you can skip this part if you only have a Mac. However, a student showed me a non-standard installer you can try. Follow the directions at github.com/carljmosca/netbeans-macos-bundle. (Note I've not tried this, so use at your own risk.)
You might want to read about Git, Maven, or other topics; examine the links for any guides/tutorials that seem interesting. (You won't have time to read them all now, but you should attempt to read some of them over time to improve your skills.)
Give your project a useful name (e.g., “hello”),
and pick a name for the class that will be generated
(e.g., “hello.Hello”).
Note the NetBeans automatically puts your classes in a
package named after the project.
That is fine, but for this simple project, you could put your class in the
default, nameless package (or pick a different package name).
Leave “Create Main class” selected; note you can change the class
name if you want (I like Main).
Click “Finish”.
Run your project and make sure it is working. Make some deliberate errors in your program, and see how you can fix them using the NetBeans features (try right-clicking on the error).
IntelliJ IDEA (often just referred to as “IntelliJ” or “IDEA” IDE) is a popular commercial IDE from the company JetBrains. It comes in a free community edition (fully-featured but limited to Java SE) or in the commercial (costs money) “ultimate” edition (supports Java EE too). Currently, the ultimate edition is free for a year if you register as a student.
As with other IDEs, you can add plugins for extra functionality. I suggest you don't add many until you know the IDE better.
Click the checkbox to “Create project from template”, and select the command line application template. Click next.
Give your project a useful name (e.g., “hello”),
and pick a name for package.
For this simple project you could put your class in the
default, nameless package (or pick any package name).
Click “Finish”.
Notice the template created a class named Main.
You can rename that if you like.
Run your project and make sure it is working. Make some deliberate errors in your program, and see how you can fix them using the IDEA features (try right-clicking on the error).
Read the Maven in 5 Minutes tutorial.
C:\Java\ (used in the directions that follow),
but anyplace you wish is fine. apache-maven-version
to something simpler, such as just maven. PATH environment variable:
C:\Java\maven\bin (use the folder name you picked). M2_HOME=C:\Java\maven JAVA_HOME=C:\java (or whatever location you used for the
JDK).
(As a reminder: PATH is used by your system to locate executables
such as mvn or java; CLASSPATH is used
by Java to locate packages and some other things; JAVA_HOME is
used by various programs (including Maven) to locate a JDK; and
M2_HOME (previously known as MAVEN_HOME) is used by
mvn to locate various configuration files.
All of these may be used by other programs to locate files they need.
While some programs are smart enough to guess to try default install locations
when you don't set these variables, that won't work if you don't install
in the default locations.)
There are several ways do to this. One is to follow the standard install directions for a Linux-like system, found on the Maven website. The simplest way seems to be this:
brew command to install things.
brew install maven. tree command, you can install that using the command
brew install tree. cd into it.
(Over time you will have many programming projects and your desktop or home
directory will become cluttered.
I use “Documents\Java Projects” for this.
Next, create a working “Hello, World” project named
“hello” using the command (one long line):
mvn archetype:generate -DgroupId=cop2805 -DartifactId=hello -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-quickstart -DarchetypeVersion=1.4 -DinteractiveMode=false
(Here we use the latest version of that archetype as of 1/2021. If there's a newer version available, consider using it instead.) The artifactId will become the name of the project's folder. The groupId becomes the package name for your code.
That command might take a while the first time.
When done, see what files were created by using the
tree/F hello command
(just tree on Mac or Linux).
Also take a look in your home directory; you should see a new subdirectory
there named .m2.
That's your personal Maven repo.
It can contain settings files as well.
cd into your new hello
directory.
Take a look at the generated source code at
src/main/java/cop2805/App.java, the generated unit test at
src/main/java/cop2805/App.java, and the generated
pom.xml file.
(When using Maven “for real”, you would edit the POM file and then
edit or replace the App.java and AppTest.java files.)
pom.xml file.
The reason is, the current version of Maven's compile plugin tries to
generate code compatible only with Java 7
(“javac -target 1.7 -source 1.7”).
To compile and run using a different Java version,
you need to modify these two lines in your generated pom.xml:
<properties>
<maven.compiler.source>11</maven.compiler.source>
<maven.compiler.target>11</maven.compiler.target>
</properties>
(Those lines can go anywhere between the initial <project> tag and the final </project> tag, but not inside of any other tags. Just above the final </project> tag is fine.)
While your at it, you can change the JUnit version from 4.11 to 4.13.1.
pom.xml file.)
Maven will automatically put a copy of the resulting jar file into your
local repo, ~/.m2/ (“~” means
your home directory) when you run mvn install.
This is done with the simple command:
mvn install
If the build was successful, the application will be found in a jar file
in the target subdirectory.
To run your new app, enter this command (without changing directories first):
java -cp target\hello-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar cop2805.App
Run the tree/F (or tree) command to see all the new
files created.
Also look in your home directory and use tree on the
.m2 directory there.
Make some errors in the code and see what Maven says when you compile and test the code. (Unlike IDEs, Maven doesn't include any features to help with errors.)
mvn site” to generate a website for
your project.
You can view the site in your web browser by opening the file
“.../hello/target/site/index.html”.
mvn eclipse:eclipse”.
If you import this project into Eclipse, it should just work.
A copy of your Java source code from the “Hello World” programs
you created in parts I – IV, the
pom.xml file created in part IV,
and the answers to the questions asked in part V.
Submitting all six files at once is easier to grade than submitting a
zip, but either way is acceptable.
When copying from Eclipse, copied code loses all formatting if any of the code is “folded” (hidden with a plus sign where the missing lines are). To avoid losing formatting when copying, first right click on the line numbers and select Folding → Expand All. Now when you copy, all formatting should still be there when you paste! (To prevent folding altogether, go to Window→preferences→java→editor→Folding, and select/unselect the various folding options.)
You can send as email to (preferred). If email is a problem for some reason, you can send a message to me using Canvas, and attach a zip of your files to it. Or, you may turn in a hard-copy as a last resort. In this case the pages should be readable, dated, and stapled together. Your name should appear on the first page.
Submit to the correct Canvas dropbox for this assignment.
Please see your syllabus for more information about projects, about submitting projects.