Utility Tools

CHAPTER 1

Development Environment

This chapter introduces the utility tools and other basic facilities of the Novell exteNd Director development environment. You'll learn about the supporting features provided to assist you and your application development work in the higher-level exteNd Director tools. Topics include:

• About the utility tools

• Basic panes

• Basic operations

• Basic wizards

• Basic editors

• Basic viewers

• Basic tools for Web Services

• Debugging facilities

• Managing toolbars

• Setting preferences

• Setting up profiles

• Using version control

• Maintaining Todo lists

• Using Ant

• Internationalization support

• Extending the development environment

    For more information about performing basic project-level operations (such as creating a generic project, adding files to a project, building a project, and creating an archive) see Projects and Archives.

About the utility tools

At its lowest level, the exteNd Director development environment is a file-system based toolset that includes these utility tools and facilities:

• Graphical and text-based editors for working on Java files, JSP files, XML files, XSL files, CSS files, WSDL files, HTML files, plain text files, and deployment descriptors

• Wizards that help create new files when needed and guide you through complex technologies (such as J2EE)

• Web Service facilities for developing, publishing, finding, and running Web Services

• Project views that show the structure of a project's source files and the structure of a project's generated archives

• Project tools for building projects, generating and validating J2EE archives, and deploying archives to supported J2EE servers

• Version control integration that provides access from the exteNd Director development environment to your version control system

Basic panes

The exteNd Director development environment includes three resizable panes:

• Navigation Pane

• Edit Pane

• Output Pane

You can use the one-touch splitters to collapse or restore panes with a single click.

Navigation Pane

The Navigation Pane lets you access various aspects of projects and registries. It displays the following tabs:

• The Directory tab lets you access files from the file system

• The Project tab shows the directory structure of source and archive layouts

• The Registries tab lets you browse and publish to Web Service registries

• The Structure tab lets you browse the class members of the Java source file currently selected in the Edit Pane

The Structure tab appears only when a Java source file is open. When either the Project or Directory tab is selected, the Navigation Pane consists of two subpanes: the top one shows the directories and the bottom one lists the files in any directory that you select.

Using the Navigation Pane

Here's how to use the Navigation Pane:

Displaying additional information

You can see a file's complete name and path by positioning the mouse pointer over it in the lower subpane of the Directory or Project tab. This is particularly useful in the archive layout or archive contents view of the Project tab for comparing a file as it conceptually exists in the archive (such as WEB-INF/web.xml) to its file system name (such as C:\dev\proj4\web.xml).

In the Structure tab, pointing at a class member shows its signature.

Structure tab icons

In the Structure tab, each item is identified with a double icon. The left icon indicates the visibility of the item. The right indicates its type. The table below defines the icons:

Edit Pane

The Edit Pane is the file editor work area. It displays the contents of any file you have open. You can use View menu items to hide the Output and Navigation Panes to gain additional work area.

Output Pane

The Output Pane provides several informational tabs that you can access:

• The Todo tab displays and manages Todo list items

• The Output tab displays output from the build, validate, and deploy processes

• The Find tab displays search results

• The Version Control tab (if enabled) displays messages from your version control system

Other types of messages and indicators display in the status bar, which is located below the Output Pane.

Basic operations

This section tells you about:

• Starting the development environment

• Using proxy servers

• Opening, saving, and closing projects and files

• Getting product version information

Starting the development environment

This section describes how to start and exit the exteNd Director development environment.

To start the development environment:

• Depending on your platform, do one of the following:

  Platform	What to do
  Windows	Go to the list of all programs on the Windows Start menu. Select Novell exteNd n.n>Director>Director Designer.
  Windows, Linux	Go to the Novell exteNd tools/bin directory. Run the executable file named xd.

To exit the development environment:

• Select File>Exit from the exteNd Director menu bar.

Using proxy servers

If you are using a proxy server, you need to specify the proxy host and its port in xd.conf (in the Novell exteNd^TM tools\bin directory). Uncomment the following lines and specify your site's values.

  vmarg -DsocksProxyHost=proxy-host
  vmarg -DsocksProxyPort=proxy-port-number
  vmarg -Dhttp.proxyHost=proxy-host
  vmarg -Dhttp.proxyPort=proxy-port-number

If there are hosts that don't require a proxy, you can specify them (separated by |) with this property:

  vmarg -Dhttp.nonProxyHosts=host1|host2...

Opening, saving, and closing projects and files

This section describes how to work with project files and source files in the exteNd Director development environment:

• Working with project files

• Working with source files

• Performing file system operations

    For details about working with projects, see Projects and Archives.

Working with project files

To work on an existing project, open its project file. exteNd Director project files have the extension .SPF.

To open a project file:

1. Choose File>Open Project. A file selection dialog appears.

2. Navigate to the project's SPF file.

3. Select the SPF file and click Open (or double-click the SPF file). exteNd Director displays the project in the Project tab of the Navigation Pane.

   You cannot have multiple projects open (though you can work with multiple subprojects of an open project). If you have a project open and then you open another (unrelated) project, exteNd Director closes the original project and any associated files before opening the second project.

Alternatively, you can:

1. Navigate to the project file in the Directory tab of the Navigation Pane.

2. Double-click the file (or right-click it and choose Open from the popup menu that appears).

If you have opened the project file recently, you can also select it from the list under File>Recent Files.

To save a project file:

No action is needed on your part to save a project. Whenever you modify the project contents or settings (for example, by adding a directory to the project), the project file is saved automatically.

The project file must be writable before you can make changes to the project in the exteNd Director development environment. Typically, this means that you must check out the project file from your version control system.

To close a project file:

• Choose File>Close Project.

Working with source files

This section describes how to open, save, and close source files—such as Java, JSP, XML, and plain text files.

To open a source file:

1. Choose File>Open. A file selection dialog appears.

2. Navigate to the source file.

3. Select the file and click Open (or double-click the file). exteNd Director displays the file in the Edit Pane using the appropriate source file editor (Java, JSP, XML, Text, etc.).

Alternatively, you can:

1. Navigate to the file in the Directory tab of the Navigation Pane. If you have a project open and the file is included in that project, you can find it in the Project tab as well.

2. Double-click the file (or right-click it and choose Open from the popup menu that appears).

If you have opened the file recently, you can also select it from the list under File>Recent Files.

Working with open files   One file is active at a time. By default, there is a tab for each open file in the Edit Pane. Simply click a tab to make that file active. (You can customize and turn off the display of tabs. See Display preferences.)

You can also make an open file the active file by using Window>More Windows to select it from the list of open documents.

To save a source file:

• Choose File>Save.

File>Save As enables you to save the contents of the currently open file to another file.

TIP:   You can also save a file by right-clicking its tab in the Edit Pane.

To close a source file:

• To close the currently selected source file, select File>Close or click the Close button on its tab in the Edit Pane.

  TIP:   You can also close a file by right-clicking its tab in the Edit Pane.

• To close all open source files, select File>Close All.

If you have made changes to a source file, exteNd Director prompts you to save that file before closing it, closing its parent project, or exiting the development environment.

Performing file system operations

You can delete and rename files from the exteNd Director development environment.

To delete one or more files:

1. Go to either the Project or Directory tab in the Navigation Pane and select the directory containing the files.

2. Select the files to delete. You can select multiple files using Shift+Click and Ctrl+Click.

3. Right-click and select Delete.

4. Confirm the deletion.

   The files are deleted from the file system.

   If the files had been individually added to the current project (as opposed to being in the project because they are in a directory included in the project), you are asked whether you want to delete the entries from the project.

5. Click Yes to have the deleted files removed from the project.

To rename a file:

1. Go to either the Project or Directory tab in the Navigation Pane and select the directory containing the file.

2. Select the file to rename.

3. Right-click and select Rename.

4. Specify the new name.

   The file is renamed in the file system.

   NOTE:   If you had multiple files selected, only the first one is renamed.

   If the file had been individually added to the current project (as opposed to being in the project because it is in a directory included in the project), you are asked whether you want the project to use the new file name.

5. Click Yes to have the project use the new file name.

Getting product version information

Use the About dialog (Help>About Director) to get version information about the exteNd Director development environment and its tools (editors, wizards, viewers, and so on). This can be useful if you need to check which product components you have installed.

Basic wizards

To assist your development work on various supporting application files, you can use the basic wizards provided by the exteNd Director development environment:

Basic editors

When you open a source file in the exteNd Director development environment, the appropriate editor automatically displays in the Edit Pane. Here's a summary of the basic source editors you get:

    To learn about the core functionality provided in all exteNd Director editors, see Source Editors.

Basic viewers

The exteNd Director development environment provides the following tools for viewing (but not editing) some other file types:

• Image Viewer

• Class Viewer

Image Viewer

Opening a GIF, JPG, JPEG, or PNG file displays the Image Viewer in the Edit Pane. You can zoom the image:

TIP:   If you want these files to open in an external program, specify the file extensions and the program in your preferences. For more information, see File association preferences.

Class Viewer

If you open a .class file, information about the .class file displays in the Class Viewer (exception: double-clicking a .class file in the Project tab's archive contents view opens the corresponding .java file in the Java Editor). The Class Viewer displays the following information:

• Name of the file, its corresponding source file, and the version of the compiler

• The class's package statement

• The class's declaration

• List of all fields, sorted by visibility

• List of all methods, sorted by visibility

• The same information for all inner classes

Basic tools for Web Services

The basic Web Service facilities of the exteNd Director development environment include:

• A Web Service Wizard to help you create Java-based Web Services and Web Service consumers from Java classes or WSDL files

• A WSDL Editor for creating, editing, and viewing WSDL files

• A Registry Manager for publishing and discovering Web Services

    For more information, see Web Service Wizard, WSDL Editor, and Registry Manager.

Debugging facilities

While working in the exteNd Director development environment, you can troubleshoot J2EE and other Java code by running the debugger of your choice.

To use a debugger:

• Select Tools>Launch Debugger.

  It prompts for a command to launch your debugger, then executes it. (For guidelines, see Specifying the debugger command below.)

You can specify a default debugger command on the General tab of the Preferences dialog.

To set a preference for your default debugger command:

1. Select Tools>Preferences.

2. In the Debugger command setting on the General tab, specify the command to launch your debugger. (For guidelines, see Specifying the debugger command below.)

3. Click OK.

Specifying the debugger command   Specify the operating system command that exteNd Director should issue when you select Tools>Launch Debugger. See your debugger's documentation for information about how to invoke that debugger from the command line.

You can include environment variables in the command by using the syntax %varname% or ${varname}. exteNd Director substitutes the values of these variables when invoking the command.

In addition to environment variables set at the operating system, you can also use environment variables that are predefined in the exteNd Director development environment:

• You can use the same variables that the exteNd Director version control interface uses (see Predefined environment variables).

  The file-related environment variables (such as %_PATH%) refer to the file that is open and currently active in the exteNd Director development environment.

• Plus, you can use the following two predefined variables:

  Variable	Description
  %_CLASSPATH%	The semicolon-delimited list of the classpath entries for the project and its subprojects
  %_SOURCEPATH%	The directory containing the project file

Managing toolbars

This section tells you how to control the use of toolbars in the exteNd Director development environment:

• Displaying toolbars

• Configuring toolbars

Displaying toolbars

The Main Toolbar (which appears below the menu bar) is the global toolbar for the development environment. Individual tools can have their own toolbars as well (in the Edit Pane). You can choose to show or hide any of these toolbars.

To show or hide a toolbar:

• Select View>Toolbars to list the available toolbars, then choose one to toggle it on or off.

  OR

  Right-click a toolbar to display the popup menu, then choose one of the listed toolbars to toggle it on or off.

How tabs display   Toolbars with one tab display as regular toolbars. Toolbars with more than one tab display as tabbed toolbars.

Configuring toolbars

You can configure any toolbar to control the buttons and tabs it displays.

To configure a toolbar:

1. Right-click that toolbar and select Configure.

2. When the Toolbar Configuration dialog displays, use it to make one or more of these changes:

   If you want to	Do this
   Add buttons	Browse the categories at the top of the dialog to find a predefined button you want. If the toolbar has multiple tabs, make the appropriate tab current in the toolbar canvas at the bottom of the dialog. Drag your button to the toolbar canvas and drop it at the position you want. OR Select your button and click the Add Button control to place it at the end of the current tab. TIP:   The Miscellaneous category includes a separator (vertical bar) that you can insert to visually organize toolbar buttons into groups.
   Move buttons	Drag and drop a button within the current tab in the toolbar canvas. OR Select a button in the toolbar canvas and click the Move Button Left or the Move Button Right control.
   Delete buttons	Drag a button from the toolbar canvas and drop it anywhere outside. OR Select a button in the toolbar canvas and click the Remove Button control. OR Right-click a button in the toolbar canvas and select Delete.
   Add tabs	Click the Add Tab button, then specify the tab name and tool tip text.
   Rename tabs	Make the appropriate tab current in the toolbar canvas. Click the Modify Tab button, then change the tab name and/or tool tip text.
   Move tabs	Make the appropriate tab current in the toolbar canvas. Click the Move tab - left button or the Move tab - right button.
   Delete tabs	Make the appropriate tab current in the toolbar canvas. Click the Delete Tab button.

3. Click OK.

Setting preferences

You can configure your exteNd Director development environment by setting:

• General preferences

• Build preferences

• Display preferences

• Editing preferences

  • Abbreviation preferences

  • Backup preferences

  • Editor association preferences

  • Code completion preferences

  • XML color preferences

• File association preferences

• Printing preferences

• Deployment preferences

• Version control preferences

To specify preferences:

1. Select Tools>Preferences.

   The Preferences dialog displays.

2. Select the tab you want.

3. Set your preferences. See the following sections for information about specific preferences.

4. Click OK.

General preferences

Specify general preferences as follows:

Build preferences

Specify build preferences as follows:

Display preferences

Specify display preferences as follows:

Editing preferences

Specify editing preferences as follows:

    For additional text options, see Source Editors.

Abbreviation preferences

You can define abbreviations that can be expanded to one or more lines of text—such as a word that expands to a predefined language construct. Once you have defined an abbreviation, you can type its name in an editor and press Ctrl+U (or right-click and select Text Tools>Complete Abbreviation) to replace the abbreviation with the expanded text.

Use %c in an abbreviation's definition to signify where the insertion point will be positioned when the abbreviation has been expanded.

For example, the abbreviation main is predefined as follows and is meant to be used in Java files:

  public static void main(String args[])
  {
      %c
  }

To define an abbreviation:

1. Select Tools>Preferences, click the Editing tab, and expand the Abbreviations section.

2. Click Add.

3. Type the abbreviation (shortcut) in the Abbreviation text box and click OK.

   Abbreviations must be single words and are case-sensitive.

4. Click inside the Definition text box and type the text you want the abbreviation to expand to.

5. Click OK.

To delete an abbreviation:

1. Select Tools>Preferences, click the Editing tab, and expand the Abbreviations section.

2. Select the abbreviation in the Abbreviations text box.

3. Click Delete.

4. Click OK.

To edit an abbreviation:

1. Select Tools>Preferences, click the Editing tab, and expand the Abbreviations section.

2. Select the abbreviation in the Abbreviations text box.

3. Click inside the Definition text box and change the abbreviation.

4. Click OK.

To use an abbreviation in your source code:

1. Type the abbreviation shortcut in the editor.

2. Position the cursor within the shortcut text or highlight it.

3. Press Ctrl+U (or right-click and select Text Tools>Complete Abbreviation). The shortcut text is replaced with the expanded text defined for that abbreviation.

NOTE:   If the abbreviation text is not defined, the Complete Abbreviation command is ignored.

Backup preferences

You can set preferences that control:

• Autosave files—successive copies of a modified file (each successive save replaces the preceding one). Autosave files are copies of any file in the Edit Pane that has been modified.

• Backup files—the original file before it was modified and saved.

By default, autosave and backup operations are not enabled.

You can set global backup preferences that control how all projects are backed up. However, because your projects may contain files with identical names, you may want to store separate backup and autosave files for each project. To do so, specify a subdirectory relative to the file's source directory for both backup and autosave files. Files that are backed up in parallel backup directories won't be overwritten.

NOTE:   When you specify a relative name for a backup or autosave directory, it will be relative to the source file.

Specify autosave and/or backup preferences as follows:

To define how files are autosaved and/or backed up:

1. Select Tools>Preferences, click the Editing tab, and expand the Backup section.

2. Choose Auto save enabled and/or Backup enabled.

3. Specify autosave and/or backup file parameters as described above.

4. Click OK.

Editor association preferences

These preferences specify which types of files will be edited using the NetBeans-based editors in the exteNd Director development environment.

    See Adding files types edited by NetBeans-based editors and Using the native Java, JSP, or HTML editor.

Code completion preferences

    See Creating parser database files.

XML color preferences

You can specify the colors used in the XML Editor's source view to display different types of information in XML documents, such as tags, arguments, values, text, errors, and white space (listed in the dialog as ws).

For each type of information, you can specify a foreground and a background color. You can pick from a list of colors or define your own by clicking the ellipsis button. You can also specify whether to use a bold font.

To specify colors used in the XML Editor:

1. Select Tools>Preferences, click the Editing tab, and expand the XML colors section.

2. Select the type of information whose color you want to specify, then specify a foreground and/or a background color and specify whether you want to use a bold font.

File association preferences

exteNd Director lets you use third-party tools to edit specific file types. You can set preferences that let you launch files in an external editor rather than opening them in the exteNd Director development environment. Use the File Associations tab to associate file extensions with external editors. For each file type, you can choose whether to open the file in:

• The exteNd Director development environment

• The system default editor for that file type (if you're using Windows)

• An external program you specify

To define how a file type is launched:

1. Select Tools>Preferences and click the File Associations tab.

2. Click Add.

3. Type the file extension in the dialog and click OK.

4. Specify one of the following preferences for the file type:

   Setting	Description
   Open in Director	(The default) Opens files using the exteNd Director source editor.
   Open using the default Windows program	(Windows only) Opens files using the Windows default editor for that file type (same as double-clicking a file in Windows Explorer—for example, using Notepad to open files with the .TXT extension).
   Open using this application	Opens files with the application you specify. You can type the path to the application, or click Browse and navigate to the application. NOTE:   Because some editors launch a new program instance each time you open a file, this setting is not always recommended.

5. Click OK.

CAUTION:    Consider the following when associating an external editor with the XML file extension: if you use an external editor to edit exteNd deployment plans, you will not be able to take advantage of the default setup that the exteNd Director editor provides and your project will not be associated with a deployment plan.

Printing preferences

Specify printing preferences as follows:

Deployment preferences

Deployment preferences are used by the Deployment Descriptor Editor and the Deployment Plan Editor. When you open either of these editors, exteNd Director loads all of the project's classes (including subproject classes). The editor then uses information from the classes to populate the dialogs that display lists of classes, methods, member variables, and so on. If the classes are not up to date, the information the editors display can be incorrect or missing.

You can control whether exteNd Director automatically builds a project when you access the Deployment Descriptor Editor or Deployment Plan Editor. You can specify one of the following build settings:

NOTE:   You do not need to create the archives in order for the deployment editors to load class information, because the editors load the classes directly from the file system, not from the archives.

You can also specify the following deployment preference:

Version control preferences

    See Using version control.

Setting up profiles

You can define the following types of profiles for use in the exteNd Director development environment:

• Server profile

• Database profile

• Registry profile

Server profile

A server profile stores information about a J2EE server, including the server's host name and port. When selected at deployment time, the server profile tells exteNd Director which server to deploy to and provides the information required for deployment to that server. A server profile applies to a specific server. If you are deploying to multiple servers, you need to set up a separate profile for each.

Your server's configuration determines how to specify the server profile information. For example, if your server uses security certificates you will specify the https protocol. The server configuration may also affect how you specify the server name, server port number, database name, and so on.

    For information about configuring a particular J2EE server, see the product documentation for that server.

To create a server profile:

1. Select Tools>Profiles.

2. On the Servers tab of the Profiles dialog, click New.

3. Specify settings in the Create a New Server Profile dialog as follows:

   Setting	Description
   Profile name	Enter a meaningful name to identify the profile. The name cannot contain the period (.) character. TIP:   Define a naming scheme based on your own development environment. For example, you might want to include project names, server names, server types, database types, and so on.
   Server type	Select a server type from the list. Server types are organized by brand and version number. The version number indicates the lowest version supported by a given server type. A server type is often valid for multiple subsequent versions as well. As a rule, you should select the server type for your brand that is closest to the target server's version, without being higher.
   Deployment tools directory	Specify the directory that contains the server's deployment tools—typically, a path such as: C:\Program Files\Novell\exteNdn\AppServer\bin or: C:\bea\wlserver6.1spn\bin If the server is located on another machine, you need either network access for running the tools or a copy of the tools in a local directory. For some servers, exteNd Director doesn't support remote deployment.
   Rapid deployment directory	For rapid deployment only. Enter the directory where you want exteNd Director to write the files for rapid deployment. Some servers require that files be written to a specific directory for rapid deploys. Make sure you specify the appropriate location for your server's configuration. See Setting rapid deployment directories for the directory listings. TIP:   Rapid deployment handles J2EE code, such as JSP pages and servlets. To quickly deploy resources such as components, images, and rules, use the exteNd Director Hot Deploy feature, described in Dynamic loading of resources and classes.     For more information on rapid deployment, see Rapid deployment.
   Server name	Set the server name using the following formats. For servers running http: servername http://servername[:port] For servers running https: https://servername[:port] Specify the port number if the server is not listening on the default port.
   Database name	For exteNd application servers only. Specify the name of the database on the server where you want to deploy the archive. Typically you will deploy the archive to the SilverMaster database, so that the URL for the application won't need to include the database name. NOTE:   You do not have to deploy the archive to the database you created for exteNd Director application data (described in the section on deploying an exteNd Director project in Developing exteNd Director Applications).
   Target servers	For BEA WebLogic servers only. Enter the names of the target servers.

4. Click OK to close the Create a New Server Profile dialog.

5. Click OK to close the Profiles dialog.

Setting rapid deployment directories   This table shows the rapid deployment directory you should specify in the Server Profile dialog:

Connecting to secure servers   The exteNd Director development environment connects to the target J2EE server at deployment time using the server profile. If the server profile indicates a secure server, exteNd Director will make the SSL connection automatically. It uses the set of commercial Certificate Authority certificates listed in agrootca.jar (located in the Novell exteNd Common\lib directory). If the server you're trying to deploy to uses a certificate issued by a CA certificate not listed in agrootca.jar, exteNd Director will not successfully connect to the server. You can add the CA certificate to agroootca.jar using any tool that allows you to modify the contents of a JAR file (for example, Sun's JAR utility or WinZip).

Database profile

You'll need to set up a database profile to use tools that require database access in the exteNd Director development environment. For example:

The database profile provides JDBC information that enables exteNd Director to connect to the datasource and retrieve table and field information. You can create multiple profiles to support different databases and JDBC drivers.

To create a database profile:

1. Select Tools>Profiles.

2. On the Databases tab of the Profiles dialog, click New.

   Specify settings in the Create a New Database Profile dialog as follows:

   Setting	Description
   Profile name	Enter any name to identify the profile.
   JDBC Driver	Enter the class name of the JDBC driver. You can specify any JDBC 2.0-compliant driver. To use the MySQL Connector/J driver (included with the exteNd Director development environment), specify: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver To use the Sun JDBC-ODBC bridge driver (in the JRE included with the exteNd Director development environment), specify: sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver If you specify any other JDBC driver, make sure that driver class can be loaded by the exteNd Director development environment; see To make the driver class available: below. (For the MySQL Connector/J driver and the Sun JDBC-ODBC bridge driver, the classes are set up automatically.)
   JDBC URL	Enter an URL that specifies the database you want. For example: jdbc:mysql://localhost:63306/SalesDB?profileSql=false&maxRows=0 or: jdbc:odbc:TestDB NOTE:   The text you enter after the first colon is driver specific.
   Connection Catalog	(Optional) Specify which SQL catalog (subset) of the database to connect to. For example: PayrollDB If your database driver does not support catalogs, it will ignore this request. If supported, the connection catalog lets you set up which database tables are retrieved. Connection catalogs are useful when you are connecting to a very large database or only want to connect to a subset of database tables (for example, to exclude production database access).
   Datasource Name	Specify the name of the datasource to associate with this database profile. You can enter either the datasource name, such as: SilverBooks or the full JNDI specification, such as: java:pm/JDBC/SilverBooks

3. Click Test to check the connection to the database specified by the JDBC URL.

   This test makes a JDBC connection to the database. The test will fail when a connection is not available or a setting is not correctly specified.

4. In the test dialog, enter your database user name and password, then click OK to verify access.

5. Click OK to close the Create a New Database Profile dialog.

6. Click OK to close the Profiles dialog.

To make the driver class available:

1. Obtain the JAR or other archive file that contains the JDBC driver.

2. Do one of the following:

   • Put the JAR in the Novell exteNd tools\lib\ext directory.

   • Edit the development environment configuration file (xd.conf in the Novell exteNd tools\bin directory) to point to the driver archive by including the line addcp path/mydriver.jar. For example:

       addcp c:/sybase/SybJConnect.jar
     

3. Start the exteNd Director development environment.

Registry profile

The exteNd Director development environment provides a facility to define profiles for Web Service registries. These profiles supply the information that allows you to search registries and publish Web Services.

    For more information on registry profiles, see Defining registry profiles.

Using version control

If you use a version control system, you can set up the exteNd Director development environment to access it. This enables you to perform version control operations on the files in your projects while working in the development environment.

• Setting up access to version control

• Accessing version control

Setting up access to version control

Before you can perform version control operations in the exteNd Director development environment, you need to adjust preference settings to enable version control and configure support for your version control system.

To adjust version control settings:

1. Select Tools>Preferences to display the Preferences dialog, then go to the Version Control tab.

2. Check the Enable Version Control property.

   This turns on the version control features of the development environment.

3. Select one of the available Version Control Systems.

   In this property, you're actually choosing a version control system definition that tells the development environment which version control commands to support. exteNd Director comes with definitions for several popular version control systems (ClearCase, CS-RCS, CVS, Visual SourceSafe). If you choose one of these, you can use it as is or edit the commands it defines to suit your needs and system configuration.

   You also have the option of creating version control system definitions yourself. This lets you set up development environment support for just about any version control system you might have.

Working with definitions   The following topics provide more detail about working with version control system definitions:

• Editing a version control system definition

• Creating a version control system definition

• Distributing a version control system definition

• Deleting a version control system definition

Editing a version control system definition

A version control system definition specifies a list of version control menu items that the development environment is to display. Each menu item is mapped to a command-line operation of the chosen version control system and also specifies details about how that operation is to be executed. You can edit the list to modify, create, or delete menu items.

To edit a definition:

1. From the Version Control tab of the Preferences dialog, select a definition from the Version Control Systems dropdown list.

2. Click the Setup button.

3. In the Setup dialog, make your changes to the list of version control menu items:

   If you want to	Do this
   Change the behavior of a menu item	Select that item from the Version Control Command listbox, then edit its Command properties.
   Change the name of a selected menu item	Click the Edit button. The name can include letters, numbers, spaces, and special characters. You can also edit the mnemonic character to be used for keyboard access to the menu item (when pressed in combination with the Alt key).
   Create a new menu item	Click the Add button, then specify the item's name and mnemonic character. Your new item will be added to the end of the list.
   Delete a selected menu item	Click the Remove button.
   Switch the order of menu items	Select an item you want to reposition, then use the arrow buttons to move it up or down in the list.

Command properties   The following table describes the command-related properties you can specify in the Setup dialog for version control menu items:

Predefined environment variables   The following table describes the predefined environment variables you can include in the command you specify for a version control menu item:

  x:/com/myco/myfile.java

  x:/com/myco

  myfile.java

  myfile

  java

Creating a version control system definition

If the exteNd Director development environment doesn't provide a definition for your version control system, you can create one yourself.

To create a definition:

1. From the Version Control tab of the Preferences dialog, click the Add button.

2. When prompted, type a name for your version control system definition.

   The definition name can include letters, numbers, spaces, and certain special characters. The name you specify is added to the Version Control Systems dropdown list.

   exteNd Director also creates an XML file to store your definition. The name of this file matches the definition name you specify (except that spaces are replaced by underscores). exteNd Director saves your definition XML file in the Novell exteNd tools\Resources\version_control_config directory (along with the definition XML files it provides).

3. When the Setup dialog displays, specify the details of your version control system definition.

       See Editing a version control system definition.

Distributing a version control system definition

Once you edit or create a version control system definition, you might want to copy it to other computers where the exteNd Director development environment is installed.

To distribute a definition:

1. Find the XML file for your version control system definition in the Novell exteNd tools\Resources\version_control_config directory.

2. Copy that file to the corresponding directory on each target computer.

   When the development environment is run on those computers, the Version Control Systems dropdown list (on the Version Control tab of the Preferences dialog) will automatically include your copied definition.

Deleting a version control system definition

If you don't need a particular version control system definition, you can remove it.

To delete a definition:

1. From the Version Control tab of the Preferences dialog, select a definition from the Version Control Systems dropdown list.

2. Click the Remove button.

   exteNd Director prompts you to confirm, then deletes that definition from the list. The definition's XML file is deleted from the Novell exteNd tools\Resources\version_control_config directory.

Accessing version control

When you use the exteNd Director development environment with version control access enabled, the commands specified by the active version control system definition are available via a popup menu. You just need to right-click one of the following:

• Any file name on the Directory tab or Project tab of the Navigation Pane

• An open file in the Edit Pane

When you execute a version control command, resulting text messages display on the Version Control tab of the Output Pane.

Maintaining Todo lists

The exteNd Director development environment enables you to maintain a Todo list that organizes and tracks your application development tasks. You maintain your Todo list in the Todo tab of the Output Pane.

You can:

• Create Todo items

• Associate items with projects or mark them as independent of particular projects

• Mark the completion status of items

• Create a hierarchy of items

• Reorganize the items in the hierarchy

• Delete items

In addition, various wizards and tools generate items in your Todo list to point you to areas where work needs to be done and to describe the nature of that work.

Working in the Todo tab

When you first click the Todo tab, the Todo list is empty (unless you have run a tool or wizard that populates the list; see Working with generated items).

Creating items   The first thing you'll do is add one or more items, which can be tasks or folders.

To add an item:

1. Select the item following which you want to add an item, and either press Ins or right-click and select Add Item.

   TIP:   You can also use Edit>Add Todo Item to insert an item at the end of the list, or press Shift+Ins to add the item as a child of the selected item.

   The Add Todo Item dialog displays.

2. Enter the following information:

   Property	Description
   Description	Text to display for the item in the Todo list.
   Note	(Optional) Additional information about the item. This text displays as part of the item's tool tip when the mouse pointer is over the item.
   Add to open project	If you want to associate this item with an open project, select the project from the list. If you select a project, the Todo item is added to the end of the list in the project's folder (the folder is created if necessary). A project's Todo folder is a top-level folder named: projectFile in pathToProject For example, if a project file is in c:\myProjects\myEAR\MyEAR.spf, the project folder will be named: MyEAR.spf in c:/myProjects/myEAR

3. Click OK.

   The item is created. If you associated the item with a project, it is created as the last item in that project's list.

   If you did not associate the item with a project, it is created as a sibling following the selected item (unless no item was selected when you added the item, in which case the item is added as the first item in the list, or unless you added the item with Shift+Ins, in which case the new item is a child of the selected item).

New items appear with the description you entered, along with a checkbox. The checkbox indicates the completion status of the item (see the next section).

Editing items   You indicate an item's completion status, as well as revise its description and note, by editing the item.

To edit an item:

1. Select the item.

2. Right-click and select Edit Item.

   The Edit Todo Item dialog displays.

3. Update the information as appropriate. To indicate completion status, select a value from the Percent done listbox or type a value.

4. Click OK.

An empty checkbox indicates that the task has not begun. A light check indicates partial completion. A dark check indicates completion.

TIP:   You can toggle an item's completion status between 0 and 100 percent by selecting the item, right- clicking, and selecting Toggle Item(s) Done. If the completion status was zero, it is set to 100; if it was non-zero, it is set to zero. You can also do this simply by clicking the item's checkbox.

Tool tips   When you position the mouse pointer over an item, the item's tool tip displays as:

  percent done; Notes: noteText

Creating a hierarchy   Todo lists can be hierarchical—items can contain other items. For example, you can create a folder of related tasks.

To create a hierarchy:

• Move one or more items under another item by selecting the item(s) and either pressing > or by right-clicking and selecting Indent.

  The item becomes a child of its previous sibling, which is now a folder.

Similarly, to outdent one or more items, select them and press < or right-click and select Outdent. If an item no longer has children, it is no longer displayed as a folder.

Moving items   You can move an item around with drag and drop: press and hold the mouse button on an item and move the item within the list. A horizontal line indicates where the item will be moved to. Release the mouse button to move the item. Moving a folder moves all of its contents as well.

You can move an item anywhere in the list.

TIP:   You can drag more than one item at a time—as long as you drag as soon as you have selected the last of the multiple entries. (If you click after selecting the last entry, it reverts to a single selection.)

Deleting items   You can delete one or more items at a time.

To delete items:

1. Select the items you want to delete. You can select a folder to delete it and all its contents. You can select multiple items anywhere in the list using Shift+Click and Ctrl+Click.

2. Press Del or right-click and select Delete item(s).

   You are asked to confirm your deletion.

3. Click Yes to delete the items.

Using keyboard shortcuts   The following keyboard shortcuts are supported in the Todo tab:

Disabling the Todo feature   If you don't want to use the Todo feature, you can disable it by deselecting Enable Todo in General Preferences (Tools>Preferences). With Todo disabled, the Todo tab does not display and the Edit>Add Todo Item menu item is disabled.

NOTE:   Even after disabling the Todo feature, your Todo list remains intact and will be displayed when you later reenable Todo.

Working with generated items

Various wizards and tools in the exteNd Director development environment generate Todo items and add them to the corresponding project folder in your Todo list (remember that the Todo folder for a project is a top-level folder named projectFile in pathToProject). For example, the Servlet Wizard adds items about processing the servlet's GET and POST requests and implementing any interface stub methods.

@todo comments   In addition to populating the Todo list with items, the wizards include @todo javadoc-style comments in the generated source files. These comments are of a finer granularity than the items generated in the Todo list. The Todo list would be too cluttered if all the @todo comments appeared in the list, but the @todo comments can be helpful to you in your detailed work.

Actions in generated items   Generated items are just like the items you create in the Todo tab, with one exception:

A generated item might have an action associated with it. If a generated item has an action associated with it, you can invoke the action by doing either of the following:

• Double-clicking the item

• Right-clicking the item and selecting the first menu item, which describes the action

NOTE:   If an item has no associated action, the first menu item is Launch Action and it is disabled.

Typically, the action is to open an associated file. For example, if you double-click the Todo item generated by the Servlet Wizard about specifying the servlet's GET request, exteNd Director opens the servlet's source file and positions the insertion point appropriately.

Using Ant

Internally, the exteNd Director development environment uses Apache Ant when you build a project by selecting one of the Build commands on the Project menu (see Compiling, building, and archiving). You don't need to know anything about Ant if you only want to do builds that way. But direct access to Ant is also provided so that you can accomplish the following:

• Do project builds from the command line

• Do your own customized Ant processing

If you want to do either of these tasks, read this section to learn about Ant and how to use it.

What is Ant?

Apache Ant is a Java-based build tool, much like make but without make's foibles. A couple of key differences between Ant and make are:

• Instead of using makefiles, Ant uses XML-based buildfiles, which specify targets that define the processing that you want.

• Instead of using shell-based commands, Ant is extended using Java classes. It comes with a built-in set of tasks, each implemented through a Java class. To define a new task, you define a new Java class that extends the Ant Task class.

Ant is an open-source Apache subproject. To learn more about Ant, including details on defining your own tasks and creating buildfiles, see ant.apache.org.

Using the exteNd Ant tools

You can use a couple of exteNd tools to invoke Ant from the command line. These Ant-based executables are in the Novell exteNd tools\bin directory:

• xdbuild allows you to build an exteNd Director project

• xdant allows you to perform customized processing based on buildfiles (and possibly task classes) that you have created

The difference between the two executables is that xdbuild takes an exteNd Director project file as input, and xdant takes an Ant buildfile. You invoke these tools from the command line.

xdbuild syntax   Here is the command syntax for xdbuild:

  xdbuild projectFile target options

where:

xdant syntax   Here is the command syntax for xdant:

  xdant CustomizedTargets options

where:

Options   Here are the options you can provide with xdbuild and xdant:

Examples

xdbuild examples   The following command builds and creates the archive(s) for the exteNd Director project myApp (if changes have been made since the last time the project was built and archived):

  xdbuild myApp.spf build

The following command rebuilds all the files and creates the archive(s) for the myApp project:

  xdbuild myApp.spf rebuild

The following command removes all files from the build directory and deletes the archive(s):

  xdbuild myApp.spf clean

xdant examples   The following command performs the tasks defined for the default target in build.xml in the current directory:

  xdant

The following command performs the tasks defined for the purge target in build.xml in the current directory:

  xdant purge

The following command performs the tasks defined for the purge target in test.xml. If test.xml isn't found in the current directory, Ant searches for it in parent directories until it hits the root directory:

  xdant purge -find test.xml

Internationalization support

This section describes support for internationalization in the exteNd Director development environment.

Specifying fonts

If some international characters are not displaying correctly (for example, they are displaying as boxes) or if the font mapping on your system is poor, you can specify different fonts for the exteNd Director development environment to use for its menus, labels, dialogs, and so on (note that the editors themselves are not affected by changes you make as described next).

To change the fonts used by the development environment:

1. Select Tools>Preferences and click the Display tab.

2. Turn on the setting Use native look and feel.

3. Exit the exteNd Director development environment.

4. Specify alternate font names (and optionally sizes and colors) in the following lines of ide.props, which is in the Novell exteNd tools\Resources\Preferences directory:

     font-name-standard = font-name 
     font-size-standard = font-size 
     font-name-big = font-name 
     font-size-big = font-size 
     output-font-name = font-name 
     output-font-size = font-size 
     output-background-color = font-color 
     output-font-color = font-color 
   

Font sizes are specified in points. Colors are specified as R,G,B integer values; for example, 255,255,255 is white and 0,0,0 is black.

• The standard font is used to display all standard-sized text, menus, labels, and so on. The default is 11-point Arial.

• The big font is used to display title text in wizards as well as buttons in wizards and dialogs. The default is 18-point Arial.

• The output font is used to display text in the Output Pane. The default is 12-point Monospaced, black on a gray background.

Sun recommends that you use Serif as the font name to provide the best font mapping on most systems.

Extending the development environment

The exteNd Director development environment can be extended (via an advanced extensibility API) to add custom tools and facilities. To learn about obtaining and using the extensibility API for the development environment, contact your Novell exteNd representative.

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