Using NetBeans to develop JavaFX [was: Removing obsolete NetBeans IDE files from jfx source repo (JDK-8223375)]

[Kevin Rushforth]

I spoke too soon about NB 12 working well for me, although I still think 
we should remove the obsolete nbproject files, (unless someone is 
inexplicably using them).

I can open and navigate javafx.base just fine, since it doesn't depend 
on any other modules. When I open any file in javafx.graphics that 
relies on javafx.base, it can't resolve it, so it shows a whole pile of 
errors in the file, and you can't navigate to any class in the 
javafx.base module. Same problem with javafx.controls not recognizing 
the javafx.base or javafx.graphics modules.

I'm reasonably sure I had this working with NB 11.x with a previous 
incarnation of JavaFX (before the recent gradle / JDK upgrades), but now 
I'm not so sure.

Is anyone else using NetBeans for developing JavaFX itself (as opposed 
to developing an app that uses JavaFX)? Or has everyone switched to 
IntelliJ? I'd like to stick with NetBeans, but will need a solution (or 
viable workaround) to this problem.

-- Kevin


On 7/17/2020 3:40 PM, Kevin Rushforth wrote:
> I propose to remove the obsolete NetBeans IDE files from the JavaFX 
> source repo. See JDK-8223375 [1]. Those files were written to run with 
> NetBeans 8. We sort of limped along with FX 9 using JDK 8 to browse 
> and navigate the sources, but it really doesn't work at all now.
>
> I just downloaded NetBeans 12, which has added support for gradle 6.3, 
> to see if I could load and run JavaFX using their gradle plugin (I had 
> some mixed success with NetBeans 11.x).
>
> Using JDK 14, and Netbeans' default gradle plugin, I can load the 
> "jfx" project, which uses build.gradle to configure the projects> I 
> get no warnings or errors now.
>
> The only minor problem I had is that if I close NetBeans with the 
> project open, it seems to misplace the subprojects (base, graphics, 
> etc.) when I open it back up. I then have to close and reopen the main 
> 'jfx' project. Then all seems happy again.
>
> If there are no concerns, I will send a out a pull request next week 
> to remove the old NB project files.
>
> -- Kevin
>
> [1] https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8223375
>