Using NetBeans

Developing Web Applications

NetBeans is an integrated development environment or IDE. Like any other IDE it comprises a source code editor, compiler, debugger, automation tools and many other features. Started as an IDE for Java development, from version 6 it has encompassed support for PHP, C/C++, HTML5 and JavaScript. Many other languages are also supported via plugins. NetBeans is also a platform, which means it can be used to create NetBeans plugins and standalone applications. The best part is that it is a free and open source IDE and can run on almost all major platforms, i.e., Windows, Linux and Mac. Being developed for Java, it has built-in support for Java Standard Edition (Java SE) and Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE).

NetBeans can be downloaded from https://netbeans.org/ downloads/. It offers different bundles for different levels of functionality as shown in Figure 1. Clicking on the download button will download the specific bundle.

Java SE allows the development of Java desktop applications. Java EE allows you to develop Java SE and enterprise applications, which include Web apps, frameworks, EJB and many more. Let’s now install Java EE or the All bundle.

Installing NetBeans

NetBeans requires a Java Development Kit (JDK) Version 1.7 or later for the latest NetBeans IDE. We need to ensure that the JDK is installed before trying to install NetBeans. To check for the Java version, open the command prompt or terminal and execute the command javac –version. If Java is not installed, you will get an error message like ‘Command not found’. So let’s assume that JDK has been installed.

While downloading, the download page will detect the operating system and will download .exe for Windows, dmg for Mac and sh for Linux.