Packaging and Distributing a Rich-Client Application


Rich-client applications are complete, functioning, standalone desktop applications. NetBeans IDE provides the application framework on top of which you build your application. Each distinct part of the application is provided by a separate module project. For example, if your rich-client application is an editor, you might have one module project that provides syntax highlighting, while another provides file templates. Assembling the module projects within a module suite project allows you to package, distribute, and deploy them as a single unit.

Before you package a rich-client application, you need to consider whether you want to have it resemble NetBeans IDE. For example, your rich-client application uses the NetBeans IDE splash screen by default. Branding, the final stage before packaging, involves deciding things such as what the splash screen should look like and whether the application will include a progress bar during startup. In the module suite project's Project Properties dialog box, you define such settings, as shown in Figure 17-14.

Figure 17-14. Branding support in NetBeans IDE


When you right-click the module suite project's node in the Projects window, you can package the application by building a ZIP distribution, a JNLP application, or both. When the IDE creates your ZIP distribution, it also creates a launcher for the application. You can specify the name of the launcher in the Application panel of the module suite project's Project Properties dialog box. Also, you can use the same panel to define the title that will appear in the application's titlebar and the icon that will appear in the Help | About dialog box.

Once a rich-client application is branded and packaged, you can distribute it over the web as a web-startable JNLP application. Alternatively, you can distribute the ZIP file. Updates to the plug-in modules that make up a rich-client application can be distributed via the Update Center, as explained in the previous section.



NetBeans IDE Field Guide(c) Developing Desktop, Web, Enterprise, and Mobile Applications
NetBeans IDE Field Guide(c) Developing Desktop, Web, Enterprise, and Mobile Applications
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2004
Pages: 279

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