NetBeans Tips and Tricks
Overview
I created this wiki page to share some of my settings, tricks, and best practices around using NetBeans to program for OpenOffice.org in Java. Since I am working on the OpenOffice.org API plug-in for NetBeans, I hope to add some of the stuff here to the plug-in at one stage. Please feel free to add your own ideas.
Tips and Tricks
UnoRuntime.queryInterface
Eeverybody who programs in Java for OOo stumbles upon UnoRuntime.queryInterface(). It really started annoying me, how often I had to type that even in small programs.
Why not make things easier using NetBeans on-bord features?
Open Tools->Options->Editor->Code Templates and add a new template (click on "New"). I gave my template the abbreviation "ur" (as in UnoRuntime), but feel free to choose your own name. Then insert the following code as "Expanded Text":
X${Interface} x${Interface} = (X${Interface})UnoRuntime.queryInterface(X${Interface}.class, ${EXP leftSideType instanceof="java.lang.Object" default="oObject"});
Now, when you type "ur" and expand this (by pressing <TAB>) in the Java Editor, it becomes
XInterface xInterface = (XInterface)UnoRUntime.queryInterface(XInterface.class, oObject);
You can type the UNO type of your choice, e.g. "Control" and every "Interface" changes accordingly. After pressing return, you change to "oObject". This is also a placeholder that gets filled with some intelligence. If the line above yours contains something like "Object o = ...", "oObject" is replaced by o.