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. I would be very glad if others also would like to contribute. Since I am working on the OpenOffice.org API plug-in for NetBeans, I hope to add some of the stuff I present here to the plug-in at one stage.

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 ~~green:Tools->Options->Editor->Code Templates and add a new template (click on "new"). I gave my template the abbreviation "ur" (as in UnoRuntime). Then I inserted 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 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" above becomes "Control". 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.

Annoyances

Not that there are none, but I cannot think of anything right now.