POLL: What Languages do you code in? (Results)

It doesn't come as much surprise how many Java programmers are out there. I am also happy to see so many Ruby developers.

• 89% Java
• 36% C/C++
• 24% C#
• 16% Perl
• 14% Ruby
• 12% Python
• 8% Assembler
• 4% VB
• 0% Objective-C
• 0% ADA
• 0% COBOL
• 0% LISP

Poll closed 11/09/2008

POLL: What build system do you use? (Results)

I am pretty surprised how many people use Maven. I am hoping to get it to work better for Swing apps then it does.

• 75% Ant
• 25% Maven
• 25% Other
• 16% make/imake/nmake

Poll closed October 9, 2008

POLL: What OS do you develop JAVA on? (Results)

Ubuntu is really getting up there in Java Developers.

• 34% Windows XP
• 27% Linux (Ubuntu)
• 27% OSX 10.5
• 10% Linux (Fedora)
• 10% Linux (SUSE)
• 10% Linux
• 13% Windows Vista
• 06% Other
• 00% OSX 10.x
  

Poll closed June 28, 2008

POLL: What Version of Netbeans do you use? (Results)

Here are the results from our poll of Netbeans version used.

• 73% 6.0
• 19% I don't use Netbeans
• 14% 5.5/5.5.1
• 03% 5.0
• 01% 4.x

Poll closed March 31 2008

POLL: Standard Projects you work on? (Results)

Of all the developers working on projects, the following gives a breakdown. Note that users could vote on more then one type so the total will be greater then 100%

• 70% Swing/GUI
• 40% WEB/JSP
• 40% Console
• 30% Mobile Devices

Netbeans 6.1

I install Netbeans 6.1 today and it delivers all expected. A few points, then I want to get back to playing...

• It starts faster
• It runs faster
• It looks clean
• It has improved code complete
• ....
  

These are my first impressions. The impression I have with 6.1 is better then my first impression with 6.0. Netbeans 6.0 was a big revision of the entire platform. You can feel all the work that was put into Netbeans 6.1 to improve the base that was started in 6.0. I am currently running it on my little travel Thinkpad T30 and it is running great. I completely give this my thumbs up.

I am very happy. Well back to it.

UPDATE: I have been using Netbeans 6.1 for about a month. Several weeks ago, I switch to Ubuntu Linux 8.04 too. Both are working very very well.

HOWTO: create data aware applications in NetBeans 6.0

Roumen Strobl created a very clear and easy to follow flash demo describing how to create data aware applications using NetBeans 6.0. In the demo, Roumen covers 3 topics:

• Process for connecting to a MySQL database
• Steps to create a "data aware" Swing Application that talks to MySQL
• Steps to create a REST based web service for accessing the same database
  

You can view Romen's Weblog here and a direct link to the demo here. The entire demo is under 8 minutes so grab a coffee and enjoy.

Somewhere on this page you will find a link to Roumen's weblog. It is on my "bookmark me" list.

SOLUTION: Web Service Testing in Netbeans 6.0.1 gets ClassNotFound Exception

Overview
Recently, I have been working on creating some web services using NetBeans 6.0/6.0.1. I have done this before and I wasn't creating anything to crazy. I decided to try them out using the new handy Web Services feature that is in the Services tab of the NetBeans 6.0.1 IDE. Within this feature, you can add a WSDL file and look at the features available for consumption from the web service. My favorite aspect of this is that you can right click on any method and test it. A form opens so you can provide parameters. Once submitted, results are returned in an object. This object can be drilled into for more details.

Using this testing feature, I ran into an odd issue however. I created a new WS that I wanted to experiment with. Again, nothing fancy. When I setup the WS in the NetBeans Web Services area, they were added without errors. However, when I tested them, I got a ClassNotFound exception. I looked at everything but got the same results. I even deployed them on a different server that is running a newer build of Tomcat but got the same results. I wrote a simple client that consumed the WS and it _did_ work...? That was not expected. I looked that the issue from many different angles but could not see an obvious cause. Then something occurred to me...

Workaround

My web service name was all lowercase. Since a web service can be considered a class so it should start with an upper case character. This is normally my convention however, this was just a simple experiment.

Basically, I had something like:
https://www.inhouse.headache.net/timezonews/convertWS?wsdl

That should have been like:
https://www.inhouse.headache.net/timezonews/ConvertWS?wsdl

Once I created my Web Service to start with an upper case character, everything worked. I have not read to see if a web service MUST start with an upper case character. If anyone knows the answer, please post

Final Thoughts
This was an odd issue that I ran into using NetBeans. I hope anyone out there who runs into the same thing reads this solution before they lose to much time.

Happy developing using NetBeans.

POLL: What is your favorite IDE (Results)

After several month of polling the favorite IDE results in in.

• 65% Netbeans
• 30% Eclipse
• 2% Microsoft Visual Studio
• 2% IBM Visual Age

Granted, many of my blog entries are tagged with Netbeans but even more are tagged with Java. For this reason, the results should be taken with a grain of salt. Still, it was nice to see so many people vote.