How to change a Netbeans 4.0 project to be open ALSO by Eclipse 3.0.1

Author: Mauricio Gracia Gutiérrez
Creation Date: 2005.03.01
Email: mauriciogracia AT sourceforge.net
Home Page: http://DGuitar.sourceforge.net/
Revision Date: 2005.03.02

OVERVIEW OF THE PROCESS

  1. Lets say you already have a NetBeans 4.0 project created called MyProject and located at <PATH>\MyProject
  2. open NetBeans 4.0 and chage the project settings
  3. create a ZIP file of the <PATH>\MyProject\MyProject.zip
  4. create a new folder <PATH>\NEW (or your choice), this is were we are going to create the Eclipse 3.0.1 Project
  5. open Eclipse 3.0.1 create a new project and import the ZIP file
  6. create a new folder <PATH>\NEW\MyProject\dist(necesary for Netbeans 4.0)
  7. Now you can DECIDE when to work with Eclipse 3.0.1 or Netbeans 4.0
Some IMPORTANT NOTES about the statements that Netbeansguards can be found at the end of this article.

DETAILED PROCESS

  1. Lets say you already have a NetBeans 4.0 project created called MyProject and located at <PATH>\MyProject
  2. open NetBeans 4.0
    • open MyProject
    • Right click MyProject and select Clean Project (this deletes the build/classed and dist folders)
    • open the file project.properties located in the folder <PATH>\MyProject\nbproject
    • change the build.dir to bin
    • change the build.classed.dir to ${build.dir}
    • save and close the file
    close NetBeans 4.0
  3. create a ZIP file of the <PATH>\MyProject\MyProject.zip that will contain this folders:
    • nbproject
    • src
    • Any other folder or file that is located at <PATH>\MyProject
  4. create a new folder <PATH>\NEW (or your choice), this is were we are going to create the Eclipse 3.0.1 Project
  5. open Eclipse 3.0.1
    • go to Window, Open Perspective, Java
    • go to File, New, Project, Java Project
    • click NEXT
    • type MyProject
    • select Create project at external location
    • type <PATH>\NEW\MyProject (this folder will be created by ECLIPSE)
    • select Create separate source and output folders
    • click NEXT
    • click FINISH
    • Right click on MyProject (at the Package Explorer)
    • select IMPORT
    • select ZIP file (usually the last option on the list)
    • click NEXT
    • BROWSE and look for the <PATH>\MyProject\MyProject.zip created on STEP 3
    • click FINISH
    close Eclipse 3.0.1
  6. create a new folder <PATH>\NEW\MyProject\dist(necesary for Netbeans 4.0)
  7. Now you can DECIDE when to work with Eclipse 3.0.1 or Netbeans 4.0
IMPORTANT NOTES
Any statement that has the //GEN-BEGIN: or //GEN-END: included is guarded by Netbeans and must ONLY be modified using the Netbeans Form Editor (or the tool that generated them)

Methods like initComponents or any other statements that says do not modify are examples of Netbeans guarded statements.

For this reason is best if you do the INTERNATIONALIZATION part of Forms in NETBEANS.