Quick Search Integration Tutorial
This tutorial shows you how to write a module that integrates
new items into the NetBeans Quick Search feature.
Contents
To follow this tutorial, you need the software and resources listed in the following
table.
Optionally, for troubleshooting purposes, you can download the
completed sample and inspect the sources.
Introduction to Quick Search Integration
The Quick Search feature, introduced in NetBeans IDE 6.5, consists of
a text field in the top right corner of the IDE. As a search string is typed in
the field, a drop-down list appears, showing matching items. By default, the items
come from the names of actions registered in the IDE, as well as help topics
in the IDE's Java Help. When an action item is selected, the action is invoked; when
a help item is selected, the topic opens in JavaHelp.
In addition, however, the Quick Search API
is exposed. You can use it to integrate your own search items into the
Quick Search feature. You can use the feature either within the IDE or
as part of your own application on top of the NetBeans Platform.
In this tutorial, you create a module that integrates items
from NetBeans Zone with the
Quick Search feature:
Creating the Module Project
In this section, we use a wizard to create the source structure that every NetBeans module requires. The
source structure consists of certain folders in specific places and a set of files that are
always needed. For example, every NetBeans module requires a nbproject folder, which holds
the project's metadata, and a layer.xml file, for declarative registration of items
such as toolbar buttons and windows.
- Choose File > New Project (Ctrl-Shift-N). Under Categories, select NetBeans Modules. Under Projects,
select Module and click Next.
- In the Name and Location panel, type NetBeansZoneSearch in Project Name.
Change the
Project Location to any directory on your computer, such as c:\mymodules. Leave the Standalone Module radiobutton
selected. The panel should now look as follows:
Click Next.
- In the Basic Module Configuration panel, type org.netbeans.modules.nbzone
as the Code Name Base.
Add spaces to the suggested Module Display Name, so that it is changed to NetBeans Zone Search.
Select the "Generate XML Layer" checkbox and
leave the location of the localizing bundle and XML layer as they are,
so that they will be stored in a
package with the name org/netbeans/modules/nbzone. The panel should now look as follows:
- Click Finish.
The IDE creates the NetBeans Zone Search
project. The project contains all of your sources and
project metadata, such as the project's Ant build script. The project
opens in the IDE. You can view its logical structure in the Projects window (Ctrl-1) and its
file structure in the Files window (Ctrl-2).
Using the Quick Search Provider Wizard
In this section, we use a wizard to create the stub class and
layer entries necessary for beginning our integration with the
Quick Search feature.
- Right-click the project node and
choose New > Other. In the New File dialog,
choose Module Development > Quick Search Provider.
- In the Quick Search Provider panel, set the following:
- Provider Class Name. Specifies the class
name of the stub that the wizard will generate. Type "NBZoneSearchProvider"
in this field.
- Package. Specifies the package where the stub class
will be generated. Select "org.netbeans.modules.nbzone" from the drop-down.
- Category Display Name. Specifies the display name of
the category that the stub will create. Type "NetBeans Zone" in this field.
- Command Prefix. Specifies prefix for narrowing the
search to the category that the stub will create. Type "nb" in this field.
- Position in Popup. Specifies the position of the new
category in within the Quick Search feature. Leave "0", so that the category
will be first in the popup.
You should now see the following:
- Click Finish.
The Projects window should now look as follows:
In the layer.xml file, you should see the following:
<filesystem>
<folder name="QuickSearch">
<folder name="NetBeansZone">
<attr name="SystemFileSystem.localizingBundle" stringvalue="org.netbeans.modules.nbzone.Bundle"/>
<attr name="command" stringvalue="nb"/>
<attr name="position" intvalue="0"/>
<file name="org-netbeans-modules-nbzone-NBZoneSearchProvider.instance"/>
</folder>
</folder>
</filesystem>
Integrating an External HTML DOM Parser
In the next section, we will need an HTML DOM Parser so that we can parse
NetBeans Zone. You can use any appropriate parser of your choice. For purposes
of this tutorial, we will use JTidy.
There are two ways of making an external JAR file available
to a module. The first way is to put the JAR into a separate
module, called a "library wrapper module", and have the
functionality module depend on the library wrapper
module, after putting both into a module suite. The advantage
of having two separate modules is that, when a new version of
the external JAR is released, you will only need to redistribute
a small module containing only the external JAR, rather than
a larger one that also contains the functionality code. The
second way is to add the JAR to the functionality module, which
is what is done below. The advantage of this approach is that
it is more convenient in the short term only,
since you only have one module to distribute, while the disadvantage
is that you are mixing your external library with the
functionality code, which is not a strictly modular approach.
- Download JTidy
and find the Tidy.jar that is within the download.
- In the Files window, create the folder structure shown below, putting the
Tidy.jar into the release/modules/ext folder:
- Towards the end of the project.xml file, which is in the nbproject
folder, add the bold tags below, i.e., right near the end of the file:
...
...
...
<class-path-extension>
<runtime-relative-path>ext/Tidy.jar</runtime-relative-path>
<binary-origin>release/modules/ext/Tidy.jar</binary-origin>
</class-path-extension>
</data>
</configuration>
</project>
- In the project.properties file, add the following line:
cp.extra=release/modules/ext/Tidy.jar
The external HTML DOM Parser is now on your module's
classpath. Now you can use the classes within the JAR,
as you will need to do in the next section.
Coding the Quick Search Integration
Next, we will implement the API. The API's classes are as follows:
| SearchProvider |
The main interface of the Quick Search API.
Implement this interface to provide a new group of results for
your quick search. |
| SearchRequest |
The description of the quick search request. |
| SearchResponse |
The response object for collecting the
results of the SearchRequest. |
Below, we set dependencies on the required modules and then implement them in
our own module.
- Right-click the project, choose Properties, and
set the following dependencies in the Libraries panel:
- Open the generated class.
- Modify the class as follows:
public class NBZoneSearchProvider implements SearchProvider {
/**
* Method is called by infrastructure when search operation is requested.
* Implementors should evaluate given request and fill response object with
* apropriate results
*
* @param request Search request object that contains search string
* @param response Search response object that stores search results
* Note that it's important to react to return value of
* SearchResponse.addResult(...) method and stop computation if
* false value is returned.
*/
@Override
public void evaluate(SearchRequest request, SearchResponse response) {
try {
//The URL that we are providing a search for:
URL url = new URL("http://netbeans.dzone.com");
//Stuff needed by Tidy:
Tidy tidy = new Tidy();
tidy.setXHTML(true);
tidy.setTidyMark(false);
tidy.setShowWarnings(false);
tidy.setQuiet(true);
//Get the org.w3c.dom.Document from Tidy,
//or use a different parser of your choice:
Document doc = tidy.parseDOM(url.openStream(), null);
//Get all "a" elements:
NodeList list = doc.getElementsByTagName("a");
//Get the number of elements:
int length = list.getLength();
//Loop through all the "a" elements:
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
String href = null;
if (null != list.item(i).getAttributes().getNamedItem("href")) {
//Get the "href" attribute from the current "a" element:
href = list.item(i).getAttributes().getNamedItem("href").getNodeValue();
}
//Get the "title" attribute from the current "a" element:
if (null != list.item(i).getAttributes().getNamedItem("title")) {
String title = list.item(i).getAttributes().getNamedItem("title").getNodeValue();
//If the title matches the requested text:
if (title.toLowerCase().indexOf(request.getText().toLowerCase()) != -1) {
//Add the runnable and the title to the response
//and return if nothing is added:
if (!response.addResult(new OpenFoundArticle(href), title)) {
return;
}
}
}
}
} catch (IOException ex) {
Exceptions.printStackTrace(ex);
}
}
private static class OpenFoundArticle implements Runnable {
private String article;
public OpenFoundArticle(String article) {
this.article = article;
}
public void run() {
try {
URL url = new URL("http://netbeans.dzone.com" + article);
StatusDisplayer.getDefault().setStatusText(url.toString());
URLDisplayer.getDefault().showURL(url);
} catch (MalformedURLException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(NBZoneSearchProvider.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
}
}
}
- Make sure the following import statements are declared:
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import org.netbeans.spi.quicksearch.SearchProvider;
import org.netbeans.spi.quicksearch.SearchRequest;
import org.netbeans.spi.quicksearch.SearchResponse;
import org.openide.awt.HtmlBrowser.URLDisplayer;
import org.openide.awt.StatusDisplayer;
import org.openide.util.Exceptions;
import org.w3c.dom.Document;
import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
import org.w3c.tidy.Tidy;
Installing and Trying Out the Functionality
Let's now install the module and then use the quick search feature
integration.
The IDE uses an Ant build script to build and install your module. The build
script is created for you
when you create the project.
- In the Projects window, right-click the project and choose Run.
A new instance of the IDE starts up
and installs the Quick Search integration module.
- Type a string in the Quick Search feature and, if the string
matches the title of something on NetBeans Zone, the item from
NetBeans Zone is included in the result:
If you type the command prefix that you defined in the layer.xml, followed by
a space, then only the related category is searched:
- Click an item and, if you have set a browser in the IDE,
it opens, displaying the selected article.
Using the Quick Search Feature on the NetBeans Platform
The previous sections assumed that you were creating a module for an existing
application. The two topics that follow are applicable if, instead of creating
a module, you are creating your own application on top of the NetBeans Platform.
Enabling the Quick Search Feature on the NetBeans Platform
Although NetBeans IDE comes with support for the Quick
Search feature, the NetBeans Platform does not. By default,
the Quick Search feature is hidden. Take the steps below to enable
it there.
- Add the following tags to the layer.xml
file:
<folder name="Toolbars">
<folder name="QuickSearch">
<attr name="SystemFileSystem.localizingBundle" stringvalue="org.netbeans.modules.nbzone.Bundle"/>
<file name="org-netbeans-modules-quicksearch-QuickSearchAction.shadow">
<attr name="originalFile"
stringvalue="Actions/Edit/org-netbeans-modules-quicksearch-QuickSearchAction.instance"/>
</file>
</folder>
</folder>
- Add this key/value pair to the Bundle.properties
file:
Toolbars/QuickSearch=Quick Search
- Run the NetBeans Platform application
and you should see that the Quick Search
feature is now available and functioning:
Enabling the Default Web Search Provider on the NetBeans Platform
A default web search provider implementation is available in the NetBeans sources.
This provider searches Google for texts that match the search string. In the IDE, it
was intended to be used to search netbeans.org, and related sites, for online documentation
that relates to the IDE.
Note: Unfortunately, the web search provider was disabled in
the IDE because after using it a lot, Google complained that automated
searches are against its terms of use and refuses to continue functioning.
If you accept the above limitation, you can brand this web search provider and then
use it in your NetBeans Platform application.
- Ensure that the Quick Search feature is enabled, as described
in the previous section.
- Add the following tags to the layer.xml
file:
<folder name="Guardian">
<file name="org-netbeans-modules-quicksearch-web-WebQuickSearchProviderImpl.instance"/>
</folder>
- In the application's branding folder, create the folder hierarchy
shown below, as well as the Bundle.properties file that you see
in the screenshot:
In the IDE, the above properties are hardcoded to the following, but for the NetBeans Platform they are undefined and hence need to be branded as the above:
quicksearch.web.site=netbeans.org
quicksearch.web.url_patterns=.*netbeans\.org/kb.*,\
/.*wiki\.netbeans\.org/.*faq.*,.*wiki\.netbeans\.org/.*howto.*,\
.*platform\.netbeans\.org/tutorials.*
- Run the NetBeans Platform application
and you should see that the default Web Quick Search
provider is now available and functioning:
Creating a Shareable Module Binary
Now that the module is complete, you can let others use it. To do so, you
need to create a binary "NBM" (NetBeans module) file and distribute it.
- In the Projects window, right-click the NetBeans Zone Search project and choose Create NBM.
The NBM file is created and you can view it in the Files window (Ctrl-2):
- Make it available to others via, for example, the
NetBeans Plugin Portal.
The recipient should
use the Plugin Manager (Tools > Plugins) to install it.
Next Steps
For more information about creating and developing NetBeans modules, see the following resources:
