Originally by gharris@mbl.edu

For development, I use the NetBeans IDE*, which includes the Swing GUI Builder. You can also download and install the NetBeans Profiler for diagnostics. There is also the NetBeans™C/C++ Pack 5.5 which enables C/C++ coding and compiling, but I have not yet used it for compiling the QCamJNI.c code for CamAcqJ. (A NetBeans Project for CamAcqJ development will be published soon… ) * I have not used Eclipse enough to say if it is better or worse than NetBeans. But I can say that when I tried to try it, I found it hard just to get my project running (I had been using JBuilder). I found it much easier to get started with NetBeans, and using the JBuilder project importer, was able to get my code running very quickly. Overall, I think Eclipse and NetBeans a comparable, but my personal preference is NetBeans.

NetBeans 5.5 IDE I have built a NetBeans Project configured for ImageJ Plugin Development. ijNB package Download You can download it from here. ijNB.zip (2.7M)

Create a directory for the project (say ijNB) and extract the contents of the zip (using subfolders). Open the project with NetBeans. To Update to the Latest ImageJ Source Code (As of January 2, 2007, this package contains the ImageJ source version 1.38f) When new versions of ImageJ are released: Download ijXXXx-src.zip Unzip it… this creates a folder: source Replace the ImageJ source code In the directory where you installed ijNB

delete the \ij folder File & Folders in ijNB

These options are available because the build file has been setup for ImageJ… Ant Build Files

build.xml: <!– Ant makefile for ImageJ –> <project name=“ImageJ” default=“run”>

 <target name="compile" description="Compile everything.">
    <!-- First, ensure the build directory exists. -->
    <mkdir dir="build" />
    <!-- Build everything; add debug="on" to debug -->
    <javac srcdir="." destdir="build" optimize="on" source="1.3" target="1.3" debug="on">
       <!-- The plugins directory only needs to be
       present at runtime, not at build time. -->
       <exclude name="plugins/**" />
    </javac>
  </target>

<target name=“compilePlugins” description=“Compile plugins”>

    <javac srcdir="plugins" destdir="plugins" optimize="on" source="1.3" target="1.3" debug="on"
    classpath="./jiffy_.jar;./ij.jar;"/>
  </target>
 
 <target name="build" depends="compile" description="Build ij.jar.">
    <!-- Copy needed files into the build directory. -->
    <copy file="IJ_Props.txt" todir="build" />
    <copy file="images/microscope.gif" tofile="build/microscope.gif" />
    <copy file="images/about.jpg" tofile="build/about.jpg" />
    <copy file="plugins/MacAdapter.class" tofile="build/MacAdapter.class" />
    <copy todir="build/macros"><fileset dir="macros"/></copy>
    <copy todir="plugins">
       <fileset dir="build">
          <include name="*.class"/>
       </fileset>
    </copy>
    <!-- Build ij.jar. -->
    <jar jarfile="ij.jar" basedir="build"
    manifest="MANIFEST.MF" />
 </target>
 <target name="clean" description="Delete the build files.">
    <delete dir="build" />
    <delete file="ij.jar" />
 </target>
 <target name="cleanplugins" description="Delete plugins class files.">
    <delete>
        <fileset dir="plugins">
          <include name="*.class"/>
       </fileset>
    </delete>
 </target>


 <target name="run" depends="build" description="Build and run ImageJ.">
    <java jar="ij.jar" fork="yes" />
 </target>

<target name=“zip” depends=“clean” description=“Build zrc.zip.”>

    <zip zipfile="../src.zip"
    basedir=".."
    includes="source/**"
    />
 </target>
 <target name="javadocs" description="Build the JavaDocs.">
    <delete dir="../api" />
    <mkdir dir="../api" />
    <javadoc
       sourcepath="."
       packagenames="ij.*"
       destdir="../api"
       author="true"
       version="true"
       use="true"
       windowtitle="ImageJ API">
    </javadoc>
 </target>

</project>

Try to compile one of the .java files… Nb prompts to create ide-file-targets.xml <?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8”?> <project basedir=“..” name=“ImageJ-IDE”>

 <!-- TODO: edit the following target according to your needs -->
 <!-- (more info: http://www.netbeans.org/kb/41/freeform-config.html#compilesingle) -->
 <target name="compile-selected-files-in-plugins">
    <fail unless="files">Must set property 'files'</fail>
    <!-- TODO decide on and define some value for ${build.classes.dir} -->
   
    <javac destdir="plugins" includes="${files}" source="1.5" srcdir="plugins">
       <classpath path="ij.jar;jiffy_jar;"/>
    </javac>
 </target>

</project> Then you can compile single files…

MacAdapter MacAdapter.java import com.apple.eawt.*; depends on AppleJavaExtensions.jar and MRJAdapter.jar