Introduction

This document lists changes made to the Java Support APIs. Please ask on the dev@java.netbeans.org or nbdev@netbeans.org mailing list if you have any questions about the details of a change, or are wondering how to convert existing code to be compatible.

Index of APIs

Classpath API
Java-related queries

Incompatible changes by date

Fuller descriptions of all changes can be found below (follow links).

Not all deprecations are listed here, assuming that the deprecated APIs continue to essentially work. For a full deprecation list, please consult the Javadoc.

(Mar 1 '07) Support for specifying classpath inclusion
(Mar 16 '04) ClassPath API changed to be pluggable and better support build system
(Dec 9 '02) ClassPath.getClassPath is permitted to return null value

All changes by date

(Mar 17 '08) Interconversions with string-format classpaths
(Mar 13 '08) Support for delegating SourceForBinaryQueryImplementation2
(Mar 10 '08) Support for passing hint to the java infrastructure whether it should prefer source or binary
(Mar 1 '07) Support for specifying classpath inclusion
(Feb 8 '07) BinaryForSourceQuery returns folder(s) containing binaries for source rooot
(Nov 8 '04) UnitTestForSourceQuery supports multiple source and test roots
(Apr 27 '04) Added SourceLevelQuery
(Mar 16 '04) ClassPath API changed to be pluggable and better support build system
(Mar 16 '04) Added GlobalPathRegistry
(Mar 16 '04) Added several queries
(Feb 21 '03) ClassPath.getClassLoader method added
(Dec 9 '02) ClassPath.getClassPath is permitted to return null value

Changes by version

These API specification versions may be used to indicate that a module requires a certain API feature in order to function. For example, if you see here a feature you need which is labelled 1.20, your manifest should contain in its main attributes the line:

OpenIDE-Module-Module-Dependencies: org.netbeans.api.java/1 > 1.20

(1.16) Support for delegating SourceForBinaryQueryImplementation2
(1.15) Interconversions with string-format classpaths
(1.15) Support for passing hint to the java infrastructure whether it should prefer source or binary
(1.13) Support for specifying classpath inclusion
(1.12) BinaryForSourceQuery returns folder(s) containing binaries for source rooot
(1.7) UnitTestForSourceQuery supports multiple source and test roots
(1.5) Added SourceLevelQuery
(1.4) ClassPath API changed to be pluggable and better support build system
(1.4) Added GlobalPathRegistry
(1.4) Added several queries
(1.2.1) ClassPath.getClassLoader method added
(1.2) ClassPath.getClassPath is permitted to return null value

Changes by affected class

`org.netbeans.api.java.queries.AccessibilityQuery`

(Mar 16 '04) Added several queries

`org.netbeans.spi.java.queries.AccessibilityQueryImplementation`

(Mar 16 '04) Added several queries

`org.netbeans.api.java.queries.BinaryForSourceQuery`

(Feb 8 '07) BinaryForSourceQuery returns folder(s) containing binaries for source rooot

`org.netbeans.spi.java.queries.BinaryForSourceQueryImplementation`

(Feb 8 '07) BinaryForSourceQuery returns folder(s) containing binaries for source rooot

`org.netbeans.api.java.classpath.ClassPath`

(Mar 17 '08) Interconversions with string-format classpaths
(Mar 1 '07) Support for specifying classpath inclusion
(Mar 16 '04) ClassPath API changed to be pluggable and better support build system

`org.netbeans.spi.java.classpath.ClassPathFactory`

(Mar 16 '04) ClassPath API changed to be pluggable and better support build system

`org.netbeans.spi.java.classpath.ClassPathImplementation`

(Mar 16 '04) ClassPath API changed to be pluggable and better support build system

`org.netbeans.spi.java.classpath.ClassPathProvider`

(Mar 16 '04) ClassPath API changed to be pluggable and better support build system

`org.netbeans.spi.java.classpath.support.ClassPathSupport`

(Mar 17 '08) Interconversions with string-format classpaths
(Mar 16 '04) ClassPath API changed to be pluggable and better support build system

`org.netbeans.spi.java.classpath.support.CompositePathResourceBase`

(Mar 16 '04) ClassPath API changed to be pluggable and better support build system

`org.netbeans.spi.java.classpath.FilteringPathResourceImplementation`

(Mar 1 '07) Support for specifying classpath inclusion

`org.netbeans.api.java.classpath.GlobalPathRegistry`

(Mar 16 '04) Added GlobalPathRegistry

`org.netbeans.api.java.queries.JavadocForBinaryQuery`

(Mar 16 '04) Added several queries

`org.netbeans.spi.java.queries.JavadocForBinaryQueryImplementation`

(Mar 16 '04) Added several queries

`org.netbeans.spi.java.queries.MultipleRootsUnitTestForSourceQueryImplementation`

(Nov 8 '04) UnitTestForSourceQuery supports multiple source and test roots

`org.netbeans.spi.java.classpath.support.PathResourceBase`

(Mar 16 '04) ClassPath API changed to be pluggable and better support build system

`org.netbeans.spi.java.classpath.PathResourceImplementation`

(Mar 16 '04) ClassPath API changed to be pluggable and better support build system

`org.netbeans.api.java.queries.SourceForBinaryQuery`

(Mar 10 '08) Support for passing hint to the java infrastructure whether it should prefer source or binary
(Mar 16 '04) Added several queries

`org.netbeans.spi.java.queries.support.SourceForBinaryQueryImpl2Base`

(Mar 13 '08) Support for delegating SourceForBinaryQueryImplementation2

`org.netbeans.spi.java.queries.SourceForBinaryQueryImplementation`

(Mar 16 '04) Added several queries

`org.netbeans.spi.java.queries.SourceForBinaryQueryImplementation2`

(Mar 10 '08) Support for passing hint to the java infrastructure whether it should prefer source or binary

`org.netbeans.api.java.queries.SourceLevelQuery`

(Apr 27 '04) Added SourceLevelQuery

`org.netbeans.spi.java.queries.SourceLevelQueryImplementation`

(Apr 27 '04) Added SourceLevelQuery

`org.netbeans.api.java.queries.UnitTestForSourceQuery`

(Nov 8 '04) UnitTestForSourceQuery supports multiple source and test roots
(Mar 16 '04) Added several queries

`org.netbeans.spi.java.queries.UnitTestForSourceQueryImplementation`

(Nov 8 '04) UnitTestForSourceQuery supports multiple source and test roots
(Mar 16 '04) Added several queries

Details of all changes by API and date

Classpath API

Interconversions with string-format classpaths

Mar 17 '08; API spec. version: 1.15; affected top-level classes: ClassPath ClassPathSupport; made by: jglick; issues: #59311

ClassPath.toString(PathConversionMode) and ClassPathSupport.createClassPath(String) can be used to easily convert between traditional string classpaths and NetBeans' internal representation.

Support for specifying classpath inclusion

Mar 1 '07; API spec. version: 1.13; affected top-level classes: ClassPath FilteringPathResourceImplementation; made by: jglick; issues: #49026

Classpath implementations can now specify which files and folders/packages to include or exclude. (This could be used for binary classpaths such as COMPILE but currently only excludes on SOURCE paths are honored by Java language features.)

Compatibility:

It is possible for clients of existing ClassPath methods to have made assumptions about their behavior that are no longer true.

`ClassPath` API changed to be pluggable and better support build system

Mar 16 '04; API spec. version: 1.4; affected top-level classes: ClassPath ClassPathProvider ClassPathFactory ClassPathImplementation PathResourceImplementation ClassPathSupport CompositePathResourceBase PathResourceBase; made by: jglick

ClassPath is now final, not abstract. (Not incompatible, since the constructor was never public.) Same for ClassPath.Entry.

getClassPath now looks for ClassPathProviders rather than delegating to the filesystems mounted in Repository.

The classpath type DEBUG was deprecated. SOURCE and BOOT were added.

ClassPath.Entry.getURL() was added.

There is a complete SPI for creating ClassPath instances.

Compatibility:

Code which just called ClassPath.getClassPath and so on as API clients should still be safe, but passing null as a reference file no longer works.

Added `GlobalPathRegistry`

Mar 16 '04; API spec. version: 1.4; affected top-level classes: GlobalPathRegistry; made by: jglick
Added a new class GlobalPathRegistry to represent classpaths of current interest, typically from open projects.
Compatibility:

Note that GlobalPathRegistry serves some of the same functions as Repository.default used to, but client code should be reviewed carefully for usage.

ClassPath.getClassLoader method added

Feb 21 '03; API spec. version: 1.2.1; made by: sdedic
ClassPath.getClassLoader() method allows to get classloader capable of loading classes from the ClassPath.

ClassPath.getClassPath is permitted to return null value

Dec 9 '02; API spec. version: 1.2; made by: sdedic
ClassPath.getClassPath() documentation omitted the fact, that the method may return null. Although the implementation functioned that way from the beginning, it is considered an incompatible change (tightening of the contract).

Java-related queries

Support for delegating SourceForBinaryQueryImplementation2

Mar 13 '08; API spec. version: 1.16; affected top-level classes: SourceForBinaryQueryImpl2Base; made by: tzezula; issues: #129884

Added support base class for SourceForBinaryQueryImplementation2 which delegates to other SourceForBinaryQueryImplementations.

Support for passing hint to the java infrastructure whether it should prefer source or binary

Mar 10 '08; API spec. version: 1.15; affected top-level classes: SourceForBinaryQuery SourceForBinaryQueryImplementation2; made by: tzezula; issues: #128695

It is possible for the SouceForBinaryQuery provider to specify whether the java module should prefer sources or binaries. In general sources should be preferred for projects where user can make modification. The binaries should be preferred for libraries and platforms where sources may not be complete or correct.

BinaryForSourceQuery returns folder(s) containing binaries for source rooot

Feb 8 '07; API spec. version: 1.12; affected top-level classes: BinaryForSourceQuery BinaryForSourceQueryImplementation; made by: tzezula

The new API BinaryForSourceQuery was added to allow clients to find out the output (class files) corresponding to source root. The query uses instances of a SPI interface BinaryForSourceQueryImplementation registered in the system lookup to find out the binaries. When no binary is found it uses the default algorithm (SFBQ.findSources(ClassPath.EXECUTE) == sourceRoot)

UnitTestForSourceQuery supports multiple source and test roots

Nov 8 '04; API spec. version: 1.7; affected top-level classes: UnitTestForSourceQuery UnitTestForSourceQueryImplementation MultipleRootsUnitTestForSourceQueryImplementation; made by: tzezula

Added two static methods, findSources(FileObject) and findUnitTests(FileObject), into UnitTestForSourceQuery. Added a new SPI interface MultipleRootsUnitTestForSourceQueryImplementation which allows to a project type to return more than one source/test root. The change was required to allow support of multiple source and test roots.

Compatibility: Compatibility with the old API and SPI is provided. Both versions of SPI interfaces are used by the API; a project type may still implement the deprecated UnitTestForSourceQueryImplementation rather than MultipleRootsUnitTestForSourceQueryImplementation.

Added SourceLevelQuery

Apr 27 '04; API spec. version: 1.5; affected top-level classes: SourceLevelQuery SourceLevelQueryImplementation; made by: dkonecny

Added query answering the source level of a Java file.

Added several queries

Mar 16 '04; API spec. version: 1.4; affected top-level classes: AccessibilityQuery JavadocForBinaryQuery SourceForBinaryQuery UnitTestForSourceQuery AccessibilityQueryImplementation JavadocForBinaryQueryImplementation SourceForBinaryQueryImplementation UnitTestForSourceQueryImplementation; made by: jglick

Several new queries were added (API and SPI) to represent various aspects of Java sources.