NetBeans Architecture Answers for Dialogs API module

General Information

Question (arch-what): What is this project good for?
Answer: The DialogsAPI allows creating a user notification, a dialog's description and also permits it to be displayed. The wizard framework allows create a sequence of panels which leads a user through the steps to complete any task. This API is part of package org.openide.
Question (arch-overall): Describe the overall architecture.
WARNING: Question with id="arch-overall" has not been answered!
Question (arch-usecases): Describe the main use cases of the new API. Who will use it under what circumstances? What kind of code would typically need to be written to use the module?
Answer: There is a Wizard Guide Book providing the introductionary information, moreover here is a list of frequently asked questions and their answers:

How to change the title of a wizard?

Q: Although none of my panels have names set (using setName() method) and the method name() in the WizardDescriptor.Iterator returns an empty string, I'm getting "wizard ( )" as the title of each panel in my wizard. When I set the name of the panel and return a string from the method name() I get: "panelName wizard (myName)". The wizard steps are labeled correctly, it just the panel title/name that looks like it adds "wizard ()" to any of my panels. I don't mind the "( )", but I would like to rid of the word "wizard".

A: You can change the format of your wizard's title by WizardDescriptor.setTitleFormat(MessageFormat format) and rid of 'wizard' word in the default wizard's title.

Question (arch-time): What are the time estimates of the work?
WARNING: Question with id="arch-time" has not been answered!
Question (arch-quality): How will the quality of your code be tested and how are future regressions going to be prevented?
WARNING: Question with id="arch-quality" has not been answered!
Question (arch-where): Where one can find sources for your module?
WARNING: Question with id="arch-where" has not been answered!

Project and platform dependencies

Question (dep-nb): What other NetBeans projects and modules does this one depend on?
Answer: UtilitiesUIAPI
Question (dep-non-nb): What other projects outside NetBeans does this one depend on?
Answer: None
Question (dep-platform): On which platforms does your module run? Does it run in the same way on each?
Answer: Any
Question (dep-jre): Which version of JRE do you need (1.2, 1.3, 1.4, etc.)?
Answer: No answer
Question (dep-jrejdk): Do you require the JDK or is the JRE enough?
Answer: No answer

Deployment

Question (deploy-jar): Do you deploy just module JAR file(s) or other files as well?
Answer: The API portion is inside openide.jar
Question (deploy-nbm): Can you deploy an NBM via the Update Center?
Answer: Yes (as part of openide.nbm).
Question (deploy-shared): Do you need to be installed in the shared location only, or in the user directory only, or can your module be installed anywhere?
Answer: openide.jar needs to be in the system directory.
Question (deploy-packages): Are packages of your module made inaccessible by not declaring them public?
Answer: Dialogs and wizards API is a public package. DialogDisplayer, acting as a singleton, has only protected constructor. A instance is accessible by factory DialogDisplayer.getDefault().
Question (deploy-dependencies): What do other modules need to do to declare a dependency on this one, in addition to or instead of the normal module dependency declaration (e.g. tokens to require)?
WARNING: Question with id="deploy-dependencies" has not been answered!

Compatibility with environment

Question (compat-i18n): Is your module correctly internationalized?
Answer: No answer
Question (compat-standards): Does the module implement or define any standards? Is the implementation exact or does it deviate somehow?
Answer: No answer
Question (compat-version): Can your module coexist with earlier and future versions of itself? Can you correctly read all old settings? Will future versions be able to read your current settings? Can you read or politely ignore settings stored by a future version?
Answer: No answer
Question (compat-deprecation): How the introduction of your project influences functionality provided by previous version of the product?
WARNING: Question with id="compat-deprecation" has not been answered!

Access to resources

Question (resources-file): Does your module use java.io.File directly?
Answer: No answer
Question (resources-layer): Does your module provide own layer? Does it create any files or folders in it? What it is trying to communicate by that and with which components?
Answer: No answer
Question (resources-read): Does your module read any resources from layers? For what purpose?
Answer: No answer
Question (resources-mask): Does your module mask/hide/override any resources provided by other modules in their layers?
Answer: No answer
Question (resources-preferences): Does your module uses preferences via Preferences API? Does your module use NbPreferences or or regular JDK Preferences ? Does it read, write or both ? Does it share preferences with other modules ? If so, then why ?
WARNING: Question with id="resources-preferences" has not been answered!

Lookup of components

Question (lookup-lookup): Does your module use org.openide.util.Lookup or any similar technology to find any components to communicate with? Which ones?
Answer: DialogDisplayer uses Lookup to get the default dialog displayer.
Question (lookup-register): Do you register anything into lookup for other code to find?
Answer: No
Question (lookup-remove): Do you remove entries of other modules from lookup?
Answer: No

Execution Environment

Question (exec-property): Is execution of your code influenced by any environment or Java system (System.getProperty) property? On a similar note, is there something interesting that you pass to java.util.logging.Logger? Or do you observe what others log?
Answer: No
Question (exec-component): Is execution of your code influenced by any (string) property of any of your components?
Answer: No answer
Question (exec-ant-tasks): Do you define or register any ant tasks that other can use?
WARNING: Question with id="exec-ant-tasks" has not been answered!
Question (exec-classloader): Does your code create its own class loader(s)?
Answer: No
Question (exec-reflection): Does your code use Java Reflection to execute other code?
Answer: No
Question (exec-privateaccess): Are you aware of any other parts of the system calling some of your methods by reflection?
Answer: No
Question (exec-process): Do you execute an external process from your module? How do you ensure that the result is the same on different platforms? Do you parse output? Do you depend on result code?
WARNING: Question with id="exec-process" has not been answered!
Question (exec-introspection): Does your module use any kind of runtime type information (instanceof, work with java.lang.Class, etc.)?
WARNING: Question with id="exec-introspection" has not been answered!
Question (exec-threading): What threading models, if any, does your module adhere to? How the project behaves with respect to threading?
WARNING: Question with id="exec-threading" has not been answered!
Question (security-policy): Does your functionality require modifications to the standard policy file?
WARNING: Question with id="security-policy" has not been answered!
Question (security-grant): Does your code grant additional rights to some other code?
WARNING: Question with id="security-grant" has not been answered!

Format of files and protocols

Question (format-types): Which protocols and file formats (if any) does your module read or write on disk, or transmit or receive over the network? Do you generate an ant build script? Can it be edited and modified?
Answer: None
Question (format-dnd): Which protocols (if any) does your code understand during Drag & Drop?
Answer: None
Question (format-clipboard): Which data flavors (if any) does your code read from or insert to the clipboard (by access to clipboard on means calling methods on java.awt.datatransfer.Transferable?
Answer: No

Performance and Scalability

Question (perf-startup): Does your module run any code on startup?
Answer: No answer
Question (perf-exit): Does your module run any code on exit?
Answer: No
Question (perf-scale): Which external criteria influence the performance of your program (size of file in editor, number of files in menu, in source directory, etc.) and how well your code scales?
Answer: No answer
Question (perf-limit): Are there any hard-coded or practical limits in the number or size of elements your code can handle?
Answer: No answer
Question (perf-mem): How much memory does your component consume? Estimate with a relation to the number of windows, etc.
Answer: No answer
Question (perf-wakeup): Does any piece of your code wake up periodically and do something even when the system is otherwise idle (no user interaction)?
Answer: No answer
Question (perf-progress): Does your module execute any long-running tasks?
Answer: No answer
Question (perf-huge_dialogs): Does your module contain any dialogs or wizards with a large number of GUI controls such as combo boxes, lists, trees, or text areas?
Answer: Yes, this API provides the dialogs and wizards. The size and GUI controls are driven by a caller.
Question (perf-menus): Does your module use dynamically updated context menus, or context-sensitive actions with complicated and slow enablement logic?
Answer: No answer
Question (perf-spi): How the performance of the plugged in code will be enforced?
WARNING: Question with id="perf-spi" has not been answered!