Module System API
Official

See:
Description

Module System API

org.openide.modules

NetBeans is capable of being extended by pluggable modules providing additional functionality.

What is New (see all changes)?

• May 24 '12 Less restrictive check of code names of modules and OSGi bundles

  Dependency.create now allows code name base where dot is followed by number (like org.apache.servicemix.specs.jsr303_api_1.0.0). This increases the inter-operability with OSGi bundles using such naming style.

• Apr 20 '12 By default each module provides its code name base as a token

  Each module provides by default a token composed from its code name base and fixed prefix: "cnb." + getCodeNameBase() from its getProvides() method.

• Mar 31 '12 OnStart and OnStop

  New, more efficient way to execute code on start and on shutdown of your module.

• Sep 1 '11 Added Places

  Introduced a structured API for accessing well-known file locations.

• Jul 22 '10 Module names can contain Java keywords

  Naming rules for module code name bases are now relaxed. The name of a module can contain a Java keyword like org.mysite.import.something, etc.

Use Cases

How a classpath of my module is constructed?

The NetBeans is defacto a container that manages individual module's lifecycle and other runtime aspects. One of the important things is that it creates a runtime classpath for provided modules based on dependencies they specify in their manifests. The overview of the runtime infrastructure is a good starting place for everyone who wishes to learn more about the NetBeans runtime container behaviour.

Exported Interfaces

This table lists all of the module exported APIs with defined stability classifications. It is generated based on answers to questions about the architecture of the module. Read them all...

Group of java interfaces

Interface Name	In/Out	Stability	Specified in What Document?
ModulesAPI	Exported	Official	.../org/openide/modules/doc-files/api.html
CoreModulesAPI	Exported	Friend

Group of systemproperty interfaces

Interface Name	In/Out	Stability	Specified in What Document?
netbeans.systemclassloader.patches	Exported	Friend	Classpath appended to the system class loader. Used for automated testing infrastructure.
netbeans.cache.manifests	Exported	Private	By default true, may be turned off to disable manifest caching.
netbeans.patches.MODULE.CODE.NAME.BASE	Exported	Friend	Patch directories or JARs to add to the class loader for a module, besides patches/MODULE-CODE-NAME-BASE/*.jar.
netbeans.preresolve.classes	Exported	Private	If true, all module classes are forcibly loaded at startup, to help detect possible linkage errors.
org.netbeans.core.modules.NbInstaller.noAutoDeps	Exported	Private	Disables automatic module dependency upgrades.
org.netbeans.core.modules	Exported	Private	If set to 0, enables logging for the module system.
org.netbeans.core.modules.NbInstaller.NO_COMPAT_AUTO_TRANSITIVE_DEPS	Exported	Private	Disabled automatic transitive class loader dependencies for old modules.
netbeans.modules.quiet	Exported	Private	Avoids text messaging (other than ErrorManager logging) to the console from the module system.
netbeans.moduleitem.dontverifyclassloader	Exported	Private	Suppresses checks to ensure that module section classes are actually loaded from the module itself.
netbeans.security.nocheck	Exported	Friend	Suppress security checks in the VM, even from "untrusted" code.
netbeans.classloader.verbose	Exported	Private	Prints messages when resources or classes are loaded from JARs.
netbeans.cache.layers	Exported	Private	Used to control the XML layer cache mechanism. Value may be a fully-qualified class name to load as a manager (implement org.netbeans.core.projects.cache.LayerCacheManager), or - to disable caching and always parse the XML layers directly. Current default is to use a binary cache manager.

Group of dtd interfaces

Interface Name	In/Out	Stability	Specified in What Document?
module-status-1_0.dtd	Exported	Under Development	.../dtds/module-status-1_0.dtd -//NetBeans//DTD Module Status 1.0//EN
module-auto-deps-1_0.dtd	Exported	Under Development	.../dtds/module-auto-deps-1_0.dtd -//NetBeans//DTD Module Automatic Dependencies 1.0//EN
filesystem-1_1.dtd	Exported	Stable	.../www.netbeans.org/dtds/filesystem-1_1.dtd -//NetBeans//DTD Filesystem 1.1//EN

Implementation Details

Read more about the implementation in the answers to architecture questions.