Wanna play? Play with XML Layer!

Hi,

Time to notify you about the latest contributions! Yes, its been a month, where contributions came out-of-the-blue...Seriously, its been a tough time, getting contributions, convincing bloggers, and much more!

However, we still manage to get 14 docs for this month. Still 2 days to go, some more docs coming up! Majority of them being, tips and Tricks. Also, we got a series of docs, based on "optional configuration file" used in NetBeans Module Development- XML Layer! One of them getting reposted from NetBeans Zone! There were numerous tutorials, tips and Tricks, How To's summing up into Eight docs in totality.

If you are interested, then come, join us and contribute! Its really easy, if you learn a trick, while working with NetBeans on any kind of project OR you have some tips to remember...Hey, maybe you want to write a tutorial to help community achieve something in few steps!

What are you waiting for? Just drop a mail to me, about your idea- nvarun AT NetBeans DOT org We would be glad to have your idea turn into a neat documentation for community :-)

A Lot Going On

Hi all,
It's a great time to be part of the NetBeans Community Docs program. Contributions are coming in, interesting new plugins are being developed, and Varun and Amit are taking the program to new levels. I'm really excited about where we're heading.

Keep up the great work, guys!

--James

Yahoo! Pipes out NB Community Docs Bloggers' posts

A primary source of our contributions is all the enthusiastic bloggers out there who blog great stuffs on NetBeans.

To track their blogs I asked them to send in their blog feeds to me and I designed a Yahoo! pipe from them which outputs all the NetBeans related posts from their blogs:



This Yahoo! pipe is available at http://pipes.yahoo.com/akspipes/netbeanscommdocs

All those who want their blog to be added, please send in your Blog feeds.

yes, suggestions/comments are welcome!

Mining the Blogosphere

Hey, you have just blogged a nice tutorial, neat tip/trick, OR maybe created an amazing screencast. That's it what, you think! How about telling the world, and hearing those words from the NetBeans users all over the world? Sounds cool! Want to contribute, however prefer blogging, rather than making a wiki.

Here's a solution for you people, whenever you post a tutorial, a tip/trick OR create a screencast that might help so many users, on your blog. Just notify us on our mailing list, for subscribing to the list, follow this blog entry by James.

Time to get started, folks! We don't want to miss out on great documentations. Can't wait to see you there!

Are you ready?

Revolutionizing Community Docs!

Buzzz...!!!

Hey, this isn't any alarm! But, time to update you and keep you abreast with latest advancements in Community Docs... :-)

Have problem following us, don't want to join our mailing list and want to the know the latest in the easiest way possible. Hey, wake up! Web 2.0 revolution continues, now its the turn of Community Docs...

How?

Check out the new widgets we have on our left panel of this blog, we got twitter badge, you can view our profile and start following too. Also, there's a list of category-specific RSS chicklets, thanks to Feedburner, now you can digg into, stumble upon OR even favorite on technorati, the latest contributions, spotlights and much more.

The Twitter account, is being fed by twitterfeed, and would tweet as follows;

1. Latest comments on our blog, pre-fixed with "comments- ",
2. Latest announcements being made over here, pre-fixed with "news- ",
3. Latest contributions, we blog about, pre-fixed with "docs- ",
4. NetBeans Spotlight, given to deserving contributors, pre-fixed with "spotlight- "
5. Finally, latest blog entries we found and were contributed into docs, pre-fixed with "tagged- ".

Thanks to twitterfeed, for making this possible. Great web-service, that lets you automate tweets from any kind of RSS feeds, be it our category-specific blogs, our delicious bookmarks, etc.

Why are we doing this?

I guess you might have understood the importance of our program, why documentation is the backbone of any project, whether open source OR not! It still plays a key role, documentation could be a blog entry, an article, a tutorial, a hack OR some design documents. However, we are only interested in having articles, tutorials, screencasts, blogs and tips&tricks.

Welcome :)

Finally, here's our website - http://wiki.netbeans.org/CommunityDocs and this is our blog! Come, join us and revolutionize, "The Only IDE You Need!"

Hello, again!

Hi everybody,

I have been off this blog for a while. Why? Well, I have finished with my graduation, started off with my first job at Sun Microsystems, India and I am no more the NetBeans Community Docs co-ordinator :-(. James, What did I do wrong? Was getting a job in Sun a sin that I committed? Wasn't I doing well? Wasn't i competent enough? (The announcement)

Just kidding :-)

We, at the NetBeans Community Docs function in a way such that the co-ordinator is always a person who is a 'non-Sun' guy. Since I became a Sun-guy, I had to 'resign'. The next task for us- myself & James was to choose some one to fill in my shoes- which I learnt, were pretty BIG. So we found Varun who has the right feet to fill the BIG shoes :-). And I am glad, we chose him. He is doing great.

Oh, I have a new role- I am now the NetBeans Community Docs Content Manager

You can see me blogging here as well as my personal blog here at http://blogs.sun.com/amitsaha

Thank you all for keeping this program up and running.

Good Luck Varun.

Rollin' out "Tips and Tricks"

Hello,

John Muchow, is back with another set of documentations, this time its tips and tricks! Recently, two of his latest tips and tricks on Ruby, were found on his blog, which have been added to the Community Docs Wiki. Earlier, he had done screencasts too. Anyways, here are the contributions -

1. Using a Stack with Ruby
2. Using a String as a File in Ruby
   

Also, welcome Hubert A. Klein Ikkink, to our community as he has also contributed two tips and tricks!

1. Hot Development of Web Application with Maven in NetBeans
2. Fast Bookmarking in NetBeans

By the way, we are glad as we took off finally this month! Its been 3 weeks since we achieved a crucial milestone - 150 docs!

Come on guys, we are waiting! Share your expertise with the world and expand your knowledge base too.

What's your Wish?

Ahoy!

Yesterday, some one made a wish for a possible documentation, have a look at our Wish List. Wish list, what is it?

Well, if you remember James interview where he was asked, "Which is preferred: pitched tutorials or topics selected from the Wish List?"
He repiled by saying,

If a tutorial is on the Wish List, it was put there because a community member needed help with a certain task that the tutorial would address. So the Wish List matters. On the other hand, pitched tutorials are just as important in that they bring new ideas to the Community Docs program. It's like a community member saying: “Hey, look what you can do with NetBeans!”

We have seen some wishes getting fulfilled, by our dearest contributors. Here's a list of some of them;

1. Accessing MS Access/MSSQL from NetBeans
2. Using Facelets with NetBeans
3. Using the Tapestry Framework With NetBeans
4. Developing Spring Framework Applications using NetBeans
5. Checking out from CVS and doing headless builds

These were few examples, you can have a look at the Wish List and if you think, you are the one who could fulfill another wish, OR even if you a wish of your own, then contact us and get started.

Update from NetBeans Knowledge Base

Hey,

Do you remeber Michael Lockhart, who had done his first contribution few weeks back. Have a look, I had blogged about it here.

So, here comes another update from the NetBeans Knowledge Base, this time its Michael's contribution that gets featured!


Tips and Tricks -

http://wiki.netbeans.org/TaT_CompileJNLPprojects

We are growing and need people like him, to grow faster. Are you ready to write? So, what are you waiting for? Its so easy, just download NetBeans latest release, use it, feel it and if you think you could help someone with a neat tip/trick. Don't think, just come over our website and contribute, that may help so many people.

NetBeans Community Docs Spotight - Kunal Modi

Its time for yet another Spotlight, this time we head to India, Asia. He has been contributing since January, 2008 and has done some fabulous contributions, mainly tutorials. He's Kunal Modi, he lives in Mumbai, India. His contributions relate to NetBeans API's, which could be helpful while doing plugin development. Lets see what he has contributed till date;

1. Simulating the 'soutv' code template for Java Editor
2. Open Projects Programatically in NetBeans
3. Basic Understanding Of The NetBeans Nodes API
4. MyPicture Module for Windows Explorer

He was also declared as the NetBeans Community Significant Contributor during Code For Freedom Contest. Now, its time for another rapid fire round;

What do you do?

I am a Computer Science student from Fr.Conceicao Rodrigues College of Engineering, Mumbai University,India and will be completing my graduation this month. I love coding and like to stay in touch with latest developments in technology. My interests lie in web development and plugin development for NetBeans.

When did you first start using NetBeans?

NetBeans was introduced to me in early 2007 by my mentor Prof.Rajesh Patkar. It was then when I got familiarize and interested in Java. I should admit that it was NetBeans which instilled the passion for Java Coding in me. 'Code for Freedom' organized by Sun Microsystems, India was a great incentive to work with NetBeans. And in the long run, NetBeans has evolved tremendously.

What do you like best about NetBeans?

I would like to answer this question as -

• NetBeans - The IDE
  
  
  1. It provides you an insight into the vastness and the richness of Java Technology while providing the support for development using Java and other programming languages.
  2. I like the extensibility architecture of NetBeans the most. The way the modules gel with each other amazes me. The module development support helps you plug your custom feature with ease.
  3. The API documentation for the same are a great support.
  
  
• NetBeans - The Community
  
  
  1. Its such an active and a vibrant community that your queries/doubts definitely get answered, discussed and solved.
  2. It may be the mailing lists, the blogs, the wiki, the Community Docs or the excellent tutorials, the answer is always there. This has proved a great forte for NetBeans.
  3. This has imbibed into me the qualities of self learning, exploring, sharing and inspired me to contribute back. I owe you NetBeans :)

He will be immigrating to New York, US in a month's time! Lets wish him good luck for his future endeavours and encourage him to continue contributing.

Thank you Kunal for great contributions! Hope you continue to contribute from New York too!