*netbeans.txt* For Vim version 7.0. Last change: 2006 Mar 09
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Gordon Prieur
NetBeans ExternalEditor Integration Features *netbeans*
*netbeans-support*
1. Introduction |netbeans-intro|
2. NetBeans Key Bindings |netbeans-keybindings|
3. Configuring Vim for NetBeans |netbeans-configure|
4. Downloading NetBeans |netbeans-download|
5. Preparing NetBeans for Vim |netbeans-preparation|
6. Obtaining the External Editor Module |obtaining-exted|
7. Setting up NetBeans to run with Vim |netbeans-setup|
8. Messages |netbeans-messages|
9. Running Vim from NetBeans |netbeans-run|
10. NetBeans protocol |netbeans-protocol|
11. NetBeans commands |netbeans-commands|
12. Known problems |netbeans-problems|
{Vi does not have any of these features}
{only available when compiled with the |+netbeans_intg| feature}
1. Introduction *netbeans-intro* NetBeans is an open source Integrated Development Environment developed jointly by Sun Microsystems, Inc. and the netbeans.org developer community. Initially just a Java IDE, NetBeans has had C, C++, and Fortran support added in recent releases. For more information visit the main NetBeans web site http://www.netbeans.org or the NetBeans External Editor site at http://externaleditor.netbeans.org. Sun Microsystems, Inc. also ships NetBeans under the name Sun ONE Studio. Visit http://www.sun.com for more information regarding the Sun ONE Studio product line. Current releases of NetBeans provide full support for Java and limited support for C, C++, and Fortran. Current releases of Sun ONE Studio provide full support for Java, C, C++, and Fortran. The interface to NetBeans is also supported by Agide, the A-A-P GUI IDE. Agide is very different from NetBeans: - Based on Python instead of Java, much smaller footprint and fast startup. - Agide is a framework in which many different tools can work together. See the A-A-P website for information: http://www.A-A-P.org.
2. NetBeans Key Bindings *netbeans-keybindings* Vim understands a number of key bindings that execute NetBeans commands. These are typically all the Function key combinations. To execute a NetBeans command, the user must press the Pause key followed by a NetBeans key binding. For example, in order to compile a Java file, the NetBeans key binding is "F9". So, while in vim, press "Pause F9" to compile a java file. To toggle a breakpoint at the current line, press "Pause Shift F8". The Pause key is Function key 21. If you don't have a working Pause key and want to use F8 instead, use::map<F8><F21>The External Editor module dynamically reads the NetBeans key bindings so vim should always have the latest key bindings, even when NetBeans changes them.
3. Configuring Vim for NetBeans *netbeans-configure* For more help installing vim, please read |usr_90| in the Vim User Manual. On Unix When running configure without arguments the NetBeans interface should be included. That is, if the configure check to find out if your system supports the required features succeeds. In case you do not want the NetBeans interface you can disable it by uncommenting a line with "--disable-netbeans" in the Makefile. Currently, only gvim is supported in this integration as NetBeans does not have means to supply a terminal emulator for the vim command. Furthermore, there is only GUI support for GTK, GNOME, and Motif. If Motif support is required the user must supply XPM libraries. See |workshop-xpm| for details on obtaining the latest version of XPM. On MS-Windows The Win32 support is now in beta stage. To use XPM signs on Win32 (e.g. when using with NetBeans) you can compile XPM by yourself or use precompiled libraries from http://iamphet.nm.ru/misc/ (for MS Visual C++) or http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net (for MinGW).
4. Downloading NetBeans *netbeans-download* The NetBeans IDE is available for download from netbeans.org. You can download a released version, download sources, or use CVS to download the current source tree. If you choose to download sources, follow directions from netbeans.org on building NetBeans. Depending on the version of NetBeans you download, you may need to do further work to get the required External Editor module. This is the module which lets NetBeans work with gvim (or xemacs :-). See http://externaleditor.netbeans.org for details on downloading this module if your NetBeans release does not have it. For C, C++, and Fortran support you will also need the cpp module. See http://cpp.netbeans.org for information regarding this module. You can also download Sun ONE Studio from Sun Microsystems, Inc for a 30 day free trial. See http://www.sun.com for further details.
5. Preparing NetBeans for Vim *netbeans-preparation* In order for NetBeans to work with vim, the NetBeans External Editor module must be loaded and enabled. If you have a Sun ONE Studio Enterprise Edition then this module should be loaded and enabled. If you have a NetBeans release you may need to find another way of obtaining this open source module. You can check if you have this module by opening the Tools->Options dialog and drilling down to the "Modules" list (IDE Configuration->System->Modules). If your Modules list has an entry for "External Editor" you must make sure it is enabled (the "Enabled" property should have the value "True"). If your Modules list has no External Editor see the next section on |obtaining-exted|.
6. Obtaining the External Editor Module *obtaining-exted* There are 2 ways of obtaining the External Editor module. The easiest way is to use the NetBeans Update Center to download and install the module. Unfortunately, some versions do not have this module in their update center. If you cannot download via the update center you will need to download sources and build the module. I will try and get the module available from the NetBeans Update Center so building will be unnecessary. Also check http://externaleditor.netbeans.org for other availability options. To download the External Editor sources via CVS and build your own module, see http://externaleditor.netbeans.org and http://www.netbeans.org. Unfortunately, this is not a trivial procedure.
7. Setting up NetBeans to run with Vim *netbeans-setup* Assuming you have loaded and enabled the NetBeans External Editor module as described in |netbeans-preparation| all you need to do is verify that the gvim command line is properly configured for your environment. Open the Tools->Options dialog and open the Editing category. Select the External Editor. The right hand pane should contain a Properties tab and an Expert tab. In the Properties tab make sure the "Editor Type" is set to "Vim". In the Expert tab make sure the "Vim Command" is correct. You should be careful if you change the "Vim Command". There are command line options there which must be there for the connection to be properly set up. You can change the command name but that's about it. If your gvim can be found by your $PATH then the VIM Command can start with "gvim". If you don't want gvim searched from your $PATH then hard code in the full Unix path name. At this point you should get a gvim for any source file you open in NetBeans. If some files come up in gvim and others (with different file suffixes) come up in the default NetBeans editor you should verify the MIME type in the Expert tab MIME Type property. NetBeans is MIME oriented and the External Editor will only open MIME types specified in this property.
8. Messages *netbeans-messages* These messages are specific for NetBeans: *E463* Region is guarded, cannot modify NetBeans defines guarded areas in the text, which you cannot change. Also sets the current buffer, if necessary. *E656* NetBeans disallows writes of unmodified buffers NetBeans does not support writes of unmodified buffers that were opened from NetBeans. *E657* Partial writes disallowed for NetBeans buffers NetBeans does not support partial writes for buffers that were opened from NetBeans. *E658* NetBeans connection lost for this buffer NetBeans has become confused about the state of this file. Rather than risk data corruption, NetBeans has severed the connection for this file. Vim will take over responsibility for saving changes to this file and NetBeans will no longer know of these changes. *E744* NetBeans does not allow changes in read-only files Vim normally allows changes to a read-only file and only enforces the read-only rule if you try to write the file. However, NetBeans does not let you make changes to a file which is read-only and becomes confused if vim does this. So vim does not allow modifications to files when run with NetBeans.
9. Running Vim from NetBeans *netbeans-run* NetBeans starts Vim with the |-nb| argument. Three forms can be used, that differ in the way the information for the connection is specified: -nb={fname}from a file -nb:{hostname}:{addr}:{password}directly -nb from a file or environment *E660* *E668* For security reasons, the best method is to write the information in a file readable only by the user. The name of the file can be passed with the "-nb={fname}" argument or, when "-nb" is used without a parameter, the environment variable "__NETBEANS_CONINFO". The file must contain these three lines, in any order: host={hostname}port={addr}auth={password}Other lines are ignored. The caller of Vim is responsible for deleting the file afterwards.{hostname}is the name of the machine where NetBeans is running. When omitted the environment variable "__NETBEANS_HOST" is used or the default "localhost".{addr}is the port number for NetBeans. When omitted the environment variable "__NETBEANS_SOCKET" is used or the default 3219.{password}is the password for connecting to NetBeans. When omitted the environment variable "__NETBEANS_VIM_PASSWORD" is used or "changeme".
10. NetBeans protocol *netbeans-protocol* The communication between NetBeans and Vim uses plain text messages. This protocol was first designed to work with the external editor module of NetBeans (see http://externaleditor.netbeans.org). Later it was extended to work with Agide (A-A-P GUI IDE, see http://www.a-a-p.org). The extensions are marked with "version 2.1". Version 2.2 of the protocol has several minor changes which should only affect NetBeans users (ie, not Agide users). However, a bug was fixed which could cause confusion. The netbeans_saved() function sent a "save" protocol command. In protocol version 2.1 and earlier this was incorrectly interpreted as a notification that a write had taken place. In reality, it told NetBeans to save the file so multiple writes were being done. This caused various problems and has been fixed in 2.2. To decrease the likelihood of this confusion happening again, netbeans_saved() has been renamed to netbeans_save_buffer(). We are now at version 2.3. For the differences between 2.2 and 2.3 search for "2.3" below. The messages are currently sent over a socket. Since the messages are in plain UTF-8 text this protocol could also be used with any other communication mechanism. To see an example implementation look at the gvim tool in Agide. Currently found here: http://cvs.sf.net/viewcvs.py/a-a-p/Agide/Tools/GvimTool.py?view=markup 10.1 Kinds of messages |nb-messages| 10.2 Terms |nb-terms| 10.3 Commands |nb-commands| 10.4 Functions and Replies |nb-functions| 10.5 Events |nb-events| 10.6 Special messages |nb-special| *E627* *E628* *E629* *E630* *E631* *E632* *E633* *E634* *E635* *E636* *E637* *E638* *E639* *E640* *E641* *E642* *E643* *E644* *E645* *E646* *E647* *E648* *E649* *E650* *E651* *E652* *E653* *E654* These errors occur when a message violates the protocol. 10.1 Kinds of messages *nb-messages* There are four kinds of messages:kind direction commentCommand IDE -> editor no reply necessary Function IDE -> editor editor must send back a reply Reply editor -> IDE only in response to a Function Event editor -> IDE no reply necessary The messages are sent as a single line with a terminating newline character. Arguments are separated by a single space. The first item of the message depends on the kind of message:kind first item exampleCommand bufID:name!seqno 11:showBalloon!123 "text" Function bufID:name/seqno 11:getLength/123 Reply seqno 123 5000 Event bufID:name=123 11:keyCommand=123 "S-F2" 10.2 Terms *nb-terms* bufID Buffer number. A message may be either for a specific buffer or generic. Generic messages use a bufID of zero.NOTE:this buffer ID is assigned by the IDE, it is not Vim's buffer number. The bufID must be a sequentially rising number, starting at one. seqno The IDE uses a sequence number for Commands and Functions. A Reply must use the sequence number of the Function that it is associated with. A zero sequence number can be used for Events (the seqno of the last received Command or Function can also be used). string Argument in double quotes. Text is in UTF-8 encoding. This means ASCII is passed as-is. Special characters are represented with a backslash: \" double quote \n newline \r carriage-return \t tab (optional, also works literally) \\ backslash NUL bytes are not allowed! boolean Argument with two possible values: T true F false number Argument with a decimal number. optnum Argument with either a decimal number or "none" (without the quotes). offset A number argument that indicates a byte position in a buffer. The first byte has offset zero. Line breaks are counted for how they appear in the file (CR/LF counts for two bytes).Notethat a multi-byte character is counted for the number of bytes it takes. lnum/col Argument with a line number and column number position. The line number starts with one, the column is the byte position, starting with zero.Notethat a multi-byte character counts for several columns. pathname String argument: file name with full path. 10.3 Commands *nb-commands* actionMenuItem Not implemented. actionSensitivity Not implemented. addAnno serNum typeNum off len Place an annotation in this buffer. Arguments: serNum number serial number of this placed annotation, used to be able to remove it typeNum number sequence number of the annotation defined with defineAnnoType for this buffer off number offset where annotation is to be placed len number not used In version 2.1 "lnum/col" can be used instead of "off". balloonResult text Not implemented. close Close the buffer. This leaves us without current buffer, very dangerous to use! create Creates a buffer without a name. Replaces the current buffer (it's hidden when it was changed). NetBeans uses this as the first command for a file that is being opened. The sequence of commands could be: create setCaretListener (ignored) setModified (no effect) setContentType (ignored) startDocumentListen setTitle setFullName defineAnnoType typeNum typeName tooltip glyphFile fg bg Define a type of annotation for this buffer. Arguments: typeNum number sequence number (not really used) typeName string name that identifies this annotation tooltip string not used glyphFile string name of icon file fg optnum foreground color for line highlighting bg optnum background color for line highlighting Vim will define a sign for the annotation. When both "fg" and "bg" are "none" no line highlighting is used (new in version 2.1). When "glyphFile" is empty, no text sign is used (new in version 2.1). When "glyphFile" is one or two characters long, a text sign is defined (new in version 2.1).Note:the annotations will be defined in sequence, and the sequence number is later used with addAnno. editFile pathname Set the name for the buffer and edit the file "pathname", a string argument. Normal way for the IDE to tell the editor to edit a file. If the IDE is going to pass the file text to the editor use these commands instead: setFullName insert initDone New in version 2.1. enableBalloonEval Not implemented. endAtomic End an atomic operation. The changes between "startAtomic" and "endAtomic" can be undone as one operation. But it's not implemented yet. Redraw when necessary. guard off len Mark an area in the buffer as guarded. This means it cannot be edited. "off" and "len" are numbers and specify the text to be guarded. initDone Mark the buffer as ready for use. Implicitly makes the buffer the current buffer. Fires the BufReadPost autocommand event. insertDone Sent by NetBeans to tell vim an initial file insert is done. This triggers a read message being printed. Prior to version 2.3, no read messages were displayed after opening a file. New in version 2.3. moveAnnoToFront serNum Not implemented. netbeansBuffer isNetbeansBuffer If "isNetbeansBuffer" is "T" then this buffer is ``owned'' by NetBeans. New in version 2.2. putBufferNumber pathname Associate a buffer number with the Vim buffer by the name "pathname", a string argument. To be used when the editor reported editing another file to the IDE and the IDE needs to tell the editor what buffer number it will use for this file. Also marks the buffer as initialized. New in version 2.1. raise Bring the editor to the foreground. New in version 2.1. removeAnno serNum Remove a previously place annotation for this buffer. "serNum" is the same number used in addAnno. save Save the buffer when it was modified. The other side of the interface is expected to write the buffer and invoke "setModified" to reset the "changed" flag of the buffer. The writing is skipped when one of these conditions is true: - 'write' is not set - the buffer is read-only - the buffer does not have a file name - 'buftype' disallows writing New in version 2.2. saveDone Sent by NetBeans to tell vim a save is done. This triggers a save message being printed. Prior to version 2.3, no save messages were displayed after a save. New in version 2.3. setAsUser Not implemented. setBufferNumber pathname Associate a buffer number with Vim buffer by the name "pathname". To be used when the editor reported editing another file to the IDE and the IDE needs to tell the editor what buffer number it will use for this file. Has the side effect of making the buffer the current buffer. See "putBufferNumber" for a more useful command. setContentType Not implemented. setDot off Make the buffer the current buffer and set the cursor at the specified position. If the buffer is open in another window than make that window the current window. If there are folds they are opened to make the cursor line visible. In version 2.1 "lnum/col" can be used instead of "off". setExitDelay seconds Set the delay for exiting to "seconds", a number. This delay is used to give the IDE a chance to handle things before really exiting. The default delay is two seconds. New in version 2.1. Obsolete in version 2.3. setFullName pathname Set the file name to be used for a buffer to "pathname", a string argument. Used when the IDE wants to edit a file under control of the IDE. This makes the buffer the current buffer, but does not read the file. "insert" commands will be used next to set the contents. setLocAndSize Not implemented. setMark Not implemented. setModified modified When the boolean argument "modified" is "T" mark the buffer as modified, when it is "F" mark it as unmodified. setModtime time Update a buffers modification time after NetBeans saves the file. New in version 2.3. setReadOnly Passed by NetBeans to tell vim a file is readonly. Implemented in verion 2.3. setStyle Not implemented. setTitle name Set the title for the buffer to "name", a string argument. The title is only used for NetBeans functions, not by Vim. setVisible visible When the boolean argument "visible" is "T", goto the buffer. The "F" argument does nothing. showBalloon text Show a balloon (popup window) at the mouse pointer position, containing "text", a string argument. The balloon should disappear when the mouse is moved more than a few pixels. New in version 2.1. specialKeys Map a set of keys (mostly function keys) to be passed back to NetBeans for processing. This lets NetBeans hotkeys be used from vim. Implemented in version 2.3. startAtomic Begin an atomic operation. The screen will not be updated until "endAtomic" is given. startCaretListen Not implemented. startDocumentListen Mark the buffer to report changes to the IDE with the "insert" and "remove" events. The default is to report changes. stopCaretListen Not implemented. stopDocumentListen Mark the buffer to stop reporting changes to the IDE. Opposite of startDocumentListen.NOTE:if "netbeansBuffer" was used to mark this buffer as a NetBeans buffer, then the buffer is deleted in Vim. This is for compatibility with Sun Studio 10. unguard off len Opposite of "guard", remove guarding for a text area. Also sets the current buffer, if necessary. version Not implemented. 10.4 Functions and Replies *nb-functions* getDot Not implemented. getCursor Return the current buffer and cursor position. The reply is: seqno bufID lnum col off seqno = sequence number of the function bufID = buffer ID of the current buffer (if this is unknown -1 is used) lnum = line number of the cursor (first line is one) col = column number of the cursor (in bytes, zero based) off = offset of the cursor in the buffer (in bytes) New in version 2.1. getLength Return the length of the buffer in bytes. Reply example for a buffer with 5000 bytes: 123 5000 TODO: explain use of partial line. getMark Not implemented. getModified When a buffer is specified: Return zero if the buffer does not have changes, one if it does have changes. When no buffer is specified (buffer number zero): Return the number of buffers with changes. When the result is zero it's safe to tell Vim to exit. New in version 2.1. getText Return the contents of the buffer as a string. Reply example for a buffer with two lines 123 "first line\nsecond line\n"NOTE:docs indicate an offset and length argument, but this is not implemented. insert off text Insert "text" before position "off". "text" is a string argument, "off" a number. "off" should have a "\n" (newline) at the end of each line. Or "\r\n" when 'fileformat' is "dos". When using "insert" in an empty buffer Vim will set 'fileformat' accordingly. When "off" points to the start of a line the text is inserted above this line. Thus when "off" is zero lines are inserted before the first line. When "off" points after the start of a line, possibly on the NUL at the end of a line, the first line of text is appended to this line. Further lines come below it. Possible replies: 123 no problem 123 !message failedNotethat the message in the reply is not quoted. Also sets the current buffer, if necessary. Does not move the cursor to the changed text. Resets undo information. remove off length Delete "length" bytes of text at position "off". Both arguments are numbers. Possible replies: 123 no problem 123 !message failedNotethat the message in the reply is not quoted. Also sets the current buffer, if necessary. saveAndExit Perform the equivalent of closing Vim: ":confirm qall". If there are no changed files or the user does not cancel the operation Vim exits and no result is sent back. The IDE can consider closing the connection as a successful result. If the user cancels the operation the number of modified buffers that remains is returned and Vim does not exit. New in version 2.1. 10.5 Events *nb-events* balloonEval off len type The mouse pointer rests on text for a short while. When "len" is zero, there is no selection and the pointer is at position "off". When "len" is non-zero the text from position "off" to "off" + "len" is selected. Only sent after "enableBalloonEval" was used for this buffer. "type" is not yet defined. Not implemented yet. balloonText text Used when 'ballooneval' is set and the mouse pointer rests on some text for a moment. "text" is a string, the text under the mouse pointer. New in version 2.1. buttonRelease button lnum col Report which button was pressed and the location of the cursor at the time of the release. Only for buffers that are owned by NetBeans. This event is not sent if the button was released while the mouse was in the status line or in a separator line. If col is less than 1 the button release was in the sign area. New in version 2.2. disconnect Tell NetBeans that vim is exiting and not to try and read or write more commands. New in version 2.3. fileClosed Not implemented. fileModified Not implemented. fileOpened pathname open modified A file was opened by the user. Arguments: pathname string name of the file open boolean always "T" modified boolean always "F" geometry cols rows x y Report the size and position of the editor window. Arguments: cols number number of text columns rows number number of text rows x number pixel position on screen y number pixel position on screen Only works for Motif. insert off text Text "text" has been inserted in Vim at position "off". Only fired when enabled, see "startDocumentListen". invokeAction Not implemented. keyCommand keyName Reports a special key being pressed with name "keyName", which is a string. Supported key names: F1 function key 1 F2 function key 2 ... F12 function key 12 ' ' space (without the quotes) ! exclamation mark ... any other ASCII printable character ~ tilde X any unrecognized key The key may be prepended by "C", "S" and/or "M" for Control, Shift and Meta (Alt) modifiers. If there is a modifier a dash is used to separate it from the key name. For example: "C-F2". ASCII characters are new in version 2.1. keyAtPos keyName lnum/col Like "keyCommand" and also report the line number and column of the cursor. New in version 2.1. killed A file was closed by the user. Only for files that have been assigned a number by the IDE. newDotAndMark off off Reports the position of the cursor being at "off" bytes into the buffer. Only sent just before a "keyCommand" event. quit Not implemented. remove off len Text was deleted in Vim at position "off" with byte length "len". Only fired when enabled, see "startDocumentListen". revert Not implemented. save The buffer has been saved and is now unmodified. Only fired when enabled, see "startDocumentListen". startupDone The editor has finished its startup work and is ready for editing files. New in version 2.1. unmodified The buffer is now unmodified. Only fired when enabled, see "startDocumentListen". version vers Report the version of the interface implementation. Vim reports "2.2" (including the quotes). 10.6 Special messages *nb-special* These messages do not follow the style of the messages above. They are terminated by a newline character. ACCEPT Not used. AUTH password editor -> IDE: First message that the editor sends to the IDE. Must contain the password for the socket server, as specified with the |-nb| argument. No quotes are used! DISCONNECT IDE -> editor: break the connection. The editor will exit. The IDE must only send this message when there are no unsaved changes! DETACH IDE -> editor: break the connection without exiting the editor. Used when the IDE exits without bringing down the editor as well. New in version 2.1. REJECT Not used.
11. NetBeans Commands *netbeans-commands* *:nbkey* :nbkey key Pass the key to NetBeans for processing Pass the key to NetBeans for hot-key processing. You should not need to use this command directly. However, NetBeans passes a list of hot-keys to Vim at startup and when one of these keys is pressed, this command is generated to send the key press back to NetBeans.
12. Known problems *netbeans-problems* NUL bytes are not possible. For editor -> IDE they will appear as NL characters. For IDE -> editor they cannot be inserted. vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl:
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