DevFaqContribModules

I have written a module for NetBeans. Can I contribute it to the NetBeans project?

Yes. In fact, once you have some code written, request the developer role on contrib.netbeans.org (you need to have an account and be logged in to see the link), so you have write access to CVS there, and go ahead and check it in. You will need to sign a Contributor Agreement to get CVS write access.

For more info on how to start module projects or join existing ones, see the contributing page on netbeans.org.

---

If you have initially written the module as a standalone module project using the NB 5.0 IDE, beware that the format for module projects inside the netbeans.org CVS tree is slightly different. To convert a standalone module project to a netbeans.org module:

1. . Close your module and shut down the IDE, just to be safe.

1. . Copy the module into the desired location in the netbeans.org CVS source tree.

1. . Open nbproject/project.xml and delete the line <standalone/>.

1. . Delete =nbproject/genfiles.properties=, =nbproject/platform.properties=, and

     =nbproject/build-impl.xml=.

1. . Open build.xml and change <import file="nbproject/build-impl.xml"/>

     to <import file="../../nbbuild/templates/projectized.xml"/> (assuming a
     second-level module like =contrib/foo=; adjust number of ../ occurrences as
     needed).

Now you ought to be able to open the new project in the IDE and work with it as usual.

If you had specified an explicit NBM license (=license.file=) before, you might just remove it - netbeans.org modules by default use nbbuild/standard-nbm-license.txt which is appropriate for any SPL module with no external (non-SPL) components.

If you had a module suite project with several module suite component projects, just discard the suite project (netbeans.org modules cannot reside in suites) and copy the component module projects into the netbeans.org CVS tree. You will be deleting <suite-component/> from project.xml and deleting suite.properties rather than platform.properties but the process is otherwise similar.

A future release of the module development support should permit you to simply select Move Project or Copy Project from the GUI and handle these format changes automatically.