I have been using Netbeans to write code, draw UML for one and half years. During the period, I can see the functions it provides are getting more and more powerful and the servers and frameworks it supports also become more and more.Rightnow I started to learn framework, since there are much tutorials about using frameworks to develop Web & J2EE applications. I decided to use Netbeans as IDE to learn frameworks. So the first thing I should face to is to install database and server.
I don't need to spend time on introducing
Netbeans. Of course, comparing to Eclipse, Netbeans still has lots spaces need to improve. But to me, Netbeans is no doubted a good and powerful tool for me. The latest version is 6.5 beta, but I think
6.1 Final is enough for studying purpose.
To MySQL, there is a
MySQL GlassFish Bundle Netbeans on the web. Certainly, we can manually install
MySQL community edition. There is a windows installation pack and zip pack, and we can google many articles about how to install MySQL, normally about how to add MySQL to windows Services.
MySQL GUI Tools is also necessary. About
MySQL Java Connector, it is essential as well. But I think Netbeans provides MySQL JDBC Driver - mysql-connector-java-5.1.5-bin.jar already.
If choose to install
MySQL GlassFish Bundle edition,, we don't need to configure any more but to setup MySQL GUI Tools, as following figure. If manually install MySQL, we need to setup the path of start command and stop command which also can reference to following figure.
Comparing to install MySQL, I think Tomcat is much easier to install. The full pack or Web & Java EE Pack
Netbeans 6.1 Final edition already had bundled Tomcat 6.0.16。Manual installation is not hard either, and the latest version is
Tomcat 6.x . The thing we should notice is that we have better not to install
windows installation pack, since the
pack missed some batch files. During the configuring server in Netbeans, there would be some warning display. I suggest downloading the zip pack to install.
Step by step for configuring server.
Select
Services - Servers - Add Server.. In
Add Server Instance window, choose
Tomcat 6.0, and give the name for server then press
Next button
Installation and Login Details dialog window, in
Catalina Home field, specify
the path of Tomcat and setup
user and
password. After that, press
Finish button to finish the configuration.
select
Tomcat Server, right-click
Start, the information displayed in output window shows the server start successfully.
Alright, everything is done! How easy it is! Then let's start coding!