NetBeans Architecture Answers for UI Utilities API module

General Information

Question (arch-what): What is this project good for?
Answer: The org.openide.awt provides API/SPI for UI related aspects of application.
Question (arch-overall): Describe the overall architecture.
Answer:

API/SPI for UI related aspects of application.

Question (arch-usecases): Describe the main use cases of the new API. Who will use it under what circumstances? What kind of code would typically need to be written to use the module?
Answer:

For general overview of the concepts of NetBeans action system and related UI elements, together with code samples, see chapter 5, of NetBeans Platform for Beginners by Jason Wexbridge and Walter Nyland.

Question (arch-time): What are the time estimates of the work?
Answer:

XXX no answer for arch-time

Question (arch-quality): How will the quality of your code be tested and how are future regressions going to be prevented?
Answer:

XXX no answer for arch-quality

Question (arch-where): Where one can find sources for your module?
Answer:

The sources for the module are in the Apache Git repositories or in the GitHub repositories

Project and platform dependencies

Question (dep-nb): What other NetBeans projects and modules does this one depend on?
Answer:

These modules are required in project.xml:

• CommonAnnotationsAPI - The module is needed for compilation. The module is used during runtime. Specification version 1.13 is required.
• FilesystemsAPI - The module is needed for compilation. The module is used during runtime. Specification version 9.0 is required.
• UtilitiesAPI - The module is needed for compilation. The module is used during runtime. Specification version 9.36 is required.
• WeakListener.setAccessible - The module is needed for compilation. The module is used during runtime. Specification version 9.3 is required.
• LookupAPI - The module is needed for compilation. The module is used during runtime. Specification version 8.0 is required.
Question (dep-non-nb): What other projects outside NetBeans does this one depend on?
Answer:

XXX no answer for dep-non-nb

Question (dep-platform): On which platforms does your module run? Does it run in the same way on each?
Answer:

XXX no answer for dep-platform

Question (dep-jre): Which version of JRE do you need (1.2, 1.3, 1.4, etc.)?
Answer:

XXX no answer for dep-jre

Question (dep-jrejdk): Do you require the JDK or is the JRE enough?
Answer:

XXX no answer for dep-jrejdk

Deployment

Question (deploy-jar): Do you deploy just module JAR file(s) or other files as well?
Answer:

XXX no answer for deploy-jar

Question (deploy-nbm): Can you deploy an NBM via the Update Center?
Answer:

XXX no answer for deploy-nbm

Question (deploy-shared): Do you need to be installed in the shared location only, or in the user directory only, or can your module be installed anywhere?
Answer:

XXX no answer for deploy-shared

Question (deploy-packages): Are packages of your module made inaccessible by not declaring them public?
Answer:

XXX no answer for deploy-packages

Question (deploy-dependencies): What do other modules need to do to declare a dependency on this one, in addition to or instead of the normal module dependency declaration (e.g. tokens to require)?
Answer:

Nothing.

Compatibility with environment

Question (compat-i18n): Is your module correctly internationalized?
Answer:

XXX no answer for compat-i18n

Question (compat-standards): Does the module implement or define any standards? Is the implementation exact or does it deviate somehow?
Answer:

XXX no answer for compat-standards

Question (compat-version): Can your module coexist with earlier and future versions of itself? Can you correctly read all old settings? Will future versions be able to read your current settings? Can you read or politely ignore settings stored by a future version?
Answer:

XXX no answer for compat-version

Question (compat-deprecation): How the introduction of your project influences functionality provided by previous version of the product?
WARNING: Question with id="compat-deprecation" has not been answered!

Access to resources

Question (resources-file): Does your module use java.io.File directly?
Answer:

XXX no answer for resources-file

Question (resources-layer): Does your module provide own layer? Does it create any files or folders in it? What it is trying to communicate by that and with which components?
Answer: Actions.factories - Many action factories (alwaysEnabled, context and callback, etc.) are ready to be called directly from layer XML file.
Question (resources-read): Does your module read any resources from layers? For what purpose?
Answer:

XXX no answer for resources-read

Question (resources-mask): Does your module mask/hide/override any resources provided by other modules in their layers?
Answer:

XXX no answer for resources-mask

Question (resources-preferences): Does your module uses preferences via Preferences API? Does your module use NbPreferences or or regular JDK Preferences ? Does it read, write or both ? Does it share preferences with other modules ? If so, then why ?
WARNING: Question with id="resources-preferences" has not been answered!

Lookup of components

Question (lookup-lookup): Does your module use org.openide.util.Lookup or any similar technology to find any components to communicate with? Which ones?
Answer: ButtonActionConnectorSPI -

Objects implementing ButtonActionConnector are looked up. Only the first instance found in the loookup is used to provide an alternative implementation of connection between Actions and GUI components. If there isn't one in the lookup the default implementation is used (it means there does not have to be one).

Question (lookup-register): Do you register anything into lookup for other code to find?
Answer:

XXX no answer for lookup-register

Question (lookup-remove): Do you remove entries of other modules from lookup?
Answer:

XXX no answer for lookup-remove

Execution Environment

Question (exec-property): Is execution of your code influenced by any environment or Java system (System.getProperty) property? On a similar note, is there something interesting that you pass to java.util.logging.Logger? Or do you observe what others log?
Answer:

org.netbeans.ui.actions.UI_ACTION_BUTTON_PRESS - There is a special support for notifying when an action wrapped by Actions bridge is invoked and how. The support is using Logger.getLogger("org.netbeans.ui.actions") and sents a LogRecord with message UI_ACTION_BUTTON_PRESS, FINER level and paramerters:

• {0} instance of the button
• {1} class of the button
• {2} instance of the action
• {3} class of the action
• {4} display name of the action
whenever such action is invoked. This message can then be consumed by enhanced UI logger that track what the user is going. org.openide.awt.StatusDisplayer.DISPLAY_TIME - Status text set in StatusDisplayer is by default shown in status line of NetBeans and is hidden after specified timeout. If not overriden by this property it is done after 5000ms. O means that the last text will be shown and not removed. org.openide.awt.ActionReference.completion - If System.getProperty("org.openide.awt.ActionReference.completion") is specified, then the dedicated processor for ActionReference tries to load such class, casts it to Processor and asks it for additional completion items for its path attribute. By default, when running inside NetBeans IDE, apisupport.project registers such class and provides items representing valid paths in current project.
Question (exec-component): Is execution of your code influenced by any (string) property of any of your components?
Answer:
• menuText
• popupText
• org.openide.awt.USE_MNEMONICS - There is a way to enable mnemonics in popup menu items created via Actions factory methods in your own application build on top of NetBeans Platform. Just provide branding for org/openide/awt/Bundle.properties file and modify USE_MNEMONICS=always. Other possible values of this key include default, never or always.
Question (exec-ant-tasks): Do you define or register any ant tasks that other can use?
Answer:

XXX no answer for exec-ant-tasks

Question (exec-classloader): Does your code create its own class loader(s)?
Answer:

XXX no answer for exec-classloader

Question (exec-reflection): Does your code use Java Reflection to execute other code?
Answer:

XXX no answer for exec-reflection

Question (exec-privateaccess): Are you aware of any other parts of the system calling some of your methods by reflection?
Answer:

XXX no answer for exec-privateaccess

Question (exec-process): Do you execute an external process from your module? How do you ensure that the result is the same on different platforms? Do you parse output? Do you depend on result code?
Answer:

XXX no answer for exec-process

Question (exec-introspection): Does your module use any kind of runtime type information (instanceof, work with java.lang.Class, etc.)?
Answer:

XXX no answer for exec-introspection

Question (exec-threading): What threading models, if any, does your module adhere to? How the project behaves with respect to threading?
Answer:

XXX no answer for exec-threading

Question (security-policy): Does your functionality require modifications to the standard policy file?
Answer:

XXX no answer for security-policy

Question (security-grant): Does your code grant additional rights to some other code?
Answer:

XXX no answer for security-grant

Format of files and protocols

Question (format-types): Which protocols and file formats (if any) does your module read or write on disk, or transmit or receive over the network? Do you generate an ant build script? Can it be edited and modified?
Answer:

XXX no answer for format-types

Question (format-dnd): Which protocols (if any) does your code understand during Drag & Drop?
Answer:

XXX no answer for format-dnd

Question (format-clipboard): Which data flavors (if any) does your code read from or insert to the clipboard (by access to clipboard on means calling methods on java.awt.datatransfer.Transferable?
Answer:

XXX no answer for format-clipboard

Performance and Scalability

Question (perf-startup): Does your module run any code on startup?
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-startup

Question (perf-exit): Does your module run any code on exit?
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-exit

Question (perf-scale): Which external criteria influence the performance of your program (size of file in editor, number of files in menu, in source directory, etc.) and how well your code scales?
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-scale

Question (perf-limit): Are there any hard-coded or practical limits in the number or size of elements your code can handle?
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-limit

Question (perf-mem): How much memory does your component consume? Estimate with a relation to the number of windows, etc.
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-mem

Question (perf-wakeup): Does any piece of your code wake up periodically and do something even when the system is otherwise idle (no user interaction)?
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-wakeup

Question (perf-progress): Does your module execute any long-running tasks?
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-progress

Question (perf-huge_dialogs): Does your module contain any dialogs or wizards with a large number of GUI controls such as combo boxes, lists, trees, or text areas?
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-huge_dialogs

Question (perf-menus): Does your module use dynamically updated context menus, or context-sensitive actions with complicated and slow enablement logic?
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-menus

Question (perf-spi): How the performance of the plugged in code will be enforced?
Answer:

XXX no answer for perf-spi