Description of Property APIs in NetBeans APIs

System properties can influence the behaviour of the running IDE in various ways. The most convenient place to specify them is in etc/netbeans.conf file. This page summarizes the list of such extension points defined by modules with API.

• plugin.manager.detail.view.selected in Auto Update Services

  Setting this property affects the associated module autoupdate.ui. Setting it to true results in the detailed view (all visible plugins) been selected when Installed tab is opened in Plugin Manager. Otherwise the simple view (high-level features) is selected.

• org.netbeans.modules.uihandler.Submit in UI Gestures Collector Infrastructure

  For testing purposes one can specify different URL for upload of files, by setting org.netbeans.modules.uihandler.Submit property when invoking NetBeans.

• org.netbeans.modules.uihandler.Submit in UI Gestures Collector Infrastructure

  For testing purposes one can specify different URL for upload of files, by setting org.netbeans.modules.uihandler.Submit property when invoking NetBeans.

• nb.show.statistics.ui in UI Gestures Collector Infrastructure

  System property "nb.show.statistics.ui" controls if UI for Usage statistics is displayed in General panel. If this property is non null (for IDE) UI is shown. This property contains key of preference used to save status - true if usage statistics are collected and uploaded, false if not. Key is "usageStatisticsEnabled" and is described below.

• org.openide.util.actions.CallableSystemAction.synchronousByDefault in Actions APIs

  If set to true, changes default value of the asynchronous() method. Useful for unit tests which would prefer to run all tested actions synchronously.

• org.openide.awt.StatusDisplayer.DISPLAY_TIME in UI Utilities API

  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 in UI Utilities API

  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.

• org.openide.explorer.VisualizerNode.prefetchCount in Explorer & Property Sheet API

  Setting this property to integer number controls prefetching of nodes when VisualizerChildren are constructed (prefetchCount = 0 disables prefetching). The prefetching should eliminate "bounce" effect (see #144718) in lazy implementation which is caused by the fact that there exist keys without nodes. In such case "dummy" nodes are created and remove event is fired. This undesirable effect is eliminated by prefetching selected number of nodes so "dummy" nodes are detected and removed in advance before any visualization occurs.

• netbeans.dnd.enabled in Explorer & Property Sheet API

  Checks by Drag & Drop support for views. True is regard as default (no matter what jdk's version). False value disallows Drag & Drop in all views.

• org.openide.filesystems.DefaultAttributes.ATTR_NAME_EXT_XML in File System API

  Name of attribute file can be changed , if .nbattrs can't be used.

• org.openide.filesystems.LocalFileSystem.REFRESH_TIME in File System API

  Periodic refresh can be set.

• org.openide.filesystems.annotateUnclosedStreams in File System API

  If true, better diagnostic information will be available as to when file input or output streams were opened that prevent a file from being deleted because they were not closed. This information comes at a performance cost, however.

• allow.filechooser.symlink.traversal in File System API

  Used by FileChooserBuilder. If set to false, file choosers created by instances of FileChooserBuilder will traverse symlinks. By default they do not.

• forget.recent.dirs in File System API

  Used by FileChooserBuilder. If true, FileChooserBuilder will not remember users' recent directories across sessions. This property is provided for applications where a history of recently used directories is a security concern.

• org.openide.loaders.FolderChildren.delayedCreation in Datasystems API

  Since 7.25 the DataFolder.getNodeDelegate() tries to prevent creation of DataObject in AWT dispatch thread. Rather it creates dummy node with name derived from the name of the file and simplified content of lookup:

  • FileObject - the file that the node represents
  • Node - the node itself, but without any important properties
  • DataObject - created on the fly, very inefficient, if requested from AWT dispatch thread, it prints a warning. Consider using just FileObject.

  The creation of real node is scheduled to background and as soon as the DataObject and its Node are ready, the initial dummy node is replaced by the real one.

  This whole system is slightly incompatible and may complicate creation of filtered views over the node hierarchy (one needs to be ready to really dynamics changes). That is why it is possible to disable the new delayed system by starting the system with -Dorg.openide.loaders.FolderChildren.delayedCreation=false. Use this property as a temporary fix for your problems, but consider fixing your code to support the delayed mode in the future.

• org.openide.loaders.FolderList.refresh.interval in Datasystems API

  The value of type integer determines the number of milliseconds between successive refreshes of contents of a folder. Can be used to tweak performance of folder refresh. Defaults to 10.

• netbeans.dataobject.insecure.operation in Datasystems API

  If set to true, the DataObject.copy, move, createFromTemplate are executed in insecure way. That means that other threads can access the products of such operation before it finishes. This is a friend contract with projects, that need to do such strange things. Will be removed when they fix it.

• netbeans.systemclassloader.patches in Module System API

  Classpath appended to the system class loader. Used for automated testing infrastructure.

• netbeans.cache.manifests in Module System API

  By default true, may be turned off to disable manifest caching.

• netbeans.patches.MODULE.CODE.NAME.BASE in Module System API

  Patch directories or JARs to add to the class loader for a module, besides patches/MODULE-CODE-NAME-BASE/*.jar.

• netbeans.preresolve.classes in Module System API

  If true, all module classes are forcibly loaded at startup, to help detect possible linkage errors.

• org.netbeans.core.modules.NbInstaller.noAutoDeps in Module System API

  Disables automatic module dependency upgrades.

• org.netbeans.core.modules in Module System API

  If set to 0, enables logging for the module system.

• org.netbeans.core.modules.NbInstaller.NO_COMPAT_AUTO_TRANSITIVE_DEPS in Module System API

  Disabled automatic transitive class loader dependencies for old modules.

• netbeans.modules.quiet in Module System API

  Avoids text messaging (other than ErrorManager logging) to the console from the module system.

• netbeans.moduleitem.dontverifyclassloader in Module System API

  Suppresses checks to ensure that module section classes are actually loaded from the module itself.

• netbeans.security.nocheck in Module System API

  Suppress security checks in the VM, even from "untrusted" code.

• netbeans.classloader.verbose in Module System API

  Prints messages when resources or classes are loaded from JARs.

• netbeans.cache.layers in Module System API

  Used to control the XML layer cache mechanism. Value may be a fully-qualified class name to load as a manager (implement org.netbeans.core.projects.cache.LayerCacheManager), or - to disable caching and always parse the XML layers directly. Current default is to use a binary cache manager.

• org.openide.util.RequestProcessor.inactiveTime in Base Utilities API

  Specifies the time in ms unused RequestProcessor processor threads remain around, until they get GCed. By default 60s. Primarily used from tests.

• org.openide.util.Lookup in Lookup API

  checked by the initialization of the Lookup.getDefault() and can contain name of a class that extends org.openide.util.Lookup and has public constructor, that should be instantiated and returned from Lookup.getDefault() the class will be loaded by Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader() classloader the first time Lookup.getDefault is invoked.

  The property can also contain value "-" which means to completely disable the lookup instantiation and return Lookup.EMPTY from Lookup.getDefault().
  If the property is unspecified, the default MetaInfServicesLookup is constructed for Thread.currentThread().getContextclassLoader() that implements the JDK's standard. If, by a chance an instance of Lookup.Provider is found in there, its lookup is returned as result. Otherwise the MetaInfServicesLookup is the result of Lookup.getDefault().

• org.openide.util.Lookup.paths in Lookup API

  Sometimes it may be useful for the Lookup to contains objects from some system file system folder. This can be done with org.openide.util.Lookup.paths=Folder1:Folder2:Folder3. If this property is set prior to first call to Lookup.getDefault(), it is split into pieces (separator is ':') and individual parts are then used to construct Lookups.forPath("Folder1"), etc. All these lookups then become part of the Lookup.getDefault() one. This property works since version 7.24

• netbeans.winsys.imageSource in Window System API

  Valid values are path to image in NB like "org/netbeans/core/resources/splash.gir". It puts the specified image into the the emptied documents area. it is experimental now. -J-Dnetbeans.winsys.imageSource=org/netbeans/core/resources/splash.gif

• netbeans.winsys.dndfade.on in Window System API

  Valid values are "true" and "false". Default is "false". If it is "true" it paint faded feedback during DnD of windows. Keep in mind it makes some performance impact on DnD. It is experimental now. -J-Dnetbeans.winsys.fade.on=true

• netbeans.winsys.disable_dnd in Window System API

  Valid values are "true" and "false". Default is "false". If it is "true" it disables DnD of windows. -J-Dnetbeans.winsys.disable_dnd=true

• netbeans.winsys.allow.dock.anywhere in Window System API

  Valid values are "true" and "false". Default is "false". It allows user to move (e.g. using DnD) TopComponentS between editor(document) and view which is restricte otherwise. It is experimental now. -J-Dnetbeans.winsys.allow.dock.anywhere=true

• netbeans.winsys.hideEmptyDocArea in Window System API

  Valid values are "true" and "false". Default is "false". If it is "true" it doesn't show empty documents area. -J-Dnetbeans.winsys.hideEmptyDocArea=true

• netbeans.winsys.statusLine.in.menuBar in Window System API

  Valid values are "true" and "false". Default is "false". If it is "true" it shows status line at the and of menu bar instead of the bottom of documents are (or main window). -J-Dnetbeans.winsys.statusLine.in.menuBar=true

• netbeans.winsys.no_toolbars in Window System API

  Valid values are "true" and "false". Default is "false". If it is "true" it hides all toolbars. -J-Dnetbeans.winsys.no_toolbars=true

• netbeans.winsys.menu_bar.path in Window System API

  If this property is set its value must point to a file on the system file system that provides instance of type org.openide.awt.MenuBar. This alternative menu bar will be used instead of the default one. -J-Dnetbeans.winsys.menu_bar.path=foo/bar.instance

• netbeans.winsys.status_line.path in Window System API

  If this property is set its value must point to a file on the system file system that provides instance of type javax.swing.JComponent. This alternative status line will be used instead of the default one. -J-Dnetbeans.winsys.status_line.path=foo/bar.instance

• netbeans.winsys.no_help_in_dialogs in Window System API

  Valid values are "true" and "false". Default is "false". If set to "true" the modal dialogs will be shown without the help button. -J-Dnetbeans.winsys.no_help_in_dialogs=true

• org.openide.windows.DummyWindowManager.VISIBLE in Window System API

  If set to false, windows opened (e.g. TopComponent.open) using the dummy fallback window manager will not really be set to be visible. Useful for unit tests which must incidentally use the Window System API but for which actual display of windows is undesirable.

To get your API listed here, use <api type='export' group='systemproperty' ... /> in your module arch.xml document.