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NetBeans plug-in for AVK : How to use AVK in NetBeans

Posted by bhavanishankar on May 30, 2006 at 11:05 PM PDT


Introduction:

In my recent project I had to develop a NetBeans plug-in for AVK. The name of the plug-in is "Sun Java System Application Verification Kit". This plug-in is available at the NetBeans Development Update Center.

This blog is intended for the NetBeans users who want to use AVK through NetBeans IDE.

In this blog I brief about the AVK tool and the plug-in functionalities. Here is the flashplayer demo which has the whole process installing the plug-in and doing the dynamic verification of a JavaEE project using this AVK plug-in.


AVK Tool:

AVK tool helps application developers to test their applications for correct use of Java EE APIs and portability across Java EE compatible application servers. The tool determines that an application suite follows the Java EE platform specification (including all the specifications for the technologies that are part of the platform) and that it runs on the Application Server. There are two stages of verification:

  • Static verification : Statically checking the application for the correct usage of Java EE specifications. The tool determines that an application suite's classes, Java EE annotations, and any deployment descriptors follow the specification and that the application suite contains no methods that are proprietary to a particular vendor.
  • Dynamic verification : Dynamically checking the application for the correct usage of Java EE specification by running the application on the Sun Java System Application Server. The tool profiles the application, determining the proportion of enterprise bean component methods, web services methods, and web components that are invoked while the application runs on the application server.

More details about the AVK can be found at http://java.sun.com/j2ee/avk


Plug-in functionalities:

  • Static verification plug-in : This is the plug-in for doing the static verification of the JavaEE project through NetBeans IDE. Since the static verifier a subcomponent of the application server itself, the plug-in for the static verifier is available as part of "Sun Java System Application Server plug-in".
To do static verification of the JavaEE project - Right click the project > Select "Verify Project" > Select "Static Verification" from the dialog box. The static verification results will be displayed in the output panel.
  • Dynamic verification plug-in : This is the plug-in for doing the dynamic verification of the JavaEE project through NetBeans IDE. This plug-in is called "Sun Java System Application Verification Kit plug-in".
To do dynamic verification of the JavaEE project :

  1. In the Projects window, select the project node, right-click and choose Verify Project. The Choose Verification dialog box opens.
  2. Select the Dynamic Verification radio button and click OK. The IDE deploys your project to the application server, starts the verification process, and brings up 'AVK Session' window in the editor pane showing the dynamic verification reports. The reports in this window get automatically updated as you access your application.
  3. If your project has a web component then your application is launched in the browser. Otherwise, execute a sample manually outside the IDE.
  4. You will notice that the reports are automatically updated in 'AVK Session' window. Note that 'Right Click' > 'Go To Source' on any 'Servlet Name' or 'Method Name' will open the appropriate source code. 'Right Click > 'Show Exception' on any exception of the unsuccessfully called Servet/EJB will show the exception stack trace on the output panel.

Screen shot of the 'AVK Session' window showing the dynamic verification results for a stateless EJB sample :

avk-blog-1.png

Note that the plug-in also supports the J2EE projects running with AppServer 8.x as runtime. Open "Help > Help Contents" and search "AVK" for more details.


Conclusion :

In this blog I gave a brief introduction to the AVK tool and explained how to use NetBeans AVK plug-in. I hope NetBeans and AVK users find this blog useful. Please provide me your comments/feebback.

Implementation details of the AVK plug-in will be available in my next blog. That will be intended more towards the NetBeans plug-in developers.
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