Tonis Blog

I just returned from the Münchner Viktualienmarkt Biergarten where I had met Geertjan. He really is a Sun guy: he didn’t even want a table in the shadow when it was like 35 degrees celsius. Geertjan has started to port Kirk Pepperdine to the NetBeans Platform, and I think this is a great project, so I decided to contribute. Geertjan has already found a perfect name for my subproject. So say goodbye Clippy, for here comes PEPPy ( obviously this is an acronym for Performance Enhancement Personal Pundit)!

update: I confess, this is a pure backronym

Lets create the module (New Project-> Netbeans Plug-in Modules -> Module Project). Make it a standalone and add a Window component (New File -> NetBeans Module Development -> Window Component). We will use this window to launch Peppy. In the designer of your TopComponent (mine is called “SomeTopComponent”) add a JTextArea, select it and go to events. Click on the keytyped, and add a new Handler (call it “PepperdineHandler”).

To show Peppy above all other components in NetBeans we will need to get hold of the glasspane. In Winston Prakash’s blog I found information on how to get hold of the glasspane in NetBeans. So first we will create a GlassPane. You can take any component for this. We will use a JPanel (New File-> Java GUI Forms -> JPanel Form). Add a JLabel to the lower right corner with an image of a performance guru like this one:

and a second one just above to display a message:

You can change the second one to display a different message, or add a more elaborate component, but for a first shot this will be fine. Set your JPanel to be transparent by adding this to the constructor:

     /** Creates new form PeppyPane */
    public PeppyPane() {
        initComponents();
        setOpaque(false);
    }

Now we will add this as the GlassPane to NetBeans, add this variable to your TopComponent:

 private static PeppyPane glassPane = new PeppyPane();

and set it as the GlassPane in the constructor:

 private SomeTopComponent() {
        initComponents();
        final JFrame mainWin = (JFrame) WindowManager.getDefault().getMainWindow();
        mainWin.setGlassPane(glassPane);
        setName(NbBundle.getMessage(SomeTopComponent.class, "CTL_SomeTopComponent"));
        setToolTipText(NbBundle.getMessage(SomeTopComponent.class, "HINT_SomeTopComponent"));
//        setIcon(Utilities.loadImage(ICON_PATH, true));
    }

As you know the Microsoft Assistant had a very elaborate AI to pop up exactly when you need it, and only then. So it must be hard to model this behavior, right? Believe it or not: Sun has already implemented this exact behaviour in the java language . So all you’ve got to do is add one variable to the TopComponent:

    private Random randomGenerator = new Random(System.currentTimeMillis());

and implement your PepperdineHandler method:

 private void PepperdineHandler(java.awt.event.KeyEvent evt) {
     if (randomGenerator.nextInt()%37==0)
        glassPane.setVisible(!glassPane.isVisible());
    }

And here we are, Kirk Pepperdine at your service:

Be sure to tune in next time when captain Kirk says “It looks like you’re tuning an application. Do you need help?”