NetBeans IDE is a full-featured integrated environment for Java application developers.

Java programmers require a fast and fully-featured Integrated Development Environment (IDE) with support for Java(TM) compliant applications for accelerating development across all major OS platforms.

NetBeans.org provides an open source, high performance, modular, extensible, multi-platform Java IDE to accelerate the development of Java applications, web services and mobile applications.

The NetBeans IDE 4.1, which was released in May 11, 2005, includes Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) development capabilities. This new release allows developers to not only develop applications in the web tier but also includes Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) and web service development capabilities.

NetBeans IDE 4.1 is a single platform with out-of-the-box development capabilities and support for enterprise (J2EE 1.4) applications and web services, mobile/wireless Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME) applications and services and desktop Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) applications. The robust open source Java IDE, has everything that Java Software Developers need to develop cross-platform desktop, web and mobile applications straight out of the box.

When you download the NetBeans IDE, you get a modular, standards-based development environment with all the key functionality in one download, rather than a series of additional plug-ins. Write, compile, debug and deploy Java programs for the Solaris, Windows, Linux and Macintosh platforms.

Here are some key features of "NetBeans IDE":

· New Navigator component facilitates browsing and navigating around classes.
· Browse and configure project classpath using the Libraries node in the Projects View.
· Use automatically generated Debug and Compile Single File actions for projects with existing build scripts.
· Set up projects with multiple source roots.
· Create a J2EE application, automatically add EJB�* and Web modules, then deploy the application.
· Deploy an EJB module as a stand-alone or packaged in a J2EE application. Or, create a Web module, generate calls to EJBs and deploy the Web module either as a stand-alone Web application or packaged in a J2EE application.
· Create Session Beans, Entity Beans and Message-Driven Beans. Entity Beans can be created using an existing database schema.
· Create, register and test Web Services.
· Visually configure your EJBs, Web Services and Web Components.
· Validate your applications using the J2EE Verifier.
· Use the integrated Java BluePrints Solution Catalog as a powerful learning resource.
· J2SE 5.0 "Tiger" Language Support - We support the new Java language constructs such as enums, generics, metadata annotations, autoboxing, static imports and others. These new constructs are supported when doing editing, building, refactoring, etc. of your applications. This support is available without any additional setup when running on J2SE 5.0.
· Project System based on Apache Ant - NetBeans 4.0 was the first IDE to base its projects system entirely on Apache Ant, allowing developers to easily share build scripts between teams and ensure that automated builds run the same as builds within the IDE. There is no vendor lock-in and no proprietary file formats.
· Refactoring technology which provides simplified code maintenance for developers.
· Visual enhancements to lay out MIDlet's workflow; plus, design and code the GUI using a drag and drop feature (Available in NetBeans Mobility Pack).
· End-to-end support for enterprise applications with wizard support for creating Java� 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME�) and J2EE applications. This updated support enables quick creation of J2ME client/server applications (Available in NetBeans Mobility Pack).