What does it do ?

The Clazz module allows the IDE to operate on compiled Java classes and object serialized into files. Like Java module, the Clazz module can produce a view what methods, fields, constructors and inner classes are present in a compiled file. It also serves this information to other modules not only for classes that are mounted in the Filesystems, but for all classes that can be accessed by the IDE that makes code synchronization possible even with classes inside the JDK.
The module can be enhanced by other modules in the IDE: for example Bean Patterns will analyze the contents of the .class file and shows you properties and event sources just like it does for Java source files.
Let's have a closer look at the module's features:

• Compiled .class file parsing
  The module will parse the compiled file and will try to find out what methods, constructors and fields are defined in the .class file. The results are presented as nodes underneath the file node just as the Java module does for Java source files. You can inspect details of each element using properties or customizers. Note that since the module works on compiled files, no modifications are permitted.

• Serialized object support
  The module adds some nice features to serialized objects too. The serialized node will show the Java Hierarchy for the object serialized in the file. You can easily see what object is serialized in that particular file and what methods/fields does it define without having to look the relevant class up in the Filesystems or even JDK or third party libraries.

• Properties
  
  The Properties window for nodes created by Java module shows various attributes for individual code elements:
  • superclass and superinterfaces for classes,
  • type for fields,
  • type of parameters, their names and checked exceptions thrown by constructors,
  • return type in addition to the above for methods.
  Other module can plug in and add its own properties, as JavaDoc module does with "JavaDoc comment " property. However (unlike properties provided by the Java module), Property values can notbe edited and modified; Java module will change the source text accordingly to the new property's value.
  
  
• Customizers
  are available for all node types. A customizer allows you to customize all aspect of a node (or the data it represents) in a nice GUI. It offers a type of view different from Property Sheet that many users might find more intuitive. Please see an example from the See Java module's website of how customizers look like.
  
  
• Copy/Paste - serialize
  Copy-Paste feature is supported for both .class objects as well as for serialized data. While the serialized data can be simply copied to another place, compiled classes can't be copied this way because the record their packages inside the file and cannot be placed at different position. Because of that, the module will serialize an instance of the class you copied to the target folder.

More documentation

.. will be available shortly:

• Detailed user documentation
• Requirements specification
• Functional specification
• Documentation for developers

The module offers only rudimentary operations that can be done with sourceless classes and serialized objects. If you can think of another operations, or views that the module could offer to make work with the classes easier, please don't hesitate to use NetBeans mailing lists to make suggestions or discuss features for this module.