Product features
Forte for Java, Community Edition has a wide range of features.
Editor
The Editor provides all standard editing functions and has many other useful features such as:
- Java code completion
- customizable syntax coloring for Java, HTML, and JSPfiles
- advanced search capabilities
- the ability to jump to the source for the class or method the insertion point is in, the variable declaration, or the Javadoc documentation for the source directly from the Editor window
- "jump list" capability, enabling you to easily jump back and forth through the various points where you have been working in your files
- a wide selection of other customizable keyboard shortcuts, including ones for features such as indenting text, commenting out text, and Editor bookmarks
- customizable Editor abbreviations
Form Editor
You can design graphical user interfaces for your applications visually with the Form Editor. The Form Editor augments the Editor with two more windows: the Form Editor window and the Component Inspector. The Form Editor window provides a design-time representation of your form as you are building it. You can easily add components to a form by clicking on a button in a special toolbar, the Component Palette, and then clicking on the part of the form where you want to place the component. Clean and readable code for the components is then generated automatically in the Editor. The Component Inspector window provides makes it easy to modify component properties.
The Form Editor includes advanced support for Java layout managers, including the GridBag layout customizer which makes the most complex standard Java layout manager easier to use. The GridBag customizer dialog box provides you with a dynamic visual representation of the components in their respective "grid bags" and gives you different ways of adjusting the constraints (such as dragging, direct entry of values, and tool icons).
The Form Editor enables you to immediately to use any JavaBeans component for visual development. Because they use standard Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) and Java Foundation Classes (JFC) components, generated forms do not depend on any proprietary code or components. No classes need to be bundled with your forms as the Form Editor generates code that is entirely independent of the IDE (unless you use Absolute Layout, a special Forte for Java feature which is an improvement on null layouts).
Explorer and Properties window
The Explorer provides a unified hierarchical view of Java classes and their elements, Javadoc documentation, and running and debugging processes. The Properties window enables you to view and edit the properties for the object represented by the node selected in the Explorer.
Object Browser
With the Object Browser, all of your sources are logically presented in one streamlined view. You can view your applications by package, object, and member (or bean patterns), as well as apply filters to customize what is displayed. Using context menus in the Object Browser, you can open files, access their property sheets, compile and execute applications, and more.
Multi-threaded debugger
Forte for Java provides full support for multi-threaded debugging and standard debugging features such as breakpoints, watches, trace into, trace over, and trace out.
Project functionality
It is possible for you to organize your work into projects with different IDE configurations for each.
CVS support
You can easily integrate CVS (Concurrent Versions System) with Forte for Java to make it easier to apply version control to your files and work on team projects.
Javadoc support
Forte for Java provides you easy access to Java API documents from within the IDE. You can also have Javadoc comments automatically generated for your files and produce your own Javadoc documentation.
Update Center
The Update Center feature enables you to connect to Forte for Java's web site straight from your IDE and download and automatically install new and updated modules.
Special support for JavaBeans components
Forte for Java provides special support for creating JavaBeans components, including generation of properties, event sets, and bean info. You can also customize them and add them to the IDE so that they can be easily dropped into applications.
Source synchronization
The Java source synchronization feature can save you time by automatically generating all of the implementation methods used by your source code.
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