NetBeans IDE 6.8 Release Candidate 1 is out

Great news for developers who use NetBeans. Version 6.8 RC1 is released. Details about this release you can find here. Download this release you can here. NetBeans 6.8 —New and Noteworthy

Feature highlights:

Java Enterprise Edition 6

• Web Projects with Java EE 6 and Java EE 6 Web profiles,EJBs in web applications
• EJB 3.1 support,EJB project file wizard also supports Singleton session type
• RESTful web services (JAX-RS 1.1),GlassFish Metro 2.0 web services (JAX-WS 2.2),JAXB 2.2
• Java Persistence JPA 2.0,deployment,debugging and profiling with GlassFish v3 application server

Web Projects with JavaServer Faces 2.0 (Facelets)

• Code completion,error hints,namespace completion,documentation popups,and tag auto-import for Facelets
• Editor support for Facelets libraries,composite components,expression language,including generators for JSF and HTML forms
• Customizable JSF components palette generates JSF forms and JSF data tables from entities
• New File wizard generates customizable CRUD (create/read/update/delete) JSF pages from entities
• Broader usage of annotations instead of deployment descriptors

JavaFX

• Added support for the latest JavaFX SDK 1.2.1
• Improved code completion
• Editor Hints:Fix Imports,Surround With,Implements Abstract Methods,and more
• Improved navigation:Hyperlinks,Go to Type,Find Usages

Kenai.com:Connected Developer

• Full JIRA support (plugin from update center)
• Project dashboard with more member and project details,improved search and navigation,easier project sharing
• Improved instant messenger integration:Online presence,private and group chat with Kenai members,easy to add links to code / files /issues / stack traces to messages
• Improved issue tracker integration

PHP

• Full PHP 5.3 support:namespaces,lambda functions and closures,syntax additions:NOWDOC,ternary conditions,jump labels,__callStatic()
• Symfony Framework support:Symfony projects,Symfony commands,shortcuts,PHP syntax coloring in YAML files
• Create a PHP project from a remote PHP application
• PHPUnit,Code Coverage,FTP/SFTP integration improvements,exclude PHP project folders from scanning/indexing

Maven

• New Project from Maven archetype catalog and improved support for Java EE 6,Groovy,Scala projects
• Customizable dependency exclusion in dependency graph
• Maven CheckStyle plugin
• “Update from Kenai”action for Kenai.com-hosted Maven projects

Ruby

• Support for creating Rails 2.3.4 apps with dispatchers,JRuby 1.4,Ruby 1.9 debugging,and RSpec 1.2.7
• Improved rename refactoring,type inference,and navigation
• Specifying arguments for Rails servers
• Run/Debug File with arguments,also for files not part of a project

C and C++

• Profiling:New Microstate Accounting indicator,Thread Map view,Hot Spots view,Memory Leaks view,Sync Problems view
• Faster synchronization during remote development
• Support for gdbserver attach and easier attaching to already running processes

Miscellaneous Improvements

• Java Debugger:Mark an object in the variables tree with a name to refer to it in expressions
• Database integration:Code completion in SQL Editor now also for DELETE,DROP,UPDATE statements,and for reserved keywords
• Groovy 1.6.4 &Grails:Improved code completion,including methods introduced via AST Transformations