Debugging ImageJ Plugins in NetBeans

Downloading NetBeans and the ImageJ Source file
  1. Download and install JDK 5.0 bundled with NetBeans 4.1 at the Sun Downloads page. Macintosh users should download NetBeans 4.1 for OS X from netbeans.org.
  2. Download the latest ImageJ source code from rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/download/src/
  3. Unzip the ImageJ source. The folder "source" in the directory where you unzip this file is the ImageJ source folder
Setting Up ImageJ in NetBeans
Run NetBeans
Go to the File>New Project... dialog
  1. Choose Project
    • Select General and "Java Project with Existing Ant Script"
    • Click "Next >"
  2. Name and Location
    • Click "Browse..." next to the location text box.
    • Select and choose the source folder where the ImageJ build.xml file is located. At this point, NetBeans will fill in the four text boxes with the appropriate entries.
    • Click "Next >"
  3. Build and Run Actions
    • Click "Next >"
  4. Source Package Folders
    • Click "Add Folder..."
    • Select and choose the folder "...source\ij"
    • Click "Add Folder..."
    • Select and choose the folder "...source\plugins"
    • Click "Finish"
Building ImageJ with NetBeans
  1. Java 5.0 users, double click the build.xml file and delete the " target= "1.1"" at the end of line 9
  2. Go to the Build>Build Main Project (Ignore the red error messages in the ImageJ build output.)
  3. Go to the File> "ImageJ" Properties
  4. Select the Java Sources Classpath category
  5. Select ij[ij] in the as the Source Package Folder
  6. Click "Add JAR/Folder..."
  7. Select and choose the ij.jar file which NetBeans just built in the source directory
  8. Change the Source Package Folder to plugins[plugins]
  9. Click "Add JAR/Folder..."
  10. Select and choose the ij.jar file again
  11. Click "OK"
Compiling and Debugging Plugins
  1. Right click on the plugins folder and go to New>Java Class...
  2. Type in the name of your plugin
  3. Click "Finish"
  4. Write or paste your plugin into the Java Editor window.
  5. Go to Build>Compile "(The name of your plugin)"
  6. Click "Generate"
  7. In the ide-file-targets.xml file that was just created, change "${build.classes.dir}" to "plugins" in line 9
  8. Delete line 8 in the ide-file-targets.xml file
  9. Change line 12 in the build.xml file from <exclude name="plugins/*" /> to <!--exclude name="plugins/*" /-->
  10. Select your plugin from the ImageJ Project tree
  11. Go to Build>Compile "(The name of your plugin)"
  12. Go to Run>Debug Main Project
  13. Click "Set Output..."
  14. Click "OK"
  15. Go to Run>Debug Main Project
  16. Click "Generate"
  17. Go to Run>Debug Main Project (ImageJ will run. The plugin you created will be in the plugins menu)
  18. Go to Window>Debugging>Sources
  19. Check all the folders in the Sources tab
  20. Run you plugin from the ImageJ plugins menu. NetBeans will debug your plugin and stop at any specified breakpoints
For a list of NetBeans debugging commands go the NetBeans Debugger page.
For a more basic tutorial go to NetBeans Debugging Applications page.

More Tutorials

  1. Grant Harris at the Marine Biological Laboratory has written another ImageJ/NetBeans tutorial.
  2. Patrick Pirrotte has written a guide for Eclipse users.

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