My top 5 NetBeans IDE plugins

Here at IDRsolutions most of us use NetBeans for Java development. There are loads of plugins you can get, so I thought it would be useful to list a few of my favourites. Some of these are plugins that I use on a daily basis, and there are others that I have seen demonstrated at conferences.

1. Checkstyle Beans

We use Checkstyle Beans to apply Checkstyle rules to our code base. The plugin will annotate code that breaks any of the rules by underlining it in yellow and adding a tag at the side. We use it to check we have whitespace in our code so that it’s clear and easy to read.

2. Gluon Plugin

This is a plugin I saw demonstrated at JavaOne last year. It allows you to write Java applications which can be used on both Android and iOS platforms.

3. Darcula LAF for NetBeans

Darcula changes the colour scheme of the entire IDE, making it easier on the eyes when coding for long periods of time.

4. Git Toolbar

This simple plugin adds a customised toolbar to your IDE with all the most common Git commands on it, saving you time.

5. Jelastic NetBeans plugin

This plugin allows you to connect to a Jelastic cloud account from inside NetBeans. We have a tutorial showing you how to do this.

And a bonus one…

NetBeans PDF Viewer

We have made our own NetBeans plugin, which can open PDFs in a JavaFX Viewer.

So those are my favourite NetBeans plugins. What are yours?

This post is part of our “NetBeans article Index” series. In these articles, we aim to explore NetBeans in different ways, from useful hint and tips, to our how-to’s, experiences and usage of the NetBeans IDE.

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