CBSE Class 11 Informatics Practices IDE Programming

Getting Started with IDE Programming

Introduction

Observe Figure 4.1 carefully. We all may have come across some of the following but have we ever given a thought about what these are? Let us try and analyze their utility. The Google window displayed returns names of websites matching the search text entered by the user in the input area. The Gmail window displayed helps one to log in to their mail account and view their inbox based on the username and password entered by the user. The IRCTC window displayed helps the user to log in to the Indian Railway site to book train tickets or retrieve specific train information.

From the above discussion we infer that all these are means of entering data. The data entered may be sent to some external agent for processing or simply stored somewhere. Such means of collecting data are known as forms. Forms are used to accept data (input) from users and respond to actions like clicking on a button. In the above figure, the enclosed area is used to accept input and clicking on the button results in some output. Now that we understand what a form is, let us start with a little fun and try to create our very own form. Since this will be our first application so we will do something very simple. We will create a form with a single button and on the click of this button, we will simply exit from the application. We will use Netbeans to create this form, so first start Netbeans (Refer to Appendix 5 for installation and starting of Netbeans). Since all development in the Netbeans takes place within projects, we first need to create a new project within which we will store codes and other related files. The project will act as a storage place for all the forms and codes created by us.

Creating a new Project

Creating a new Form

To create a new application project called "Book":

1. Choose File > New Project. Alternately, click the New Project icon in the toolbar.

2. From the Categories pane select Java and in the Projects pane, choose Java Application. Click Next.

3. Enter a name (in this case Book) in the Project Name field and specify the project location by clicking on the Browse button. By default the project is saved in the NetBeansProjects folder in My Documents and so this is the default Project location displayed in this field.

4. Ensure that the Set as Main Project checkbox is selected and clear the Create Main Class field.

5. Click Finish.

Netbeans creates the Book folder on your system in the designated location. This folder will contain all of the associated files of the project. The next step is to create a form. To proceed with building our form, we need to create a container within which we will place the other required components of the form like a button. For all our applications we will choose the JFrame Form as the container to place other components.

To create a JFrame Form container:

1. In the Projects window, right-click the Book node and choose New > JFrame Form as shown in Figure 4.2.

2. Enter Form Example 1 as the Class Name. This will be the name of your form.

3. Enter Book as the package. This should be the name given while creating the Project.

4. Click Finish.

Please refer to the link below - CBSE Class 11 Informatics Practices IDE Programming