[ BUILD # : 090418 ]
[ JDK VERSION : 1.6.* ]


The plugin importer dialog - an excellent new feature by the way -
shows three lists of plugins, available, not available and not
compatible plugins. Plugins in the first list have an install check
mark by default, those in the second list all have deselected check
boxes and those in the third list are shown disabled.

The description of the second list says: "Plugins are not available
for the new version of NetBeans and might not be compatible with the
new versions:". Despite this I still can select these plugins for
being imported (and the dialog does not say they cannot be imported).

Hoping for the best I select all three (icefaces, perl and jconsole)
plugins and click "Import". The Plugin Installer Welcome dialog opens
showing only the plugins from the first list, the second list is
ignored. There is a dialog saying that the jconsole plugin is not
compatible with the new version and needs to be disabled to proceed.
The other two plugins are silently ignored.

The Import Plugins dialog stays open, but the second list is cleared.

All three action buttons (Import, Don't Import and Remind Me Later)
remain active.

Issues with this behavior:
1. If the plugins in the second list "are not available for the new
version", why can I put a check mark against each of them? (how can
one install something, that is not available? Probably should read
"have not been updated for the new version...".

2. Why is the second list cleared when I click on "Import"? Even if
none of those plugins turns out to be compatible the list should
still be displayed for reference purposes (for instance, to compare
the list with the list of plugins on the Plugins Installer welcome
dialog after clicking Import). The incompatible plugins should just
be marked as not installed, for instance by a suitable icon or by
color coding).

3. The entries in the third list are almost unreadable (dark gray on
light gray, at least on Windows). Instead of disabling the edit field
it should be set read-only (or some other measure to increase the
contrast between foreground and background).

4. Because the action buttons of the Import Plugin stay active after
clicking Import, the user can easily start the import a second time
while another one is already running. The action buttons should be
disabled until the plugin installer is running.

5. The icefaces and the perl plugin (from the plugin portal) shown in
the second list are simply ignored in the import without any error
message or warning dialog. The user has no indication that the import
has not been performed (other than reading through the list in the
Plugin Installer welcome page) and as to why the import has not been
performed. If a plugin from the second list cannot be installed the
user should be informed in all cases (with an option to not show the
dialog again to protect the user against cases with very many
plugins). This information should not depend on correct
implementation of the plugin.