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Problem description: Resolving references since NetBeans 4.1 is painful. A separate dialog is used for that purpose, but all resources are actually "used" in project properties. Resolving broken reference means either pointing to the correct resource or removing the resource. Currently the user can point to the correct resource in the resolve dialog, but she needs to go to project properties to remove the reference. Another problem is that it is possible to overlook the red color indication of project node or to overlook the Resolve menu item which means the user doesn't know why her/his project (and actually the IDE) behaves strange or doesn't work. Or the user doesn't know where and how to fix the problem. This is a serious usability problem if the server reference or JDK is missing. This can have big impact on user's perception of the IDE. Solution: In the Project Properties dialog (all project types), library manager, platform manager and server manager, we have to indicate that a resource is missing directly in the same place where the resource is used. For example in the "Source Packages" table, if the source root is missing it should be displayed in red color and some kind of "Edit" button should allow the user to locate the source root. If the user wants to delete the source root, she would just delete it. The solution in general has to: * better communicate that a project contains broken reference, depending on severity of the problem. For serious problems (missing server?) the user has to immediately see that there is a problem. * better communicate where and how a problem can be fixed Resolving broken references has to be consistent in Projects, Libraries, Platfoms and Servers. --- Note that even though I'm filing this issue as part of the 6.1 planning, the real intention is to address this issue either in 6.1 or in one of the upcoming releases.
*** Issue 72105 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
*** Issue 73738 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
*** Issue 141489 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Some things already filed for 7.0.
Just hit another aspect of this. When I want to resolve a missing variable reference, the dialog tells me that variable SUCH_AND_SUCH can not be found, but when I press the Resolve button, I then have to type the variable name in the Add New Variable dialog, even though the IDE knows the name.
*** Bug 213279 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
The UI spec as proposed is not more valid. Current proposal is to create an API allowing individual modules to provide their own resolve implementation.