Has the final frontier been reached for Java EE 6 tools in NetBeans IDE? In the daily builds for the upcoming NetBeans IDE 7.2, there is now code completion in calls to EntityManager.createNamedQuery of named queries defined within JPA entity classes:

Above, the cursor is between the quotation marks in " em.createNamedQuery ". Now all possible named queries are shown, from all entity classes in the application, and as I type the completion box narrows to match the currently entered characters.

Next, what's pretty cool is that if you hold down the CTRL key and mouse over the named query, a small popup appears showing you the SQL query that the named query represents:



When you click the hyperlink above, which is created when CTRL is held down while you mouse over the named query, the underlying entity class opens with the cursor on the line where the named query is defined.

And that's certainly not all. Read the JPA section here to see other JPA-related enhancements that have already been completed:

http://wiki.netbeans.org/NewAndNoteworthyNB72#JPA_Support



From my point of view, the tools for creating Java EE 6 applications are now really great, no need to switch between different files anymore to copy bits of code, lots of code generators and popups, handy dialogs and wizards... so what should be developed next in Java EE land in NetBeans IDE? Yes, asking for feedback from anyone reading this. Interested to know what you think!

