Multiple Targets in NetBeans Projects

NeatBeans IDE

NeatsBeans is an IDE, a program that allows developers to write source code in an environment which assists them in writing their code. This includes functions that check the programmer's syntax for mistakes that will prevent the code from compiling correctly, allowing the programmer to switch between multiple source code files simultaneously, and mapping variables and object components so programmers do not have to spend time looking over the code line by line to find them. IDEs also allow the programmer to compile an entire project at once, rather than setting up each file on a command line compiler.

Java source code does not compile into a binary code that operating systems can run directly. Rather, they compile into a code which a Java virtual machine translates into a machine-readable code as the program runs. There are multiple versions of this virtual machine and different Java objects are designed to work with different versions of the Java virtual machine, also called Java platforms.

Because there are different Java platforms, there are different Java compilers that are designed to convert Java source code into the code for a particular Java platform. By default, the NetBeans IDE will compile a project using the Java compiler that is paired with the Java platform which is set as the standard platform for the machine on which the NetBeans IDE is running. This is the default target Java compiler. The developer can change this target compiler to any Java platform he currently has installed on his computer.

When the developer means to compile a given project for a multiple Java architectures, he will need to perform a separate compilation process for each target platform. This will require the developer to first register each target platform in the "Java Platforms" section of the "Tools" menu. Then, before starting the compilation process for each target platform, the developer has to select the target Java platform by right-clicking on the project's node, selecting the "Libraries" panel, then changing the platform property the the target Java platform for that compilation.