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Bug 40550

Summary: Request visual and/or syntax-checked manifest editor
Product: java Reporter: Ondrej Rypacek <rypacek>
Component: ProjectAssignee: Tomas Zezula <tzezula>
Status: NEW ---    
Severity: blocker CC: deadpoet, issues, jglick, jkovalsky
Priority: P3    
Version: 3.x   
Hardware: All   
OS: All   
Issue Type: ENHANCEMENT Exception Reporter:

Description Ondrej Rypacek 2004-02-27 09:34:13 UTC 
The current manifest editor is confusing and
doesn't help much in the creation of a valid
manifest. In particullar, the presence of
automatically generated attributes suggests that
the editor is smarter than it is, that it is not
just a plain text editor. 

It would be nice to have an editor that does not
require a precise knowledge of Manifest grammar.
The editor should prevent creating syntactically
invalid manifest , not just disable the OK button.

One possible approach would be to present a
structured table (similar to the properties
editor) with separated main section and per-entry
sections, an extensive list of available
attributes (including all attributes listed in the
documentation) with some sort of automatic value
generation where possible (e.g. the Main-Class can
be generated by searching for static main method
in the sources).
Comment 1 Ondrej Rypacek 2004-02-27 09:35:28 UTC 
See this thread for a relevant discussion
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.java.netbeans.cat36/406
Comment 2 Jesse Glick 2004-03-19 15:03:56 UTC 
At least basic syntax validation and r/o display of attrs and sections
should not be hard. apisupport already does something like this. (It
does r/w manifests, actually, but does not preserve formatting on writes.)
Comment 3 Jesse Glick 2005-05-27 20:27:21 UTC 
Should not have any open issues in jarpackager component.
Comment 4 Marian Mirilovic 2006-02-08 11:04:52 UTC 
*** Issue 52874 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Comment 5 Jesse Glick 2006-02-08 18:37:36 UTC 
Update: apisupport/project now contains EditableManifest which (I hope) complies
with the spec but (unlike java.util.jar.Manifest) preserves formatting upon
structural edits.
Comment 6 Peter Pis 2008-08-19 12:12:15 UTC 
Reassigning to "java".