In default view, Plugin Manager shows all plugins unless specify its visibility flag to false (AutoUpdate-Show-In-Client=false) - in other words, Plugin Manager filters out most of like service modules as hidden in plugin infrastructure. To make Plugin Manager to be showing all modules being run in your IDE with switch plugin.manager.modules.only set to true (i.e.-J-Dplugin.manager.modules.only=true).

Each NetBeans plugin has own code name what should be unique in NetBeans distribution, this code name will not show in plugin’s details. To show this code name just run your IDE with switch plugin.manager.extended.description set to true (i.e.-J-Dplugin.manager.extended.description=true)

How to Plugin Manager chooses a directory where NBM will install?

If plugin.manager.install.global is set to true then NBM will go into installation directory for all cases unless the install directory is read-only.

Plugin Manager checks for updates of already installed plugins right after IDE startup, not for new plugins. To force Plugin Manager to check for new plugins as well, just run IDE with a option -J-Dplugin.manager.check.new.plugins=true. New plugins will be notified in IDE status line.

As was written above, Plugin Manager is checking for updates of already installed plugins right after IDE startup. If you would like to suppress it, just run IDE with a option -J-Dplugin.manager.check.updates=false.

Use a launcher option plugin.manager.check.interval with possible values: EVERY_STARTUP, EVERY_DAY, EVERY_WEEK, EVERY_2WEEKS, EVERY_MONTH or NEVER or also it’s possible set the interval in minutes, like this -J-Dplugin.manager.check.interval=60 - to check it every hour. This option can force default value for Plugin Manager, i.e. if your application is launched with -J-Dplugin.manager.check.interval=EVERY_STARTUP (or with modified in etc/netbeans.conf), content of all subscribed Update Centers will be checked on every startup. If an user changes the check interval in Plugin Manager | Settings tab then future Autoupdate invocations will read user’s values regardless the plugin.manager.check.interval, as usual.

If Plugin Manager does install all available updates, it’s possible to determinate set of modules which must be handled in exclusive mode before others. For example, update of Plugin Manager plugin should be installed as the first, in preference of common plugins because its update might be important for handling update of rest of plugins. In that case, Plugin Manager will notify users about availability of update Plugin Manager only (swallows down updates of rest) and when Plugin Manager is up-to-date, it will handle update of other plugins.

Just use a common logging capability for force Autoupdate/Plugin Manager to be running in high verbose mode, like this -J-Dorg.netbeans.modules.autoupdate.level=FINEST, you also can specify the scope for logging in more detail (-J-Dorg.netbeans.modules.autoupdate.ui.actions.AutoupdateSettings.level=FINE). Do not forget to switch on logging into console -J-Dnetbeans.logger.console=true.

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Applies to: NetBeans 6.0 or newer

Platforms: All

- Do not hesitate to contact me on jrechtacek@netbeans.org if you have any question.