Now that the NetBeans IDE 6.0 is out, work has begun on version 6.1 (despite the roadmap showing 7.0 as the next version.) Version 6.1 is due for release by the end of April 2008 -- just in time for JavaOne. What's even better news is that the NetBeans team has released Patch 1 through the update center, and soon will release Patch 2. We no longer have to wait months or even a year to get bugs fixed. Now they are delivering bug fixes regularly while simultaneously working on the next release.

I read through the list of tickets for version 6.1 and think that this release will be as important as 6.0 because it brings many integrated features that mainstream Java developers expect in an IDE. Here is a list of highlights:

• 123600 Add support for Spring Framework. Read one of several wiki pages on Spring support. Yes there is a 3rd party plugin but I get the impression that Sun wants to match the capabilities of competing IDEs.
• 123601 Add support for Hibernate Framework. Read the wiki page for more details, especially the link to functional specifications. It says they want to match or beat what IntelliJ IDEA has for Hibernate support.
• 122884 Deployment to WebSphere 6.0 and 6.1. I met a couple of consultants at JavaOne 2007 who told me they won't even look at NetBeans until they can use it with WebSphere. I've read that WebSphere has 50% of the commercial app server market -- that's a pretty significant user base that might look at NetBeans once it can work with WebSphere.
• 118971 Support for Axis runtime. Even though I use the JAX-WS standard, most Java developers I meet use Axis or XFire for web services. He's another large group of developers that may look at NetBeans once it supports Axis.
• 122887 Facelets support as a standard part of NetBeans. Facelets is very important to JSF developers and is being standardized in JSF 2.0. The plugin already exists, but is a side-project from one of the NetBeans developers and it only recently became available for NetBeans 6.0. I don't think it's available in the update center, you have to download it separately.
• 122889 GWT support as a stable quality module (on the update center)
• 122264 Fix JavaScript code completion to be comparable with competition.
• 118953 TCP/SOAP Monitor in the IDE
• 98853 Code completion for javadoc tags
• 48427 Integrate Refactoring Undo with Editor Undo and Local History
• (many tickets) It looks like Sun is putting a lot of effort into the PHP support to make it as good as the Ruby support.

I'm a bit concerned that some of these features (such as Spring and Hibernate support) are listed in the TBD plan instead of specific P1, P2 or P3. I really hope they can do these in time for 6.1.