Netbeans 7.1 dropped Swing Application Framework support? How can I migrate form 7.0 to 7.1?

Question

Last week, I get very depressed, I have three big apps in production and many more using Swing Application Framework. Later, when I started to migrate to Netbeans 7.1, BOOM!, no more support for SAF.

So what can I do, any ideas how to migrate to Netbeans 7.1?

I will appreciate your help.

PS: Netbeans team, please don't add frameworks without a warning that are just an Java Specification Request - JSR. When I started to use SAF, it looks like it will be never discontinued.

PS2: To make us hear we are using SAF, vote at https://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=204661

Answer 1

I found SAF as a plugin for newer NetBeans: http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/43853/swing-application-framework-support

Answer 2

I don't have a good answer, but this may give other people more ideas (and it would be more useful to include the info here than to post a separate question)...

I also have a SAF app that I now need java 1.7 for, so have switched to netbeans 7.1, and can't edit the forms in nb7.0. I switch between nb7.0 to edit screens, then use nb7.1 to compile and run.

If I create a form in nb7.1, it works ok with my app, and I've looked at the generated code and the .properties files nb7.0 and nb7.1 create for, say, a JPanel, they look identical.

I haven't figured out how to "convert" the nb7.0-generated JPanels to ones that work with nb7.1, but I can create an empty JPanel in 7.1, then run 7.0 and copy all the controls from the 7.0 form to the 7.1 form. Icons get lost--a NetBeans bug, and code gets lost, in general, a costly and error-prone process.

There may be some flag somewhere in the project that tells if a JPanel is "SAF" or not. If so, finding it would make migration much easier.