Build failed when trying to compile JVisualVM - netbeans

Question

I've been following the instructions shown on http://visualvm.java.net/build/build.html when attempting to build JVisualVM.
I checked out the trunk to my hard-drive, I've downloaded http://java.net/projects/visualvm/downloads/download/dev/nb73_visualvm_14012013.zip and extracted its contents to the visualvm/ directory, as asked:
To build the visualvm core tool you need the NetBeans 7.3 platform and profiler binaries available here. These binaries must be extracted into the trunk/visualvm directory. You can use ant run or ant build-zip to build or run VisualVM.
When executing ant run I got a:
compile:
[mkdir] Created dir: C:\Users\user\Desktop\jvisualvm\visualvm\applicationviews\build\classes
[nb-javac] Compiling 19 source files to C:\Users\user\Desktop\jvisualvm\visualvm\applicationviews\build\classes
[nb-javac] warning: [options] bootstrap class path not set in conjunction with -source 1.5
[nb-javac] C:\Users\user\Desktop\jvisualvm\visualvm\applicationviews\src\com\sun\tools\visualvm\application\views\threads\ThreadMXBeanDataManager.java:117: e
rror: cannot find symbol
[nb-javac] super(dummyLong, CommonConstants.SERVER_RUNNING, CommonConstants.SERVER_PROGRESS_INDETERMINATE);
[nb-javac] ^
[nb-javac] symbol: variable SERVER_RUNNING
[nb-javac] location: interface CommonConstants
[nb-javac] C:\Users\user\Desktop\jvisualvm\visualvm\applicationviews\src\com\sun\tools\visualvm\application\views\threads\ThreadMXBeanDataManager.java:117: e
rror: cannot find symbol
[nb-javac] super(dummyLong, CommonConstants.SERVER_RUNNING, CommonConstants.SERVER_PROGRESS_INDETERMINATE);
[nb-javac] ^
[nb-javac] symbol: variable SERVER_PROGRESS_INDETERMINATE
[nb-javac] location: interface CommonConstants
[nb-javac] Note: Some input files use unchecked or unsafe operations.
[nb-javac] Note: Recompile with -Xlint:unchecked for details.
[nb-javac] 2 errors
[nb-javac] 1 warning
I've even installed Netbeans 7.3 but that didn' seem to help a bit!
I'm quite new to these matters, am I missing something?

Answer 1

You mentioned that you are "quite new to these matters", so may I ask if there is a reason you want to build the trunk, specifically? Most of the time, the workflow when using SVN for source control includes tagging releases under /tags. The tagged releases have generally been tested and met a minimum testing criteria to be considered suitable for release, so you will probably have an easier time building one of the tags.
There is nothing wrong with building /trunk for yourself, but it should be considered an "unstable/work in progress" build, so you should expect to encounter problems.
As you may already know, there are pre-compiled binaries available for download on the VisualVM site. If there is no binary for your operating system listed, you can probably find it with your package manager (e.g. sudo apt-get install visualvm on Ubuntu).
That said, don't let me discourage you from trying, if you want to:
In this case, the compiler is telling you that it cannot find the symbols SERVER_RUNNING and SERVER_PROGRESS_INDETERMINATE in the CommonConstants class. These are referenced on line 117 of the ThreadMXBeanDataManager class. If you take a look at that class, you will see the import org.netbeans.lib.profiler.global.CommonConstants statement, which tells us that CommonConstants comes from NetBeans. If we examine the SVN commit history for the ThreadMXBeanDataManager class, we can see that the developer made the changes intending to make VisualVM compatible with NetBeans 7.3. So, there are a few possiblities:
The developer was wrong, and was actually compiling with some other version of NetBeans (possibly a pre-release, etc). If you find that this is the case, you should file a bug report (and a patch, if possible).
You are trying to compile against the wrong version of NetBeans.
Something is wrong with the classpath/build script.
Let's examine #2 and #3. We can take binary you linked to and find out which jar(s) the CommonConstants class lives in by using JFind or a similar utility (or by Googling, etc.):
We see that the class lives in two places, so the next thing to do is check both of the class files and make sure that they have the constants. Use an unzip utility (e.g. 7-zip) to expand the jar files and use a decompiler (I like JD-GUI) to verify that the class has the constants:
The version you linked to seems OK on my machine, so unfortunately now you have to investigate further. Are either or both of these jars on the classpath in the Ant script that does the compilation? Do you have a different version of the jar on your classpath via an environment variable? There are a lot of possibilities here, so you will have to do some sleuthing. If all of this seems like a lot of work, then I suggest you go with one of the pre-compiled binaries or switch to a tag build.

Answer 2

It looks like you are compiling it against NetBeans 7.2. Did you opened the VisualVM project in NetBeans before you tried to compile it? If so, please check which NetBeans Platform is set for top-level VisualVM project in NetBeans. You should compile VisualVM against NetBeans platform from nb73_visualvm_14012013.zip. To check that your installation is correct, try the following:
If you have VisualVM open in NetBeans, close NetBeans
find all trunk/visualvm/*/nbproject/private directories in the VisualVM source tree and delete private directory.
use ant run from command line
If that works, open NetBeans, register trunk/visualvm/netbeans as NetBeans Platform and set is as platform for VisualVM top-level project.