Zen Coding And Netbeans Templates¶

The objective is to write code quickly and efficiently.This tip focuses on HTML code, because it can be tedious to write, however, the technique can be applied to other languages using code editor plugins and different utilities.

Zen Coding

The main principle behind then coding is not to repeat yourself. It provides a short syntax to write HTML code.

For netbeans, you can find the plugin under Tools > Plugins > Available Plugins > Zen Coding. After installation and restarting Netbeans, you can start testing in any HTML context files like index.html or index.xhtml and test the following code

html:5
(header>ul>li>a.item-$*3)+.container>.col-md-6.col-xs-12>p*2

Hit Alt+Ctr+n shortcut to start converting the sample to actual HTML code

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en-US">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title></title>
  </head>
  <body>

  </body>
</html

And

<header>
    <ul>
        <li>
            <a href="" class="item-1"></a>
            <a href="" class="item-2"></a>
            <a href="" class="item-3"></a>
        </li>
    </ul>
</header>
<div class="container">
    <div class="col-md-6 col-xs-12">
        <p></p>
        <p></p>
    </div>
</div>

For more details check Zen Coding cheat sheet - PDF

These tools are here to help, but don’t try to overload yourself with their details. Just keep it simple and enjoy coding with speed.