With the release by Oracle of NetBeans 7.3, Project Easel has come to fruition. There is a now support for HTML5, CSS and JavaScript within the framework widely used by Java developers.

According Bill Pataky, Oracle vice president of product management of tools and frameworks, the new release:

"allows developers to use the same IDE [to compose in] HTML5 that they would use for building back-end services that their Web and mobile applications would connect to."

The NetBeans 7.3 IDE contains new features to create and debug web and mobile apps. It offers a full set of code completion capabilities for HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS which cuts down on typing and eliminates syntax errors. A plug-in for the Google Chrome browser makes debugging Web interfaces easier. It uses the WebKit remote debugging protocol and can render a Web page as it is being composed by the developer in the IDE.

The improvements in the new release aren't restricted to web and mobile. It also improves support for the Java platform with  new hints and refactorings in the editor and improved support for editing FXML layout files in JavaFX projects. NetBeans IDE 7.3 continues to support the latest (Java EE) and GlassFish Server releases with the ability to run and test JPQL queries directly from the IDE.

The list of new features include:

• Code completion for new HTML5 elements
  
  
• New JavaScript editor and debugger based on the Nashorn JavaScript project
  
  
• Code completion support for jQuery
  
  
• Support for responsive Web design-based applications
  
  
• CSS Styling support and code completion for new CSS3 rules
  
  
• Live code and Web page synchronization facilitated by deep bi-directional integration with Google Chrome and the internal WebKit-based browser.
  
  
• JavaScript client generation from existing Java REST services
  
  
• Enhanced editor, with additional new features such as Breadcrumbs support and access to Clipboard History.
  
  
• New support for profiling Java applications on Linux ARM based systems, such as the Raspberry Pi.

If you want more, this video highlights what's new in the release:

All that is missing at the moment is a drag-and-drop editor for HTML similar to the one used for Java Swing. With this addition NetBeans would be the total HTML package.