Hey, unfortunately it is a pain in the ass to update the plugin everytime a new NetBeans version is coming out. This is not going to happen for FireFox or for Chrome, where they have faster release cycles. The thing is, all new NetBeans versions should be able to use a plugin from an older Version, which is still possible, but only for the specific update center of the Version. Otherwise you need to add the older update center to your NetBeans instance manually as we do it since NB 9 with the update center of NB 8.2. Why not get rid of it? If the plugin was made for 8.2, NB 12 e.g. should be able to show and to use it. If there is a problem with APIs or installation than you need to update it manually which is ok, because it is not working anymore.
There is no need to update or compile your plugin everytime for the next version of NetBeans only to add it into that specific plugin center and to sign it. A little plugin, which adds maybe a one liner to the statusbar to show the mimetype of the file should still work over a lot of versions and should be found there too w/o adding an old Plugin center. No need to update to the newest update center ot signing it for that version. I have couple of Plugins and a lot more hand over to me from Benno which I need to update to make it visible into the current update center if the user didn’t check the NB 8.2 center. What are you thinking? Cheers Chris
