There are currently a number of problems with how
examples
are handled in NetBeans.  These include:

1.  There are too many places where examples might be
stored.  They might be in the userdir, on the web,
in the
file-creation templates, and so on.  This leads to
confusion.

2.  Storing examples in the userdir causes problems.
Whenever a userdir is wiped and refreshed, the
examples
are always recreated, whether or not the user
wants them.
Furthermore, having an automatically-mounted examples
directory often tempts users to put code there,
which is
then lost when the userdir is destroyed.

3.  Modules have no easy way to extend examples. 
Some of
the example storage methods (particularly, putting
them on
the web) do not allow modules to easily extend the
set of
examples.

4.  It is hard to handle examples of varying
complexity.
Examples might range in complexity from a single
file or
code snippet to multiple files, mounted jars, etc.
Whatever solution we come up with has to handle all of
these cases.

5.  Users have no control over which examples are
displayed, nor do they have any convenient way to
browse
the entire set of examples.  The userdir examples are
always there, and aside from directory names there
is no
hint as to what each example is about.

The solution to these problems has to be worked
out in a
UI spec.  However, to get things going, the following
solution is proposed.  Examples should be kept on the
user's local disk (or in a place of her choosing).
 Each
example should be in its own subdirectory, and should
contain an html page describing that example.  The
user
should be able to access a single page that is
constructed
from the example set that is currently on the
disk.  This
page should let the user click on an example in
order to
load it into the IDE.  The user should be able to
update
the examples on disk from the web, e.g., by
downloading
more example directories from the portal.