Permit entire folder of JARs to be included as one classpath entry

[michaelsembwever]

Description

Originally https://bz.apache.org/netbeans/show_bug.cgi?id=116185

Component: freeform

Minor enhancement to an excellent freeform project (for external ant scripts).

The classpath takes folders for .classes but requires full name for .jar files (since .jar files are folders
themselves). Most software releases these days are putting version numbers as part of the .jar file names (e.g. javolution-5.2.3.jar). Any updates to these softwares gets .jar files renamed requiring update to project.xml. I would like to suggest accepting folders containing .jar files in classpath and expanding it for use automatically on netbeans.

Use case/motivation

See https://github.com/apache/cassandra/blob/trunk/ide/nbproject/update-netbeans-classpaths.sh

This script only exists because of the lack of this improvement.

Related issues

https://bz.apache.org/netbeans/show_bug.cgi?id=116185

Are you willing to submit a pull request?

Yes

[mbien]

@ebarboni once this issue closes, can we also close the issue on the old bugzilla which is linked here? Pasting the link to the PR or issue would help see the connection.

my old account doesn't have any rights over there since it was a user account.