Debugging Ant tasks in Eclipse

If you need to debug Ant custom task in Eclipse see excellent blog entry by Vitor Rodrigues » Blog Archive » Debugging Ant tasks in Eclipse.

Eclipse e4 – Tutorial

Excellent tutorial (as always :-)  from Lars Vogel about new Eclipse API technology, e4 Eclipse e4 – Tutorial.

Explanation how to dynamically load or remove extensions based on extension point

Excellent explanation how to dynamically add/load or remove extensions based on your extension point.
Old way to load extensions was static and usually happened only while your plugin was being loaded. New approach uses IExtensionChangeHandler to load or remove the extension during the lifetime of your plugin.
See the article OSGi, Dynamics and Eclipse « EclipseSource Blog

Eclipse 3.5 Treasures

Excellent blog about some Eclipse 3.5 Treasures, second part of the blog has useful PDE plugin development features (Plug-in Spy) Either You Succeed or Explain: Eclipse 3.5 Hidden Treasures.

How I lost and found Mylyn with Eclipse 3.4 and how Yoxos saved me

I am a big fan of Mylyn, I have used it since the version 0.4 and even wrote CodeBeamer/Javaforge connector for Mylyn.

I was excited when Tasktop (you know, the guys who brought us Mylyn) started offering free Tasktop Starter for Eclipse and I had to have it.

And that is where my problems started and they were not caused by Tasktop or Mylyn. As recommended, I tried to use the new provisioning system/update manager P2 in Eclipse 3.4, but the install failed because of the bug in P2 that prevented install of Mylyn 3.0.1 (required by free Tasktop Starter), and because I am not quite familiar with the new update manager yet. After great help from Shawn Minto from Tasktop, I was able to force install of Mylyn 3.0.1, but the installation didn’t go quite as it should (but no error) and after restarting Eclipse, I got fatal error when trying to display Task List view. I made a mistake by removing Mylyn 3.0.1 manually from feature and plugin folder (the way I always did it since Eclipse 2.0). The result was, that Mylyn completely disappeared from Eclipse, even if P2 update manager thought that Mylyn is still installed. I then manually deleted all Mylyn related plugin and feature jars but I wasn’t able to reinstall it, because P2 thought, that Mylyn is still installed. After some more help from Shawn Minto I managed to reinstall Mylyn 3.0.1 from P2 Installed Software tab by selecting all Mylyn features and selecting Update… from popup menu. I was happy that I have Mylyn back, thanked Shawn for his help, and installed free Tasktop Starter. Everything looked good, no errors, so I left Eclipse running and went shopping with my wife (I know, I shouldn’t have done it, I hate shopping ;-).

Surprise, surprise, when I came home, Eclipse was not runing (and no errors in the log), looks like it crashed. I restarted Eclipse and to my surprise, Mylyn (and Tasktop starter) were gone again and I wasn’t able to update Mylyn the from P2 Installed Software any more. And that is where Yoxos comes in.

Fortunatelly I use Yoxos on Demand, free Eclipse distribution service. Because of Yoxos, I was able in less than 10 minutes reinstall Eclipse 3.4 with all the plugins I use (I use over 50 plugins). I just went to Yoxos download page, selected my previously saved profile after I logged in and in a few minutes I had Eclipse 3.4 distribution zip file on my desktop with all my plugins. Then just unzip the Eclipse distribution, and start the newly installed Eclipse, all in less than 10 minutes. This is simply amazing, it would take me several hours to install all the plugins manually!

In conclusion, please do not remove manually any jars from Eclipse feature and plugin directories, and use P2 instead to manage your Eclipse distribution (and be patient with P2, while it has great potential, it is not quite as stable as the good old Update Manager). And do yourself a favor and check out Yoxos on Demand! While it is not perfect (for example Yoxos does not have any place to file bugs, problems, enhancement requests), it is the best free Eclipse distribution service (and yes I evaluated MyEclipse Pulse and Yoxos and Yoxos is far superior to Pulse IMHO).

Working with the Eclipse FileSystem …

Working with the Eclipse FileSystem …
EFS – Eclipsepedia

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EclipseZone – SWT: The Newly Available DateTime …

EclipseZone – SWT: The Newly Available DateTime …

Why I Converted to SWT

EclipseZone – Why I Converted to SWT …

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Eclipse Plugins I use to extend Eclipse IDE functionality

Eclipse Plugins I use to extend Eclipse IDE functionality, and other information and links about Eclipse.

Eclipse Plugins Repositories:

• http://eclipse-plugins.2y.net/eclipse/ – plugin repository
• MyEclipse Plugins Subscription ($30 a year): MyEclipse
• Yoxos – The Eclipse distribution – Eclispse + plugins distribution (subscription)
• Eclipse Central – plugin repository
• EclipseZone – articles, blogs and more
• EasyEclipse – Eclipse plugins distribution

Eclipse plugins I use:

Lately I have been using an Import/Export method for update site. I usually do not use plugin without the update site. But there are still a few plugins which are worth the hassle even without the update site like XML Buddy and Logwatcher. By using Import/Export I now use the eclipse own plugin/feature directories and on upgrade (or to duplicate on different machine), I just Import the update sites list and reload the plugins (thus getting the latest versions). Only the few plugins without update site are installed in separate plugin directory (eclipse_local/…).

• Clay Database Modeling – DB layout modeling
• Checkstyle – check coding style
• Eclipse Tools – Implementors – find implementors of an interface
• Perl Development – wanna debug Perl script
• Hibernate Tools – support for Hibernate, great ORM
• PDF Viewer – finally you can view pdf in Eclipse
• Perforce WSAD – Perforce VCS
• Regex Tester – test your regex
• Ruby Development Tools – Ruby development tools
• Ruby Plugin – Ruby development
• Spindle for Tapestry – Tapestry web development (not for 4.0 yet)
• Subversive SVN Plugin – Subversion plugin
• Subclipse – another Subversion plugin
• Tapestry Palette VE – Tapestry visual editor
• TPTP Profiler – Eclipse default profiler (problems to get it work)
• AnyEdit Tools – tab, html entities, case conversion and more
• Coffee-Bytes Code Folding – code folding
• Profiler – profiler
• Findbugs – find bug using JVM code analysis
• HTML Tidy – tide Html files
• JavaDoc Editor – WYSIWIG edit javadoc documetation
• Jdepend – show package dependencies
• Log4E – generate log4j code
• LogWatcher – watch logfile(s) for changes (tail -f like)
• Metrics – display Java code metrics
• JDocs Search – search javadoc on jdocs
• QuantumDb – DB viewer/editor
• Web Application Testing – test your web application
• XMLBuddy – edit, validate XML files
• Java2Html – generate Java source in Html
• Jode Decompiler – decompile classes, jars without source
• Bytecode Outline – view Java bytecode for .java or .class
• Web Search Plugin – select in editor, search web
• QuickRex – regular expression tester, multi-clipboard, Html tools
• Wicked Shell – shell as Eclipse view, supports dos, bash, sh
• Columns – Columns Plug-in for Eclipse defines the concept of ‘Column’ and some functions of this editable component
• XPathDeveloper – XPath-View is an environment in which you can test, use and play with XPath-expressions
• WorldOfJava access to projects documentations & sample source source code
• OpenOffice Integration – OpenOfice.org editing in Eclipse
• JarPlug – for manipulating the Jar files
• ContextMenuPlugin – allows you to open the original Windows Explorer context menu
• EasyExplorer – this plugin add ‘Windows Explorer’ feature in Resource/Package explorer popup
• Coffee Bytes – better code folding
  

Other useful plugins:

• C/C++ Development Tools – C++ development
• Jigloo GUI Builder – Swing, SWT GUI builder
• Colorer for Eclipse – source code coloring
• Continuous Testing – run your JUnit test continuously
• Code Review – code review
• djUnit Testing/Coverage – JUnit test and caverage tool
• JavaDoc Tags – extend javadoc tags
• EclipseUml – UML modelling
• Save Any Eclipse Editor as HTML – save source in Html (I use Jva2Html)
• Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools – generate reports
• RSS Reader – RSS reader
• PMD – source code analyzer
• JettyLauncher – use Jetty for web application debugging
• Mylar Technology Project – not mature enought to use, but great idea and great Bugzilla plugin
• PHPeclipse – PHP development
• Regular Expression Tester – test regular expression

Other useful info and links

• Top 10 Eclipse Hotkeys

Introduction: Eclipse Test and Performance Tools Platform

Introduction: Eclipse Test and Performance Tools Platform

TPTP, what a piece of junk. The worst eclipse plugin of the year. It has so many dependencies, that it is almost impossible to install. If they want to compete with NetBeans or for-fee profilers they have to do better, much better. I cannot install it by using Update manager. I tried version 3.1, the install was OK, but it couldn’t resolve classpath of my project. Now I am trying to install 4.0.1 and I cannot even install it. That is two outs. You tell me if this is product worth considering. I guess you get what you paid for.