I have a plugin for an RCP app that uses BIRT. I have a target for building my app which contains only the plugins/features that are required. I recently updated the BIRT plugin versions in my IDE, which created an incompatibility in the design files with previous versions of BIRT. I have the old version of BIRT in my target and need to update to the newer plugins.
In the past I have manually updated plugin jars in the target, but BIRT is a complicated platform with dependencies out the wazoo. Is there any utility or way of organizing my target differently that will make this easier to control in the future?
I would recommend to keep all components separately and not copy them into a single folder. You can use Target Definition editor (see File / New / Other... / Target Definition). So, after downloading all the pieces, you can unpack them locally and assemble your Target Platform using Target Definition editor.
You can also do the same using Window / Preferences / Plugin Development / Target Platform preference page. There you can select previously created target definition or specify base Eclipse install and then use "Add..." button to add additional components from local folders or remote sites.
Also, as far as I know the PDE team is currently working on expanding Target platform support in Eclipse 3.5. I think they are planning to allow to select Target Definition per-launch configuration and per-project.
Im not sure if i understand you right, so please let me know if not.
When i use third party libraries, i create a plugin for every single one.
Example:
xstream library:
Import the jars (also the source code)
Add the jars to the MANIFEST
Bundle-ClassPath
Add all xtream packages to the
MANIFEST Export-Package
When a plugin needs the code of the xstream library it has to depend on the xtream plugin. Because the packages are public, every plugin can use the source code of it.
When a new version of xtream is comming, you only have to update the jars and not the dependend plugins. Sometimes you have to update the export packages of the third party plugin.
All depended plugins you dont have to change.
Related
We upgraded one of our Eclipse 3.x plugins to work with Java 9.
But when we generated the plugin update site content, and used Eclipse Update functionality to install the new version of the plugin, we encountered the following error in Eclipse Oxygen.
Removing part descriptor with the 'pluginxxx.bla.bla' id and the 'bla bla' description. Points to the invalid 'bundleclass://org.eclipse.ui.workbench/org.eclipse.ui.internal.e4.compatibility.CompatibilityView' class.
This error also appears due to some of the bundled plugins of Eclipse Oxygen itself.
After a hard week we had to
Uninstall our plugin
Remove the older versions of the plugin from the Eclipse/plugins folder
Export the plugin as a deployable plugin under the eclipse plugins directory. (Eclipse/plugins/blabla.jar)
Restart Eclipse and it worked.
Right click the eclipse plugin project and Run as "Eclipse Application" works fine, but installing the plugin from an "Update Site" causes the plugin to fail loading.
We could not find a solution yet, but it certainly effects our delivery of the plugin. The plugin is used by almost 500 CS students on their personal computers, and 200 lab computers. So the update should be installed using regular Eclipse Update functionality, not by copying the jar into the plugins directory.
Was there a better way to fix this, or something quicker we could've tried (in case this happens again)?
Update (7 days into the problem)
We have a workaround:
Export the feature project with the following settings in the Export Wizard
Destination/ Directory: Folder of your Plugin Update Site project
Options/ Package as individual JAR archieves (selected)
Options/ Generate p2 repository (selected)
Options/ Allow for binary cycles in target platform (selected)
Options/ Use class files compiled in the workspace (essentially selected)
Install (or update) the plugin from the local (or remote) plugin update site, and the CompatibilityView problem is solved.
In order to have the category listing displayed correctly during install/update new software operations, we added a category.xml file (File/New/Other/Plugin-in Development/Category Definition) in the update site project, defined the categories, and added the feature (versioned as "qualifier").
This is certainly not the way it should be, and we just hope it will be solved in the future Eclipse releases.
By the way current Eclipse Photon integration version has the same problem unfortunately.
I worked through the ApacheCordovaPlugin example. Its nice to see that creating a new plugin is possible, and I successfully replicated the HelloWorldPlugin in a WL project of my own just to make sure I could get all the plumbing to work. It is tricky, you have to make entries in the right XML files, name your Java and .js files appropriately, know how to include them and call the functions, etc. If you make a mistake there is very little information visible that you can use to debug it. The entire process is very fragile.
Now I would like to have access to the large library of existing Cordova plugins. My primary development target is Android. I downloaded a plugin zip file from a git repository and extracted it. Looking at the files and the directory layout it is not at all clear how to integrate this into a WL project. Cordova has a 'plugin.xml' file that appears to supply all the glue, but there is no such thing in WL. I was not able to determine where to put files and what edits to make in the Worklight project that would cause the Cordova plugin to be recognized and accessed from my application JavaScript.
Surely this process is possible and is documented somewhere? Ideally there would be a utility that we use to import Cordova plugins, but next-best would be a step-by-step procedure description. I saw one somebody did for getting plugins into the iOS application environment, but not Android.
Most probably you've downloaded a plugin for cordova 3.0+. Since latest WL contains Cordova 2.6 you need to download plugin for this (or similar) version. E.g. if you're talking about barcode scanner plugin the most suitable version would be 2.2 (https://github.com/phonegap/phonegap-plugins/tree/master/Android/BarcodeScanner)
I'm just starting to develop a new eclipse plugin where I want a web application server running in Eclipse. I found a nice blog, OSGi as a Web Application Server, that describes how to do this. The author suggests creating a target environment for my bundle requirements, and some of those bundles get pulled in from the Equinox Project SDK (now called Equinox Target Components in Juno). I notice that the tutorial project runs fine when my target platform is the platform I created in the tutorial, but fails to start when it is the default platform. So, now for my question...
If I need bundles that are not part of the default, how will my plugin project get access to those bundles? Will I need to deploy them along with my plugin? How would I know if the user's eclipse does or does not already have those required bundles?
You was not much clear about what kind of application you are developing. Running a web server in an Eclipse IDE as a plugin don't make any sense to me. This kind of server application is best just running on top of Equinox.
Anyway, the right path is to create a "Product Configuration" file and add categories that contains the needed bundles (go to File/Plug-in Development/Product Configuration).
With this file you can run an instance of the product (inside the IDE) and can export it (create a zip containing all needed bundles)
And if you want to able your user to install plugin inside his IDE you must create a P2 repository (using a Target Definition File) and expose the exported directory within a Http server. You could research about Tycho to build this kind of components in a maven style.
Well, I'm not sure if re-inventing the wheel again is really sufficient.
You might take a look at Pax-Web for inspiration on how to do it, or take a look Apache Karaf as a OSGi-Container (using Pax-Web). Or even better start contributing to one of the two :-)
I have an Eclipse Feature that I'm building that contains a few plugins. One of the plugins uses the import package statement to declare a dependency on another plugin.
The other plugin has platform specific code and exists in another feature that I'm building. I have two plugins in this feature that have the platform specific code. One for os=win32 arch=x86 and the other for os=win32 arch=x86_64
Both features are being built and using Tycho and they both have p2 repositories that are successfully available.
So, I made a composite repository that points to both of these repositories, and then I use the "Install New Software..." command in my RCP app and point to the composite repository to install the first feature I mentioned.
The issue is that when the installation is done, the plugin that has the platform specific code has failed to install correctly. Specifically, the plugin for the x86 system shows up on my 64bit machine.
In your feature.xml, choose the plugin with platform specific code and add a platform filter. the filters are available on the right side (once you select the plugin). You can choose filters such as:
OS
WS
Language
Architecture
When your feature is published, p2 will generate the appropriate filters.
I found the answer.
I needed a p2.inf file sitting next to my feature.xml file in the first feature I mentioned in the question.
And in that p2.inf file, I needed this text...
requires.1.namespace=org.eclipse.equinox.p2.iu
requires.1.name=com.myplatform.specfic.bundle.win32.x86
requires.1.filter=(&(osgi.os=win32) (osgi.arch=x86))
requires.1.namespace=org.eclipse.equinox.p2.iu
requires.1.name=com.myplatform.specfic.bundle.win32.x86_64
requires.1.filter=(&(osgi.os=win32) (osgi.arch=x86_64))
I added this file to the build.properties as well to make sure it was included in the deployed feature
Then when I deployed the p2 repository and performed the install into my RCP application, the correct plugin was placed onto my 64 bit machine.
UPDATE: I was wrong here. This is NOT the correct answer. The incorrect plugin still gets installed on some machines.
I'm developing an RCP project using Eclipse-Helios.
The version of SWT that is installed (in the plugins directory) is [org.eclipse.swt-win32-3.6.2, & org.eclipse.swt.jar]
I require new API functionality that is only available from swt-3.8. (specifically, I wish to set the custom colours, for an SWT color dialog before opening.)
I have downloaded 3.8.1 from the SWT/Eclipse downloads site [ http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/downloads/drops/R-3.8-201206081200/#SWT ]
The SWT download is NOT a plugin (couple of jars, src.zip and some readme files), so I am unable to add it to my "Target Platform" (it doesn't appear as an available jar even after adding the containing directory in "locations")
I was unable to find an update site for SWT (or any site where i could get a plugin for the newer version)
If I add the swt.3.8.jar to my classpath (and then increase it's order-priority in the project build-path), I am able to access the newer api functionality from my code (as well as view the source).
When I run the application however, it seems as though the runtime is still using the older SWT jar, as i get an unknown method error, when attempting to access the newer functionality.
Questions:
Is there an SWT repository location that I can use to download a newer version of SWT using the eclipse install manager?
If not, is there a way I can force the runtime to ignore the older version (I assume via plugin.xml)?
Is there a better way to achieve what I am trying to do?
What is the difference between the two SWT jars currently in the helios plugins directory (as the 3.8 download only contains the win-32 version)?
Thanks in advance.
SWT is downloadable as a separate plugin here:
http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/downloads/drops/R-3.8-201206081200/#SWT
Eclipse 3.8 contains regular plugins including the SWT (the win32 specific as well as the generic "org.eclipse.swt_.jar"). I am currently using the 3.8 version and they appear as plugins.
I also have Eclipse 3.6 (Helios) and I was able to import the swt plugins using the "File->Import->Plug-in Development->Plug-ins and Fragments" wizard. I just specified the eclipse 3.8 directory and could import them in my workspace. Once imported I can of-course use them to be included in the runtime environment. Eclipse should use the latest version automatically.