How can I use an existing .target file in Eclipse? - eclipse

I would like to develop plugins for an RCP Applicaction. Now, they provide a .target file for development.
I tried to read on several Eclipse pages but I could not find out how to use that file. Do I have to load it somewhere? Do I have to add it at a specific location?
I'm sure, I missed something...
Please give me a hint.

Use the target definition editor to open the target file.
You will need to have the Plug-in development tools (PDE) installed to develop plug-ins for RCP applications. PDE can be installed into an existing IDE from the projects download page.
Or you can download an Eclipse package that contains PDE. This page gives an overview which package contains what. However, I recommend to choose the Eclipse for RCP and RAP develoipers
If you have PDE installed and the target file is located in the workspace, it is the default editor (i.e. you can simply doiuble click the respective entry in the package explorer).
Use the Set as target platform in the top right corner of the target editor to make it the current target platform.
The current target platform constitutes the plug-ins which your workspace will be built and run against. It describes the platform that you are developing for.
Once a target platform is known to the IDE it can also the changed through the Plug-in Development > Target Platform preference page.
There is also an option to show the name of the current target platform in the status bar on the Plug-in Development preference page.

Related

Hide standard toolchains from C/C++ project wizard

Our team is developing a custom toolchain. We want to build it in to Eclipse CDT. We don't want to see an excess element in a final product.
Is it possible to hide/disable/delete standard toolchains in C/C++ Project Wizard?
enter image description here
Previously, I hid a default Debug Configurations using org.eclipse.ui.activities extension point. This time it doesn't help we. I tried to remove CrossGCC plugin but a Unistall... button in Install Software is greyed out.
I use Eclipse Luna RCP (4.4.2) for plugin development.
I'm not very familiar with this part of CDT, but after doing a bit of code browsing, it seems like the extension points org.eclipse.cdt.core.templates and org.eclipse.cdt.core.templateAssociations may be relevant.
See how e.g. the current CDT code uses these extension points to associate a set of toolchains with a project template. If your plugins define their own project template(s), perhaps you could do something similar to control the list of associated toolchains?

Missing platform-specific plugins in new RCP app

If I use New -> Eclipse 4 Application Project, and look into my .product file, there's this
Right. So I know I'm using Eclipse 4.5.1 RCP for Windows x64, but if I configure my target platform so that it points to the Eclipse update sites, I still get the same result.
Mind you that there's no delta pack since 4.5.x! All platform-specific plugins should be in the target platform's update sites.
Am I not including the correct features in the target platform?
Related question here
The plugin list used by this Wizard is out of date. For example the Mac OSX plugins shown as errors no longer exist and I think that applies to the others shown as errors as well.
The 'New > Eclipse 4 Application Project' wizard is being removed altogether in Eclipse 4.6 bug 473575
Instead of this wizard use 'New > Plug-in Development > Plug-in Project'. Check the 'This project will make contributions to the UI' option and 'Yes' for 'would you like to create a rich client application'. On the templates page choose 'Eclipse 4 RCP application'

Best way to configure Eclipse Target-Platform?

What is the best way to configure target platform to develop Eclipse RCP application? Download 'pure' Eclipse and add only needed plug-ins in project or download Eclipse for RCP and RAP Developers? And what is better solution to add plugins? Open Eclipse-TP and download from eclipse-marketplace or manually copy jars to appropriate folders?
It depends on the set of plug-ins your RCP application depends on.
"RCP SDK" provides a minimal target platform, with source code.
"Platform SDK" provided more plug-ins, with source code. It includes more plug-ins than RCP SDK, without including the developer-oriented plug-ins of Eclipse IDEs. Unfortunately, this platform is not currently provided.
"Platform Runtime Binary" provides the same thing as Platform SDK -- without source code.
If you want to release on multiple platforms, also download the DeltaPack, which contains platform-specific resources for multiple platforms.
By the way, if you're adding the target platform to version control, use binary type for the following files in plugins/*/META-INF:
eclipse.inf -- line endings should be NL
MANIFEST.MF, ECLIPSE_.SF, and ECLIPSEF.SF (note the spelling) -- line endings
should be CR/NL

What plug-in do I need to create a web application in Net Beans

I just installed NetBeans on my local system. I want to create a Web application but when I click on File->New Project-> The dialogue box that pops up does not give a Web option (I know one exists because I've seen it in text books). Instead I see Java, Maven, NetBeans Modules as my options. Is there a plug in that I need so that the Web option appears?
Thank you,
Elliott
It seems that you didn't download the correct download bundle.
The NetBeans download page shows an overview of all available bundles. From your description it seems that you have the JavaSE package. But you will need the JavaEE package.
As stated on the same page you can add modules:
You can add or remove packs later
using the IDE's Plugin Manager (Tools
| Plugins).

Where should Eclipse third-party plugins be stored?

We have an Eclipse RCP product, which means it depends on a number of Eclipse plugins (for the UI etc). We have set up a reference Eclipse ("target") to supply the latter.
Our product also depends on a number of third party plugins. Is there a standard location for these to be put?
We have a few of our third-party plugins in the /plugins of the target Eclipse, but this seems wrong to me. The third party plugins change more frequently than, or at least in a different timeframe to, our reference Eclipse.
I tried putting some third party plugins in a separate project in the workspace (under version control), but the PDE headless build did not seem to find them - even though I used the pluginPath property in the headless build.properties.
This is Eclipse 3.4.2. I am aware than the handling of target platforms has changed somewhat in 3.5.
Most of the comments I've seen see on the web about this seem to assume that you're writing a plugin to be added to a standard Eclipse installation. We're not, it's a completely separate product.
For my RCP applications I created a customized target platform directory for it to use (e.g. rcpapptarget). Under that directory I unzip the following packages:
eclipse-RCP-SDK-3.4.2-win32.zip
eclipse-3.4.2-delta-pack.zip
Then I add what ever other eclipse or third party plug-ins that my application will need. For example:
the latest GEF all .zip file
jay libs EclipseCallBasic_1.1.0 plug-in
derby distributed plug-in
additional eclipse plug-ins needed for help support, cheatsheets, updates etc.
I then setup a workspace for developing that RCP application and point the workspace's "Target Platform" to use that customized target platform directory. I do all my development using that target platform and my headless builds use it too.
To set the target platform choose the Window | Preferences command and then select Plug-in Development | Target Platform from the preference tree. Set the "Location" to point to the directory you created.
There isn't a standard that I know of for where 3rd part plugins should go. You can define an external extension location and store your party plugins/features there. This also allows you to reuse the plugins in multiple Eclipse installs if you wish.
You add an Extension location by going to
Ganymede onwards: Help->Software Updates->Available Software->Add Site->Local
Older versions: Help->Software Updates->Manage Configuration->Add Extension Location
For Ganymede onwards, the extension locations work a bit differently (IIRC the plugins are copied to the standard Eclipse install, which kind of defeats the point),there is however a new concept called dropins that you might find useful.