I am creating an RCP application. I am planning to provide p2 update functionality.
For example there are 4 plugins: A,B,C,D
Plugin A and B represents the core functionality of my RCP application. I have created a feature with name com.myorg.feature.core. In-side the feature.xml, in the plugin tab I have added plugins A & B.
I am adding feature com.myorg.feature.core as a dependecy in the product file of my RCP applicaton. After that I export the RCP application using product file (here product is a feature based product).
Now I have created two more features.
com.myorg.feature.featureC
com.myorg.feature.featureD
As these are optional functionalities to my RCP application, I want user to chose, whether to install them or not. So user will chose the install new software option where this features will be list.
The problem I am facing is, these plugins C & D are using certain 3rd party libraries e.g. BIRT, NATTABLE. So each time, I build featureC or featureD, put it on the update site and I try to install them in my application, they show the dependency failures, like bundle missing: org.eclipse.birt.core
I go back to the feature.xml for featureC -> plugins tab -> add org.eclipse.birt.core and build feature again. But several times my RCP application failed to install with errors bundles missing.
Is there any mechanism where I can determine all the required bundle from start? Is is the right way to launch updates or new install-able units for my RCP application?
#Priank it is better to add all dependencies in plugins tab in feature.xml, this is only one time effort. You can compute required plugins from dependencies tab of feature.xml
To me, the first question should be if you really want to use the Eclipse PDE export wizards for delivering updates.
Instead, you should set up a headless build for your project. If you are familiar with the PDE (and don't happen to hate Maven ;-), Tycho is probably the right choice for you. (Disclaimer: I'm committer on the Tycho project, and may not know all potential alternatives.)
You can easily make Tycho include all the transitive dependencies in a p2 repository: Just set the option includeAllDependencies to true on the tycho-p2-repository-plugin.
Related
Requirements using:Eclipse Mars(4.5.2) and Jdk(1.8.0)
Problem: I have created the plug-in-project called [org.basicfamily.sirius.design].
Then the product configuration was created for the plug-in [org.basicfamily.product.demonstrator] and the plug-in project [org.basicfamily.sirius.design] was added as contents to the created product configuration and selected the required dependencies for the plug-in [org.basicfamily.sirius.design]. Now the plug-in [org.basicfamily.sirius.design] is dependent on the another plug in called [org.antlr.runtime[1.6.0,1.7.0)]. But the problem now is when I try to export the product it is giving [org.antlr.runtime[1.6.0,1.7.0)] bundle version exception plug in org.antlr.runtime[1.6.0] is not found. Because in the contents of the product configuration we can add the plug-in only with respect to name and not with respect to versions. So I want to add the plug-ins org.antlr.runtime[1.6.0],org.antlr.runtime[1.7.0] both but it allows only one plug-in with the same name. It will consider the plugins only with respect to the name and not w.r.t the versions.
Any solution for this problem?
Switch to using a 'feature' based build. In the 'feature.xml' for a feature you can specify the version of the plugin required.
So you can use a feature for the plugins which use the 1.6 plugin and another feature for the plugins requiring 1.7.
I am trying to generate an RCP product from a set of Eclipse plugin. When I am trying to run the Eclipse plugin from my Eclipse.rcp.product plugin, Eclipse is asking me to add all the dependent plugins. I have done that.
However, on adding a new plugin, it starts asking for dependencies (e.g., third party libraries from Eclipse's Orbit repo) of that plugin too. All the dependencies of individual plugins are referenced in those plugins.
Why do I have to add all the references again in the RCP plugin. What is the way around or right way?
The xxx.product file must list every plugin that your RCP is going to use as this list determines what is included in the resulting product.
This is a separate list from the individual plugin dependencies.
The Dependencies tab of the .product file editor has an 'Add Required' button which should add everything that is needed (assuming you have already added all your plugins).
You can also use 'features' rather than 'plugins' for the product file which reduces the number of things that need to be included in the dependencies.
Background
My Eclipse RCP application is built using Tycho. It consists of multiple components (in the form of OSGi bundles/Eclipse plug-ins). One of these component contains the product file and materializes the product.
There is a reactor POM at the application root, which builds all components in order, but I also want to build other components independently (using mvn deploy) .
Building such a single component works as follows:
Retrieve the latest versions of all the component's dependencies from our company (p2) repository.
Build the component.
Deploy the component to our company repository to be used as a dependency for other components itself.
Note: Our repository is a normal maven2 repository hosted on a Nexus, whose RCP artifacts are automatically mapped to a p2 repository format as well. This way, Tycho can use the p2 repository format to find dependencies, while the standard Maven deployment can be used. This works fine.
Note: My parent POM makes sure that we look for dependencies at the p2 repository URL. The deployment URL is the default maven2 format location of the repository. This works fine.
Problem
When building such a single component through the command-line (mvn deploy), Maven looks for intra-project dependencies in the p2 repository and they are correctly resolved (i.e. latest version is automatically downloaded and used in build).
However, when developing in Eclipse, the IDE cannot resolve them. The manifest files gives an error at each of my intra-project dependencies that they cannot be resolved.
Question
My question is: How can I make the Eclipse IDE look for dependencies (and new versions of dependencies) in either:
My local p2 repository (~/.m2/repository/p2/osgi/bundles)
My company p2 repository (nexus.mycompany.com/myproduct-snapshots/.meta/p2)
Ideally, it would look for them every time and fetch the latest version if a newer version is available.
If it does not use the p2 repository URLs in the POM, how should I configure Eclipse?
Example
Consider an eclipse plug-in com.mycompany.myproduct.fancy, which depends on another eclipse plug-in com.mycompany.myproduct.core.
Both also have a POM (configured for Tycho use), which (through their parent POM) have my Nexus repositories configured correctly: maven2 repository URL for deployment and p2 repository URL to look for dependencies.
First I deploy the core plug-in to my maven repository (using the default mvn deploy). The Nexus repository will provide this deployed plug-in in both maven and p2 format.
When I build the fancy component through the command line (using mvn install), the (earlier deployed) core component is found and downloaded automatically.
project/com.mycompany.myproduct.fancy$ mvn clean install
<searches in p2 repository, download core>
<builds fancy>
<SUCCESS>
When I open a new Eclipse workspace and open the fancy component, its Manifest (which contains its dependencies) gives the following error:
Bundle 'com.mycompany.myproduct.core' cannot be resolved.
My question is: how can I develop the fancy component in the Eclipse IDE without the need to open core as project in Eclipse.
Speculation
This is some speculation from my side. Please correct me if I'm wrong and any other solution to the actual problem is also welcome!
I know the m2e plug-in of the Eclipse IDE currently maps Maven POMs to Eclipse concepts (using m2e connectors). I have installed the dedicated Tycho connectors. For example, the mvn compile step is actually performed by the Eclipse JDT compiler.
I also know that when a complete Tycho product is started in Eclipse, it is run in the Eclipse PDE environment. For example, I need to a specify a target platform in my Run configuration.
I know I can open all components in my Eclipse workspace. This would solve the problem, but is not feasible as I have many components and this would break independent component development.
I assume the Eclipse m2e mapping and/or the PDE build environment is not smart enough to fetch (latest) dependencies automatically at build time. Please correct me if I'm wrong. :)
Therefore, I assume I need to specify the target platform at build time too. I have taken a look at Window > Preferences > Plug-in Development > Target Platform. I can add our p2 repository to the Target Platform, which solves the problem. However this gives many problems:
I need a feature containing all components for this to work. Only features can be added.
Every time I deploy a new build of a single component, I would have to rebuild the complete feature (to create a new feature version on our p2 repository).
Every time I update a component and build the feature, I would have to manually change the Target Platform.
If the above is all correct, I speculate I need an m2e connector (or a different one from the current one) that actually checks the p2 repositories specified in the POM when resolving the OSGi dependencies and automatically adds those to the target platform.
As indicated by Nick Wilson, you will need to install the m2e Tycho Configurator, which basically "links up" Eclipse and Tycho (i.e., makes Tycho available in Eclipse).
You should've been pointed towards it after having installed m2e, but you can also install it manually:
Go to Window > Preferences > Maven > Discovery.
Click the "Open Catalog" button. This will open the "m2e Marketplace" window.
Search for "tycho", this should give you the "Tycho Configurator" as sole search result.
Click "Finish", you're done.
I've had this issue as well, and it isn't simple to find the solution, so I hope this helps!
The "most automated" way to configure your target platform in Eclipse is to use a target file. That file can be checked in with your sources, so every developer only needs to open the file and click on "Set as Target Platform" to activate it. AFAIK there is no m2e connector or Eclipse plug-in which does that automatically.
Given your development process, setting up this target file is a little more tricky. Since you don't have a feature which contains the latest version of all your bundles, you need to include the bundles directly in the target file. This is not possible via the rich editor, but can be done with a text editor:
Create a target definition file, add your p2 repository, and select any feature from that p2 repository. Save the file.
Open the target file in a text editor, remove the <unit> entry for the feature you added.
Instead, add an entry for each of your bundles:
<unit id="a.bundle.symbolic.name" version="0.0.0"/>
This target file then contains the latest version of each of the listed bundles. To see the content, open the file with the "Target Editor" again and switch to the "Content" tab. This file can now be used by all developers.
Note: When a new version of one of the bundles is deployed to Nexus, the developers will only see that new version if they open the target file and choose "Set as Target Platform" again.
I'm working one an Eclipse RCP project. Currently we create a dependencies plug-in project and put all jars libraries into that project and export all packages. This method will give a huge repo, thus we want to use Tycho/Maven and let it figure out the dependencies for us.
The first approach is removing dependenciec project and use p2-maven-pluging to transform existing jars libraries to p2 format repo. Install all libraries from p2 repos and add required bundle in Require-Bundle section in each MANIFEST.MF. This is a little bit tedious since in every project having dependencies in Require-Bundle, I have to manually replace it to corresponding bundle names. And in the end, the project build using Tycho could successfully run, but in Eclipse it gives me java.lan.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class X.
I think there are few configuration files, where Tycho depends on some of them and Eclipse depends on the rest, but I'm not sure what it is.
The second approach is removing all jars in dependencies project but adding them in Require-Bundle or Import-Package. However, both won't work since in Export-Package section Eclipse will complain these packages are not existed. Thus other projects depends on this dependencies project won't find those packages they need, which causing more errors in Eclipse.
Does anyone know the best practice to deal with this issue?
Update:
I'm using basically the first approach, but add dependencies in Import-Package in each project instead of Require-Bundle. This would eliminate the need to specify the specific bundle version, as long as they provide the same API and they are compatible, your application would work. So everytimes I update private p2 repository, I don't need to change MANIFEST.MF in each project.
The only MANIFEST.MF I need to manually add dependencies in Require-Bundle is a library developed by our self. Without it, Tycho won't fetch required dependencies from private p2 repository. If still get NoClassDefFoundError, try adding all plugins in Run -> Run Configuration .. -> plug-ins, it may help.
I definitely not apply your approach 1, with the mega-plugin of exports. There's a related discussion here: Handling non-OSGi dependencies when integrating Maven, Tycho and Eclipse
As a rule, use Import-Package instead of Require-Bundle.
To get bundles will appear in the Export-Package section Eclipse:
if they are non-Eclipse (maven libraries), then build the project and reference the libraries in the Eclipse runtime section.
if they are Eclipse dependences, they should be in your workspace or Target Platform.
More generally, it may help for you to define a Target Platform. You can build/deploy all of your locally created plugins into a local p2 repository (see http://www.sonatype.org/nexus/). Then add that p2 site to your Target Platform.
I'm using tycho to build my rcp application. Sadly, today I have to release the first internal milestone, but one of the projects I'm using is down (The great LWJGL - http://www.lwjgl.org/) and consequently my build fails because I cannot resolve an entry of my target platform.
Does there is a way to disable such update?
Note that I already have build my app, hence I already have downloaded all the LWJGL's jars and p2 stuff. Now I simply want to use the version of LWJGL I already have to build my RCP application...
There is a corresponding Eclipse p2 bug that needs update site checking for the target platform - that's why maven offline mode does not work as expected. See https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=337022
For later, I suggest building a mirror of critical outside sites. In that case you could at least redirect the build to that. E.g. b3 aggregator can be used for this: http://www.eclipse.org/modeling/emft/b3/
try maven offline mode (mvn -o)