Migrate Eclipse 3.3 features/plugins to Eclipse Juno 4.2 - eclipse

I'm using an old version of Eclipse (Eclipse Platform 3.3) which uses a product comprising a large number of features and plugins. The product vendor is no longer in business so I'm looking at the viability of migrating the features/plugins to run on Eclipse Juno 4.2. The JAR files in the plugins were compiled on Java 5 and will be running in a Java 7 environment (no source code). Has anyone had any experience of doing such a thing, is it possible and is there any reference material? I really can't think of any more detail to add to this question, so I'm going to go with this.
Thanks.

Do you have an update site for the features? If so, did you tried to install the feature/plugins on a fresh eclipse 4.2?
If you can identify the files in plugins and features folder of the product you try to use with 4.2, did you tried to copy them on the plugins/features folder of a clean 4.2?
Eclipse 4 application platform provides a compatibility layer for 3.x plugins, so it may just work.
http://xseignard.github.com/demoCamp2012/prez/#22
You can also find some literature about migrating 3.x plugins to 4.X there : http://www.vogella.com/blog/2012/11/13/getting-your-eclipse-plug-ins-ready-for-eclipse-4/
Regards

Related

Eclipse Luna without built-in plugins

Eclispse Luna has been just released. I wanted to grab it from the download site. But here comes my problem. Even the Standard and Java Developer versions have features built-in which are not needed for me and just slows down the IDE. For example i do not use Mylin or Plug-in development. These things cannot be deleted from the installation... Is there an Eclipse Luna release which only contains the basic package?
Look at the Eclipse Project downloads
The Eclipse Platform is the smallest (but does not even have Java development).
The Eclipse SDK has Java and Plugin development and the Eclipse source. This is the one I always start from.

Update base eclipse ide

is it possible to update the eclipse base ide offline with new eclipse archive?
Considering eclipse 4.3.1 with a lot of plugins and features, now I downloaded the eclipse 4.3.2 package and want to update the base ide offline and keep the old one plugins, features, and everything...
Thanks in advance
Correct, you cannot update the base install offline..check for updates will update the base install online keeping the 3rd party plugins

spring development - with or without eclipse + checking eclipse version

Several tutorials mention that you can download spring in a tarball
and install it on your computer but when I go to the springsource
site all I can see is that you can download Spring Tool Suite
which is an eclipse plugin. So my questions are:
What if I wanted to work from the command line or an IDE other than eclipse?
The packages are available for Juno 3.8.2 or Juno 3.4.2, but how can I find
out my eclipse version? I've downloaded the most frequently downloaded version
of eclipse which is the one for Java EE developers but when I click on the Help
-> About entry I get:
Version: Juno Service Release 2
Build id: 20130225-0426
which does not match the eclipse versions on the springsource site 3.8.2 or 3.4.2,
so how do I know which plugin I need?
Thanks.
You can find out your Eclipse version by going to Help -> About Eclipse...
In the dialog that pops up, you will see something like:
Version 4.2.2
or
Version 3.8.2
If you downloaded the most commonly downloaded version, then you most likely have 4.2.2. The "Juno" release actually has distributions built for both 3.8.x and 4.2.x (a little complicated and confusing, I know). So, you should be able to install the Juno version of STS and be fine no matter what which version of Juno Eclipse you have.
EDIT
Your question is not very clear. I thought you were asking about how to install STS, but maybe you are asking about whether or not Eclipse is necessary at all. The answer is that of course, Eclipse is not necessary for Spring development, but it really is the easiest way to develop your spring apps (disclaimer, I am on the STS dev team).
There is no single way to just "downlaod the SpringFramework" because the framework is really just a very large set of jar files and their dependencies. Any single project typically only requires a subset of them as well as requiring other third party dependencies. For this reason, most people prefer working with a build tool like gradle or maven.
Probably the easiest way to get started w/o STS is to clone one of the sample projects from github. A list of the templates are available here: http://dist.springsource.com/release/STS/help/descriptors-3.0.xml which is obvioulsy meant to be consumed from inside of STS. But, you can use the file to grab links to the various github projects.
The Springsource Tool Suite (STS) is not required for developing with Spring. If the question is how you would install the STS, that's actually very easy. In Eclipse 3.7 (Indigo) or 3.8, 4.2 (Juno), click on the Help menu and select Eclipse Marketplace. If its not in the inital screen, use the find box type spring and click go which should bring up the the STS with the version of eclipse it is for in the title. Click install and the correct version and its dependencies will be installed for you. Try to use the eclipse marketplace for all the plugins you install, if possible. It makes things much simpler

Eclipse 3.8: where is the download site?

I'm a bit confused about Eclipse release 3.8
It seems a bit like a ghost to me: no codename, no download site?
Where are all the packages, like "Eclipse for RCP and RAP Developers"?
Eclipse 3.8 and 4.2 were released concurrently as part of the Juno release, but the compilations for various developer types are only available based on version 4.2.
To use Eclipse 3.8, you will need to download the basic platform and install the plugins you need from Eclipse Marketplace or the Juno repository.
Surf to here and download the one labeled Eclipse SDK:
http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/downloads/drops/R-3.8.2-201301310800/
Juno repository:
http://download.eclipse.org/releases/juno/
Official 'Eclipse Project 3.x' Stream Downloads page
http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/downloads/eclipse3x.html
This has links to 3.8.1 release, and the 3.8 maintenance build.. If you want to link anywhere to 3.8, this is probably the best place.
Note that 3.8 is not a full 'packaged' release -- it's just the core. Features & plugins can be added from within the IDE, to replicate functionality of the Java EE/ PHP/ C++ etc packaged distributions.
3.8 is of particular interest to those (like myself) who are downgrading from 4.2 Juno due to the serious performance problems in that release. These seem to affect XML editors, PHP, switching, opening & closing editors -- turning the instant performance of previous Eclipse versions into endless 3-5 second waits.
Indigo 3.7 is the last 'packaged' release available. 3.8 may offer advantages in fixing several Indigo bugs & having Java 7 support.
A link to the recently released 3.8.2: http://archive.eclipse.org/eclipse/downloads/drops/R-3.8.2-201301310800/
None of the links in other answers seem to work anymore, but The Eclipse Project Updates Sites page at eclipse.org says it's http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/updates/3.8 and that works for me and 3.8 has now been moved to the archives. I don't think updates are available anymore.
To install Java EE into the 3.8.1 download, this worked for me: https://stackoverflow.com/a/5028910/503025
Java EE is in the Juno upgrade site.

Developing on Eclipse 3.4, running on Eclipse 3.3

I'm developing an Eclipse plug-in, based on a bunch of core Eclipse plug-ins like SWT, JDT, GEF and others.
I need my plug-in to be compatible with Eclipse 3.3, since many potential customers are still using it. However, personally I like the new features in Eclipse 3.4 and would like to use it for my development. This means I need PDE to reference 3.3 code and, when debug, execute a 3.3 instance.
Any tips on how this can be achieved?
Thanks.
You can change the 'Target platform' setting to point to the location of an existing set of eclipse 3.3 plugins. This will compile your code against the 3.3 plugins, making sure that they stay compatible no matter which version of eclipse you are using to develop the application.
The setting is under Window->Preferences->Plug-in development->Target Platform
What Barak said. See also this topic on Eclipse help:
http://help.eclipse.org/stable/index.jsp?topic=/org.eclipse.pde.doc.user/guide/tools/preference_pages/target_platform.htm
Note also:
the default target platform is your Eclipse install
your dev environment should be at least as recent as the target platform (i.e. you cannot use 3.3 as dev environment and target 3.4)
this also allows you to develop against plug-ins you don't have in your development Eclipse install.
And is it no way how to develop plugin for newer palfrom? Eg.: develop new plugin for 3.5 into 3.4...