Eclipse buildpath automatically taking all JARs of a linked directory - eclipse

This issue is a variation on the one described here: Eclipse buildpath automatically taking all JARs of a internal directory
But instead of any local folder, I'd rather have a linked folder from another project be picked up automatically in the buildpath.
Basically, I have a main project in my workspace that holds directories lib, ext-lib that contain multiple jar files each. These jar files may be upgraded/removed or new ones added every few days.
I also have many other projects in the workspace that relay on the exact same (up-to-date) jars from my main project.
My goal is that as I modify the jars in these two folders in my main project, to have them as linked folders in all other projects and have those linked projects dynamically picked up as part of the buildpath of all those projects.
Any suggestion on how to do that in eclipse would be highly appreciated.
Unfortunately, the "dynamic directory" plugins people mention can not work with "linked" folders :(
Sincerely,
Guy

I would suggest creating a USER LIBRARY in eclipse and then using that in all of your eclipse projects.
Try going into preferences Java -> Build Path -> User Libraries and creating a new user library with all your jars. Then use this everywhere you need these jars.
See this page for more details.
Also, this page explains creating a user library in a bit more detail. There is also a use-case there which seems a bit more aligned to what you had in mind:
6.2.1. Linked Library Project
A useful hybrid strategy is to configure a user library that is also available as a linked folder in your Eclipse workspace. Follow these steps:
1.
Create a simple project in your workspace. Unlike Java projects, a simple project has no Java build path configuration in its properties. Use the command File > New > Project > Simple Project.
2.
Uncheck the option to use a default project location within the workspace folder and enter the path for your \eclipse-contrib\libraries folder (see Figure 6-8).

Related

What are .files in eclipse

Every projects in eclipse has 4 .files(.settings,.classpath,.cprojects and .projects).
Can anyone explain me why are these files generated and what happens if I delete these 4 files. I have deleted these files from one app which resulted in changing the name of app.
Eclipse is a runtime environment for plugins. Virtually everything you see in Eclipse is the result of plugins installed on Eclipse, rather than Eclipse itself.
The .project file is maintained by the core Eclipse platform, and its goal is to describe the project from a generic, plugin-independent Eclipse view. What's the project's name? what other projects in the workspace does it refer to? What are the builders that are used in order to build the project? (remember, the concept of "build" doesn't pertain specifically to Java projects, but also to other types of projects)
The .classpath file is maintained by Eclipse's JDT feature (feature = set of plugins). JDT holds multiple such "meta" files in the project (see the .settings directory inside the project); the .classpath file is just one of them. Specifically, the .classpath file contains information that the JDT feature needs in order to properly compile the project: the project's source folders (that is, what to compile); the output folders (where to compile to); and classpath entries (such as other projects in the workspace, arbitrary JAR files on the file system, and so forth).
Blindly copying such files from one machine to another may be risky. For example, if arbitrary JAR files are placed on the classpath (that is, JAR files that are located outside the workspace and are referred-to by absolute path naming), the .classpath file is rendered non-portable and must be modified in order to be portable. There are certain best practices that can be followed to guarantee .classpath file portability.
The .settings folder is used by various plugins to set persistent 'Properties' as opposed to 'Prefereneces' to specify project specific settings that should be preserved.
.settings is usually a directory you most definitely want checked into svn/cvs/git etc as it will ensure that all users who check that project out into eclipse use the right project specific settings.
In our case we use it to supply a minimum compiler version of java but we want things compiled to 5 for our servers. We also use it to enforce some coding standards and auto-formaters which makes version diffs much easier to read.
In your specific case you selected 'Enable Project Specific Settings' under "Properties->Java Compiler" by right clicking on the project and choosing properties.

Maven in eclipse not showing all folders

I am new to Maven and have been trying to get a project working with Eclipse, hibernate,Maven and mysql. I am stuck at the very first step. I have everything configured properly i think and if i create a new Maven project in eclipse it does not show me any folder under src/main or src/test. although if i go back to that folder in the workspace it has a src/main/java
FUrthermore the src/main/resources folder is not created at the time of project creation?
Any clue what the problem maybe or how i can fix it?
Thank you!
For your first problem, when you create a new Maven project the folders that get created depend on the archetype you choose. Assuming you chose quickstart, then it does create (assuming you chose com.example as your package in the wizard and example-project as your artifactId):
And it configures the project so that /src/main/java is in the Build Path. That said, if you are viewing your project in the Package Explorer view, then the packages are shown outside of the folder structure. So, you would see the the com.example.example_project package containing App.java in the build folder /src/main/java and you would see the com.example.example_project package containing AppTest.java in the build folder /src/test/java. These would show up above the libraries which is above non-build folders which is where you see the src folder.
To answer your second question, no, /src/main/resources is not generated assuming you chose the quickstart archetype (this is governed by the quickstart archetype and does the same thing whether generated in eclipse or on the command line).
And third, to fix this (I assume you mean add the resources folder), find the src/java folder (below the libraries), right click and choose New->Folder. Name it resources. Then right click your project, choose Maven->Update Project. This will cause maven eclipse to reconfigure the project according to the Maven configuration which will result in the /src/main/resources being added to the build path. As such, it will get moved above the libraries next to /src/main/java and /src/test/java.

How to get peer project source in eclipse and maven

creating a parent project with only a pom.xml, and lots of sub projects such as:
my-web
my-core
my-backoffice
etc. is easy, and the sonotype eclipse plugin does most of the work.
However, getting one project to know about the source in the other project seems to be hard. E.g. when you are debugging the my-web project, and step into my-core, eclipse doesnt know where to get the source.
Looking in the Java Build Path in eclipse, the maven plugin has added my-core as a folder under "Web App Libraries". I.e. its not using the my-core-0.0.1.SNAPSHOT.jar or similar, its using the raw java files. Great!
But how to tell maven to tell eclipse to look for the source in the same place?
Im not really sure where to start. Im guessing its possible to get maven to put the source in a special jar using the maven-soure-plugin, but this will usually be out of sync with the actual java files which the web project seems to be using directly.
A quick and dirty solution is to manually Edit the Java Build Path for each project, and add my-core and other dependant projects in the "Projects" tab. Is this best practice? Any other suggestions?
A quick and dirty solution is to
manually Edit the Java Build Path for
each project, and add my-core and
other dependant projects in the
"Projects" tab.
If this doesn't happen automatically you have a configuration problem.
My Guess would be that you have a version mismatch between the pom dependencies and the actual project versions. Or your projects have an unusual name template (m2eclipse resolves projects by their artifactId AFAIK)
Either way, what always helps is in your Debug configuration (Run > Debug Configurations ...) select the Source tab and just Add... the selected projects.

How can a team share an eclipse project when their work environment is different?

When sharing a project with team members through version control, it is customary to include the .project in the source under version control. This makes sure that others on the team get all the dependencies and resources for the project. But the .project uses full/rooted paths to the resource, and not all members of a team will be working in the same environment. Even if all the members are on the same platform, the paths can often be in the user's home directory.
For the .classpath file, we can get around this problem by using build path variables. Each member defines the path to location of dependent libraries on their system, and the .classpath only refers to the variable.
This is a particular concern for Grails project - when we add a plugin, it updates the .project accordingly.
IMO resources themselves should not be part of the project at all. There is excellent plugin called m2eclipse which simplifies such tasks using Maven. It will immensely simplify your dependency management. All you'd have to keep in your version control system, besides your source code, is project configuration (pom.xml) - all the dependencies will be downloaded and cached automatically no matter what environment developer works in. There a lot more advantages in this approach - just read up on it :)
UPDATE: Just noticed "grails" tag on your question. if you're using Groovy - Maven can be replaced with Gradle. STS is probably the best Eclipse build to use if you're coding in Groovy. Next version of STS will have Gradle support.
General Approach
As others have mentioned, you should not keep the IDE files in VCS, you should keep an IDE-agnostic description of the project in VCS and generate the IDE-specific project files from them.
Java-Maven Example
Keep the pom.xml file(s) in VCS and generate the Eclipse files by running mvn eclipse:eclipse
Grails Example
A Grails project is described by application.properties and grails-app/conf/BuildConfig.groovy. These files are present in every Grails application. You can generate the Eclipse project descriptions from them by running:
grails integrate-with --eclipse
This command also supports other tools such as IntelliJ and Textmate
I don't think its standard practice to include the project file. I personally tell my VCS to ignore all IDE files, and just use VCS for the source. I include at the root level a README telling others how to configure the project (e.g. jars are in lib)
The resource links feature that you are referring to also has ability to use path variables. These are defined under Preferences -> General -> Workspace -> Linked Resources.
You could try keeping the project files in a shared Dropbox with an agreed upon path for each developer.

how to setup the sphinx with netbeans

i have successfully configured sphinx4 with eclipse.
for that these steps i have used.
copy my java and config files to SRC folder
all the necessary jar files (in the lib). the lib folder added to the root of the project
build those jar files (jsapi files too)
change the configuration file and give the proper path
test the java file
but in Netbeans i really dont understand how to do the proper steps. can someone help me. the jar files should be added to "Libraries" rite.
then after adding them how to build them.
in the netbeans it dont show a SRC folder. so all the java files and configuration files should go to Source Packages folder rite.
can someone help me with this. please
If you have sphinx4-1.0beta6 then you can just open the folder up as a netbeans project. Open netbeans, click open project, then navigate to the sphinx folder and open it. It is already a netbeans project file type as of this version. I assume this will work in later versions also. I have no clue why sphinx doesn't say this on their website.
Sphinx4 is a Java library available in OSS repository, so you can use it as any library.
If your project uses maven/gradle, add repository in your project configuration, then add dependency on two packages - sphinx4 core and sphinx4-data. The former is the main library, the latter is required if you want to recognize US English. Then just start writing the code.
If you want to rely on jar files, just download sphinx4-core and sphinx4-data files from the repository and add them as dependency to the project, then start writing code.
If you want to modify or develop sphinx4 itself, install Gradle support in your IDE, then import latest sphinx4 sources as a Gradle project.
For more details and links see the tutorial
http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net/wiki/tutorialsphinx4
click on Add JAR/Folder
select jar file you want to add