Is there any way of configuring Eclipse IDE proxy settings via an autoproxy configuration script? - eclipse

Question

I am behind a firewall which uses autoproxy configuration script. I am able to browse the internet when I enable the autoproxy url in most browsers I use (IE 7, IE 8, FF, Chrome). For your reference to enable autoproxy url on Windows goto: Settings -> Control Panel -> Internet Options -> Connections -> Lan Settings -> (Check) use automatic configuration scripts -> enter Address value as the autoproxy script url.
The issue I am facing is: I have Eclipse IDE and I want to configure the proxy settings in Eclipse similar to browser settings but I am unable to. I could not find a setting in Eclipse or NetBeans 6.9.1 or IntelliJ Idea to solve this issue.
I am using Maven2 integrated with these IDEs and no local repositories set up yet. Maven2 tries to install jars by downloading them from Internet but it cannot due to the proxy setting. I can manually download these libraries from Maven2 repositories and have an internal repository hosted using Artifactory or Nexus but I would like to know if there is any way I can do it from IDE itself...
Thanks for your feedback. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Answer 1

Here is what I do. All of these instructions are based on my minimal experiences with working PACs, so YMMV.
Download your pac file via your pac URL. It's plain text and should be easy to open in a text editor.
Near the bottom, there's probably a section that says something like:
return "PROXY w.x.y.z:a"
where "w.x.y.z" is an ip address or username and "a" is a port number.
Write these down.
In a recent version of eclipse :
Go to Window -> Preferences -> General -> Network Connections=
Change the provider to "Manual"
Select the "HTTP" line and click the edit button
Add the IP address and port number above to the http line
If you have to authenticate to use the proxy,
select "Requires Authentication"
type in your username. Note that if your authentication is on a Windows domain, you might have to prepend the domain name and a backslash (\) like: MYDOMAIN\MYUSERID
Type in your password
Click OK
Click Apply
Click OK
At this point, you should be able to browse using the internal web browser (at least on http URLs).
Good luck.
Edit:
Just so you know, it's WAY easier to use Nexus, one set of <mirror> tags and a single proxy setup (inside Nexus) to manage the proxy issues of Maven inside a firewall.

Answer 2

In the file:
$your_eclipse_installation\configuration.settings\org.eclipse.core.net.prefs
you need the option:
systemProxiesEnabled=true
You can set it also by the Eclipse GUI:
Go to Window -> Preferences -> General -> Network Connections
Change the provider to "Native"
The first way is working even if your Eclipse is broken due to wrong configuration attempts.

Answer 3

Download whatever configuration script that your browser is using.
the script would have various host:port configuration.
based on the domain you want to connect , one of the host:port is selected by the borwser.
in the eclipse network setting you can try to put on of the host ports and see if that works.
worked for me.
the config script looks like,
if (isPlainHostName(host))
return "DIRECT";
else if (dnsDomainIs(host, "<***sample host name *******>"))
return "PROXY ***some ip*****; DIRECT";
else if (dnsDomainIs(host, "address.com")
|| dnsDomainIs(host, "adress2..com")
|| dnsDomainIs(host, "address3.com")
|| dnsDomainIs(host, "address4.com")
return "PROXY <***some proxyhost****>:8080";
you would need to look for the host port in the return statement.

Answer 4

Download proxy script and check last line for return statement Proxy IP and Port.
Add this IP and Port using these step.
1. Windows -->Preferences-->General -->Network Connection
2. Select Active Provider : Manual
3. Proxy entries select HTTP--> Click on Edit button
4. Then add Host as a proxy IP and port left Required Authentication blank.
5. Restart eclipse
6. Now Eclipse Marketplace... working.

Answer 5

Well there's the Network Connections preference page; you can add proxies there. I don't know much about it; I don't know if the Maven integration plugins will use the proxies defined there.
You can find it at Window...Preferences, then General...Network Connections.

Answer 6

In Netbeans, we can use Tools->Options-> General Tab - > Under proxy settings, select Use system proxy settings.
This way, it uses the proxy settings provided in Settings -> Control Panel -> Internet Options -> Connections -> Lan Settings -> use automatic configuration scripts.
If you are using maven, make sure the proxy settings are not provided there, so that it uses Netbeans settings provided above for proxy.
Hope this helps.
Shreedevi