How to add external library properly in Eclipse? - eclipse

Question

So today I downloaded Apache Commons Lang library (binary, zip format). I extracted it to C:\eclipse\commons-lang-2.5 folder. There are a commons-lang-2.5.jar, a commons-lang-2.5-javadoc.jar, and a commons-lang-2.5-sources.jar inside, and a folder for HTML Javadoc. I started Eclipse, added commons-lang-2.5.jar, and set its source and Javadoc respectively as the screenshot below. (http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/9378/eclipsev.png)
My question is, is there a convenient or standard way to add external libraries? Or am I actually doing the right thing?

Answer 1

Recommendation:
Create a "lib" folder and keep all your jars in the folder.
Subsequently, add all the jar files in the lib folder into your build path by using Project => Properties => Java Build Path => Libraries => Add JAR ...
btw, there' no screenshot. Can you give the link for the screen shot so that I may be able to help our better...

Answer 2

You must add jar file on lib folder
and then right click on jar file and click "build path"-->add to build path
and now you can write that jar file code

Answer 3

Use maven
You don't have to download all jar's into a folder by yourself! -
use maven. It's based on a public repository, and you manage your dependencies in an xml file.
Your project will have a pom.xml file that going to look like this:
<project>
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>com.mycompany.app</groupId>
<artifactId>my-module</artifactId>
<version>1</version>
</project>
and in this file you manage the external library dependencies
for instance, if you wish to add this dependency - http://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.apache.commons/commons-lang3/3.4
you will need to modify your pom.xml like so:
<project>
...
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
<artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
<version>3.4</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
...
</project>
and save it. that's it
Read this getting started tutorial - https://maven.apache.org/guides/getting-started/
eclipse plugin - https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-eclipse-plugin

Answer 4

As the question is quite general, maybe following detailed answer could help others:
Right click on your project name
Select and expand the correct (e.g C/C++) compiler
Go to "Includes"
On right hand corner, you would see a small icon to "add path" to include your custom library
Add, build and happy compiling