We have an RCP application and we are looking for a better way to do installation/updates. Currently to install, they just unzip a zip file. The zip file also contains scripts in it that are not java code. We were running into some bugs when updating if they don't first delete the old folder that was previous unzipped. The issue with deleting the folder is that the user loses the plugin preferences that were set. The installation would also need to register a COM server. The update would have to update the plugins and also replace the current script folder. What are some of the best options that could be used for installing and updating rcp apps? Thanks!
An option is to use the eclipse update mechanism. In this case the user would simply update like in the eclipse ide using help->software update. I have not used it myself yet ,but I have visited a tutorial from kai tödter, just google "eclipse rcp adanced kai tödter" und you will find some stuff, e.g. slides where he explains the updated mechanism as well as an example project "MP3 Manager" where you can find an example
Related
I am new to Eclipse and was wondering what is the dropins folder? Where exactly is it(I am on Windows 8)?
Basically i wanted to use this dark UI theme Roger Dudler made (https://github.com/eclipse-color-theme/eclipse-ui-themes) for Eclipse Juno. If you see near the bottom of this link, he says to place the zip folder into the "dropins folder". I have no idea :(
Thanks
dropins directory in eclipse (Path is Eclipse_home/dropins, which is at same level as plugins folder is present in eclipse) is a default watched directory.
Instead of installing plugins you simply put them under this folder (in your case com.github.eclipsecolortheme.themes_1.0.0.201207121019.jar) and restart the eclipse they will be picked up automatically on next start.
Please note that the dropins folder is not supported or encouraged in JBoss Developer Studio.
Plugin providers should really create an update site (or update site zip) containing their plugin bundles, and then users can simply do Help > Install new ... to install correctly using the fully supported p2/Install Manager method of installation.
Note too that Tycho now supports creation of update sites from nothing more than a pom.xml and category.xml file, and you don't need to create features anymore toadd your to the category.xml.
So there's really no reason to provide a plugin w/o wrapping it with the correct p2 metadata.
The dropins folder is if not exists it must be created. The location is the same as the executable of the IDE.
I was always disappointed when I have to update Springsource Toolsuite (would also apply to Eclipse, but I never had so much update issues with it), because it takes a rather long amount of time and update function inside of STS doesn't work that well. For example it was not possible for me to upgrade from 2.9.1 to 2.9.2, so I was forced to a reinstallation. In this question I want to show how I do this and I am hoping to get some feedback to improve this process:
I always ensure that I have this plugin installed from the market: P2 Installation Replication. It allows me to select and dump all my plugin info into a single XML file. So I start the old version of STS and dump my plugin list to a file with date in the file name to have different versions.
Then I close STS and rename the root directory to something like "springsource_old"
I download the new version as ZIP file and extract it in a single directory.
I use Lombok, so I download it and doubleclick on the JAR to install it for the chosen STS install location. Normally Lombok finds the installation if you stick to C:\springsource\.. or similar default locations.
Next I update the STS.INI file to force STS to use a specific version of the Java SDK with the -vm flag. If you have a lot of eclipse workspaces to manage it is also helpful to have them shown in the title bar of the window. So I include -showlocation in the INI file. It doesn’t have to appear first, just before -vmargs so that it doesn’t appear to be a JVM argument.
Then I start STS, choose the first workspace and close it again. This generates some preference files. What I want to have is the list of all workspaces. STS (Eclipse) is storing the workspace information in a preferences file called "org.eclipse.ui.ide.prefs".
This file is located under "%ECLIPSE_HOME%\configuration.settings" and contains a key named "RECENT_WORKSPACES". So open the file in the backup location, copy the entries, open the new generated file, and copy the settings into it. The next time I start STS, I can choose between all previous used workspaces again.
Even when no plugin is installed, STS (Eclipse) can natively open the files with the dumped plugins from step 1 (Import - Install - Install Software Items from File). It also allows to fetch the latest version instead of the version which was saved in the XML file. So I select and fetch all my missing plugins.
What is still missing from your experience? How could I improve this process? It still takes some time.
Update
Can't be that I am the only one who has problems with updating STS. Today the update from 3.1.0 to 3.2.0 came and now my STS looks like:
So I still have the issue that after every major update STS is not working anymore.
What exactly was the problem that you had? In general, you should be able to upgrade from a point release to the next point release with no problems (eg- from 2.9.1 to 2.9.2).
There was a problem at one point, which prevented you from upgrading, but that is fixed now. See here: http://forum.springsource.org/showthread.php?126775-Cannot-update-Grails-Support-from-2-9-1-to-2-9-2&p=413794#post413794
If you are having troubles upgrading, please post to the STS forum and paste the error that p2 is giving you with your message.
Sometimes, when upgrading you can look at the error message and see what component is not being found. You may need to add a new update site or de-select an incompatible feature.
My Eclipse installation got completely borked and won't start up, so I will likely have to reinstall it (but this is also relevant when upgrading to a new Eclipse version). I want not to have to hunt down all the plugins I had installed. So where does Eclipse store list of available update sites? And if it isn't in plain text, can it be copied into another installation without problems?
Click on File->Export->Install (Installed Software Items to File)
sorry that I did not notice that your eclipse installation is not working. I don't think there is a direct solution to import the installs from eclipse config files (If you can't export from eclipse). Eclipse stores this configuration in the "articles.xml" files inside "eclipse/configuration/../../...."
e.g on my box I checked here:
eclipse/configuration/org.eclipse.osgi/bundles/293/data/-750392822/artifacts.xml
There will be many articles.xml files like this. I suggest to find one articles.xml files inside your broken eclipse path and then try importing that in new eclipse by help->install new softeare->(the click on) Available Software Sites->Import and then import these articles.xml files. To be honest, I did not try this, but would like to try this..
I don't know where it stores the websites but you can export/import sites from/to eclipse
There is a link like button named "Available Software Sites" on intall update/plugin window. There you can choose all the sites and export those sites and import on another eclipse installlation.
I have downloaded a RAR file from the following location, to be (manually) installed to Eclipse (Helios). How can I perform the manual installation?
http://sourceforge.net/projects/eclipsesql/files/SQL%20Explorer%20RCP%20%28exc%20JRE%29/3.6.1/sqlexplorer_rcp-3.6.1.macosx.cocoa.x86.tgz/download
Instead of putting it directly into the plugins directory, it's better to use the dropins directory as this was created just for this purpose. Have a look here: http://wiki.eclipse.org/Equinox_p2_Getting_Started#Dropins
For sqlexplorer: do not download the full RCP version (as your link does), this one is standalone. Get this one instead: http://sourceforge.net/projects/eclipsesql/files/SQL%20Explorer%20Plugin/3.6.1/sqlexplorer_plugin-3.6.1_SR2.zip/download
Extract this to $eclipse_home$\dropins\sqlexplorer and restart Eclipse.
BUT: Using the SqlExplorer Update Site (http://eclipsesql.sourceforge.net/) would be an even better option (Help>Install new Software)
I have tried the installation with the explanation about the dropins folder and had to tweak it like that:
Unzip the distribution into your eclipse installation directory under the folder dropins. Your structure should be:
eclipse/
dropins/
eclipse/
features/
plugins/
Remove all other files and directories. There is some missing piece (file contents.xml), so that the distribution is no real p2 repository which leads to an error. The directories plugins and features are sufficient.
Restart your eclipse (I have done it with option -clean, not sure if that is necessary).
SQLExplorer is then installed and visible in the help, in different menus and with a new perspective.
I even was able to use it to have a look at my SQLite3 database of a rails3 application. Wow!! So I will give it a try.
From their website (http://www.sqlexplorer.org/):
Eclipse Plugin
Download
Download the Eclipse SQL Explorer plugin and extract the zip file in your eclipse directory (requires Eclipse 3.3 or better).
After restarting eclipse with the -clean option, a new SQL Explorer perspective should be available.
Eclipse Update Site
You can install and update Eclipse SQL Explorer via the eclipse update mechanism. The update site for Eclipse SQL Explorer is http://eclipsesql.sourceforge.net/
I always go for the update site option if they present it, it's easier and lets you do updates easily. To use the update mechanism just select Help > Insall New Software... then enter the update site, press Add and go through the wizard.
Is there any Eclipse plugin which autobackup a project every so and so minutes to an email a/c?
After doing some research, I found that such a feature is already present in Eclipse. Eclipse stores every new edit in a file in the following backup folder present in the workspace folder .metadata:
{Eclipse root directory}/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.resources/.history/
The backup can also be accessed from right clicking a file and choosing "Restore from Local History...". However, when it comes to emailing the code, there is no such function that comes with default version of Eclipse, so I guess I do need to learn Eclipse Plugin.
Here are some relevant links:
http://www.nodans.com/index.cfm/2008/1/18/How-to-recover-a-deleted-file-in-Eclipse
http://wiki.eclipse.org/FAQ_Where_is_the_workspace_local_history_stored%3F
Take a look at Subversive/Subclipse
Installing a CVS would do it, but any backup utility software running in the background would also work.