I want to create an automated installer for an Eclipse plugin (i.e. not through the "Update Manager"). My scenario is simple: the user closes Eclipse, drops a downloaded JAR into the dropins folder, starts Eclipse and the rest of the process is automated.
In older Eclipse versions, before the era of P2, Eclipse had (still has) a class called InstallCommand which could be used to install pluings into the currently running platform.
While this still works in Eclipse 3.4 & 3.5, it is not behaving properly: most noticeably, plugins installed that way cannot be automatically uninstalled (it is dimmed).
The JavaDoc claims the InstallCommand is deprecated and should be replaced by a P2 alternative. However, I couldn't find the right tool for the job. There is the P2 director, but it is built for running as a separate application from the command line. It is possible to invoke it from within Eclipse but it is really not cut out for that. For example, progress monitoring and error reporting are not working well.
Does anybody know of a good alternative for that?
Thanks,
Zviki
Dropins seems very close to what you want, especially if they are just downloading jars without the associated metadata (ie the metadata will need to be auto-generated).
You could consider defining a second dropins area to manage yourself. Take a look at ProfileSynchronizer in org.eclipse.equinox.p2.reconciler.dropins, in particular the method createProfileChangeRequest. I expect the uninstall behaviour you don't like is a result of the IInstallableUnit.PROP_PROFILE_LOCKED_IU property being added.
The dropins are reconciled at startup, see the p2.reconciler.dropins Activator.watchDropins(), you can likely do the same from your own bundle to watch another folder.
I suggest to deploy your plugin as an executable JAR. The installer in the JAR should ask for the Eclipse install directory and unpack the plugin in the right place (plus some more checks as needed).
Optionally include a little "watchdog" plugin which doesn't depend on much and just checks that your main plugin loads correctly and displays a useful error message which the user can email to you for support.
According to information in bug 311590 1 which is referenced in the deprecation comment of InstallCommand an alternative is possibly to use P2 operations 2, 3.
Related
I'll try keep this short. I have Eclipse with an installed M2E (Maven to Eclipse) plugin. I have a GAE (Google App Engine) project I'm working on. Everything is working ok apart from one really annoying thing: I have to stop/start the devserver every time I make a change.
If you have any experience with this setup then you might be able to answer this simple question?
I start the development server with "mvn appegnine:devserver" on the command line. Now I would expect that if I made changes to a *.jsp for example that those changes would automatically be updated on the devserver. Is this what happens with you?
I have noticed that if I make changes to *.jsp files under my target folder then devserver will see those changes and updates as I would expect. I think my problem lies with Eclipse not copying changes to target folder, but not sure if is even suppose to?
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I should progress investigating this? I've ran out of ideas :-/
I thank you in advance for any comments you may have.
P.s I know I can run "mvn package" to update files, but this is slow and the devserver runs out of memory after a do it twice.
This can be little painful, depending on how you want to work and which version of eclipse you're using.
Install the m2e-wtp plugin if you haven't. It's the secret sauce that makes appengine projects work in eclipse. Note this isn't m2e - but another plugin.
Install the GPE - the google plugin for eclipse if you haven't
Make sure your project is being managed by m2e as a maven project.
Go into your project properties - enable it as an appengine project using the GPE (listed under 'Google'). Don't forget to tick HRD while you're here.
Go to your project build path (Properties -> Java Build Path).
Ensure on the source tab that your src/main/resources doesnt have an ** exclusion.
Ensure on the libraries tab your have the three libraries 'JDK', 'Google Appengine' and 'Maven Dependencies' and nothing else
Ensure on the order and export tab that the appengine dependencies are above the maven dependencies.
It sounds pretty ridiculous - i'm not really sure why its still so painful, but that is a good recipe for success. Once that's done, this should allow you to run in debug from eclipse itself, with hotloading of code, jsps, css, scripts etc. I've had this work in helios, indigo and juno.
You can read more about the m2e-wtp setup instructions here. They refer to GWT but it's the same for appengine (I'm not sure why the emphasis on using GWT on GAE) because its actually about the correct setup of GPE and Maven.
You will also find that you may need to repeat some parts of step 5 pretty frequently - if your app isn't loading properly take a quick look to ensure that your resources haven't been excluded. This happens when you update your project configuration using the m2e plugin.
The wtp-m2e plugin updates the target folder as resources modified - so this should also resolve your issues running from the command line, but i can't vouch for that - I prefer to run straight out of eclipse.
I have the same problem as you, however I resolved with other way. I use FileSync plugin (which can be found in the market place).
With this plugin you configure an input directory (webapp) and output directory (target).
Any change made to the webapp will be passed to the target.
I have helped too.
You can use rsync like this:
rsync -r --existing src/main/webapp/ target/ROOT
where "ROOT" is the project build finalName.
The below point worked for me.
Ensure on the order and export tab that the appengine dependencies are above the maven dependencies.
I use the google plugin for eclipse with GWT and Appengine libraries. Every so often I upgrade one of the libraries, which currently involves:
I install the update somewhere on my HD
I add the update as an alternative SDK in eclipse, with a generic name
I update the project settings to point to the new generic name
I commit the changed settings files (which do NOT include the upgraded library) to our source control
The problem here are in unfortunate steps 5-7:
5 Everyone else's builds stop working past the change,
6 I go from machine to machine, repeating steps 1 and 2, and
7 I think for the nth time, "I should really find a way to automate this."
I'm here for the elusive step 8: Actually automating this. I want to include the SDK in my source control, so when I switch between versions or set up shop on a new machine, the relevant SDKs are automatically installed and downloaded. I don't want to have to configure eclipse settings at all. In my ideal situation, I am willing to install Eclipse and the GPE on each machine, but after that I just want to clone my repository and go.
I've tried doing this by removing the GWT library from my build settings, copying the entire GWT installation folder into the root of my project, and adding gwt-user.jar and gwt-dev.jar to the build path from there. This almost works, but eclipse complains that it can't find gwt-servlet.jar (even though it exists precisely where it claims to be looking for it!). There also seem to be other magical settings I don't understand.
Finally, the question: If this is the right track, what settings do I need to manually control? If this is the wrong track, what's the right one?
+1 good question. This may or may not answer your question, but I can share with you what I do. I also work with GAE and GWT.
I just include the SDK .tar/.zip files in my repository, remove the version numbers from the filename, and update it when I want to move to a new version. If that version migration fails, I can easily revert to the old SDKs. I also use GXT and a bunch of other GWT extensions, so my problem is even worse than yours. I don't use eclipse for GAE nor GWT, so I can't relate to the problems you are having there. If you don't want to have to configure eclipse every time, then don't use eclipse.
Disclaimer: I hate eclipse.
I am currently trying to get my headless pde-build working but I am stuck on a point where I do not know how to continue.
The problem is how to define the related target platform to compile the plugins against.
I have a build.bat with the following call (all in one line!):
java -jar D:\target\eclipse\plugins\org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.201.R35x_v20090715.jar
-application org.eclipse.ant.core.antRunner
-f D:\target\eclipse\plugins\org.eclipse.pde.build_3.5.2.R35x_20100114\scripts\productBuild\productBuild.xml
-Dbuilder=c:\pde-build\scripts %*
I tried to create the target eclipse platform from different parts: The eclipse SDK, RCP SDK, Delta Pack, PDE-SDK in all combinations but none of them worked well.
I got the following error:
BUILD FAILED
D:\target\eclipse\plugins\org.eclipse.pde.build_3.5.2.R35x_20100114\scripts\productBuild\productBuild.xml:18: Cannot fin
d ${eclipse.pdebuild.scripts}/build.xml imported from D:\target\eclipse\plugins\org.eclipse.pde.build_3.5.2.R35x_2010011
4\scripts\productBuild\productBuild.xml
where the variable ${eclipse.pdebuild.scripts} does not got resolved. I also tried to give this parameter via the command line but then I got another error regarding missing svn task which is absolutely confusing as this is working with my local eclipse installation referenced.
When I replace the path from d:/target/eclipse to my local eclipse installation the pde build works as expected!
This leads my to the point that the configuration of the target eclipse is not correct but in the moment I have no idea how to configure this!
My goal is the automate the pde build first on my local site without referencing my local eclipse and later on integrate this building process into our running cruisecontrol instance.
As I saw already another question about defining the target eclipse I would be happy if anyone can contribute hints or facts regarding the problem.
Regards,
Andreas
When performing a headless build, the target can be separate from the eclipse that is actually running the build itself. The problem you had here is that the eclipse that you were using to run the build did not have PDE/Build properly installed.
This is why the ${eclipse.pdebuild.scripts} was not set, because PDE/Build was not installed into that eclipse instance, the org.eclipse.pde.build bundle was not resolved and the code that sets this property never got called. Similarly, the necessary ant classpath entries for PDE/Build tasks would not have been set up properly either.
You need the Eclipse with PDE installed inside to run the build, but the target for the build can be separate from this.
In the build.properties file found under -Dbuilder=c:\pde-build\scripts you can set several properties:
baseLocation This is a path to an eclipse that is your target.
buildDirectory This is where the build will actually take place, source is fetched to plugins/ and features/ subfolders, but if there are already binary plugins located here then those become part of the target as well.
pluginPath This is a list of paths (separated with ';' on windows or ':' on linux) containing other locations that should be considered as part of your target. These locations can be several things:
The root of an eclipse-like install with plugins/ and features/ subfolders. This is a good way to provide the delta-pack instead of just unzipping it on top of an eclipse install.
The root of a workspace-like folder, where all subfolders are treated as plugins or features depending on the presence of a manifest or feature.xml.
The root of a bundle or feature, or the jar for a bundle.
If you are doing a p2 build (p2.gathering = true) you can also provide p2 repositories under a ${repoBaseLocation} which will be transformed and placed under ${transformedRepoLocation} and will become part of your target, and the p2 metadata there will get reused during the build.
after some more time of investigation I found out, what I did wrong so far. As I mentioned above defining the target platform is not that easy as copying the SDK and plugins in into one location (as it was in early times of eclipse dev).
The working solution by now is the following: Copying the eclipse SDK into the target location and run this version. Install inside this the neccessary PDE-Tools to enable plugin development. After that, close the IDE and copy the delta pack + the respective svn plugin (I used org.eclipse.pde.build.svn-1.0.1RC2 from sourceforge) into the target platform and you're done.
Now my automated PDE build is running as expected.
Only minor issue now is the following: The result product contains eclipse-specific menu entries which are not there when I ran this from inside my dev-eclipse.
Any hints on that?
I just posted an answer to my question on this kind of topics, may be this can help you:
Plugin product VS Feature product
I downloaded the source code for the EMF based UML2 Plugin and changed a class in the org.eclipse.uml2.uml.edit project to remove special characters when returning string representations. Now when I export the projects and place the jar files either in the dropins directory or replace my current uml2 plugin jar files in plugins directory, The UML files are no longer recognized, in short my modified plugin does not install correctly (no error is thrown and I can see the files being picked up under Plugins->Target Platform) .
However, When I run the plugin as an eclipse application (from the workspace) I can see the changes I made being reflected in the new instance of eclipse.
What can I do to ensure that the plugin installs correctly?
Is there a documented procedure of how to build the uml2 plugin (or any comparable plugin) after modification?
Select the project and open the context menu. There is an entry PDE near the bottom of the menu. In there, you can find an entry to build the plugin for deployment. This gives you the features and plugins directory with the fixed files. Copy both into your Eclipse install.
Unless the UML2 plugins require some kind of magic build script, exporting the one plugin you changed and overwriting the original in your Eclipse installation should be the easiest solution. One potential problem which comes to mind is conflicting plugin version numbers: make sure you don't have two identical versions of your modified plugin in your Eclipse installation.
When debugging plugins which apparently don't work properly at runtime, I always look at Help > About Eclipse Platform > Configuration Details. This lists all the plugins found by Equinox during startup, along with their status (see the Javadoc of the org.osgi.framework.Bundle interface for explanation).
I faced the exact same problem as you describe here . I dont have any answer to your problem but i am sharing what worked for me .
I created a local update site of the plugin on my system. Create update site for your plug-in article explains very very nicely the steps needed to accomplish this .
After searching around I see that eclipse 3.4/3.5 now allow you to use their 'dropin' folder to manually install plugins.
This works well in a situation where you have already downloaded the feature and plugin files, however in cases where you use the Software Updates feature to simply point to a URL and download a plugin, you don't appear to have control over what folder the plugin is installed into.
Is it possible to force plugins to be installed to an arbitrary dropin folder, or otherwise export a plugin to a location so that it can be shared with other people's eclipse installations?
I'd prefer not to have to comb through the plugin info and manually determine which plugin jars to copy into a dropin folder :P
Thanks
I think the answer in this thread and the mentioned blog post of Michael Scharf can be useful for you, although the procedure is not as simple as it should be :(
The new p2 system in 3.4 is supposed to have a feature called bundle pooling that allows for shared plugins. However, I haven't used it, so I'm not sure about the particulars. I hope this at least points you in the right direction.
When using 3.4.1 you can still enable the "old" update manager in Preferences/ General/ Capabilities. Then you can use the extension points again. But it has been removed in 3.4.2 completely.
You have to remove P2 to get the old update manager.
Note: The P2 team managed to broke everything backward compatible. This tricks does not work with 3.5.