Whats the best way to start using Mylyn?

Question

I've heard a lot of good things about using Mylyn in eclipse.

How could I set it up to give me a taste of how I could use it?

Thanks

Answer 1

Connect it to your bugtracker and use "Focus On Active Task".

Answer 2

The seminal Developerworks article from the 2.0 release is a great introduction to Mylyn, and still relevant. Written by the Mik Kirsten who is the Mylyn project lead, it is a very clear explanation of something quite unique. Lots of pretty pictures showing it in action too.

• Mylyn Part one - Integrated Task Management
• Mylyn Part two - Automated Context Management

Answer 3

Simple define tasks for yourself and let Mylyn focus on it. I'm not able to use the bugtracking connections of Mylyn because we use a non-standard tracking solution at work (home grown and awfull), but the fast task-context switching with Mylyn is very usefull in daily work. I work as senior developer so many times come orthers to ask something about their part of the code. I have a task for this interrupts, activate it and after they've gone i could simple swith back to my work.

Answer 4

The Developer Works articles serg10 points out are great. Another great way to learn more about Mylyn is to watch the video, "Mylyn 3.0: Code at the speed of thought".

See http://tasktop.com/mylyn/ for the most relevant Mylyn resources.

Answer 5

Another tip: start out by preventing Mylyn from actually hiding things not relevant to your current task so it will just shade them gray instead. Hiding used to be automatic (maybe it still is?) and it tended to throw people off. I actually find the hiding more distracting and prefer the graying-out.

Answer 6

Good tip, Uri. Recent versions of Mylyn now display a message in the package explorer "empty task context, unfocus or alt+click" when you activate a new task.

As Uri points out, one way to get started is to unfocus using the toolbar button and work on your task normally for a while (with uninteresting resources automatically greyed-out). You can then focus the package explorer when you only want to see relevant resources.

Other users prefer to keep the package explorer in focus mode and hold down the "Alt" key while clicking in the package explorer to add new resources to the active task context. In this way of working, only the interesting resources will be visible, but you can always un-focus to see everything if needed.

Answer 7

I would recommend a two step process if you'd like to start using Mylyn.

1. Get an overview of Mylyn and its advantages
2. Configure Mylyn to work with your setup

In order to get an overview of Mylyn consider one of the following resources:

• Why Mylyn is Indispensable, blog by Marc Esher
• Code at the Speed of Thought, presentation by Mik Kersten (47 minutes)

To configure Mylyn in a way that optimizes your productivity it helps to follow a few simple steps. I would recommend using one of the following as your guide to getting setup:

• Getting Started Video Series (one, two)
• Getting Started Wizard in Tasktop Pro (screenshot)
• Tasktop Pro/Mylyn How-to Series

Hope this helps!

David Shepherd, Tasktop Technologies Inc.