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How to load an eclipse plug-in

Answer 1

+3 A:

From eclipse3.4, you have a new directory dropins within your eclipse installation.
See Eclipse p2

alt text

Try to copy the plugin there.

Check also, as illustrated by this thread, you didn't define your own config.ini.

when I changed this to 'Generate a default config.ini file' and refreshed it, it worked fine.

The OP ng adds:

Well it worked in 3.5, but why not 3.4.x??

p2 has been introduced late in the 3.4 development lifecycle (3.4M6), and was quite buggy at first.
The 3.5 version of p2 is considered much more stable.

It has prompted bugs like "Re-enable old Update Manager in 3.4.0 and disable p2 as update engine/UI", because (extract from the bug report):

p2 was made public unusually late in the Eclipse development cycle (M6). Community had no chance to extensively test such a central feature.

The list of opened bugs for p2 is extremely large for such a big and late platform change

(more then 4000, most of them closed for the 3.5 release, but still...)

So if you can use eclipse3.5, that would be better for working p2 features.

ng adds:

but there has got to be a way to install plugins in 3.4.x,

You can try and copy your plugin in a shared plugin directory, which should be able to interpret both pre-p2 and p2 format.
That common external directory would be referenced through (for 3.4):

[eclipse]\links\myplugins.link file
content:
path=C:/my/eclipse/plugins

(For 3.5, you would use a eclipse.ini setting, as in this eclipse.ini)

Try to copy your plugin respecting a directory structure similar to the one I used for a ClearCase plugin:

 myPlugins
   my.plugin.x.y.z
     eclipse
       features 
          ...
       plugins
          ...

If your jar already respect the my.plugin.x.y.z structure shown above, you could just copy the jar in the myPlugins directory. (both approach can be tried here)

VonC 2010-02-12 11:40:25

This does not seem to work, I tried to place it in to the dropins, but still can not see the menu. Also as a benchmark I have added de.bastiankrol.startexplorer_0.4.0.200810292106.jar in to the dropins folder. This is a downloadable plugin from the Eclipse site, this does not work either and I know I have tried this before on other installations and it worked fine.

ng 2010-02-12 12:06:08

@ng strange, could you launch your eclipse with the `-clean -console` option? Could you try with a fresh (no other plugins) eclipse? Did you try it with an eclipse3.5?

VonC 2010-02-12 12:32:32

Inside the "dropins" folder create a folder "eclipse". Inside the new "sclipse" folder create a folder "plugins". Drop your plugin into the new "plugins" folder.http://help.eclipse.org/galileo/index.jsp?topic=/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/reference/misc/p2_dropins_format.html

Arne 2010-02-12 13:36:23

Well it worked in 3.5, but why not 3.4.x?? Also, this can not be an installation issue, as my Mac has the same issue, any suggestions?

ng 2010-02-12 13:54:16

Answer 2

+1 A:

Sounds like you are using my tutorial: http://www.vogella.de/articles/EclipsePlugIn/article.html

The installation medium p2 has been enhanced between 3.4 and 3.5. This may explain the difference in the behavior. It sounds like you have the option to use Eclipse 3.5. I strongly recommend to use 3.5 as p2 in 3.4 was the very first version of p2 which replaced the old update manager.

Lars Vogel 2010-02-14 02:43:40

Lars?! I didn't see your answer right away, but mandatory t+1 for the author of all those useful Eclipse articles :) Thank you and welcome on Stack Overflow.

VonC 2010-02-15 15:12:09

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