How do I set up a test project for a Eclipse plugin project

Question

I'm working on a eclipse plug-in and I've tried to create another test project seperate from the plug-in. The reason I do this is to not let the plug-in depend on jUnit when it is exported. However, I can't access the Eclipse Plug-in API when I do the testing. Whenever I try to add Plug-in dependencies the import list to that is empty.

Does anyone know how to import Eclipse plug-in API to an existing project? The workspace layout looks like this at the moment:

+- com.foo.myplugin
|     |
|     +- JRE System Library
|     |
|     +- Plug-in Dependencies
|     |
|     +- src
|     |
|     +- icons, META-INF, plugin.xml, etc...
|
+- com.foo.myplugin.test
      |
      +- JRE System Library
      |
      +- JUnit 4
      |
      +- src

Answer 1

You could try to add the plugin nature to your new myplugin.test project.

In your .project file:

<natures>

        <nature>org.eclipse.pde.PluginNature</nature>
        [...]
</natures>

Then in the .classpath, add:

<classpath>
        [...]
        <classpathentry kind="con" path="org.eclipse.pde.core.requiredPlugins"/>
        [...]
</classpath>

Delete your myplugin.test from the workspace, re-import that project and see if that does the trick...

Answer 2

You can export the plug-in dependency from the plug-in project. Easiest way is like this:

1. Go to your com.foo.plugin project properties

2. Go to Java Build Path > Order and Export

3. Check the Plug-in Dependencies entry

The test project should now be able to use plug-in API without the need to use all plugin configuration required for a plug-in project.

Answer 3

The recomended way of ding this seems to be with Plug-in fragments:

http://rcpquickstart.com/2007/06/20/unit-testing-plug-ins-with-fragments/

The fragment gets a high-degree of access to your plugin's code and separates the testing logic / dependencies from the plugin itsself.

Now if only I could find a way to test them in an automated system... (see: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/255370/automating-unit-tests-junit-for-eclipse-plugin-deveopment )