how can I open eclipse and see the project view I last looked at?

Question

I'm completely mystified.

I do not understand why Eclipse does not show me my list of projects!

And all the answers I've seen to similar questions do not mention any 'go here and do that' type of answers.

I tried 'Import/General/Existing Projects into Workspace/browse-to...' but that told me the project was already in the workspace. But I KNEW THAT!

The project menu does not have an 'open project' option!!!!

There is no 'open workspace' option.

How do people open Eclipse and 'resume working'???

What is the single, dependable, repeatable option for opening the 'project tree' to show my project?

[or tell me my expectations that Java people are smarter are way off base!]

Wait!!! I opened Eclipse again and there is an 'open project' link under the Project menu. But in all the times I've opened Eclipse, it is always disabled.

So when you open eclipse, it asks you for a workspace location which is always the location where my project is. But when it opens itself up, the project is nowhere to be seen.

So another (better?) question is what does Eclipse think I want to do or should be doing just after I open it up?

Thanks,

Kimball

Answer 1

This sounds like you are trying to see pre-existing (directories you created outside of Eclipse) "projects" as part of your workbench. But these pre-existing directories are not Eclipse projects. Eclipse projects add some files to the project directory, which contain metadata Eclipse needs.

Two things: 1. To import pre-existing projects (Eclipse or non-Eclipse), don't copy the directories to your workspace directory, but somewhere else. Then in Eclipse, right-click, Import..., and import the files. The error message is trying to tell you to import from outside your workspace :-)

1. With new projects, create them in your workspace as the correct type of Eclipse project and you shouldn't have any problems. So as an alternative to 1, you could follow these much more tedious steps: create new Java project, create packages under the src folder and copy your code manually into the right packages, set up build path as needed and let it build.

Answer 2

Well, I do (despite the subsequent vitriol) appreciate your taking time to suspect what my problem might be.

However I clearly stated that the projects are IN the workspace. That is, every time I start Eclipse, I have to verify that the workspace to be opened is in fact the workspace that contains the files and the 'projects'.

So following that line of thinking, since I posted this question. I have reinstalled the Aptana version of Eclipse that was the version that I used to create the project.

So I am starting to believe that my problem is that I have not truly accepted that Eclipse is a chameleon. and it recognizes only the projects it created when it was creamy-striped and ignores those it created when it was dark-red solid colored.

Actually I'm thinking maybe Eclipse is a fat toad that puts on the chameleon suit based on the 'partner organization' who has to configure it for their type of project.

So my problem turns out to be that I used my Spring version of Eclipse and downloaded the Aptana 'components' (or whatever Eclipsy thing they are) and that was not sufficient to make the Spring version of Eclipse recognize a Ruby project as a 'project' (get it? a p-r-o-j-e-c-t?). That is, the project was in the workspace but Eclipse (the toad) does not recognize the projects created by Eclipse the turnip red Chameleon or the projects created by Eclipse the creamy-striped Chameleon. That is Eclipse (the toad) doesn't understand any kind of project, but you have to have a separate and distinct 280 MB installation folder for each installation of Eclipse that groks the type of 'project' you want to work on. In fact, Aptana has to write its own version of a Project Explorer in order to even display a project. And probably every other 'tool vendor' does also.

So I have to admit that this does prove that non-microsoft developers are much, much smarter since they can instinctively make sense of this stuff.

Therefore I would truly appreciate a confirmation of this revised version of my question:

Presuming I have an installed instance of Eclipse that has been produced by a tool manufacturer to work on a particular kind of project, such as Aptana or Spring or Droid or IPHone or Java 'Beans' (no wonder they went lights-out at Sun-- 'beans' drying in the sun, so to speak), or, or ... Then when I finally locate the link to the customized version of the Project Explorer that must be produced by the Tool vendor, and I open it, why doesn't the 'Open Project' menu item on the Project menu become enabled?

In fact, under just which conditions does the 'open project' menu item actually become enabled?

So tell me that, ok, ok??? And then I will be happy!!!

Answer 3

You are misunderstanding the workspace concept of Eclipse. Eclipse does not work like most other tools, where you have to open a file, document, or whatever to do something.

Instead Eclipse asks you for a workspace on every start, which is used during the whole Eclipse session. If it doesn't ask you to select a workspace, then use the File->Switch workspace menu after Eclipse has started (you may have accidentally set the "Don't ask me again" option). And a workspace is a collection of (somehow related) projects, each consisting of lots of files and folders. All those projects are "open" all the time (normally), so you don't need to "open" anything.

Example:

I work for an open source project. I therefore have a workspace for all my contributions to that open source project. This workspace contains around 40 Java projects, which I can all modify at the same time.

Then I have some private development, which I group in another workspace. That second workspace also consists of multiple Java, PHP and other projects.

If this concept still seems unclear, I really advice you to read the Eclipse help about workspaces.