Do you have any recommended plugins for Eclipse?

Question

Any great plugins out there, free or otherwise?

Answer 1

If you're using subversion for your vcs, then I recommend the subversive plugin

Answer 2

A group of us at school recently developed and submitted an entry to the Google Android Developer's Challenge. Throughout the course of our development, we used a Subversion repository to control revisions of our code and I found Subclipse to be an excellent plugin for Eclipse. Very little command-line SVN usage was necessary... the plugin handled everything.

Answer 3

Subclipse provides support for Subversion within Eclipse.

Answer 4

Qt Cross-Platform Application Framework

Qt is a cross-platform application framework for desktop and embedded development. It includes an intuitive API and a rich C++ class library, integrated tools for GUI development and internationalization, and support for Java™ and C++ development

They have a plug-in for Eclipse that is free of charge.

Answer 5

ESFTP - secure FTP plugin

Answer 6

Being a python developer, PyDev is the one I use most extensively.

I also use and like P4WSAD (for Perforce), Subclipse, and EclipseNSIS.

Answer 7

The FindBugs plugin for Eclipse is good for static code analysis. It can be downloaded through the Eclipse update manager with this URL: http://findbugs.cs.umd.edu/eclipse

Swing Explorer is a very useful tool for debugging your swing applications, and it has a plugin for Eclipse. The plugin adds another type of app to the run configurations that instruments your code on startup and allows you to browse the swing object heirarchy as well as highlight things visually. You can add it with the Eclipse update manager with this URL: https://swingexplorer.dev.java.net/eclipse/site.xml

Answer 8

Here's a list of plug-ins I use whenever I setup Eclipse for Java development:

• OpenExtern - this gives you "Open Command Prompt Here" and "Open Explorer Here" options in your context menu
• AnyEdit tools - converts Tabs <-> Spaces whenever you save a file
• eclemma - code coverage
• Eclipse's WTP tools - if you install the Eclipse for Java EE developers these are already installed. This is usually what I've used since 3.5 came out.
• Spring IDE if I'm working with the Spring Framework
• Maven Eclipse Integration if I'm working with Maven
• Various plugins to work with whatever source control I'm using: Subclipse for SVN, Merclipse for Mercurial, Rational's ClearCase plugin
• jadclipse for decompiling class files

The Spring Tool Suite comes with WTP, Spring IDE, Maven, and support for Spring Roo already configured. You can also install eclemma, subeclipse, Groovy support and Grails support from their dashboard.

I previously recommended Eclipse Platform Extensions but that doesn't work on Eclipse 3.4 and 3.5.

Update: I've removed commons4e since Eclipse 3.5 now has toString method generation built in.

Answer 9

Another plugin that's handy for task management is Mylyn.

Answer 10

I like the Easy Explorer plug-in. It makes it easy to jump to the folder in the file system in Windows Explorer from the resource tree panel.

Answer 11

I like the C/C++ extension. It's in one of the standard extension repositories that comes with Eclipse, but I find it handy as I use Eclipse for all application development. (As a side note, I use Aptana for my web development, but I'm thinking about migrating that over to Eclipse proper.)

Answer 12

If you use Ruby, RDT is a very nice addon.

Answer 13

I did a blog post on that once: http://svrist.wordpress.com/2008/04/03/eclipse-setup/

And the summary is:

The plugins I’ve current stablized on are:

• Maven2 plugin: (update-site: http://m2eclipse.sonatype.org/update/)
• PMD for static analysis of java code: se (update-site: http://pmd.sf.net/eclipse )
• Findbugs for static analysis of java bytecode (update-site: http://findbugs.cs.umd.edu/eclipse/)
• Checkstyle for doing code the Right Way(tm). (update-site: http://eclipse-cs.sourceforge.net/update)
• EclEmma for junit codecoverage (update-site: http://update.eclemma.org/) Very nice to get a view of how much your tests cover your code. 50% should be possible right?
• SpringIDE for code completion in spring bean xml-files. Very very nice! , (Update-site: http://springide.org/updatesite)

Answer 14

I have found the multi clipboard plugin very useful. The Aptana plugin, and their RadRails plugin have also helped me with my Ruby on Rails work.

Answer 15

When I code in Eclipse I also use the excellent checkstyle plug-in, which is a modifiable code analyzer. That way you can always see if you abide by your (or the general) coding standards.
I also recommend the metrics plug-in for Eclipse which calculates the complexity of your code. It can handle:

• McCabe's Cyclomatic Complexity
• Efferent Couplings
• Lack of Cohesion in Methods
• Lines Of Code in Method
• Number Of Fields
• Number Of Levels
• Number Of Locals In Scope
• Number Of Parameters
• Number Of Statements
• Weighted Methods Per Class

Finally the code coverage plug-in is really handy when you also (and you should!) unit test your code. This plug-in allows you to visualize which code paths are checked and which ones are not. (It can also do this check when you launch the project from the static main function of your project.)

Answer 16

For XML editing, XMLBuddy has been rock solid.

Answer 17

anyedit moreunit checkstyle-cs jdepend quickrex propedit

Answer 18

The two plugins I find myself using again and again for Java development is QuickREx for regular expressions and the XPath-Developer for XPath, both from the same update site.

Answer 19

I'd recommend Bastian Bergerhoff's QuickREx and XPath-Developer although the other plugins available from this update site screw up key bindings for the Java Development Tools and should be avoided IMHO.

Answer 20

JInto is a very useful plugin for Eclipse if you often need to edit .properties files in multiple languages. It spares you a bunch of copy/paste.

Answer 21

Findbugs and Checkstyle are my favorites. Here is a desription how to install and use them: link text

Answer 22

Try the Implementors plugin at http://eclipse-tools.sourceforge.net/implementors/.

If you work a lot with interfaces then you will absolutely love this plugin! It lets you easily open the implementation(s) of an interface or a method from the Java editor context menu.

The plugin is very well implemented, small and lightweight.

Eclipse update site at: http://eclipse-tools.sourceforge.net/updates/

From the website

The Implementors plugins add the possibility to jump to the implementation of of an interface. Alternatively, you can jump to the interface of an implementation.

The jumping to implementation/interface works for plain Java files. In addition, when associating EJB deployment descriptors with a project, the plugin is made aware of the connection between the EJB interfaces and the implementation class, something which is not specified in the implementation class itself.

Answer 23

SQL Explorer is one of the most frequently used plug-in in my installation. It doesn't handle auotmatic DML and it's not possible to kill a query. But for what works it's just what I need.

Answer 24

There's a new plug-in called nWire.

nWire brings an innovative approach to code exploration. The concept is to create a repository which holds all possible components (like classes, methods) and associations (like extensions, invocations), and provide easy tools for browsing, searching and visualizing that repository. The initial version supports Java static code analysis and I plan to expand it to popular frameworks (like Spring) and other programming languages.

It's much more than you get from Eclipse today:

• All the information in one dynamic view
• Quick search for everything, including methods and fields without opening a single dialog box
• Visualize your architecture

It is currently in beta and it's available for download. Check it the demo on the nWire site.

Answer 25

ContextMenuPlugin makes the Windows Explorer context menu available when right-clicking on objects in navigator views, and on editor frames. It passes the clicked file or folder to the selected function.

This is especially valuable if you have useful Explorer extensions. I use this to invoke Tortoise CVS & SVN functions, to open a Command prompt in the corresponding directory, etc.

Answer 26

Working with Visual Dataflex, the Visual DataFlex Tools for Eclipse plugin is a must!

Answer 27

I can no longer live without the Extended VS Presentation plugin and the GotoFile plugin saves an awful lot of time for me.

Answer 28

Of course, for Perl coding you should try EPIC.

Answer 29

I like Javascript plugin. Extremely useful when we have lot of WebDev and AJAX related Javascript code.

Answer 30

StartExplorer can open files/folders in Explorer and cmd.exe, besides copying paths to the clipboard and other things I rarely use -- I use it to make Command windows all the time.

Answer 31

There is a plugin for dveloping C++ (CDT), and one for developing Perl (EPIC).

Answer 32

FontSizeButtons, one-click to change font size

Answer 33

• Tomcat Launcher: Start/stop tomcat from within eclipse.
• OpenExtern for opening file manager or cmdline prompt window (any OS).
• viPlugin because after fifteen years I can't use any other editor efficiently.
• Jigloo GUI builder (Swing and SWT).

Answer 34

Doqua is a pretty slick, unique "documentation plugin" - so developers seriously have no more excuses to write good documentation. :)

Answer 35

Enerjy to spot bugs before they happen. And it gives a score for you project and packages.

Answer 36

Little but useful for developers Eclipse Full Screen

Answer 37

• the (TPTP) killer profiler: YourKit
• source code management, advanced queries: Semmle
• I also think AnyEdit tools are great, and anything this guy is doing
• just found this cool Emacs+ plugin

Answer 38

RESOURCE BUNDLE plugin

Answer 39

For developing JSF 1.2, JSF 2.0, Struts, Seam, EJB, Hibernate, jBPM, ESB, web services, and portal applications faster than ever you can use Jboss Tools

Answer 40

UCDetector to find unnecessary (dead) public java code.

Answer 41

Can't forget the amazing http://projectlombok.org/!!

Answer 42

• Eclim is awesome if you're into vim: http://eclim.org/ - it simply adds a new perspective and lets you switch between vim or emacs and eclipse smoothly
• http://www.sable.mcgill.ca/soot/ - soot. Is for analyzing JNI any byte-code stuff. Pretty slick.

I'm always looking for stuff that does code visualization, like function graphs or anything. Please write me PM if you find something awesome ;)

Answer 43

Remote System Explorer (RSE)

I use this pluging whenever I need to work with a remote system. Supports FTP, SFTP, SSH terminals, etc.

Answer 44

If you want to develop GUIs based on AWT, SWT or Swing I recommend the VisualEditor. It takes a few hours to get used to it but it's worth it. I usually develop about 90% of the GUI using this tools with a few clicks and the remaining 10% by manually modifying the generated source code.

Answer 45

There are some great recommendations here already. Let me just add a few to the list.

• Check out ANTLR for embedding mini-language programming in your app.
• UMLet is great for lightweight UML modeling. If you are a heavyweight modeler, then go with EMT.
• PHPEclipse is cool if you are mostly into Java but just do a little PHP on the side. If you are a fulltime PHP coder, then go with PDT.
• jBPM is pretty nice for workflow engineering.
• No one here has mentioned Google yet. They have a pretty good plugin for GWT and GAE.
• I am also a big fan of subclipse and m2eclipse.
• Mylyn is great but not without a connector and a back end. Trac is pretty popular these days and very easy to install and set up.

For more advise on Eclipse plugins and plugin management, check out http://www.dynamicalsoftware.com/intro/plugins/eclipse

Answer 46

Google recently acquired Instantiations, who had a few nice Eclipse-based development tools, and made most of them available for free.

• WindowBuilder Pro is a quite workable GUI editor for SWT, Swing and GWT
• WindowTester Pro is a tool for automated GUI testing
• CodePro Analytix is a a versatile toolkit for Java code metrics, test coverage, dependency visualization, etc.

I have extensive experience with WindowBuilder Pro, and as far as Java GUI builders go, this is my favourite. I also played around with CodePro Analytix a bit, but didn't have time to delve into the depths of its impressive feature set.

Answer 47

Dali persistence tools for creating pojos/entity beans from tables and vice versa