Mylyn/User Guide

Getting Started

Installation

To install Mylar, you need to

• Download and install Eclipse. We recommend using a stable version of Eclipse, but it must be at least as old as 3.1. Go to the the Eclipse download site for more information on downloading Eclipse.
• #Download Mylar.
• #Download Required Applications, if needed. Mylar needs the Java 5 Virtual Machine and a browser that works with Eclipse.

After you have installed Mylar, there are a few more configuration steps that you might wish to do. See the [Mylar Configuration Guide].

Download Mylar

For supported platforms and known limitations please see the Download Page.

The recommended way to install Mylar is from inside Eclipse.

1. Select Help->Software Updates->Find and Install.
2. Select Search for new features to install and select Next.
3. Select New Remote Site.
4. Enter Mylar for the name and insert the download site given on the Mylar downloads page. The URL should end up as something similar to http://download.eclipse.org/technology/mylar/update-site/eX.Y. Select OK.
5. Make sure there is a check in the Mylar box, and select Finish.
6. Put a check in the box next to Mylar. If you don't mind downloading some stuff you don't need, go ahead and select Next. Otherwise, expand the Mylar line (by clicking on the disclosure triangle) and select what you want. We recommend downloading the Task List, the Focused UI, and connectors appropriate to the bug repository that you use -- Bugzilla, Trac, or Jira. (Note that to download Jira, you need both the core and the connector.) You can download Mylar without a bug repository, but it won't be as interesting an experience.
7. Read the license agreements, accept or decline as appropriate, and either select Next (if you accept) or Cancel (if you do not accept). If you decline, goodbye, hope to see you again someday!
8. You will see a list of features and where to install them. If the default installation directory is fine, select Finish.

You might get some errors during the download process.

An error that says: Network connection problems encountered during search means that Eclipse couldn't find the location you entered. This might be because you copied something incorrectly (watch for extra characters -- even extra spaces can mess things up), or because the site went down. You might be able to see if the site is down by copying the URL into your Web browser.

An error that reads: Update manager failure means that Eclipse could not access the update site, or that it got confused about the configuration state of your Eclipse. First try updating again to see if the update site is accessible.

If you are trying to update the JIRA connector you can also try de-selecting that feature in case the Tigris.org update site is not accessible. Using use "Search new features.." when installing can help avoid this problem. If that does not work see the feature configuration troubleshooting below.

You will probably get a warning that the feature was unsigned. If you trust that hackers have not molested the Mylar plug-in, select Install All.

You will get a dialog box asking if you would like to restart Eclipse. We recommend that you say Yes.

Download Required Applications

Mylar needs the Java 5 virtual machine. (You do not need to use the 1.5 compiler, just the 1.5 VM.) You also need a web browser that works with the Standard Widget Toolkit; Windows and MacOS users are fine, but Linux users might have to download another browser.

Download and configure Java 5 or 6

To check the version of the Java virtual machine that Eclipse was launched with to to Help -> About Eclipse SDK -> Configuration Details and verify that the java.vm.version is 1.5. Mac users should refer to the last comment on bug 1163477 for instructions on how to change the 1.4 default.

• If you do not have Java 5, you can download it from Sun's web site.
• If you have more than one VM, you need to specify that Eclipse should use the JDK1.5 VM.

In Unix, set the environment variable JAVA_HOME to the root of the JDK1.5 installation and/or set the PATH variable to put the JDK1.5 executable directory before any other VM executable directories. For example, under bash in Unix:

export JAVA_HOME="(location of JDK1.5 root)"
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH

We do not recommend using JDK 1.6 on Eclipse 3.1. (It works fine with Eclipse 3.2 or 3.3.) To use JDK 1.6 on Eclipse 3.1, you must add the following line to your config.ini file:

   org.osgi.framework.executionenvironment=OSGi/Minimum-1.0,OSGi/Minimum-1.1,JRE-1.1,J2SE-1.2,
   J2SE-1.3,J2SE-1.4,J2SE-1.5,JavaSE-1.6

Installation Troubleshooting

For troubleshooting, see the [Mylar FAQ].

Installing Browser on Linux

Mylar uses the Standard Widget Toolkit Browser, which means that there must be a browser on the system that works with the SWT Browser. For Windows and MacOS, the standard works fine, but on some Linux distributions, you will need to download one. Note that as of 3 Oct 2006, default Firefox distributions for Linux will not work.

See the SWT Browser guide for which browsers will work.

• Before testing the browser support in Mylar, you must first ensure that the Eclipse internal browser is correctly configured. To test to see if your browser is properly configured, select Window->Show View->Other->General->Internal Web Browser, then try to bring up a Web page.
• A quick work around is to disable the internal browser pages in Mylar editors. To do this: Window - Preferences - Mylar - Tasks - Disable internal browser.
• Notice: GTK is not supported (??? by Eclipse or by Mylar???), you must use the GTK2 version.
• Notice: The internal browser does not correctly support HTTPS. See bug 80033.

Mylar Task Management features makes use of Eclipse's Internal Browser, which may require additional install steps listed below. You also have the option of disabling Mylar's use of the Internal Browser via Preferences -> Mylar -> Tasks.

The following steps have been verified on Fedora Core 5, and OpenSuSE 10.1.

1. Run Mozilla (not firefox) to confirm that it works.
2. Confirm the location of your Mozilla install (ex: /usr/lib/mozilla-1.7.12)
3. Set necessary environment variables in <home_directory>/.bashrc, adding the following 3 lines

         MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME=/usr/lib/mozilla-1.7.12
         LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME
         export MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME LD_LIBRARY_PATH

1. Log out and log in again (or type "source .bashrc" at the prompt)
2. Start Eclipse and test the internal web browser

If you are get exceptions indicating missing libraries, check that the paths are accurate and that you in fact have the libraries requested. For example, on our test box a library was still missing after these steps. The libstdc++.so.5 was being reported as missing. To solve this problem, find an rpm online that will install the missing legacy library. In our case we found necessary rpm (compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.fc4.i386.rpm) on rpmfind.net using their search facility. See also: Standard Widget Toolkit FAQ

Installing on MacOS

If you see errors like the following it may be due to Xerces missing from the Mac JDK so you may need to add it to your default classpath. Please refer to and comment on bug 144287 if you see this problem.

   Could not create Bugzilla editor input
   java.io.IOException: SAX2 driver class org.apache.xerces.parsers.SAXParser not found

To ensure that you are using the 1.5 VM refer to the last comment on bug 1163477 for instructions on how to change the 1.4 default.

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Once you can run Mylar at all, you might want to configure it to make it even more powerful. See the [Mylar Configuration Guide].

Starting Mylar for the first time

Once everything is working, you will see a dialog box titled Mylar Recommended Preferences. It's probably best to accept the defaults unless you have already worked with Mylar enough to form opinions. Note that as of 3 Oct 2006, the video is quite out of date.

To see Mylar in action, select Window->Show View->Other, then select Mylar and you will see the available Views.

Configuration

Once you get Mylar running, there are configurations that you can do that will improve your experience.

Using Mylar

One of the most useful things that Mylar can do for you is hide things that you aren't interested in. This allows you to focus on the things you are interested in.

Another high-level thing that Mylar can do for you is help you keep track of tasks. Mylar doesn't just restrict your view to things that are relevant to you, it restricts your view to elements that are relevant to your current task. You tell Mylar when you are changing tasks, and it will hide all of the things associated with your current task (window layout and the contents of those windows) and bring up what was on the screen when you left the other task.

Mylar also helps you coordinate tasks among many people, by giving tight integration with bug-tracking (or task-tracking) services. Mylar doesn't just keep track of tasks that you define, but that other people define as well. For example, you can work on a specific bug in your Bugzilla repository; the information pertaining to that bug entry is easily available from inside Mylar/Eclipse. It is very easy to attach a full Mylar context -- what elements are interesting, what windows are open -- to a bug.

Bugzilla Connector

Once Mylar is installed there are a few steps involved to get up and running.

• To access tasks (reports/issues) on a repository such as Bugzilla you must first set up a Task Repository
  • Navigate to Window > Show View > Other > Mylar > Task Repositories to open the Task Repositories view.
  • Launch the add repository wizard by pressing the add repository button located in the view's toolbar .
  • The first page of this wizard asks for the type of repository you wish to connect to (if you have installed multiple connectors). Select Bugzilla for example and press the Next button.
  • On the second page you can enter the repository's address and your login credentials. After filling in these details, press the validate button to ensure the repository exists and your login credentials are valid. Once the settings validate you can finish the wizard. The repository you added will be shown in the Task Repositories view.

• Once the repository has been created, you may add queries to the Task List.
  • In the Task List view right click anywhere in the list pane and select 'New Query' from the context menu.
  • Choose the repository you added in the previous steps.
  • Enter query title and search criteria and then press Finish.
  • A query with the title you gave will appear in the Task List and will synchronize with the remote repository. If the query has hits they will appear within the query folder you've created.
  • Double click to open a hit. Double click on the query to edit the query parameters.
  • Click on the lightly shaded button (left of task icon) in the Task List to activat the task. Click again to deactivate.