Difference between revisions of "The Official Eclipse FAQs"

Revision as of 10:47, 14 March 2006

The initial contents for these FAQ pages has come from The Offical Eclipse 3.0 FAQs. Permission to publish that book contents here has been gracefully offered by Addison-Wesley, publishers of the official Eclipse Series.

Note: If you want to add a new FAQ, make sure to add a new unique FAQ number, such as FAQ 132-A for an FAQ that follows FAQ 132. Think carefully where you place your FAQ, and what number you give it. People will want to make long-lasting URLs to them, so if your FAQ gets popular you will find it hard to change its name without breaking many bookmarks.

Part I The Eclipse Ecosystem

Chapter 1 The Eclipse Community

• FAQ What is Eclipse?
• FAQ 2 What is the Eclipse Platform?
• FAQ 3 Where did Eclipse come from?
• FAQ 4 What is the Eclipse Foundation?
• FAQ 5 How can my users tell where Eclipse ends and a product starts?
• FAQ 6 What are Eclipse projects and technologies?
• FAQ 7 How do I propose my own project?
• FAQ 8 Who is building commercial products based on Eclipse?
• FAQ 9 What open source projects are based on Eclipse?
• FAQ 10 What academic research projects are based on Eclipse?
• FAQ 11 Who uses Eclipse in the classroom?
• FAQ 12 What is an Eclipse Innovation Grant?
• FAQ 13 What Eclipse newsgroups are available?
• FAQ 14 How do I get access to Eclipse newsgroups?
• FAQ 15 What Eclipse mailing lists are available?
• FAQ 16 What articles on Eclipse have been written?
• FAQ 17 What books have been written on Eclipse?
• FAQ 18 How do I report a bug in Eclipse?
• FAQ 19 How can I search the existing list of bugs in Eclipse?
• FAQ 20 What do I do if my feature request is ignored?
• FAQ 21 Can I get my documentation in PDF form, please?
• FAQ 22 Where do I find documentation for a given extension point?
• FAQ 23 How is Eclipse licensed?

Chapter 2 Getting Started

• FAQ 24 Where do I get and install Eclipse?
• FAQ 25 How do I run Eclipse?
• FAQ 26 How do I increase the heap size available to Eclipse?
• FAQ 27 Where can I find that elusive .log file?
• FAQ 28 Does Eclipse run on any Linux distribution?
• FAQ 29 I unzipped Eclipse, but it won't start. Why?
• FAQ 30 How do I upgrade Eclipse?
• FAQ 31 How do I install new plug-ins?
• FAQ 32 Can I install plug-ins outside the main install directory?
• FAQ 33 How do I remove a plug-in?
• FAQ 34 How do I find out what plug-ins have been installed?
• FAQ 35 Where do I get help?
• FAQ 36 How do I accommodate project layouts that don't fit the Eclipse model?
• FAQ 37 What is new in Eclipse 3.0?
• FAQ 38 Is Eclipse 3.0 going to break all of my old plug-ins?
• FAQ 39 How do I prevent my plug-in from being broken when I update Eclipse?

Chapter 3 Java Development in Eclipse

• FAQ 40 How do I show/hide files like classpath in the Navigator?
• FAQ 41 How do I link the Navigator with the currently active editor?
• FAQ 42 How do I use the keyboard to traverse between editors?
• FAQ 43 How can I rearrange Eclipse views and editors?
• FAQ 44 Why doesn't my program start when I click the Run button?
• FAQ 45 How do I turn off autobuilding of Java code?
• FAQ 46 How do I hide referenced libraries in the Package Explorer?
• FAQ 47 Where do my class files disappear to?
• FAQ 48 What editor keyboard shortcuts are available?
• FAQ 49 How do I stop the Java editor from showing a single method at once?
• FAQ 50 How do I open a type in a Java editor?
• FAQ 51 How do I control the Java formatter?
• FAQ 52 How do I choose my own compiler?
• FAQ 53 What Java refactoring support is available?
• FAQ 54 How can Content Assist make me the fastest coder ever?
• FAQ 55 How can templates make me the fastest coder ever?
• FAQ 56 What is a Quick Fix?
• FAQ 57 How do I profile my Java program?
• FAQ 58 How do I debug my Java program?
• FAQ 59 How do I find out the command-line arguments of a launched program?
• FAQ 60 What is hot code replace?
• FAQ 61 How do I set a conditional breakpoint?
• FAQ 62 How do I find all Java methods that return a String?
• FAQ 63 What can I view in the Hierarchy view?
• FAQ 64 How do I add an extra library to my project's classpath?
• FAQ 65 What is the advantage of sharing the project file in a repository?
• FAQ 66 What is the function of the .cvsignore file?
• FAQ 67 How do I set up a Java project to share in a repository?
• FAQ 68 Why does the Eclipse compiler create a different serialVersionUID from javac?

Chapter 4 Plug-In Development Environment

• FAQ 69 How do I create a plug-in?
• FAQ 70 How do I use the plug-in Manifest Editor?
• FAQ 71 Why doesn't my plug-in build correctly?
• FAQ 72 How do I run my plug-in in another instance of Eclipse?
• FAQ 73 What causes my plug-in to build but not to load in a runtime workbench?
• FAQ 74 My runtime workbench runs, but my plug-in does not show. Why?
• FAQ 75 How do I add images and other resources to a runtime JAR file?
• FAQ 76 Can I add icons declared by my plugin.xml in the runtime JAR?
• FAQ 77 When does PDE change a plug-in's Java build path?
• FAQ 78 What is a PDE JUnit test?
• FAQ 79 Where can I find the Eclipse plug-ins?
• FAQ 80 How do I find a particular class from an Eclipse plug-in?
• FAQ 81 Why do I get a 'plug-in was unable to load class' error when I activate a menu or toolbar action?
• FAQ 82 What is the use of the build.xml file?
• FAQ 83 How do I prevent my build.xml file from being overwritten?
• FAQ 84 When is the build.xml script executed?
• FAQ 85 How do I declare my own extension point?
• FAQ 86 How do I find all the plug-ins that contribute to my extension point?
• FAQ 87 Why is the interface for my new extension point not visible?
• FAQ 88 Can my extension point schema contain nested elements?
• FAQ 89 How do I create a feature?
• FAQ 90 How do I synchronize versions between a feature and its plug-in(s)?
• FAQ 91 What is the Update Manager?
• FAQ 92 How do I create an update site (site.xml)?
• FAQ 93 Why does my update site need a license?

Part II The Rich Client Platform

Chapter 5 All about Plug-ins

• FAQ 94 What is a plug-in?
• FAQ 95 Do I use plugin or plug-in?
• FAQ 96 What is the plug-in manifest file (plugin.xml)?
• FAQ 97 How do I make my plug-in connect to other plug-ins?
• FAQ 98 What are extensions and extension points?
• FAQ 99 What is an extension point schema?
• FAQ 100 How do I find out more about a certain extension point?
• FAQ 101 When does a plug-in get started?
• FAQ 102 Where do plug-ins store their state?
• FAQ 103 How do I find out the install location of a plug-in?
• FAQ 104 What is the classpath of a plug-in?
• FAQ 105 How do I add a library to the classpath of a plug-in?
• FAQ 106 How can I share a JAR among various plug-ins?
• FAQ 107 How do I use the context class loader in Eclipse?
• FAQ 108 Why doesn't Eclipse play well with Xerces?
• FAQ 109 What is a plug-in fragment?
• FAQ 110 Can fragments be used to patch a plug-in?
• FAQ 111 What is a configuration?
• FAQ 112 How do I find out whether the Eclipse Platform is running?
• FAQ 113 Where does System.out and System.err output go?
• FAQ 114 How do I locate the owner plug-in from a given class?
• FAQ 115 How does OSGi and the new runtime affect me?
• FAQ 116 What is a dynamic plug-in?
• FAQ 117 How do I make my plug-in dynamic enabled?
• FAQ 118 How do I make my plug-in dynamic aware?

Chapter 6 Runtime Facilities

• FAQ 119 How do I use progress monitors?
• FAQ 120 How do I use a SubProgressMonitor?
• FAQ 121 How do I use the platform logging facility?
• FAQ 122 How do I use the platform debug tracing facility?
• FAQ 123 How do I load and save plug-in preferences?
• FAQ 124 How do I use the preference service?
• FAQ 125 What is a preference scope?
• FAQ 126 How do I use IAdaptable and IAdapterFactory?
• FAQ 127 Does the platform have support for concurrency?
• FAQ 128 How do I prevent two jobs from running at the same time?
• FAQ 129 What is the purpose of job families?
• FAQ 130 How do I find out whether a particular job is running?
• FAQ 131 How can I track the lifecycle of jobs?
• FAQ 132 How do I create a repeating background task?

Chapter 7 Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT)

• FAQ 133 What is SWT?
• FAQ 134 Why does Eclipse use SWT?
• FAQ 137 Can I use SWT outside Eclipse for my own project?
• FAQ 138 Are there any visual composition editors available for SWT?
• FAQ 139 Why do I have to dispose of colors, fonts, and images?
• FAQ 140 Why do I get an invalid thread access exception?
• FAQ 141 How do I get a Display instance?
• FAQ 142 How do I prompt the user to select a file or a directory?
• FAQ 143 How do I display a Web page in SWT?
• FAQ 144 How do I embed AWT and Swing inside SWT?
• FAQ 145 Where can I find more information on SWT?

Chapter 8 JFace

• FAQ 146 What is a viewer?
• FAQ 147 What are content and label providers?
• FAQ 148 What kinds of viewers does JFace provide?
• FAQ 149 Why should I use a viewer?
• FAQ 150 How do I sort the contents of a viewer?
• FAQ 151 How do I filter the contents of a viewer?
• FAQ 152 How do I use properties to optimize a viewer?
• FAQ 153 What is a label decorator?
• FAQ 154 How do I use image and font registries?
• FAQ 155 What is a wizard?
• FAQ 156 How do I specify the order of pages in a wizard?
• FAQ 157 How can I reuse wizard pages in more than one wizard?
• FAQ 158 Can I reuse wizards from other plug-ins?
• FAQ 159 How do I make my wizard appear in the UI?
• FAQ 160 How do I run a lengthy process in a wizard?
• FAQ 161 How do I launch the preference page that belongs to my plug-in?
• FAQ 162 How do I ask a simple yes or no question?
• FAQ 163 How do I inform the user of a problem?
• FAQ 164 How do I create a dialog with a details area?
• FAQ 165 How do I set the title of a custom dialog?
• FAQ 166 How do I save settings for a dialog or wizard?

Chapter 9 Generic Workbench

• FAQ 167 Pages, parts, sites, windows: What is all this stuff?
• FAQ 168 How do I find out what object is selected?
• FAQ 169 How do I find out what view or editor is selected?
• FAQ 170 How do I find the active workbench page?
• FAQ 171 How do I show progress on the workbench status line?
• FAQ 172 Why should I use the new progress service?
• FAQ 173 How do I write a message to the workbench status line?
• FAQ 174 How do I create a label decorator declaratively?
• FAQ 175 How do I add label decorations to my viewer?
• FAQ 176 How do I make the workbench shutdown?
• FAQ 177 How can I use IWorkbenchAdapter to display my model elements?
• FAQ 178 How do I create my own preference page?
• FAQ 179 How do I use property pages?
• FAQ 180 How do I open a Property dialog?
• FAQ 181 How do I add my wizard to the New, Import, or Export menu categories?
• FAQ 182 Can I activate my plug-in when the workbench starts?
• FAQ 183 How do I create an image registry for my plug-in?
• FAQ 184 How do I use images defined by other plug-ins?
• FAQ 185 How do I show progress for things happening in the background?
• FAQ 186 How do I switch from using a Progress dialog to the Progress view?
• FAQ 187 Can I make a job run in the UI thread?
• FAQ 188 Are there any special Eclipse UI guidelines?
• FAQ 189 Why do the names of some interfaces end with the digit 2?

Chapter 10 Perspectives and Views

• FAQ 190 How do I create a new perspective?
• FAQ 191 How can I add my views and actions to an existing perspective?
• FAQ 192 How do I show a given perspective?
• FAQ 193 What is the difference between a perspective and a workbench page?
• FAQ 194 How do I create fixed views and perspectives?
• FAQ 195 What is a view?
• FAQ 196 What is the difference between a view and a viewer?
• FAQ 197 How do I create my own view?
• FAQ 198 How do I set the size or position of my view?
• FAQ 199 Why can't I control when, where, and how my view is presented?
• FAQ 200 How will my view show up in the Show View menu?
• FAQ 201 How do I make my view appear in the Show In menu?
• FAQ 202 How do I add actions to a view's menu and toolbar?
• FAQ 203 How do I make a view respond to selection changes in another view?
• FAQ 204 How does a view persist its state between sessions?
• FAQ 205 How do I open multiple instances of the same view?

Chapter 11 Generic Editors

• FAQ 206 What is the difference between a view and an editor?
• FAQ 207 How do I open an editor programmatically?
• FAQ 208 How do I open an external editor?
• FAQ 209 How do I dynamically register an editor to handle a given extension?
• FAQ 210 How do I switch to vi or emacs-style key bindings?
• FAQ 211 How do I create my own editor?
• FAQ 212 How do I enable the Save and Revert actions?
• FAQ 213 How do I enable global actions such as Cut, Paste, and Print in my editor?
• FAQ 214 How do I hook my editor to the Back and Forward buttons?
• FAQ 215 How do I create a form-based editor, such as the plug-in Manifest Editor?
• FAQ 216 How do I create a graphical editor?
• FAQ 217 How do I make an editor that contains another editor?

Chapter 12 Actions, Commands, and Activities

• FAQ 218 Actions, commands, operations, jobs: What does it all mean?
• FAQ 219 What is an action set?
• FAQ 220 How do I make my action set visible?
• FAQ 221 How do I add actions to the global toolbar?
• FAQ 222 How do I add menus to the main menu?
• FAQ 223 How do I add actions to the main menu?
• FAQ 224 Why are some actions activated without a target?
• FAQ 225 Where can I find a list of existing action group names?
• FAQ 226 What is the difference between a command and an action?
• FAQ 227 How do I associate an action with a command?
• FAQ 228 How do I create my own key-binding configuration?
• FAQ 229 How do I provide a keyboard shortcut for my action?
• FAQ 230 How can I change the name or tooltip of my action?
• FAQ 231 How do I hook into global actions, such as Copy and Delete?
• FAQ 232 How do I build menus and toolbars programmatically?
• FAQ 233 How do I make menus with dynamic contents?
• FAQ 234 What is the difference between a toolbar and a cool bar?
• FAQ 235 Can other plug-ins add actions to my part's context menu?
• FAQ 236 How do I add other plug-ins' actions to my menus?
• FAQ 237 What is the purpose of activities?
• FAQ 238 How do I add activities to my plug-in?
• FAQ 239 How do activities get enabled?
• FAQ 240 What is the difference between perspectives and activities?

Chapter 13 Building Your Own Application

• FAQ 241 What is an Eclipse application?
• FAQ 242 How do I create an application?
• FAQ 243 What is the minimal Eclipse configuration?
• FAQ 244 How do I create a Rich Client application?
• FAQ 245 How do I customize the menus in an RCP application?
• FAQ 246 How do I make key bindings work in an RCP application?
• FAQ 247 Can I create an application that doesn't have views or editors?
• FAQ 248 How do I specify where application data is stored?
• FAQ 249 Can I create an application that doesn't have a data location?
• FAQ 250 What is an Eclipse product?
• FAQ 251 What is the difference between a product and an application?
• FAQ 252 How do I distribute my Eclipse offering?
• FAQ 253 Can I use an installation program to distribute my Eclipse product?
• FAQ 254 Can I install my product as an add-on to another product?

Chapter 14 Productizing an Eclipse Offering

• FAQ 255 Where do I find suitable Eclipse logos and wordmarks?
• FAQ 256 When do I need to write a plug-in install handler?
• FAQ 257 How do I support multiple natural languages in my plug-in messages?
• FAQ 258 How do I replace the Eclipse workbench window icon with my own?
• FAQ 259 How do I write my own eclipseexe platform launcher?
• FAQ 260 Who shows the Eclipse splash screen?
• FAQ 261 How can I publish partial upgrades (patches) to my product?

Part III The Eclipse IDE Platform

Chapter 15 Text Editors

• FAQ 262 What support is there for creating custom text editors?
• FAQ 263 I'm still confused! How do all the editor pieces fit together?
• FAQ 264 How do I get started with creating a custom text editor?
• FAQ 265 How do I use the text document model?
• FAQ 266 What is a document partition?
• FAQ 267 How do I add Content Assist to my editor?
• FAQ 268 How do I provide syntax coloring in an editor?
• FAQ 269 How do I support formatting in my editor?
• FAQ 270 How do I insert text in the active text editor?
• FAQ 271 What is the difference between highlight range and selection?
• FAQ 272 How do I change the selection on a double-click in my editor?
• FAQ 273 How do I use a model reconciler?

Chapter 16 Help, Search, and Compare

• FAQ 274 How do I add help content to my plug-in?
• FAQ 275 How do I provide F1 help?
• FAQ 276 How do I contribute help contexts?
• FAQ 277 How can I generate HTML and toc.xml files?
• FAQ 278 How do I write a Search dialog?
• FAQ 279 How do I implement a search operation?
• FAQ 280 How do I display search results?
• FAQ 281 How can I use and extend the compare infrastructure?
• FAQ 282 How do I create a Compare dialog?
• FAQ 283 How do I create a compare editor?

Chapter 17 Workspace and Resources API

• FAQ 284 How are resources created?
• FAQ 285 Can I create resources that don't reside in the file system?
• FAQ 286 What is the difference between a path and a location?
• FAQ 287 When should I use refreshLocal?
• FAQ 288 How do I create my own tasks, problems, bookmarks, and so on?
• FAQ 289 How can I be notified of changes to the workspace?
• FAQ 290 How do I prevent builds between multiple changes to the workspace?
• FAQ 291 Why should I add my own project nature?
• FAQ 292 Where can I find information about writing builders?
• FAQ 293 How do I store extra properties on a resource?
• FAQ 294 How can I be notified on property changes on a resource?
• FAQ 295 How and when do I save the workspace?
• FAQ 296 How can I be notified when the workspace is being saved?
• FAQ 297 Where is the workspace local history stored?
• FAQ 298 How can I repair a workspace that is broken?
• FAQ 299 What support does the workspace have for team tools?

Chapter 18 Workbench IDE

• FAQ 300 How do I open an editor on a file in the workspace?
• FAQ 301 How do I open an editor on a file outside the workspace?
• FAQ 302 How do I open an editor on something that is not a file?
• FAQ 303 Why don't my markers show up in the Tasks view?
• FAQ 304 Why don't my markers appear in the editor's vertical ruler?
• FAQ 305 How do I access the active project?
• FAQ 306 What are IWorkspaceRunnable, IRunnableWithProgress, and WorkspaceModifyOperation?
• FAQ 307 How do I write to the console from a plug-in?
• FAQ 308 How do I prompt the user to select a resource?
• FAQ 309 Can I use the actions from the Navigator in my own plug-in?
• FAQ 310 What APIs exist for integrating repository clients into Eclipse?
• FAQ 311 How do I deploy projects to a server and keep the two synchronized?
• FAQ 312 What is the difference between a repository provider and a team subscriber?
• FAQ 313 What is a launch configuration?
• FAQ 314 When do I use a launch delegate?
• FAQ 315 What is Ant?
• FAQ 316 Why can't my Ant build find javac?
• FAQ 317 How do I add my own external tools?
• FAQ 318 How do I create an external tool builder?

Chapter 19 Implementing Support for Your Own Language

• FAQ 319 What is eScript?
• FAQ 320 Language integration phase 1: How do I compile and build programs?
• FAQ 321 How do I load source files edited outside Eclipse?
• FAQ 322 How do I run an external builder on my source files?
• FAQ 323 How do I implement a compiler that runs inside Eclipse?
• FAQ 324 How do I react to changes in source files?
• FAQ 325 How do I implement an Eclipse builder?
• FAQ 326 Where are project build specifications stored?
• FAQ 327 How do I add a builder to a given project?
• FAQ 328 How do I implement an incremental project builder?
• FAQ 329 How do I handle setup problems for a given builder?
• FAQ 330 How do I make my compiler incremental?
• FAQ 331 Language integration phase 2: How do I implement a DOM?
• FAQ 332 How do I implement a DOM for my language?
• FAQ 333 How can I ensure that my model is scalable?
• FAQ 334 Language integration phase 3: How do I edit programs?
• FAQ 335 How do I write an editor for my own language?
• FAQ 336 How do I add Content Assist to my language editor?
• FAQ 337 How do I add hover support to my text editor?
• FAQ 338 How do I create problem markers for my compiler?
• FAQ 339 How do I implement Quick Fixes for my own language?
• FAQ 340 How do I support refactoring for my own language?
• FAQ 341 How do I create an Outline view for my own language editor?
• FAQ 342 Language integration phase 4: What are the finishing touches?
• FAQ 343 What wizards do I define for my own language?
• FAQ 344 When does my language need its own nature?
• FAQ 345 When does my language need its own perspective?
• FAQ 346 How do I add documentation and help for my own language?
• FAQ 347 How do I support source-level debugging for my own language?

Chapter 20 Java Development Tool API

• FAQ 348 How do I extend the JDT?
• FAQ 349 What is the Java model?
• FAQ 350 How do I create Java elements?
• FAQ 351 How do I create a Java project?
• FAQ 352 How do I manipulate Java code?
• FAQ 353 What is a working copy?
• FAQ 354 What is a JDOM?
• FAQ 355 What is an AST?
• FAQ 356 How do I create and examine an AST?
• FAQ 357 How do I distinguish between internal and external JARs on the build path?
• FAQ 358 How do I launch a Java program?
• FAQ 359 What is JUnit?
• FAQ 360 How do I participate in a refactoring?
• FAQ 361 What is LTK?

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