View source for FAQ Can I add icons declared by my plugin.xml in the runtime JAR?

No. Statically declared plug-in icons are not meant to be in the runtime 
JAR because Eclipse wants to  load plug-ins lazily. In other words, 
during loading of the platform, the platform loader reads only the 
<tt>plugin.xml</tt> file and will use the
icons that are declared there. Only when the plug-in is really needed is the
JAR opened; the class loader starts loading classes, and the plug-in
is activated. 

The structure of a plug-in roughly looks like this:
<pre>
     plugin.xml         // used by platform loader
     icons/
         delete.gif     // icons used in the toolbar, and so on.
         create.jpg
     code.jar         // jar (class files + resources)
</pre>
Plug-in activation is a process that requires considerable memory 
and central processing unit (CPU) cycles.  To speed up load time of the 
platform, opening the runtime JAR is avoided for as long as possible.



Of course, images included in a runtime JAR can be used by plug-in code
using standard Java resource-loading techniques, such as <tt>getResource</tt> on a 
given Java class or by using a class loader.





== See Also: ==


[[FAQ_How_do_I_add_images_and_other_resources_to_a_runtime_JAR_file%3F]]


[[FAQ_When_does_a_plug-in_get_started%3F]]