View source for FAQ What is an Eclipse product?

Strictly speaking, a product is an extension to the extension point called <tt>org.eclipse.core.runtime.products</tt>.  The purpose of a product is to define application-specific branding on top of a configuration of Eclipse plug-ins. Minimally, a product defines the ID of the application it is associated with and provides a name, description, and unique ID of its own.  A product also stores a table of additional properties, where the UI stores information such as the application window icon and the all-important blurb in the '''Help &gt; About...''' dialog. It is quite possible to run Eclipse without a product, but if you want to customize the appearance of Eclipse for your particular application, you should define one.

Because more than one product can be installed at a given time, the main product is singled out in a special marker file called <tt>.eclipseproduct</tt> in the Eclipse install directory. This file denotes the name, ID, and version number of the main product that will be used.  The product in turn is a plug-in  in the <tt>plugins</tt> directory, which includes product branding elements, such as the splash screen and workbench window icons.

For more details, see the methods declared by the <tt>IProduct</tt> interface defined in the <tt>org.eclipse.core.runtime</tt> plug-in.  <tt>IProductConstants</tt> in the <tt>org.eclipse.ui.workbench</tt> defines the keys of product properties that are of interest to Eclipse products having user interfaces.

== See Also: ==
*[[FAQ How do I create an Eclipse product?]]
*[[FAQ What is a configuration?]]
*Eclipse online article [http://www.eclipse.org/articles/product-guide/guide.html "<i>Creating Product Branding</i>"]

{{Template:FAQ_Tagline}}