View source for Plug-in Development Environment

'''Plug-in Development Environment''' ('''PDE''') provides the tools on top of the [[Java development tools|JDT]] to develop plugins. It is a part of [[Eclipse SDK Project]].

===Adding 3rd Party Jar files===

Option 1: turn the jars into plugins

Use New>Project>Plug-in Development>Plug-in from existing JAR archive. That will turn one or more jar files into a single jar plugin. For something like log4j you can then set up Buddy-Classloading, etc.

Option 2: include the jars in a plugin

# Use Import>File System to import the jar files into your plugin project, say in the <project>/lib directory.
# Use "Add..." to add the jars to the classpath section of the PDE Editor>Runtime tab.
# Use "New..." to add "." library back (with no quotes, of course).
# Make sure your binary build exports the new jar files on the PDE Editor>Build tab.
# Save
# On the project, use the popup menu>PDE Tools>Update Classpath to correctly add the jars to the eclipse project classpath.
# Export any packages that you need to using the PDE Editor>Runtime tab
# Save

Check out https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=108781

It talks about how adding a 3rd party jar removes the default "." classpath, and the need to add it back.

Also, eclipse can handle jars within jars.  It expands them into a temporary location during runtime.