SWT/Beginners

This page is useful for beginners who would like to develop SWT. All of the information here is cross-platform, general knowledge. Please note the page is under construction.

Getting started

Download sources and binaries

SWT works using two code repositories:

1. The source code, which contains Java and JNI source code for all widgets. This where 99% of all changes belong.
2. The binaries, which contain the platform specific library objects. These allow the Java source code to call the operating system's toolkit.

Start by cloning both of git repos above. From the sources repo, import the following projects:

• org.eclipse.swt
• org.eclipse.swt.snippets
• org.eclipse.swt.examples
• org.eclipse.swt.tests

This will add the SWT source code, snippets, example applications, and test cases to your workspace. Now import the binaries project. This will depend on your platform and architecture of your machine -- choose accordingly.

Eclipse Plugins

Download SWT tools. Other than that, you may find the following plugins useful (not mandatory for SWT development):

• EGit
• Code coverage (Eclipse Marketplace)
• Quick search (Eclipse Marketplace)

Adding API to SWT

SWT API has to be backwards compatible, meaning changing existing API is basically not an option (except in a few cases). However it's very common to add new API -- to do so, follow the steps below.

1. Add the API. If you are doing this in a common class, you only have to add it once. Otherwise, be sure to add the constant/method to all platforms' classes.
2. If this is the first time you are adding API in this release cycle, bump the minor "version" fields in the pom.xml and MANIFEST.mf files. For example, 3.107.100 -> 3.108.0
3. Write the Javadocs, and be sure to include @since tags, indicating the API is available since the API version you just bumped in step 2.

Setting an API baseline

In general, it's important to configure API tools properly to warn you about API changes and versions that need to be bumped. To set an API baseline:

1. Go to Windows -> Preferences. Search for "API baseline"
2. Click "Add Baseline"
3. Select "An existing Eclipse installation directory"
4. Click "Browse" and point the wizard to the binary "eclipse" file for your current Eclipse installation
5. Click "Finish"

Writing new and noteworthy (N&N) posts

If you've added a new feature or fixed a significant bug, it's often useful to write an N&N post. N&N posts are short HTML entries in a milestone's/release's N&N page. The N&N page showcases improvements and features for all aspects of the Eclipse IDE during that milestone/release. To write an N&N post:

1. Clone the eclipse/news repo
2. Look for the folder and file corresponding to the milestone/release and component you want to write about (for example: 4.9/platform.html)
3. Follow the instructions in the HTML page and/or look at other posts as example
4. Add a new section with a meaningful title and a short description about the feature/bug that was fixed. Images can be added to further demonstrate the fix (follow the instructions in the HTML file re: images)
5. Upload the change to the gerrit repo for eclipse/news and add a committer from your component to review it