Difference between revisions of "The Official Eclipse FAQs"

Revision as of 10:55, 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.

Part I The Eclipse Ecosystem

The Eclipse Community

• FAQ What is Eclipse?
• FAQ What is the Eclipse Platform?
• FAQ Where did Eclipse come from?
• FAQ What is the Eclipse Foundation?
• FAQ How can my users tell where Eclipse ends and a product starts?
• FAQ What are Eclipse projects and technologies?
• FAQ How do I propose my own project?
• FAQ Who is building commercial products based on Eclipse?
• FAQ What open source projects are based on Eclipse?
• FAQ What academic research projects are based on Eclipse?
• FAQ Who uses Eclipse in the classroom?
• FAQ What is an Eclipse Innovation Grant?
• FAQ What Eclipse newsgroups are available?
• FAQ How do I get access to Eclipse newsgroups?
• FAQ What Eclipse mailing lists are available?
• FAQ What articles on Eclipse have been written?
• FAQ What books have been written on Eclipse?
• FAQ How do I report a bug in Eclipse?
• FAQ How can I search the existing list of bugs in Eclipse?
• FAQ What do I do if my feature request is ignored?
• FAQ Can I get my documentation in PDF form, please?
• FAQ Where do I find documentation for a given extension point?
• FAQ How is Eclipse licensed?

Getting Started

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

Java Development in Eclipse

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

Plug-In Development Environment

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

Part II The Rich Client Platform

All about Plug-ins

• FAQ What is a plug-in?
• FAQ Do I use plugin or plug-in?
• FAQ What is the plug-in manifest file (plugin.xml)?
• FAQ How do I make my plug-in connect to other plug-ins?
• FAQ What are extensions and extension points?
• FAQ What is an extension point schema?
• FAQ How do I find out more about a certain extension point?
• FAQ When does a plug-in get started?
• FAQ Where do plug-ins store their state?
• FAQ How do I find out the install location of a plug-in?
• FAQ What is the classpath of a plug-in?
• FAQ How do I add a library to the classpath of a plug-in?
• FAQ How can I share a JAR among various plug-ins?
• FAQ How do I use the context class loader in Eclipse?
• FAQ Why doesn't Eclipse play well with Xerces?
• FAQ What is a plug-in fragment?
• FAQ Can fragments be used to patch a plug-in?
• FAQ What is a configuration?
• FAQ How do I find out whether the Eclipse Platform is running?
• FAQ Where does System.out and System.err output go?
• FAQ How do I locate the owner plug-in from a given class?
• FAQ How does OSGi and the new runtime affect me?
• FAQ What is a dynamic plug-in?
• FAQ How do I make my plug-in dynamic enabled?
• FAQ How do I make my plug-in dynamic aware?

Runtime Facilities

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

Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT)

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

JFace

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

Generic Workbench

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

Perspectives and Views

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

Generic Editors

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

Actions, Commands, and Activities

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

Building Your Own Application

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

Productizing an Eclipse Offering

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

Part III The Eclipse IDE Platform

Text Editors

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

Help, Search, and Compare

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

Workspace and Resources API

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

Workbench IDE

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

Implementing Support for Your Own Language

• FAQ What is eScript?
• FAQ Language integration phase 1: How do I compile and build programs?
• FAQ How do I load source files edited outside Eclipse?
• FAQ How do I run an external builder on my source files?
• FAQ How do I implement a compiler that runs inside Eclipse?
• FAQ How do I react to changes in source files?
• FAQ How do I implement an Eclipse builder?
• FAQ Where are project build specifications stored?
• FAQ How do I add a builder to a given project?
• FAQ How do I implement an incremental project builder?
• FAQ How do I handle setup problems for a given builder?
• FAQ How do I make my compiler incremental?
• FAQ Language integration phase 2: How do I implement a DOM?
• FAQ How do I implement a DOM for my language?
• FAQ How can I ensure that my model is scalable?
• FAQ Language integration phase 3: How do I edit programs?
• FAQ How do I write an editor for my own language?
• FAQ How do I add Content Assist to my language editor?
• FAQ How do I add hover support to my text editor?
• FAQ How do I create problem markers for my compiler?
• FAQ How do I implement Quick Fixes for my own language?
• FAQ How do I support refactoring for my own language?
• FAQ How do I create an Outline view for my own language editor?
• FAQ Language integration phase 4: What are the finishing touches?
• FAQ What wizards do I define for my own language?
• FAQ When does my language need its own nature?
• FAQ When does my language need its own perspective?
• FAQ How do I add documentation and help for my own language?
• FAQ How do I support source-level debugging for my own language?

Java Development Tool API

• FAQ How do I extend the JDT?
• FAQ What is the Java model?
• FAQ How do I create Java elements?
• FAQ How do I create a Java project?
• FAQ How do I manipulate Java code?
• FAQ What is a working copy?
• FAQ What is a JDOM?
• FAQ What is an AST?
• FAQ How do I create and examine an AST?
• FAQ How do I distinguish between internal and external JARs on the build path?
• FAQ How do I launch a Java program?
• FAQ What is JUnit?
• FAQ How do I participate in a refactoring?
• FAQ What is LTK?

Where to buy the book

Amazon.com