Eclipse Plugins Advice

[Faisal Khan]

Hi, I have just started going through the tutorials on Eclipse to get myself setup, can people share there expertise on good plugins.
I do the whole web development phase and looking to setup for: Java classes, JSP, Servlets, HTML, JavaScript, XML, CVS, ANT, SQL queries to MySQL (I believe there are some plugins to do this).
I am using a Tomcat container and believe there is a plugin to lauch Tomcat from within Eclipse.
Thanks in advance.

[Todd Chambery]

For Tomcat, check out Sysdeo:
http://www.sysdeo.com/eclipse/tomcatPlugin.html
I posted this on another thread, but can't see how to link it, so here are my core eclipse plugins:
Metrics: http://metrics.sourceforge.net/
Eclipse profiler plugin: http://eclipsecolorer.sourceforge.net/
Call hierarchy and implementors view: http://eclipse-tools.sourceforge.net/
XML Buddy (xml editor): http://www.xmlbuddy.com/
Checkstye (code audit): http://sourceforge.net/projects/eclipse-cs
Omondo (UML): http://www.omondo.com/index.jsp
DbEdit (Database plugin): http://www.geocities.com/uwe_ewald/dbedit.html
Color Editor (JEdit text highlighting for eclipse): http://gstaff.org/colorEditor/

[Charles Hasegawa]

For Eclipse plugins, go to http://eclipse-plugins.2y.net/eclipse/index.jsp
ANT and CVS support are built in. If you do numerous tasks with ANT, you probably won't want to keep running them in Eclipse until version 3.x There is currently a memory leak that can bite you if you do enough builds on decent sized projects.
Suggestions:
Most of the suggestions by Todd are good ones (I haven't tried all of those). Last time I checked dBEdit though, it auto-committed, so be careful about that. For fun you can grab the FIGlet plugin
For $30 a year, MyEclipse (30 trial) offers decent JSP support. At this point, for JSP support you are basically between lomboz and MyEclipse. Neither is as full featured as you'd like, but both are making strides (and what do you expect for little or no money). I went with MyEclipse becuase they integrated my favorite plugin for EASIE (JBoss plugin). Being able to debug all my server side code (EJB, servlets) is a huge help. JSP debugging is supported with the write JSP container (which I don't use ) At any rate, if you go with MyEclipse, you don't need a seperate XML plugin.

[Todd Chambery]

I'm going post-crazy here, but I forgot to plug my own plugins :
http://zclipse.org
# CompleteClipse - auto-complete any string
# ExclusionBuilder - exclude particular files/types from compilation
# Insectivore - team task tracking through the eclipse Tasks view
# JScheme Eclipse Plug-in - JScheme highlighting/compilation support for eclipse
# TabNavigator - tab navigation through the code (very cool--have to use it to understand)
# zMail - simple mail client for eclipse
# Zero Effort Feedback - plugin feedback plugin
Todd

[Matthew Phillips]

For SQL queries, I like JFaceDbc. I had some problems with EasySQL and DBEdit. JFaceDbc has been problem free, so far.

[Faisal Khan]

I can see I have some serious learning to do to test all the things been mentioned thus far. Thanks guys for the invaluable advice, keep it coming.

[Charles Hasegawa]

I just grabed JFace and so far it looks EXCELLENT (much better than using SQLPlus )

[Thomas Kijftenbelt]

Hi,
I also use a plugin for resin that works very good!
greetings,
TK

[Faisal Khan]

Any one using MNPZ as a Tomcat launcher? I have not seen any others, just wondering its worth before getting into it.

[bob dapaah]

Anybody know a good JBoss (3.2.x) plugin?

[Jim Rock]

Have you looked at JBossIDE?
http://umn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/jboss/Tutorial_1.1.0.pdf

[Faisal Khan]

There is a JBoss GUI Admin plugin, haven't used it but here is the link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/jbossadmingui/

[Faisal Khan]

Any thoughts on using WebApp plugin for eclipse, located at: http://blueskytime.sourceforge.net/
It seems to be offering most of what I began looking for. There is so much choice, I am getting spoilt.

[Matthew Phillips]

Originally posted by Faisal Khan:
Any thoughts on using WebApp plugin for eclipse, located at: http://blueskytime.sourceforge.net/
It seems to be offering most of what I began looking for. There is so much choice, I am getting spoilt.

I have one minor problem with it. I use the Resin as my web server and the Resin adapter. I have not found a way to check the log files for errors when I run Resin from within Eclipse. In order to check the log files, I have to export the war file and run Resin outside of Eclipse.
My workaround is to use the internal Tomcat server to see the errors. Once I correct them, I test it on Resin to verify that it works there as well.
Beyond that it's a great tool.

[David Hibbs]

Originally posted by Todd Chambery:
I'm going post-crazy here, but I forgot to plug my own plugins :
http://zclipse.org
# CompleteClipse - auto-complete any string

I don't use most of those, but I have to say that CompleteClipse rules! I love not having to recheck what the param types are and, most of the time, the guesses are pretty good.
For the rest of you, if you haven't tried it, do so--you'll like it.
The previously mentioned DbEdit has also been invaluable, though I actually prefer the 0.9.8 version to the 0.9.9 version -- the query editors in 0.9.9 always want you to save them, and there's no way to open a saved query. Ugh. With 0.9.8 I can at least review my query history, which is kept at the DB connection level (which is quite useful when you have different apps that all use different DB's...)

[Faisal Khan]

Hey, after reading your compelling remarks about CompleteClipse, went to download and discovered I do not need to, becasuse they say:
"PLEASE NOTE! CompleteClipse is only for Eclipse 2.0. The functionality has been integrated into Eclipse 2.1, so there is no need for it if you use Eclipse 2.1."

[Faisal Khan]

Can any one help, I have been trying all day to download JFaceDbc, I get as far as the mirrors list (http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/jfacedbc/net.sourceforge.jfacedbc_1.2.2.zip?use_mirror=heanet) and then nothing happens? Just sits in a limbo.
- FK

[Tony Walters]

I had a similar problem. Have you tried clicking the 'if download doesn't start click here' link. After a couple of goes that worked for me.

[Faisal Khan]

Yes, i tried it several times with no success, I guess I will keep trying but its really annoying.

[Faisal Khan]

A very useful plugin:
SuperSearch - it allows highlighting any text in the eclipse editor and press Ctrl+Alt+z and SuperSearch will get results from google and javablogs, displayed in eclipse. It makes use of the Grand Rapid browser component.
There is also a search plugin called WebSearch, which uses the Google API and displyas results in the eclipse edit area.