Eclipse Reference Proj tool

[Dan Rubel]

Eclipse provides an excellent Java search facility for locating source, yet the scope of any search is limited to the projects loaded in the workspace; if a Java class is located in a plug-in?s JAR file, and the plug-in is not on the Java build path of an open project, then the class will not be found. When building Eclipse plug-ins, it is advantageous to include all Eclipse plug-ins in the search scope, even those not referenced by any projects under development.

One approach is to load all the plug-in projects from the Eclipse CVS server. Unfortunately, this chews up memory and clutters your workspace with hundreds of additional projects. Another approach is to create binary projects, one for each Eclipse plugin. Although binary projects take up less memory than source projects, this too will clutter your workspace with hundreds of additional projects.

Our approach, useful for searching all of Eclipse, using less memory, and not cluttering your workspace is to create one reference project containing all the Eclipse plugin jar files to be searched. This project contains no source of its own, but contains all the Eclipse plug-ins on its classpath so that a search can include the entire source for Eclipse. To simplify the creation of a reference project, we created a "Refence Project Wizard" that is available as part of the Quality Eclipse Tools...

Reference Project Wizard
http://www.qualityeclipse.com/?page=tools/reference/content.html

[Alexandru Popescu]

[...]all Eclipse plug-ins in the search scope

When you say that what you have in mind? All active Eclipse plugins or all core Eclipse plugins? In the later case you may find any class using the open type.

./pope

[Dan Rubel]

Originally posted by Ali Pope:

When you say that what you have in mind? All active Eclipse plugins or all core Eclipse plugins?

All plugins in the Eclipse/plugins directory.

Originally posted by Ali Pope:

In the later case you may find any class using the open type.

Try the following:
1) close all your projects
2) select Navigate > Open Type...

And you'll get a dialog stating "No types available" (this is 3.1 M2... 3.0 is similar if not the same).

"Open Type" only searches your open projects. If a plugin's jar file is not referenced by an open project, then the classes in it are not found by the "Open Type" command. The purpose of a Reference Project is to search *all* Eclipse plugins that are installed in the Eclipse/plugins directory... not just the plugins referenced by your projects. Each of your projects, like my own, only reference a handful of plugins that they need to compile and execute. A Reference Project references *all* plugins.

[Alexandru Popescu]

Got it. Never tried the scenario you are talking, but now it seems you are right. I will give a try to the plugin. 10x Dan.

./pope

[Alexandru Popescu]

The Eclipse updater shows me 2 different versions of the plugin:
- 0.5.0
- 0.5.0.20040908

Which one is recommended for Eclipse 3.0.1?

./pope