Eclipse: Building Commercial-Quality Plug-ins by Eric Clayberg, Dan Rubel

[Book Review Team]

<pre>Author/s : Eric Clayberg, Dan Rubel
Publisher : Addison-Wesley
Category : Miscellaneous Java
Review by : Ernest J. Friedman-Hill
Rating : 9 horseshoes</pre>
As the title suggests, this massive tome is intended as a guide to best practices for writing Eclipse plug-ins. I think in that respect it succeeds handily.

If you've been living in a hole: Eclipse is a phenomenally successful, infinitely extensible open-source Java IDE. By many estimates, 60% or more of Java developers are using it. Not everyone realizes that Eclipse has a big brother: IBM's commercial WebSphere Application Developer (WSAD) is a branded version of Eclipse bundled with an enormous range of add-ons (or "plug-ins", as they're more properly called.) IBM maintains a certification program, the "Ready For WebSphere" (RFWS) label, which involves meeting a suite of requirements and tests aimed at making an Eclipse plug-in into a best-of-breed tool that works well in the WSAD environment.

In a methodical, workmanlike way, Clayberg and Rubel wend their way through the components of a professionally-produced plug-in, with an eye towards qualifying for the RWFS certification. There is no fat to be trimmed here. Instead, this book focuses on enumerating everything from the solid underpinnings to the little touches that make a plug-in into a dependable, useable tool.

The book includes many screen shots and some nice UML diagrams. It's nicely up to date, as the step-by-step instructions and screen shots pertain to the recently-released Eclipse version 3.0 .

Before you even think about distributing a plug-in you've written, read this book.


More info at Amazon.com
More info at Amazon.co.uk

[Book Review Team]

<pre>Author/s : Eric Clayberg, Dan Rubel
Publisher : Addison-Wesley Professional
Category : Miscellaneous Java
Review by : Dirk Schreckmann
Rating : 9 horseshoes</pre>
When I first approached developing a JUnitFaces plug-in for Eclipse 3.0, as I'd never before developed an Eclipse plug-in, I quickly found myself bombarded by a lot of new things to figure out - many of which are not well-covered in the on-line documentation. As luck would have it, I got a copy of "Eclipse: Building Commercial-Quality Plug-ins" and it covers everything.

In this book, the authors, Eric Clayberg and Dan Rubel, provide step-by-detailed-step instructions on what seems like every design and implementation consideration surrounding developing high quality plug-ins for Eclipse, and its commercial big brother, IBM's WebSphere Studio Workbench. These lessons include liberal and effective use of code examples, annotated screenshots and diagrams.

While reading "Eclipse: Building Commercial-Quality Plug-ins" and developing a JUnitFaces plug-in for Eclipse 3.0, I repeatedly found myself thinking things like: "Wow! That wasn't in the on-line documentation," "That's good to know," and "I wouldn't have done that correctly the first fifty times, if I hadn't just read a great explanation about it."

I'll be referring to this book as "The Eclipse Plug-in Development Bible" every time I pull it off the shelf for reference while plugging away at my plug-in project.

If you're developing a plug-in for Eclipse or WebSphere Studio Workbench, and you'd like it to work, but you don't have this book, get a copy, now.



More info at Amazon.com
More info at Amazon.co.uk
[ September 28, 2004: Message edited by: Dirk Schreckmann ]