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Add new plug-ins to a RCP [message #499548]

Mon, 23 November 2009 05:36

Eclipse User

Dear all,
since i am new here, to avoid misunderstandings, in the point -A- i wrote a very small thesaurus, to be sure that we will talk about the same topic Rolling Eyes

- A -
Just correct if wrong or complete them, this is what i understood.
RCP = an extendible application. If i want to create a basic program, and extend it later, this is the best choice (or maibe the only one). After built it, i can forget eclipse, it will be completely independent application
Plug-in = i create a plug-in with eclipse, i export it, put its .jar file in the "plugins" directory of my RCP application, and when i reboot my application, some new icon, menu or similar will be present, adding new functionality to my program.

- B -
This is the "real" question
I created 1. a RCP using Eclipse cheat sheets. I also created 2. a hello world plug-in, again using cheat sheets. I created the executable version of 1. and exported 2. (the plug-in). I took the *.jar file created from 2. and putted in the "plugins" directory of the RCP application (1.). I expected that, when i open the RCP application, i would see the plug-in icon, but this doesn't happen. I would like to connect many plug-ins to my RCP application, to make it an extensible application.
Can anybody help me, explaining how to do that?

PS.
I am able to create plug-in for eclipse, but not plugin for my RCP application.
if you don't understand anything, just ask and i'll try to explain better.

[Updated on: Mon, 23 November 2009 05:45] by Moderator

Re: Add new plug-ins to a RCP [message #499557 is a reply to message #499548]

Mon, 23 November 2009 06:06

Eclipse User

Hello,

Basically you should use the dropins/ folder insteadof plugins/ directory.
With dropins folder, you need to have org.eclipse.equinox.p2.reconcilier.dropins and its dependencies available in your application, so that p2 will look into it.

HTH

--
Mickael Istria - BonitaSoft S.A.
http://www.bonitasoft.com/products/downloads.php

Re: Add new plug-ins to a RCP [message #499596 is a reply to message #499557]

Mon, 23 November 2009 08:30

Eclipse User

Thanks for your reply.

In the folders of my application, i have both "plugins" and "p2" folders. Anyway, I can't find the "dropins" one.
Should i create "dropins" folder, or did i misunderstand something?

Re: Add new plug-ins to a RCP [message #499642 is a reply to message #499596]

Mon, 23 November 2009 10:23

Eclipse User

Sciscio a écrit :
> Thanks for your reply.
>
> In the folders of my application, i have both "plugins" and "p2"
> folders. Anyway, I can't find the "dropins" one.
> Should i create "dropins" folder, or did i misunderstand something?

Yes, you should create a dropins folder. You can get usage information here -> http://wiki.eclipse.org/Equinox_p2_Getting_Started#Dropins, and some more details reading some previous threads of this newsgroup.

--
Mickael Istria - BonitaSoft S.A.
http://www.bonitasoft.com/products/downloads.php

Re: Add new plug-ins to a RCP [message #499643 is a reply to message #499642]

Mon, 23 November 2009 10:24

Eclipse User

Oops, I forgot to tell you about the eclipse.technology.equinox newsgroup, where you can find more answers about p2.

--
Mickael Istria - BonitaSoft S.A.
http://www.bonitasoft.com/products/downloads.php

Re: Add new plug-ins to a RCP [message #500144 is a reply to message #499643]

Wed, 25 November 2009 03:20

Eclipse User

If i add a *.jar of a plug-in in the «dropins» folder of eclipse, it works. But it doesn't if i create a folder «dropins» in my application and I put a plugin in it. Anyway, i will do some other attempt.

Is there any difference between a plugin for eclipse and a plugin for any other RCP application?

Re: Add new plug-ins to a RCP [message #500388 is a reply to message #499548]

Wed, 25 November 2009 16:09

Eclipse User

I am attempting to do the same thing. I have an RCP app and a plugin that adds a menu and action to the main menu.

When I copy the plugin .jar to Eclipse's dropins folder, my menu and action show up in the workbench as expected. However, when I export my RCP app, it does not contain a dropins directory and when I create the dropins directory manually and add the plugin .jar the menu/action is not added.

What p2 plugins/jars are needed in order to add the "dropins" capability to my RCP application and do these jars just need to be added as dependencies to the plugin (plugin.xml), the product (myRcpApp.product) or both.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Add new plug-ins to a RCP [message #500952 is a reply to message #500388]

Mon, 30 November 2009 08:04

Eclipse User

See the last reply to this post

http://www.eclipse.org/forums/index.php?t=msg&th=158016& amp;start=0&S=fe42005c79f7044f8f7729cf14611a34

How do I generate the dropins folder? [message #501717 is a reply to message #500952]

Thu, 03 December 2009 10:19

Eclipse User

Ok. Thanks to everyone's help, I have been able to get the p2 dropins functionality to work correctly in my RCP application.

However, in order to get it to work I had to manually create the dropins folder. Is this expected?

If so, does anyone know of a way to have the dropins folder automatically created when I export my product (RCP application)?

Thanks again!

Re: How do I generate the dropins folder? [message #501812 is a reply to message #501717]

Thu, 03 December 2009 16:57

Eclipse User

I have a p2.inf file in my product plugin that seems to make that directory for me:

instructions.configure=\
addRepository(type:0,location:http${#58}//download.eclipse.o rg/eclipse/updates/3.6-I-builds,name:Eclipse 3.6 I-builds);\
addRepository(type:1,location:http${#58}//download.eclipse.o rg/eclipse/updates/3.6-I-builds,name:Eclipse 3.6 I-builds);\
mkdir(path:${installFolder}/dropins);

PW

Re: How do I generate the dropins folder? [message #501952 is a reply to message #501812]

Fri, 04 December 2009 10:17

Eclipse User

You can also build your product with a headless build (with is much more complicated) and add a mkdir ant command after the postBuild task.

But I think that when you do a headless build, the dropin folder is automatically created...(I need to check it)

Re: Add new plug-ins to a RCP [message #501957 is a reply to message #499548]

Fri, 04 December 2009 10:24

Eclipse User

I have seen examples of using a p2.inf file to create the directory I just wasn't sure if there was something else I was missing that would create the dropins directory for me.

So what exactly is the p2.inf file and what is it generally used for?

Re: Add new plug-ins to a RCP [message #502017 is a reply to message #501957]

Fri, 04 December 2009 14:23

Eclipse User

p2.inf is a way to specify p2 metadata for that plugin (or product, etc).

My example adds touchpoint instructions to the metadata, so that when my IU is installed by p2, it will create the dropins directory for me.

PW

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