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How to share plugins between several applications? [message #526475]

Sun, 11 April 2010 15:48

Andrey Pavlenko

Messages: 7
Registered: July 2009

Junior Member

Hello,

I'm developing several RCP applications and would like to store plugins, common to all applications, in an external folder, not in the MyApp/plugins folder. I'm trying to do this using the links directory in the following way:
I've created the following directory structure:
MyApp1
----plugins
----links
--------share.link
MyApp2
----plugins
----links
--------share.link
share
----eclipse
--------plugins

The files share.link have the following content: path=<absolute path to the share directory>
Put common plugins to the share/plugin directory.

Unfortunately, when I start my applications, the plugins from share/plugins are not loaded.
What am I doing wrong? Which eclipse plugin(s) handles the links folder and loads plugins, referenced by the .link files?

Thanks in advance.

[Updated on: Mon, 12 April 2010 06:09]

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Re: How to share plugins between several applications? [message #527207 is a reply to message #526475]

Wed, 14 April 2010 13:11

Wim Jongman

Messages: 423
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

Hi Andrey,

Check this: http://www.eclipse.org/equinox/documents/quickstart.php

--

Best Regards,
Wim Jongman
-- BUFFERS=20 FILES=15 2nd down, 4th quarter, 5 yards to go!
(Eclipse Old Skool Quote Service)

> Hello,
>
> I'm developing several RCP applications and would like to store plugins,
common to all applications, in an external folder, not in the MyApp/plugins
folder. I'm trying to do this using the links directory in the following way:
> I've created the following directory structure:
> MyApp1
> ----plugins
> ----links
> --------share.link
> MyApp2
> ----plugins
> ----links
> --------share.link
> share
> ----plugins
>
> The files share.link have the following content: path=<absolute path to the
share directory>
> Put common plugins to the share/plugin directory.
>
> Unfortunately, when I start my applications, the plugins from share/plugins
are not loaded.
> What am I doing wrong? Which eclipse plugin(s) handles the links folder and
loads plugins, referenced by the .link files?
>
> Thanks in advance.

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Re: How to share plugins between several applications? [message #527211 is a reply to message #527207]

Wed, 14 April 2010 13:51

Andrey Pavlenko

Messages: 7
Registered: July 2009

Junior Member

Hi Wim,

Thank you for the interesting link. As I understood from the article, the update configurator discovers all bundles, located in the plugins directory. Can I specify a different directory, or several directories, to discover?

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Re: Re: How to share plugins between several applications? [message #527274 is a reply to message #527211]

Wed, 14 April 2010 15:54

Wim Jongman

Messages: 423
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

Hi Andrey,

Yes you can. This is used frequently for the bundle sharing use case you
describe.

--

Best Regards,
Wim Jongman
-- Does fuzzy logic tickle?
(Eclipse Old Skool Quote Service)

> Hi Wim,
>
> Thank you for the interesting link. As I understood from the article, the
update configurator discovers all bundles, located in the plugins directory.
Can I specify a different directory, or several directories, to discover?

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Re: Re: How to share plugins between several applications? [message #527320 is a reply to message #527274]

Wed, 14 April 2010 19:57

Andrey Pavlenko

Messages: 7
Registered: July 2009

Junior Member

But how?

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Re: Re: Re: How to share plugins between several applications? [message #527345 is a reply to message #527320]

Wed, 14 April 2010 21:34

Wim Jongman

Messages: 423
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

Normally, you are responsible for installing, starting and stopping your
bundles. However, you can build an admin plugin to do this for you. One of
the bundles that does this is the org.eclipse.equinox.simpleconfigurator. If
you look in your eclipse configuration directory you will find and area for
this bundle which contains the bundles.info file. You can put a bundle in
this file and it will be loaded.

Please see this wiki text on P2 for some info on this file:

http://wiki.eclipse.org/Equinox_p2_Getting_Started

Contains other interesting information for your use case.

--

Best Regards,
Wim Jongman
-- Press any key to continue or any other key to quit...
(Eclipse Old Skool Quote Service)

> But how?

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