Re: [eclipse-dev] comment on draft 3.0 plan - need better upgrade optio

[Eric Clayberg <clayberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> IMO, Eclipse needs a better upgrade option.  As it stands, there is no way 
> to upgrade a currently installed Eclipse environment from one release to 
> another (e.g. I have 2.0 installed but want to move to 2.1).
>
> The Eclipse configuration Properties can be imported and exported, but not 
> all of the configuration settings get saved (like templates and custom 
> plugin configuration).  And you still have to manually import all of your 
> projects; history gets lost, etc. etc.
>
> Has anyone considered addressing this?

Faced with the same issue ourselves, we addressed it to a certain extent 
with our commercial Eclipse add-on, CodePro.

        http://www.instantiations.com/codepro/ws/docs/

Take a look at the enhanced preference export/import facility that comes 
with the product...

        http://www.instantiations.com/codepro/ws/docs/features/prefs/export_prefs.html
        http://www.instantiations.com/codepro/ws/docs/features/prefs/import_prefs.html

Key advantages relative to the preference import/export mechanism in base 
Eclipse are:

o Much better control over the granularity of exported preferences. This 
makes it easy, for example, to share just your code formatter preferences 
with other team members without forcing them to take the rest of your 
preferences as well.

o Better handling of many preferences like classpath variables. The Eclipse 
preference exporter exports classpath variables using hard coded paths 
which makes them pretty useless when imported into another workspace or on 
another machine. The CodePro preference exporter will export them in a 
workspace-relative format that makes them useable in multiple workspaces 
and on multiple developer machines.

o Support for many non-standard preference settings like templates and 
working sets. These are stored as XML files in your workspace metadata 
directory and are not visible to the Eclipse preference exporter.

Note that the preference import/export tool is part of every member of the 
CodePro family including our inexpensive Eclipse & WAS/Express-only 
product, CodePro Express.

        http://www.instantiations.com/codepro/express/
        http://www.instantiations.com/expressdocs.htm

Regards,

-Eric Clayberg
 Sr. Vice President of Product Development
 Instantiations, Inc.
 503-598-4900 Sales
 503-684-8355 Fax
 http://www.instantiations.com

 Support:   mailto:cpsws-support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 CodePro:  http://www.instantiations.com/codepro/ws/
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