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Re: [adoptium.incubator-dev] Project Idea for Feasibility Review: Eclipse Plugin for Adoptium JDK Management
Hello Ed,

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply, especially while you are on vacation — I really appreciate it.

I understand your point clearly, and I agree with your assessment. As you noted, this does not fall within the scope of JustJ, since JustJ focuses on providing packaged runtimes rather than IDE-installed tooling. I also appreciate your candid view regarding JDT — both in terms of scope sensitivity and the practical difficulty of introducing new functionality there.

Given that, my current thinking is that the safest and most appropriate path would be to explore this work **outside of JDT**, for example as:

* an **Adoptium Incubator project**, and
* an **optional Eclipse plugin** that can be installed alongside JDT, without requiring changes to JDT itself.

The intent would be to keep the scope lightweight and complementary — for example, providing a small set of preferences or dialogs that assist users with discovering and installing Adoptium JDKs for use by Java projects, while relying on existing JDT mechanisms for actual JDK usage once installed.

For now, my goal is mainly to validate whether such an approach sounds reasonable from an ecosystem perspective, rather than to force early integration into JDT. I’m very happy to refine or narrow the scope further based on guidance from the community.

Thank you again for your time and insight, and I hope you have a relaxing remainder of your vacation.

Kind regards,
Daksh


On Wed, 21 Jan, 2026, 1:25 pm Ed Merks, <ed.merks@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Daksh,

I'm having trouble managing my email during my vacation.  I might have accidentally deleted an email from you triaging my emails from my iphone.

As you observe, this really doesn't fall into JustJ scope at all because JustJ is not providing any tools to be installed in the IDE.  It really does sound like it would be useful at part of JDT (or installed in an IDE along with JDT) to make it easier to actually download/install new JDKs for use by Java-based projects.  But I expect it will be little hard to get your foot in the door with JDT and I suspect they might well also consider this to be out of scope, though a few extra preference with helpful dialogs would seem like a good way to integrate thing.  So I'm not sure how best to proceed.  And, being on vacation, I don't have much time. 

Regards,
Ed

On 1/16/2026 2:51 AM, Shelley Lambert wrote:
Hi Daksh,

I am pleased to introduce you to Ed Merks (on cc), a wonderful colleague who may be best positioned to answer your questions around existing plans for JustJ as he is very much the active maintainer of that project.  

Ed, for awareness, Daksh has a proposal / project idea described in this mailing list:

and we are talking about which project may be the best place to explore such an idea.  I was wondering if you had input / opinions to share?

Cheers,
Shelley

On Thu, Jan 15, 2026 at 2:29 PM Daksh Sharma <dakshsharmab1@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello Shelley,

Thank you for pointing me to the JustJ project. I have reviewed both the repository and the project documentation—thank you for highlighting it.

From my understanding, **Eclipse JustJ** primarily focuses on **producing and packaging redistributable Java runtimes (JREs/JDKs)** that can be consumed by Eclipse projects (for example via p2 repositories or downloads). In that sense, JustJ acts as a **runtime distribution and provisioning project**.

My proposed idea is intended to operate at a **different layer**, focusing on **IDE tooling and developer workflow** rather than runtime packaging. Specifically, the goal would be to:

* Discover available Eclipse Adoptium (Temurin) JDKs using the Adoptium API
* Assist users in downloading and installing selected JDKs from within the Eclipse IDE
* Register and manage those JDKs in Eclipse and allow project-level JDK selection

I see this as **complementary to JustJ**, rather than overlapping with it. Where JustJ provides packaged runtimes suitable for redistribution, this project would focus on helping developers **select, install, and manage Adoptium runtimes inside the IDE**. In fact, I believe there could be opportunities to align with or leverage JustJ artifacts where appropriate.

That said, I would very much appreciate any guidance on whether there are existing plans in JustJ or elsewhere that cover similar IDE-level functionality, or if you see areas where the scope should be refined to better fit within the Adoptium ecosystem.

Thank you again for the guidance and for taking the time to review the idea.

Kind regards,
Daksh


On Fri, 16 Jan, 2026, 12:48 am Shelley Lambert, <slambert@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I am curious if you have looked at the JustJ project and what overlaps there are with your proposal?

On Thu, Jan 15, 2026 at 1:38 PM Daksh Sharma via adoptium.incubator-dev <adoptium.incubator-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello Tim,

Thank you very much for the encouraging feedback and for confirming that the idea aligns well with Adoptium’s goals. I also appreciate the pointer to the Adoptium API and the Slack channels—thank you.

To answer your question:
Yes, my current thinking is that this would be best approached as an Adoptium Incubator project, rather than something that lives directly within Eclipse JDT itself.

Positioning it as an Incubator project seems to:

Allow faster iteration without impacting JDT’s core scope

Keep the focus clearly on Adoptium/Temurin discovery and management

Make it easier to evolve the plugin based on community feedback before considering deeper IDE integration in the future

That said, I am very open to guidance on this point and would be happy to adjust the approach if there are strong reasons to align it more closely with existing Eclipse IDE or JDT efforts.

I will also join the Adoptium Slack and follow discussions on the #api channel as suggested.

Thank you again for the feedback and support.

Kind regards,
Daksh

On Fri, 16 Jan, 2026, 12:02 am Tim Ellison via adoptium.incubator-dev, <adoptium.incubator-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello Daksh.

Thank you for writing up the project proposal.

That sounds like a good project idea. It certainly aligns with the project's goals.

There is a rich API [1] at Adoptium that will support the discovery and download functionality you describe, and it is already used extensively by various plugin providers.

Are you suggesting this would be an Adoptium Incubator project rather than part of the IDE's JDT directly?

Of course, if you need any help or guidance there are plenty of experienced people around who tend to monitor Slack [2] (especially the #api channel).


Regards,
Tim

On Thu, 15 Jan 2026 at 17:25, Daksh Sharma via adoptium.incubator-dev <adoptium.incubator-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello Adoptium Community,

I would like to share a project idea for an initial feasibility review and feedback through the Adoptium Incubator process.

I am **tagging Carmen Delgado and the Adoptium PMC** for visibility and review.

---

### Project Title

**Eclipse Plugin for Managing Eclipse Adoptium (Temurin) JDKs**

### Background & Motivation

Java developers frequently work with multiple JDK versions (8, 11, 17, 21, etc.). While Eclipse IDE allows configuring installed JREs, there is currently no native integration to discover, download, and manage Eclipse Adoptium (Temurin) JDKs directly within the IDE.

As a result, developers rely on manual downloads or external tools, which creates friction—especially for new contributors, students, and those setting up development environments.

### Proposed Idea

The goal of this project is to develop an **Eclipse IDE plugin** that integrates Eclipse Adoptium JDK management into the Eclipse workflow.

The plugin would allow users to:

* Discover available Eclipse Adoptium (Temurin) JDKs using official APIs
* Download and install selected JDK versions from within Eclipse
* Automatically register installed JDKs with Eclipse
* Assign specific JDK versions to individual projects
* Provide basic validation and warnings for unsupported or outdated JDKs

### Initial Scope

To keep the project feasible and maintainable, the initial scope would focus on:

* JDK discovery and listing
* One-click installation and registration
* Project-level JDK selection

More advanced features (such as CVE awareness or enterprise policy support) would be considered out of scope for the initial phase.

### Expected Impact

* Improves developer experience for Eclipse users
* Strengthens integration between Eclipse IDE and Eclipse Adoptium
* Encourages adoption of Temurin as the default JDK
* Reduces setup complexity for contributors and new Java developers

### Alignment with Adoptium

This project directly supports Adoptium’s mission by improving tooling around Eclipse Adoptium binaries and making them easier to discover and use within the Eclipse ecosystem.

I would appreciate feedback on the **feasibility**, **scope**, and **alignment with Adoptium’s goals**, as well as any guidance on existing efforts this work should coordinate with.

Thank you for your time and guidance.

Best regards,
Daksh Kaushik

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