Eclipse Blog

Introduction To RCP(Rich Client Platform)

editor — Thu, 24 May 2007 04:05:35 +0000

Rich Client Platform in Eclipse consists of a core, a standard bundling,a framework, a portable widget toolkit, file buffers, text handling, text editors, a workbench (views, editors, perspectives, wizards), Update Manager etc. With RCPs developers can build their own applications on existing platforms, without spending much time on building platforms . Instead of having to write a complete application from scratch, they can benefit from proven and tested features of the framework provided by the platform. Building on a platform facilitates faster application development and integration. Rich Client Application (RCA) ( an application built on RCPs ) normally in the form of a stand-alone executable with a graphical interface composed of several controls for the user.

Making a rich client application in eclipse is quite similar to plug-in development work, with a little different approach. Here it is discussed in steps.

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Generating Javadoc In Eclipse IDE

editor — Tue, 22 May 2007 16:37:43 +0000

Javadoc is a set of Html files For any Java Project. In big Java Projects it is always better to generate document of the code written so as to make better understanding of the classes usage and detail about their methods.

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Building A Java Project In Eclipse

editor — Tue, 22 May 2007 16:13:23 +0000

Eclipse IDE not only manages Java code for Projects but Programmer can compile their Java source code using features of IDE. Suppose you have a Java Project with source code and the Jar files needed to compile the project in the project claspath. IDE provides you the option to build Java code and putting that to the output directory. Here is the brief introduction for each option available.

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Debugging Java Application in Eclipse IDE

editor — Tue, 22 May 2007 14:26:31 +0000

A Programmer many times try to locate and fix the bugs (errors) in the program code. Basic meaning of debugging a program is to start with a problem, isolate the source of the problem, and then fix it. When a programmer says he has debugged the program it means bugs has been worked out and bugs no longer exist.

From a Java Programmer there are a varieties of tools but if you are using an editor then it becomes quite easy for you to debug the program.

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Java Command Line Arguments In Eclipse IDE

editor — Sat, 19 May 2007 04:11:37 +0000

The signature of main method is:

public static void main(String[] args) {

which means that it takes a string array as the input argument. How can those be passed while running as a standalone class with in the Eclipse IDE? How can we use those input parameters with in a program? These are the some of the questions discussed here.

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Jigloo GUI Plugin for Eclipse

editor — Mon, 14 May 2007 14:47:15 +0000

Developing graphical user interface in Java, can be in three ways. AWT, Swing and SWT.

Abstract Windows Toolkit (AWT) does not have fancy looks as compared to Swing but its advantage is that it can run at any place where Java runtime environment is installed. It is very stable technology.

Swing provides GUIs that have fancy and sophisticated look and feel. It is included in the Java Foundation Classes (JFC). These are said to be slow as the controls are made by the Java itself.

Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) is an open source Java GUI toolkit comprised of a widget set and a graphics library. It provides GUIs having look and feel very similar to the native desktop applications. This is supposed to be faster as the controls are built by the native dlls.

Jigloo is an Eclipse plugin which can be used to design AWT, Swing and SWT GUIs quikly and efficiently. It is free for non commercial use.

First download the plug-in from here. Unzip it and move the folder “ plugins\com.cloudgarden.jigloo_3.9.5 ” to the plugins folder under Eclipse directory and move “ featues\com.cloudgarden.jigloo_3.9.5 ” to the features folder under Eclipse directory. Now simple open the Eclipse. Jigloo GUI plugin is read to use.

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XMLBuddy for Eclipse

editor — Mon, 14 May 2007 14:00:25 +0000

XML stands for EXtensible Markup Language. It is a markup language much like HTML and it is used to describe data. XML is a popular format in many advanced protocols. Many of the application configuration files are now converted to XML format. Now a days the XML data is also used for inter application communications to a wide extend.

There are many XML plug-ins available for the XML manipulations, but the most popular one is “ XMLBuddy ”. Its a free-ware plug-in and allows XML editing features in Eclipse environment.

First download the plug-in from http://www.xmlbuddy.com. Unzip it and move the folder named “ com.objfac.xmleditor_2.0.9 ” to the plugins folder under Eclipse directory. Now simple open the Eclipse. XML plug-in is read to use.

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An Introduction to Eclipse PDE - File Creation

editor — Tue, 08 May 2007 18:00:41 +0000

Eclipse is a platform which is itself comprised of plugins.Eclipse itself is not only a Developement environment for Java pr C++ But also an IDE for plugins for itself or standalone plugins.

As stated above Eclipse can be used as a Plugin Development Environment (PDE) which is a set of tools that help the developers in developing, testing, debugging, building, and deploying Eclipse plugins.

The plugin Development Environment (PDE) has its Wizard template to create plugins. The plugin,to be created will associate Eclipse with the file extension “.myext”. The plugin’s wizard will enable the user to create files with this extension, and when the user double-clicks on those files, they’ll appear in the plugin’s editor.

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Using Junit In Eclipse

editor — Sun, 06 May 2007 06:13:15 +0000

Unit testing is defined as “ Each module is tested alone in an attempt to discover any errors in its code ”. Its always a good practice to test each unit of your project independently as it saves time and effort while integrating the modules.

JUnit provides close relationship between testing and development. As developers write the code, they use the JUnit test runners to verify how much it deviates from the intended goal. Normally it is a standard practice that the code developers themselves write unit tests for their code.

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Generating Undeclared Methods

editor — Sat, 05 May 2007 14:24:19 +0000

Eclipse has many features that make the job of a programmer easy. Here a simple project is created and will use few of those features to demonstrate how easy programming can be using Eclipse. Most of the new programmers, ignore these and prefer to code everything themselves which is time consuming.

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