Overview

The goal of this example is to create a simple Eclipse PDE feature and to successfully build it with pde-maven-plugin.

Prerequisites

Have run the Create a Simple Plugin example, as a feature needs some plugins to work.

Steps

Create the Project

  File > New > Project...
  
  Plug-in Development > Feature Project (Next)
  
  Project name: "test.pde_maven_plugin.simple_feature"
  Uncheck "Use default location" and set Location to "<Your Workspace>\PDE_Plugin_Tutorial\features\test.pde_maven_plugin.simple_feature"
  (Finish)

  TROUBLE SHOOTING: Eclipse will complain that "Project contents cannot be inside workspace directory"
  which is non-sense since you can import projects within project now. This may be a bug with the validation
  code of the Feature Project builder.  You can trick Eclipse by typing and deleting a character in "Project name"
  which will clear the error message allowing you to click Finish.

If you have never started Plug-in Development before then the "Open Associated Perspective" popup will appear. Click "Remember my decision" and "Yes" to always change to the "Plug-in Development perspective"

Confirm the Project can be exported via Eclipse

On the "test.pde_maven_plugin.simple_feature" editor Overview page, click the "Export Wizard" link in the Exporting section.

Ensure that "test.pde_maven_plugin.simple_feature" is checked in the "Deployable features" pop-up. Choose archive file and specify a destination someone (e.g. D:\tmp\test.pde_maven_plugin.simple_feature.zip)

Open the archive and confirm that it contains "features/test.pde_maven_plugin.simple_feature_1.0.0/" and "plugins/test.pde_maven_plugin.simple_plugin_1.0.0.jar"

Create pom.xml

Now that we know the feature project can be exported via Eclipse, we can create the pom.xml to get this running in Maven.

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>test.pde_maven_plugin</groupId>
  <artifactId>simple_feature</artifactId>
  <packaging>zip</packaging>
  <name>Simple Feature PDE Example</name>
  <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
  <description>A Simple Feature PDE Example</description>
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
        <artifactId>pde-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <extensions>true</extensions>
        <configuration>
          <eclipseInstall>D:\eclipse-3.2</eclipseInstall>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
</project>

Run mvn install

Everything is setup and ready to go. Type "mvn install" to build your pde feature from the command line.

When everything is complete you should see that your feature zip file "test.pde_maven_plugin.simple_feature_1.0.0.bin.dist.zip" gets installed into your local maven repository as "simple_feature-1.0-SNAPSHOT.zip"

[INFO] Installing <Your Workspace>\PDE_Plugin_Tutorial\features\test.pde_maven_plugin.simple_feature\test.pde_maven_plugin.simple_feature_1.0.0.bin.dist.zip 
 to <Your M2 REPO>\.m2\repository\test\pde_maven_plugin\simple_feature\1.0-SNAPSHOT\simple_feature-1.0-SNAPSHOT.zip
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESSFUL
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 16 seconds
[INFO] Finished at: Fri Nov 24 10:29:01 CST 2006
[INFO] Final Memory: 5M/9M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Test out your plugin

If you are feeling really brave, make a copy of your eclipse installation (D:\Copy of eclipse-3.2 will do) and run this new version to see that it works and does not include your plugin.

Browse to your m2 repository and extract <Your M2 REPO>\.m2\repository\test\pde_maven_plugin\simple_feature.0-SNAPSHOT\simple_feature-1.0-SNAPSHOT.zip to the root of your Eclipse copy (e.g. D:\Copy of eclipse-3.2\)

You now need to run Eclipse with the "-clean" option to force it to reload its plugin cache. The easiest way is to edit the "eclipse.ini" file and add "-clean" on a line by itself before the "-vm" argument. e.g:

-clean
-vm
D:\Programs\Java\jdk1.5.0_08\bin\javaw.exe
-vmargs
-Xms80m
-Xmx1000m

Run Eclipse and see your "Sample Menu" is available.