Plug-in development 101, Part 2: Introducing Rich-Client Applications

This "Plug-in development 101" series of articles is all about developing plug-ins. But before we get started, we need to ensure that we have a proper environment in which to develop plug-ins. The first step is to download an Eclipse distribution that has the Plug-in Development Environment (PDE) in it from Eclipse.org. I recommend downloading the latest version of Eclipse Classic. In this series, we will use a milestone release of Eclipse V3.4 (M5). Once this done, you're ready to go. (See Resources to learn where to find Eclipse and additional background information if you are new to Eclipse.)

To make it easier to understand plug-in development, this article follows a workflow detailed in Figure 1. In Part 1, we discuss the first five steps of the workflow. Here, we cover the last two steps and focus on introducing rich-client applications.

Figure 1. Plug-in development workflow

Building

Configuring build content is an important step on our plug-in development adventure. In Eclipse, all plug-in development build-related configuration goes into the build.properties file.

Figure 2. Build configuration (build.properties)

Sample build-configuration content centers around the MANIFEST.MF, plugin.xml, and icon files. It may also include plugin.properties for internationalization support or artifacts like license files. It's important to notice the distinction of what is included in a binary build vs. a source build. Typically, when you export a plug-in from Eclipse, it's just a binary plug-in export that can be used by your friends in their Eclipse installations. A Source Build should include the source from the plug-in you're working on. You can elect to do a source build during a typical export operation.

Exporting

The final step in a typical plug-in developer's workflow involves exporting the plug-in you've created. Eclipse's PDE makes this an easy process using a specialized export wizard. To access this wizard (see Figure 3), simply click File > Export and select Deployable Plug-ins and Fragments under the Plug-in Development category.

Figure 3. Export plug-in wizard

The first option to select within this wizard is what plug-ins we're interested in exporting. In this case, we just want our simple HelloWorld plug-in. The next step is to select a destination for our plug-in. We can opt to put the plug-in inside a ZIP file or within a directory. The other options within this wizard include abilities to do plug-in signing and bundling source with your plug-in. For now, ignore these and simply click Finish on the wizard to export your plug-in (see Figure 4). Note that the Overview page in the plug-in manifest editor provides an easy hyperlink to launch the wizard.

Figure 4. Plug-in on disk

That's it! That's all it takes to get a plug-in from an Eclipse workspace to a consumable form on a hard disk. Once in this form, plug-ins can be distributed easily to colleagues and friends. This ends our focus on plug-in development workflow, but now that we know the basics, we can start looking at what it takes to create a rich-client application within Eclipse.