A Simple Eclipse Plug-in Example
Before covering the Eclipse infrastructure (see Chapter 3) and each area of plug-in construction in-depth, it is useful to create a simple plug-in on which discussion and examples can be based. This chapter takes a step-by-step approach to creating a simple but fully operational plug-in that will be enhanced bit-by-bit during the course of this book. This process provides valuable firsthand experience using the Eclipse IDE and touches on every aspect of building and maintaining a plug-in.
2.1 The Favorites Plug-in
The Favorites plug-in, which you’ll build over the course of this book, displays a list of resources, lets you add and remove resources from the list, easily opens an editor on a selected resource, updates the list automatically as a result of events elsewhere in the system, and more. Subsequent chapters discuss aspects of plug-in development in terms of enhancements to the Favorites plug-in.
This chapter starts the process by covering the creation of the Favorites plug-in in its simplest form using the following steps:
- Creating a plug-in project
- Reviewing the generated code
- Building a product
- Installing and running the product