Installing Eclipse RCP Plugins

3
votes

I have an Eclipse RCP application that I would like to install a plugin into. I know the plugin works with the application, and with older versions of the application I could just drop the plugin JAR into plugins/ folder and it would be available next time I loaded the application.

However, with the current version, the JAR doesn't seem to get picked up when I put it in the plugins/ folder. I've tried running the application with the --clean flag, but that doesn't help.

How do I tell the application that I want to install the plugin?

Update: Got it working by adding the plugin to the config.ini - I've not needed to do that before, previously it would just be picked up when I placed it in the plugins/ folder. Is there a configuration option that disables the detection of new plugins from the plugins/ folder?

2
javaeclipseeclipse-plugineclipse-rcp
Which version of eclipse you are using? - Chandrayya G K
Dropping it into the plugins folder should still be enough, there must be something else preventing the plugin from starting. Check the error log ('workspace/.metadata/.log') - Nick Wilson
Eclipse RCP version is 3.8.2 I think. Nope, nothing in the logs - is there some configuration option that could have been enabled that would stop the latest version of the application picking up new plugins? - James Baker
Try creating a catalog /eclipse/dropins and adding it there. - Fredrik
Try this trick I wrote about in another question: stackoverflow.com/questions/7769730/… - Fredrik

2 Answers

3
votes

@Fredrik basically says it: You need to put the plugin in the "dropins" folder, the sister directory to the plugins directory. Then restart. I usually run eclipse -clean just to be safe. If there's a problem with the plugin, you will need to using the p2 debugger as mentioned in https://stackoverflow.com/a/12480978/2295812

1
votes

Got it working by adding the plugin to the config.ini - I've not needed to do that before, previously it would just be picked up when I placed it in the plugins/ folder. Is there a configuration option that disables the detection of new plugins from the plugins/ folder?