Eclipse Import Projects Plug-in

This plug-in allows import of projects and preferences using Eclipse command-line parameters. It is useful in situations where Maven is producing the .project files and Eclipse would ideally import/refresh them when launched or for Eclipse provisioning.

Installation

Place the com.seeq.eclipse.importprojects JAR file in the eclipse/plugins folder.

Usage

When launching Eclipse, add the -importProject <root project folder> command line parameter. This will cause Eclipse to recursively search the supplied folder for .project files and import them into the workspace. If they are already present in the workspace, they will be refreshed. The path supplied must be an absolute path.

You can also supply -importPreferences exported.epf to import Eclipse preferences exported earlier.

Additionally it's possible to supply multiple -importProject and -importPreferences directives to import multiple folders and/or preferences.

• -importProject projectFolder1 -importProject projectFolder2
• -importPreferences prefs1.epf -importPreferences prefs2.epf or even
• -importProject projectFolder -importPreferences prefs.epf.

The plugin will log activity and any errors to the Eclipse Error Log view (Window > Show View > Other > Error Log).

Headless

The aforementioned usage will import the projects on eclipse startup and will utimately place you in the IDE. To perform a headless-import that does not actually start the IDE, run with -application com.seeq.eclipse.importprojects.headlessimport.
On Windows use eclipsec instead of eclipse launcher. (CMD also does not know about \ for breaking long lines, replace with ^. For PowerShell use `)

eclipsec.exe -nosplash -application com.seeq.eclipse.importprojects.headlessimport \
-data <workspace-folder> -import <import-folder>

Alternatively, use the Equinox launcher directly:

java -jar eclipse-jee-mars-1.0.2/plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_$VERSION.jar -nosplash -data $WORKSPACE \
-application com.seeq.eclipse.importprojects.headlessimport \
-importProject $PROJECT -importPreferences $PREFERENCES

Supported Configurations

This plugin has been tested with Eclipse Helios (4.2), Kepler (4.3), Luna (4.4) and Mars (4.5) against Java 7 and 8. It will probably work with other configurations but they haven't been tested.

Breaking Changes with 2.0.0

2.0.0, which also introduced preference imports, changed the -import parameter for importing projects to -importProject to match -importPreferences.

Building

There are two possible ways how to build this plugin.

Host system

This plugin builds using Maven. It has been tested with Maven 3.2.3, 3.2.5, 3.5.2, and 3.8.4.

With Maven on your path, execute mvn package from the root of the repository. The target folder will contain the resulting jar file.

Docker

To create easily reproducable builds, you can build the plugin with Docker. With Docker on your path, run the build script build.sh.

Debugging

You can debug this plugin from Eclipse using the Plugin Development Environment. Take the following steps:

1. Create the Eclipse project files from Maven by executing mvn eclipse:eclipse at the root of the repo.
2. Install the "Eclipse for RCP and RAP Developers" edition of Eclipse and launch it.
3. Import the plugin project via File > Import... > General > Existing Projects into Workspace.
4. Go to Preferences > Java > Build Path > Classpath Variables and add an M2_REPO variable if it doesn't already exist. It should point to your local Maven repository, which by default is ~/.m2/repository.
5. Open up ImportProjects.java and put a breakpoint in earlyStartup().
6. Select Run > Debug Configurations... and click Eclipse Application.
7. Press the New button to create a new debug configuration. Call it whatever you like.
8. Click on the Arguments tab and add an -import <dir> directive to the Program arguments section.
9. Click on Apply and then Debug and you should hit your breakpoint.