Eclipse Tips

Useful tips for Eclipse

If you still use an old version, don't forget to turn on Eclipse's memory monitor, use Window -> Preferences -> General -> Show Heap Status.

Use Eclipse Short Cuts
Most important shortcuts

CTRL SHIFT R for finding resources!
CTRL H for finding text in files

Configuring Eclipse to work with OFBiz

Setting up Eclipse to work with OFBiz is easy. There are two ways to import OFBiz into Eclipse: You can either allow Eclipse to download OFBiz directly from SVN, or you can import an already downloaded copy of OFBiz (from SVN or otherwise) from the filesystem.

Importing OFBiz from the filesystem into Eclipse

If you have already downloaded OFBiz and do not wish to have Eclipse handle SVN pulls for you, Eclipse can import OFBiz from the filesystem as well. OFBiz includes a ".project" file to allow Eclipse to automatically configure the project for you. This means that if you have already downloaded the code (from SVN or otherwise), all you have to do to import the project is:

Right-click in the Navigator window and click on Import.
Select "Existing Project into Workspace" and click Next.
Click Browse and select the directory that contains the ".project" file, then click Finish. When this is complete, a new project named "ofbiz" will now appear in your Navigator. This will not copy the project to Eclipse's workspace directory: it will remain wherever it was before the import. If you want the OFBiz files in your workspace directory, you must move them there before you do the import.

Building OFBiz with Ant from within Eclipse

You will next need to build OFBiz with Ant. To do this, go to the Navigator panel and do the following:

Click the "+" next to the ofbiz project.
Right click on the "build.xml" in the root of the ofbiz project and select "Run Ant..."
The defaults are fine for the initial build. Click Finish. If you get the following error message:

javac[ BUILD FAILED: file:<Project Dir>/build.xml:32: Unable to find a javac compiler;

com.sun.tools.javac.Main is not on the classpath.

Perhaps JAVA_HOME does not point to the JDK. See the instructions for modifying the Eclipse JVM below.

Using SVN from within Eclipse

If you want to do the SVN pull from within Eclipse, use the following steps:

First you need to install Subclipse

see Installation Instructions for Eclipse 3.x Then connect to the repository:

Bring up the "SVN Repository" panel in Eclipse (Window/Open Perspective/SVN Repository Exploring)
Right-Click within panel/New/Repository Location
- Url:http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/ofbiz/trunk\[\]
Click on Finish. Now, do the initial checkout:

Click the "+" next to the new repository, then Right-Click on trunk and select "Checkout...". Select "Check out as project in the workspace" and click on "Finish". This will create a new project called "ofbiz" and download the OFBiz files directly from SVN. To sync your project with SVN in the future, right-click on the project and click Teams/Synchronize with Repository.

Additional Eclipse and OFBiz resources

Changing Eclipse's JVM

javac[ BUILD FAILED: file:<Project Dir>/build.xml:32: Unable to find a javac compiler;
If you have received the above error, you most likely have more than one JVM (e.g. a JRE and a JDK) installed. Eclipse uses the first Java VM it finds on your computer's PATH variable. In this case, it is most likely a JRE, not a JDK. Ant uses the same Java environment as Eclipse, no matter what you may specify in the compiler attribute. Because it is a JRE, you will not be able to compile.

To correct this, you must tell Eclipse to use the SDK. To do this, modify the shortcut you use to launch Eclipse and change the target to the following:

<ECLIPSE_DIR>\eclipse.exe -vm <SDK_DIR>\bin\javaw.exe

Original source: http://www.ryanlowe.ca/blog/archives/000386.php

Tuning Eclipse

For more on tuning Eclipse JVM heap size, you can refer to this IBM article

Using local XSD's when no internet connection is available, or you are using another version than the one online

Eclipse uses XSD files to check XML files for correctness and also when using autocompletion. Normally, eclipse uses the XSD location specified at the top of the XML file which is usually a remote address. If you do not have an internet connection, the XSD will not be found and these features will not be available (unless they have been previously cached by eclipse).

A new file .catalog.xml has been introduced in OFBiz root starting from svn 1326499. This file contains a definition compliant with the Oasis Catalog specification of all schemas used by ofbiz. You can import it in you Eclipse workbench by following the explanation at the Eclipse Import XML catalog section. Note also that the platform:/resource notation is used to identify a resource located in the workspace. The next path segment after "resource" should be the name of a project, which can be followed by the folder and/or file we want to locate. So you might need to change the workspase name part of the path according to your real project name.

The following documents describes how to setup local XSD resolution.
Eclipse OOTB
Eclipse + Oxygen see import section in XML Catalog Tutorial

At large, look for "eclipse xml catalog howto" in Google...

Setting "Save Actions" Preference

Here is a screen-copy of my setting of this feature which is unused by default

How to use Regular Expression for Search & Replace in Eclipse ?

When it comes to large changes, hand-coding is tedious and error prone. Using Eclipse regexp in S/R may then be the way. But be carefull, it takes a man to do an error and a machine to transform it in a cataclysm.

Here is an example of work done in OFBiz with S/R regexp

You don't need anything else than Eclipse 3.4+ version. The feature itself uses the standard java regular expressions and is actually fairly simple to understand. I would recommend to have a go at regular expressions before trying that feature. You may use these plugins Bastian Bergerhoff's Brosinski's to help your work. You may also use online tools like gskinner's or regextester to test the results. Another great read is also: http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/releases/1.4regex

Be aware that there are different types of regexp. So not all commands may work (luckily, eclipse displays the available commands on the input dialog)

Btw, a great one I use quite often is this:

<TAG\b[^>]*>(.*?)</TAG>

It'll grab the start and ending ending of a specified html tag. You can then use the select the inner element using $1

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