How to automatically export project in eclipse?

Question

I have a couple of projects in eclipse which I now manually export as plugins from eclipse with the following steps:

1) Right click on example_project_plugin_1 in the Project Explorer View
2) Select Export
3) Select Plugin Development > Deployable plug-ins and fragments

Then in the folder eclipse > plugins folder, I can see the archive/jar file of these plugins.

However I want to automate this system.

These plugins are required by another project (say project_to_test ) which I'm trying to run and test and I am using Maven to automatically build test cases written using RCPTT running on a jenkins server.

So basically what I want is, without having to manually export as plugins from eclipse, it should be automatically exported as plugins when I call project_to_test from the jenkins server.

I found Tycho but it seems very complicated. (Maybe there's an easier way or tutorial somewhere of how to use Tycho for my particular use?) I tried Ant too but it's also manual work. Is there any easier way to do this? I am quite new to this so I need some direction.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Tycho is probably the best way to do it, as you are already using Maven you should be well on your way. Tycho is simply an extension of Maven (plug-ins, but I am afraid to say plug-ins too many times with different meanings :-).

There is an excellent Tycho tutorial out there: http://codeandme.blogspot.co.at/p/tycho-articles.html so that is the place to start.

However, if you really really don't want to do that, then you probably want to use PDE Build . That is the traditional build system of Eclipse, but it has its weaknesses. You should know that Eclipse does not even use PDE Build to build itself anymore, it uses Tycho.

To use PDE Build from a command line you need to use Ant. The manual work that you refer to is (mostly) automated through a PDE feature that creates that Ant files for you. Right-click on a project, select Plug-in Tools -> Create Ant Build File

Once again, I feel compelled to encourage you to take the plunge into Tycho now, rather than invest more time in the PDE Build way. You are clearly ahead of the curve in other areas (you are doing GUI testing!) so now is the time for automating your builds too.