How to export eclipse plugins as separate features and use the feature in other feature projects?

Question

I have three eclipse plugin projects.

Plugin-A plugin-B Plugin-C

Plugin-a AND Plugin-B has been added as a dependency for Plugin-C. And i have a .product file in Plugin-C. When i export eclipse product from this product file, Plugin-A and Plugin-B are bundled inside my project.

I dont want this to happen. I need to have Plugin-A and Plugin-B as a separate features. And if i make any change in Pluin-A or Plugin-B, only that feature needs to be updated. There shouldnt be a need to generate the complete product.

Answer 1

In order to be able to update parts independently of each other you have to specify these parts as features. For each plug-in project A, B and C you need a feature project: File > New > (Other...: Plug-in Development >) Feature Project (see Eclipse help: Feature Project ).

In addition, you would certainly also want a update site project: File > New > Other...: Plug-in Development > Update Site Project (see Eclipse help: Update Site Project ). Open the site.xml file, add the features via Add Feature... button, click Build All and copy the whole project as update site to a shared folder or upload it to a server.

Note, both plug-ins and features have their own versions. If you update a plug-in, you have to update also the version of the feature that contains the plug-in, add the new version to your update site, rebuild and publish the update site.

See also: Eclipse p2 updates for RCP applications - Tutorial