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Given an error in your plugin.xml (bug 19197), the following results: 1. PDE doesn't inform you of the error via an error marker, so no task, no error sign on the file or on the editor. 2. It *does* tell you there's an error if you try to switch pages (this was how I finally accidentally discovered there was an error) 3 but as far as I can tell there is no indication of where the error is.
YOu need to convert to PDE nature - that is the only way PDE can attach builders and produce error markers.
I can accept that you are technically limited to what you can do if there is no PDE nature/builder. But how is a person to know this? They are left just scratching their heads. I am reopening for this reason - there is a secondary point that we may be able to address with low cost. - I didn't know I didn't have a PDE nature/builder, had gotten by fine so far without one (ie. people may go a long time in this state believing it to be ok). - I didn't know why I would want one. I've seen the "some of your projects aren't PDE projects" message a long time ago but turned it off :) Also see my comments in related PR regarding if PDE can help on more course grain places like save and launch. Perhaps if the message was "There is an error in your plug manifest. PDE can not accurately report this error because your project isn't a PDE project". It seems a bit unfair that you don't tell me what the error is and yet at the same time you don't run that plugin.xml and don't tell me you didn't.
The current control flow in the manifest editor is such that source page talks directly to the document, which is saved into the file resource. When form pages are modified, the GUI model is made dirty, and on save it is flushed into the document, which is in turn saved into the resource. That means that the document is the common point where form and source pages meet. When you spend all your work in the source page, no attempt to parse the file document is made. With PDE nature, PDE builder would caught the error and create markers. Without it, there is nothing to warn you. Adding a check on save is expensive in the current design. Ditto for launching - you don't want to pay the price of validating all the manifests each time you launch. The right way to check for validity is on file changes (i.e. the builder). We cannot solve this problem without asking you to assume PDE nature in 2.1 time frame. In 2.2, we plan for extensive rework of the editors, so presumably you will receive error hightlighting similar to Java editor even without the Java nature (the checking and hightlighting will be part of the model reconciler with is self-contained and is not dependent on the natures). In the mean time, just add the PDE nature. It has been tested extensively and many teams are using it without problems.
ancient history.
closing.
