Description Qiu Yin 2007-11-03 01:17:18 EDT

Setting build path variable denoting external folder is not intuitive enough in eclipse-based products. Say we want
to define a build path variable named CM_COMMON_DIR which denotes the external folder "C:\IBM\db2cmv8\cmgmt".
If we define it in the project build path using the "Add variable" button, the project will not build and
complain that variable is denoting an external folder. To successfully add this kind of variable, we have to follow
the following steps in the build path configuration page.

1. Click "Add Class Folder" button in the build path configuration page and then click "Create New
Folder".
2. In the popup dialog, click "Advanced..." to show the advanced options.
3. Check "Link to folder in the file system" and then click "Variables...".
4. In this new dialog click "New..." to create a new path variable.

The above steps create a path variable which denotes an external folder and also a class folder linked to this variable.

Customers might be confused with the concepts of "path variable" and "classpath variable". And it is not convenient to remove or modify the path variables.

Build path variables can only point to external archives (.zip or .jar file) but not external folders in eclipse platform. It might be better to consolidate the approaches of adding a variable pointing to an archive and adding one pointing to an external folder. We can create a link folder behind the scene if the user tries to add a variable denoting to an external folder in the build path.