Re[2]: [equinox-dev] Plugin development

[Peter Kriens <Peter.Kriens@xxxxxxxx>]

Additionally,
the bundle jar file does not contain the plugin.xml. Does this mean that you
can never deploy a plugin as an OSGi bundle? I.e. the plugin.xml must
be in the same directory as the jar file?

Kind regards,

     Peter Kriens


JM> Great answers Martin.  It is notonly OK but highly desired that others answer questions.

JM> By way of some more background...

JM> How you see the Eclipse runtime dependson where you are
JM> coming from.  Martin has accurately described theEclipse
JM> perspective.  Just write plugin.xml as normal and write aPlugin
JM> class that does not use the (soon to deprecated) methods on
JM> Plugin. List this guy as your plugin class and let the runtime
JM> take careof everything else.

JM> If you are coming at this from the OSGipoint of view, you can
JM> write a MANIFEST.MF and identify a bundle activator. In the
JM> traditional OSGi model you then have to arrange for someoneto
JM> "start" your bundle.

JM> The two models meet as follows.  Pluginactually implements
JM> BundleActivator. When you list a Plugin class as theplugin class
JM> in your plugin.xml (and are not requiring compatibility),that
JM> Plugin class is actually used as the BundleActivator.  As suchyou
JM> need to implement start() and stop().  Further, the
JM> transfromationfrom plugin.xml to MANIFEST.MF puts a special
JM> Eclipse-AutoStart: true headerin the manifest.  This makes Eclipse
JM> automatically start the pluginwhen it loads a class for the first
JM> time.

JM> Jeff



JM> Martin Lippert <lippert@xxxxxxx>
JM> Sent by: equinox-dev-admin@eclipse.org04/21/2004 08:51 AM

JM> Please respond to
JM> equinox-dev


JM> To

JM> equinox-dev@eclipse.orgcc

JM> Subject

JM> Re: [equinox-dev] Plugindevelopment




JM> Hi Peter,

JM> hope it is okay if a non-runtime and non-committer guy try to answer
JM> this question...

>> I am trying to get my plugin to work (again) under M8 and I am having
>> a hell of a time ... maybe someone can help.
>> 
>> My plugin needs the bundle context so I need a bundle activator. It
>> seems however that this never gets called, not even the constructor.I
>> created a new plugin project, checked the OSGi box and looked at it.
>> But as far as I can see, it never calls the activator automatically
>> either if a view is created. This standard plugin creates a plugin.xml
>> file.

JM>  From my understanding you should do something like this:

JM> 1. Create a new plugin and do *not* check the OSGi box in the new plugin
JM> wizard (this does not create a manifest file, which is only necessary
JM> for *very special* OSGi feature usage)
JM> 2. Replace the dependency to o.e.c.runtime.compatibility with o.e.c.runtime
JM> 3. Adapt your plugin class to the new plugin superclass from the general
JM> runtime plugin (replace the constructor with one without parameters)
JM> 4. Override start and stop methods in your plugin class (their you get
JM> the BundleContext as parameter)

>> Originally I had an extensions XML file instead of a plugin.xml file
>> (and a manifest of course). However, Eclipse seems to get totally
>> confused about the dependencies when there is no plugin.xml.

JM> Your plugin should look pretty much like if you would have written it
JM> with Eclipse 2.1 (except from the default constructor and the new 
JM> start/stop methods).

JM> The extensions.xml file was only a temporary idea during some older
JM> milestone builds of 3.0. (if I remember previous observations correct).
JM> In M8 you should put the extensions in the normal plugin.xml file.

>> So can someone tell me how I should setup a plugin where the bundle
>> activator is called before an extension is created?

JM> If you create your plugin the way I described above the runtime should
JM> take care of this.

JM> In your first try the wizard created a MANIFEST.MF file. In this case
JM> the runtime takes the dependency information of this file only (this
JM> caused the dependency confusion) and does not auto-activate the plugin
JM> (if you do not explicitly write it in the MANIFEST.MF)

JM> Hope this helps. And I hope I did not forget something.

JM> Best regards,
JM> -Martin





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Peter Kriens                              Mob. +46705950899
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