[news.eclipse.platform.rcp] RCP, JAR plugins and Eclipse Web Start

["Torsten Bergmann" <astares@xxxxxx>]

Hi,

I've built a simple RCP application which is deployed using JavaWebstart. To 
achieve this I used the eclipse
"Product export wizard" to build a standalone version of the application. 
The plugin directory of the
standalone product included all the jar's I needed for my little web start 
application.
I just had to sign the Jars and write some JNLP files similar to Ed 
Burnettes Eclipse Web start
example on www.eclipsepowered.com. Worked without any problems.

So I enhanced the application and added Eclipse help support. Some of the 
plugins required for the
standalone help are already provided as JAR's (like org.eclipse.help.*) - 
but some of them not.
Especiall the plugin folder of my new enhanced standalone application now 
has "org.eclipse.tomcat_4.1.30.1",
"org.eclipse.help.webapp_3.1.0" and "org.apache.lucene_1.4.3" as extracted 
directories.

But to package them into Web start I need JAR's. So I tried to package them 
using jar.exe, leave
the resulting Jars in the plugin folder (similar to the other eclipse 
plugins), delete their directories
and restart the product - claiming that it may be no difference for the 
runtime to get the plugin as
JAR of extracted directory. Unfortunately the product was not able to load 
the JAR'd plugins after that.

Does onyone have successfully built a feature rich RCP application (help 
support, cheatsheets, ...) and
with only JAR's in the plugin directory.

Thanks
Torsten