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[news.eclipse.platform.swt] Anyone like to share their 3.2.1 SWT/JFace user libraries?
Hi all. My programming group uses a feature of Eclipse called "User Libraries" to achieve the following:
1. Standardization across the team of all 3rd party libs.
2. Easy way to enable viewing and stepping into library source code.
3. Easy way to make F1 key (help) bring up doc'n of SWT and JFace classes.

I am still completely incredulous at how difficult item 2 and 3 were to achieve, so somebody please set me straight if the following is wrong. But in the past posts like this received the equivalent of a blank stare.

After installing Eclipse and designing some SWT/JFace code, we could click on a standard class name like String, hit F1 and see nice Javadoc on the String class in the Help window. And, in the debugger we could step into Sun's classes and see how they worked.

But in Eclipse, the cobbler's children had no shoes. For SWT classes like Composite, the above did not work. F1 only got you messages that told you that you were using the editor, duh. We had to tediously hunt down the path to the Javadoc and the source code and these names weren't so easy to find. Even worse, every time we made a new project, we had to do this all over again for each of about a half dozen SWT/JFace related library files, not to mention the files for XML parsers, Loggers, databases and other third party stuff.

Additionally, the provider of our SWT Designer GUI tool was in total denial that this was an issue. Although they seemed to make it easy to put the right support libraries into a SWT/JFace project's build path, they flatly refused to go the extra step of calling out the Javadoc and source for them. Basically they told us to suck it up. If you're shopping for a GUI designer, check for this.

So, enter "User Libraries" which totally saved us. (From Eclipse Window menu, select Preferences, Java, Build Path, User Libraries). At the end of this message is the User Library file that we used with Eclipse 3.1.1 for SWT/JFace related files. If this helps anyone, we'd love to hear about it.

Notice in our user library file that everything is mapped to the J: drive. What we do is either map J: to a shared folder on the network or we share out "c:\Java" and map it as "J:" on home computers and laptops. That way, everybody painlessly uses the exact same libs and with minimal effort gets the benefits of the F1 key and source code. For each new project we do have to call out these user libs, but it is pretty easy. Nice, huh?

Again, I am stupefied that this hasn't been addressed. If it has, someone take me down a notch.

Transitioning from 3.1 to 3.1.1 took a little effort. Some files remained at 3.1.0 and some didn't. No big deal, I just edited the user library file, organized some folders and voila, we were back in business.

We must've slept through 3.2 but now want to go to 3.2.1 (because it or 3.2.0 fixed the bug I described in my last post, among other reasons). But wow, somebody got pretty creative with the folder names and apparently there's some restructuring of paths here and there. I don't even know what jars I need to run SWT/JFace with 3.2.1, and BTW, figuring that out was an unnecessary pitb which an author of a large SWT book explained to us after no here could.

Java is wonderful and our all time favorite, but sometimes I think the Java world will never quite "get it" about ease-of-use that other software providers always understood.

***********
So here's my plea: HAS ANYONE DONE FOR 3.2.1 WHAT WE DID FOR 3.1.1 (BELOW)?

Thanks,
Bill
PS- if anybody really likes the following and would like the same for any of the following libs, please let me know. Hibernate-3
Hibernate-3.1.1
jaf-1.1
javamail-1.4
JDOM-1.0
JUnit-3.8.1
Log4j-1.2.9
PostgreSQL-8.0.3
Xerces-2.6.2
Even better, if we could all collaborate in this direction, wouldn't that be great?
***********



<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<eclipse-userlibraries version="2">

<library name="SWT_JFace-3.1.1" systemlibrary="false">

<archive path="J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.osgi_3.1.1.jar" source="J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.rcp.source_3.1.1/src/org.eclipse.osgi_3.1.1/src.zip"
javadoc="jar:file:/J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv_3.1.1/doc.zip!/reference/api" />


<!-- NOTE: the following library remained at version 3.1.0 in the 3.1.1 release, thus 3.1.0" in the jar filename -->
<archive path="J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.ui.forms_3.1.0.jar"
source="J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.rcp.source_3.1.1/src/org.eclipse.ui.forms_3.1.1/src.zip"
javadoc="jar:file:/J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv_3.1.1/doc.zip!/reference/api" />



<archive path="J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime_3.1.1.jar"
source="J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.rcp.source_3.1.1/src/org.eclipse.core.runtime_3.1.1/src.zip"
javadoc="jar:file:/J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv_3.1.1/doc.zip!/reference/api" />

<archive path="J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.swt.win32.win32.x86_3.1.1.jar"
source= "J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.rcp.source.win32.win32.x86_3.1.1/src/org.eclipse.swt.win32.win32.x86_3.1.1/src.zip"
javadoc="jar:file:/J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv_3.1.1/doc.zip!/reference/api" />

<archive path="J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.jface_3.1.1.jar"
source="J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.rcp.source_3.1.1/src/org.eclipse.jface_3.1.1/src.zip"
javadoc="jar:file:/J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv_3.1.1/doc.zip!/reference/api" />


<archive path="J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.jface.text_3.1.1.jar" source="J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.rcp.source_3.1.1/src/org.eclipse.jface_3.1.1/src.zip"
javadoc="jar:file:/J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv_3.1.1/doc.zip!/reference/api" />


<archive path="J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.ui.workbench_3.1.1.jar"
source="J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.rcp.source_3.1.1/src/org.eclipse.ui.workbench_3.1.1/src.zip"
javadoc="jar:file:/J:/tools_libraries/eclipse-3.1.1/plugins/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv_3.1.1/doc.zip!/reference/api" />

</library>
</eclipse-userlibraries>