[news.eclipse.tools] Re: Sharing/distrubting eclipse, plugins and config

["Max Rydahl Andersen" <max@xxxxxx>]

Thanx - it worked and is now on the wiki :)

http://eclipsewiki.swiki.net/131

/max

"Christophe Elek" <celek@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Xns928782B049407celekcaibmcom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> "Max Rydahl Andersen" <max@xxxxxx> wrote in
> news:alqesc$qn6$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx:
>
> >>
> >> Max,
> >> I am lost there... you want to have a site with only plugins ?
> >> without any feature right ?
> >
> > My basic idea in the beginning was just to have a central located
> > directory named mycompany-plugins on a shared server.
> > Then our developers would make a local copy of this directory (so they
> > could use it on their laptops when disconnected) and
> > then eclipse looked for plugins (after looking in its own plugins
> > directory) in their local version of this directory when running.
> >
> > Then I could at certain intervals inform our inhouse-developers that
> > now would be a good idea to re-copy (e.g. when I find a super-duper
> > XML plugin)
> Sounds good
>
> >> well site.xml is used to install, do you want to install or just run
> >> from it ?
> >> I mean you can just setup the plugins there, create a
> >> plugins/directory as if it was under eclipse and have the eclipse
> >> 'link' to it so your plugins will be found at runtime
> >
> > How do I make this "link" ?
> check <http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/index.cgi/%7Echeckout%7E/platform-
> update-home/doc/products-and-extension.html>
>
> this is pretty dry, so in a nutshell;
>
>
> * Set up a new install directory somewhere in your file system. Create
> eclipse/ subdirectory under it. Unzip the plugins into the eclipse/
> subdirectory. You should end up with
>
>     * <some new install directory>/
>             eclipse/
>             features/
>             plugins/
>
> * In the original eclipse install (the one that contains the platform),
> create a new directory called "links" as a peer to features/ and
> plugins/. You should end up with
>
>     * <eclipse platform install directory>/
>             eclipse/
>             links/
>             features/
>             plugins/
>
> * within the links/ subdirectory, create a file called <name>.link  and
> add a single line into it
> path=<some new install directory>
>
> Note: the path should be an absolute path using local file system syntax.
> The .link file is loaded as a Java properties file, so on Windows you
> need to double up the back-slashes (eg. path=c:\\temp\\install)
>
> >> I understand you do not want to write it, but distributing plugins
> >> without feature is like distributing zip without installshield or rpm
> >> package.. (IMHO)
> >
> > But the "defacto" standard for distributing and installing plugins
> > today is to provide a .jar file that is
> > easily expanded into the plugins directory - nice and easy :)
>
> Right, but defacto and eay doesn't mean it will provide the features you
> want ;-)
> We need some meta info that are not part of plugins if you want to manage
> things like install or configuration.
>
> --
> Christophe Elek
> Eclipse Project
> http://www.eclipse.org