Reading Neal Ford's generally excellent book The Productive Programmer, I experimented with his multiple plugin configuration hack. In short, creating multiple plugin configurations in a single eclipse install allows for a team to keep their plugin configurations in version control, so everyone has exactly the same configurations as anyone else on the team. No more "works on my machine but not on yours" weirdness. You can even manage them on a project-by-project basis, which is good.
But there are two aspects of working with multiple plugin configurations that are strange: specifically, creating and deleting them. In order to create an additional plugin configuration, you have to:
From there, you can go to Help -> Software Updates -> Manage Configuration and add your configuration location(s). Then it's a simple matter of installing your plugins to the config locations desired. You can then enable and disable multiple plugins as a group, switch between versions, etc. It's very handy.
But I'd mentioned that there were two strange things about the process. Creating additional configuration locations was one, deleting them was the second. Just as Eclipse gives you no love in creating them, it makes it even harder to get rid of them.
Let's say, for example, that you've added your new location as an extension not to the top-level list, but as an extension to an extension. (Yes, you can do this.) But let's also say that's not what you wanted. Well, you can disable your extension-within-an-extension, but you can't get Eclipse to ignore its existence entirely. If you then try to add it to the top level, Eclipse won't let you, complaining that you've already added it elsewhere. Arg.
Well, there's a way around that, too (but Ford doesn't mention it). Under ${ECLIPSE_HOME}/configuration/org.eclipse.update there's a file called platform.xml. Up at the top there are "site" nodes, and one of those will be your offender. Delete the bad guy and restart Eclipse. Now you can place your configuration elsewhere. (Or, you can just change the path in the node).
Anyway, as noted, there's a lot to gain by using multiple plugin configuarations, once you get around Eclipse's strange reluctance to make it intuitive. Happy hacking!
But there are two aspects of working with multiple plugin configurations that are strange: specifically, creating and deleting them. In order to create an additional plugin configuration, you have to:
- Create a folder to hold the configuration. It must be named "eclipse" and it must not be in Eclipse's directory structure.
- Within your "eclipse" folder, you have to make an empty file called .eclipseextension, and two empty folders, features and plugins.
From there, you can go to Help -> Software Updates -> Manage Configuration and add your configuration location(s). Then it's a simple matter of installing your plugins to the config locations desired. You can then enable and disable multiple plugins as a group, switch between versions, etc. It's very handy.
But I'd mentioned that there were two strange things about the process. Creating additional configuration locations was one, deleting them was the second. Just as Eclipse gives you no love in creating them, it makes it even harder to get rid of them.
Let's say, for example, that you've added your new location as an extension not to the top-level list, but as an extension to an extension. (Yes, you can do this.) But let's also say that's not what you wanted. Well, you can disable your extension-within-an-extension, but you can't get Eclipse to ignore its existence entirely. If you then try to add it to the top level, Eclipse won't let you, complaining that you've already added it elsewhere. Arg.
Well, there's a way around that, too (but Ford doesn't mention it). Under ${ECLIPSE_HOME}/configuration/org.eclipse.update there's a file called platform.xml. Up at the top there are "site" nodes, and one of those will be your offender. Delete the bad guy and restart Eclipse. Now you can place your configuration elsewhere. (Or, you can just change the path in the node).
Anyway, as noted, there's a lot to gain by using multiple plugin configuarations, once you get around Eclipse's strange reluctance to make it intuitive. Happy hacking!
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