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| <title>Configuring PDE</title> | |
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| <h2><font size="5">Concepts</font></h2> | |
| <h2>Host vs. runtime</h2> | |
| <p>One of the most important concepts in PDE to understand is that of <b>host</b> | |
| and <b>runtime</b> workbench instances. </p> | |
| <p>When you start up the workbench, you | |
| will use it to work on your projects that define the plug-ins you are | |
| building. The workbench instance that you are running as you develop | |
| your | |
| plug-in using the PDE and other tools is the <b>host</b> instance. The features available in this instance will | |
| come exclusively from the plug-ins that are installed with your application.</p> | |
| <p> Once you are | |
| happy with your plug-in and want to test it, you can launch another workbench instance, | |
| the <b>runtime</b> instance. This instance will contain the same | |
| plug-ins as the <b>host</b> instance, but will also have the plug-ins you were | |
| working on in the <b>host</b> instance. PDE launcher will take care of merging your | |
| plug-ins with the host plug-ins and creating the run-time instance.</p> | |
| <h2><b>Target Platform</b></h2> | |
| <p>Target Platform refers to the Eclipse product against which the plug-ins you | |
| are developing will be compiled and tested. The Target Platform must | |
| therefore be the same platform in which you plan to deploy your plug-ins.</p> | |
| <p>The location of the target platform is set on the <b>Plug-in Development > | |
| Target Platform</b> preference page. By default, the target platform is | |
| the same as the platform you are using for development, but this is not | |
| required. You can set the target platform to whatever Eclipse-based | |
| product you want. For example, if you want to take advantage of the latest | |
| and greatest Eclipse 3.0 features to develop for plug-ins that will be deployed | |
| in a product based on a 2.x Eclipse, you can use Eclipse 3.0 as your development | |
| platform and a 2.x-based product as your target platform.</p> | |
| <p> </p> | |
| <p align="center"> | |
| <img border="0" src="images/preferences.png" alt="PDE preferences - "Target Platform" page" ></p> | |
| <p align="left"> </p> | |
| <p align="left">All the plug-ins found in the target platform location specified | |
| by the user are listed on the preference page. However, only the plug-ins | |
| that are explicitly checked constitute the target platform; the rest are ignored | |
| by PDE. By default, all plug-ins are checked.</p> | |
| <h2>External vs. workspace plug-ins</h2> | |
| <p>When developing Eclipse plug-ins, the set of plug-ins that you will be used | |
| to run the runtime workbench come from two distinct places: the workspace of the | |
| host instance and the target platform. Although, to PDE, all plug-ins are | |
| the same no matter where they come from, there are a few differences that | |
| quickly become evident to users.</p> | |
| <ul> | |
| <li><b>Workspace plug-ins</b> are those plug-ins under development in your host | |
| workbench. They are under your control and can be added, deleted and | |
| modified by the user.</li> | |
| <li><b>External plug-ins</b> are plug-ins that arrived with the basic platform | |
| installation and are simply referenced from their original location without | |
| modification. You can reference them, browse them, view their source and debug | |
| them, but they are read-only. </li> | |
| </ul> | |
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