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| <h2>Features</h2> | |
| <p>The platform is designed to accept updates and additions to the initial | |
| installation. The platform <b> Update Manager</b> handles this task by connecting to sites where updates are posted. | |
| (See the Workbench User Guide and <a href="../../org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/reference/misc/eclipse-install.html">Platform | |
| Installation and Update</a> for more information about features and the | |
| Update Manager.)</p> | |
| <p>You need to package your work in a form | |
| that will be accepted by the Update Manager. When you deliver an update to the platform, you are contributing a | |
| <b>feature</b>.</p> | |
| <p>Features have a manifest that provides basic information | |
| about the feature and its content. Content may include plug-ins, fragments and | |
| any other files that are important for the feature. The delivery format for a | |
| feature is a JAR. </p> | |
| <p>In PDE, your typical development process looks like this:</p> | |
| <ol> | |
| <li>Projects for plug-ins and fragments are created.</li> | |
| <li>Code for plug-ins and fragments is created, tested and debugged.</li> | |
| <li>When you want to make your code available to others, you create a | |
| new feature project.</li> | |
| <li>Individual build properties for each plug-in and fragment are tailored to | |
| control what files are included and excluded from the packaging.</li> | |
| <li>Versions are synchronized with previous versions of the feature, so that | |
| the Update Manager will know that a feature is a newer version of an | |
| already installed feature.</li> | |
| <li>The feature JAR is built.</li> | |
| <li>The feature is published on the update server | |
| and made available for download.</li> | |
| </ol> | |
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