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| <title>Plug-in Overview</title> |
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| <h1>Plug-in Overview</h1> |
| <p>The <strong>Overview</strong> page serves a dual purpose:</p> |
| <ol> |
| <li> It contains two main sections that define important plug-in properties: <strong>General Information</strong> and <strong>Execution Environments</strong>. </li> |
| <li>It functions as a quick reference on how to develop, test and deploy plug-ins by providing the <strong>Plug-in Content</strong>, <strong>Extensions</strong>, <strong>Testing</strong> and <strong>Exporting</strong> sections. These sections provide hyperlinks that, when clicked, navigate to other pages or invoke commands. </li> |
| </ol> |
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| <h2>General Information</h2> |
| <p><img src="../../../images/plugin_editor/overview_general.png" alt="General Overview" > </p> |
| <p>An<strong> ID</strong> is mandatory and must comply with the <a href="../../../../../org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/reference/misc/plugin_manifest.html">plugin.dtd</a>.</p> |
| <p>A <strong>Version</strong> is mandatory and must be of the form <em>major.minor.micro.qualifier</em> (e.g. 1.3.0).</p> |
| <p>A<strong> Name</strong> is the translatable presentation name of the plug-in. This field is required. </p> |
| <p>A<strong> Vendor</strong> is the translatable name of the plug-in vendor. This field is optional. </p> |
| <p>A <strong>Platform filter</strong> is a valid LDAP string that must evaluate to true in a running system for the the plug-in to run. For example, the following filter indicates that the plug-in is designed to only run on platforms with a <em>win32</em> windowing system: <strong>Eclipse-PlatformFilter: (ws=win32)</strong>. If a user attempts to run Eclipse on a platform that does not meet this requirement, the plug-in will be silently ignored by the runtime. </p> |
| <p>An <strong>Activator</strong> is a Java class that controls the plug-in's life cycle. It is only needed if you require work to be done on the startup or shutdown of your plug-in. </p> |
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| <h2>Execution Environments </h2> |
| <p>A bundle execution environment specifies the minimum level of JRE required for the plug-in to run. If the JRE used to run Eclipse does not meet the requirement, the plug-in will not run. </p> |
| <p><img src="../../../images/plugin_editor/overview_execution.png" alt="Execution Environments" ></p> |
| <p>Press the <strong>Add...</strong> button to browse a list of available execution environments and add one that is most suitable for your plug-in. For example, if you declare <em>J2SE-1.4</em> as your plug-in's bundle execution environment, your plug-in will only run with a JRE version >= 1.4.</p> |
| <p>If your plug-in can run in an execution environment that is not a proper subset of the execution environment specified (e.g. <em>J2SE-1.4</em> and <em>CDC-1.1/Foundation-1.1</em>), both execution environments should be specified.</p> |
| <p>During a plug-in export, the plug-in code is compiled against the JRE associated with the first execution environment listed in the <em>MANIFEST.MF</em> file . Click on the <strong>Configure JRE associations...</strong> link to open the <a class="command-link" href='javascript:executeCommand("org.eclipse.ui.window.preferences(preferencePageId=org.eclipse.jdt.debug.ui.jreProfiles)")'> |
| <img src="PLUGINS_ROOT/org.eclipse.help/command_link.svg" alt="Open the JRE profiles preference page"> |
| <strong>Windows > Preferences... > Java > Installed JREs > Execution Environments</strong> |
| </a> |
| preference page for a list of OSGi execution environments and their corresponding list of compatible JREs installed on the system.</p> |
| <p>Whenever you update the list of execution environments for your plug-in, you should <strong>Update the classpath settings</strong> via the link to ensure you are compiling against the right JRE and have the settings that best match your first execution environment. </p> |
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| <h3 class="related">Related references</h3> |
| <a href="./editor.htm">Plug-in Editor</a><br> |
| <a href="./dependencies.htm">Dependencies Page</a><br> |
| <a href="./runtime.htm">Runtime Page</a><br> |
| <a href="./extensions.htm">Extensions Page</a><br> |
| <a href="./extension_points.htm">Extension Points Page</a><br> |
| <a href="./build.htm">Build Page</a> |
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