| <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"><html lang="en"> |
| <HEAD> |
| |
| <meta name="copyright" content="Copyright (c) IBM Corporation and others 2000, 2008. This page is made available under license. For full details see the LEGAL in the documentation book that contains this page." > |
| |
| <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> |
| <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Style-Type" CONTENT="text/css"> |
| |
| <LINK REL="STYLESHEET" HREF="../book.css" CHARSET="ISO-8859-1" TYPE="text/css"> |
| <TITLE>Products and features</TITLE> |
| |
| <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" HREF="../book.css"> |
| </HEAD> |
| <BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"> |
| <h2>Products and features</h2> |
| <p>An Eclipse based <b>product</b> is a stand-alone program built with the |
| Eclipse platform. A product may optionally be packaged and delivered as one or more |
| <b>features</b>, which are simply groupings of plug-ins that are managed as a single entity by |
| the Eclipse update mechanisms.</p> |
| <p>Products include all the code and plug-ins needed to run them. This |
| includes a Java runtime environment (JRE) and the Eclipse platform code. |
| The plug-in code, JRE, and Eclipse platform are typically installed with a |
| product-specific installation program. Product providers are free to use |
| any installation tool or program that is appropriate for their needs. </p> |
| <p>Once installed, the user launches the product and is presented with an |
| Eclipse workbench configured specifically for the purpose supported by the |
| product, such as web development, C++ program development, or any other |
| purpose. The platform makes it easy to configure labels, about dialogs, |
| graphics, and splash screens, so that the user has no concept of a platform |
| workbench, but instead views the workbench as the main window of the product |
| itself.</p> |
| <p>The top level directory structure of such a product looks something like this |
| for a hypothetical product called "AcmeWeb" that has been installed on |
| a Windows platform:</p> |
| <pre>acmeweb/ |
| acmeweb.exe <i>(product executable)</i> |
| eclipse/ <i>(directory for installed Eclipse files)</i> |
| .eclipseproduct <i>(marker file)</i> |
| artifacts.xml (bundle pool contents) |
| eclipse.exe |
| eclipse.ini |
| configuration/ |
| config.ini |
| dropins/ |
| jre/ |
| features/ <i>(installed features if any)</i> |
| com.example.acme.acmefeature_1.0.0/ |
| feature.xml |
| ... |
| plugins/ |
| org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.0.v20070530.jar |
| org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.win32.win32.x86/ |
| com.example.acme.acmefeature_1.0.0/ |
| plugin.xml |
| about.ini |
| about.html |
| about.mappings |
| about.properties |
| acme.png |
| splash.bmp |
| com.example.acme.acmewebsupport_1.0.0/ |
| ... |
| links/ |
| ... |
| p2/ |
| ...</pre> |
| <p>There are actually two ways of defining a product in Eclipse. The preferred |
| mechanism is to |
| use the <a href="product_def_extpt.htm">products extension point</a>. |
| This extension point allows you to define your product and customize |
| branding such as splash screens, window icons, and |
| the like.</p> |
| </BODY> |
| </HTML> |
