Eclipse Plugins and Features

Installed plugins and locations

• To install PHP Development Tools (PDT), add the http://download.eclipse.org/tools/pdt/updates/ download site to the list of Eclipse sites.

• To install LaTeX support via the Texlipse plugin, add the http://texlipse.sourceforge.net/ download site to the list of Eclipse sites.

• To install Python support via the PyDev plugin, add the http://pydev.sourceforge.net/updates/ and http://www.fabioz.com/pydev/updates (for the PyDev extensions) download sites to the list of Eclipse sites.

• To install Subversion support via the Subclipse plugin, add the http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.2.x download site to the list of Eclipse sites. You will need to close and reopen projects using Subversion when you install it for the first time. A simple Refresh on the projects is not enough.

• Groovy plugin support is available at http://dist.codehaus.org/groovy/distributions/update/.

• Aptana IDE (for Eclipse 3.2) is at http://update.aptana.com/install/3.2/.

Java Development Tools

• If you are using a Java project, a file named ".classpath" will be created in the root directory of your project. It contains the paths to all the external libraries you may be using in your project. This file should not be under version control if you want that each developer maintains these paths separately.

PHP Development Tools (PDT)

• This plugin, as of March 2007, is still in active development. I have lots of stability problems with the current integration build (of February 2007).

• Things are somehow better now with release 0.7 RC3. Still has problems though.

Subclipse

• Warning: do not create a project that is in Subversion, and then another project contained into the first project (in a subdirectory)! This will confuse Subclipse to the point of making Eclipse unusable. This is bug 511 in the Subclipse Bugzilla.

FTP Synchronization

• This is included in the standard mirrors, so installation is easy (probably will be already installed). SFTP support needs to be installed separately.

• This feature seems useful, it is unmaintained however. The Eclipse Target Management seems to be where development is headed at.

• To create a new Synchronization, you must first Export your project to a remote server (or import it from a remote server). Then restart Eclipse if it is still not listed in the Team Synchronizing perspective.

• Two important features seem to be missing: the ability to synchronize a project with more than a single server, and the possibility to exclude certain files from the synchronization. You can exclude files based on certain patterns though.

Target Management, Remote System Explorer

• This feature allows to perform interesting stuff on remote servers, like running shell commands, automating builds, editing files directly on a remote server and so on.

• However it does not allow synchronizing with your local project (via FTP or SFTP). This is problematic for what I need.

Aptana

• This is more a complete IDE than just a simple plugin.

• It has interesting features (editors for most web related formats: HTML, CSS, JavaScript), and a very good FTP synchronization feature, and editing capabilities directly on the server.

• However, the synchronization feature is too slow to be used often. This is more something that would be run once in a working day.

Groovy Plugin

• This currently does not accomplish much except syntax coloring. It lacks notably formating support.