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Help plugin functions in 3.3, but not in 3.4 [message #20444]

Wed, 10 September 2008 15:30

test

Messages: 51
Registered: July 2009

Member

I'm hoping this is the right group, please tell me if not!

I need to intergrate a simple Help plugin into both Eclipse 3.3 and 3.4.
My test plugin functions correctly in version 3.3, but does not show up
in version 3.4.

Has something changed between the two versions?

Thanks.

James Hurrell

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Re: Help plugin functions in 3.3, but not in 3.4 [message #21051 is a reply to message #20444]

Wed, 10 September 2008 20:43

Eclipse User

Originally posted by: nospam_kowalskilee.gmail.com

Hi James,

The best newsgroup would be eclipse.platform.ua. I'm adding that
newsgroup to this thread.

Can you describe more about how you are adding the help plug-in to
Eclipse 3.3 and 3.4?

Yes, things have changed between the two versions. In Eclipse 3.4, the
method for providing plug-ins has changed. You can't simply add a new
plug-in to the plugins directory any more. There is a "dropins"
directory into which you can drop plug-ins. Sometimes you have to use
the -clean parameter on startup to ensure that Eclipse recognizes to
check the dropins directory.

Did you create your help plug-in with PDE or some other tool?

Best regards,
Lee Anne

James Hurrell wrote:
> I'm hoping this is the right group, please tell me if not!
>
> I need to intergrate a simple Help plugin into both Eclipse 3.3 and 3.4.
> My test plugin functions correctly in version 3.3, but does not show up
> in version 3.4.
>
> Has something changed between the two versions?
>
> Thanks.
>
> James Hurrell

Report message to a moderator

Re: Help plugin functions in 3.3, but not in 3.4 [message #21197 is a reply to message #21051]

Fri, 12 September 2008 04:22

Ketan Padegaonkar

Messages: 873
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

I'm facing a similar issue, I'm packaging the help in a 3.4 based
product, and my help plugin does not seem to contribute to the help at all.

Did you get to resolve this issue ?

-- Ketan

Lee Anne wrote:
> Hi James,
>
> The best newsgroup would be eclipse.platform.ua. I'm adding that
> newsgroup to this thread.
>
> Can you describe more about how you are adding the help plug-in to
> Eclipse 3.3 and 3.4?
>
> Yes, things have changed between the two versions. In Eclipse 3.4, the
> method for providing plug-ins has changed. You can't simply add a new
> plug-in to the plugins directory any more. There is a "dropins"
> directory into which you can drop plug-ins. Sometimes you have to use
> the -clean parameter on startup to ensure that Eclipse recognizes to
> check the dropins directory.
>
> Did you create your help plug-in with PDE or some other tool?
>
> Best regards,
> Lee Anne
>
> James Hurrell wrote:
>> I'm hoping this is the right group, please tell me if not!
>>
>> I need to intergrate a simple Help plugin into both Eclipse 3.3 and
>> 3.4. My test plugin functions correctly in version 3.3, but does not
>> show up in version 3.4.
>>
>> Has something changed between the two versions?
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> James Hurrell

Report message to a moderator

Re: Help plugin functions in 3.3, but not in 3.4 [message #21276 is a reply to message #21197]

Fri, 12 September 2008 15:12

Eclipse User

Originally posted by: nospam_kowalskilee.gmail.com

Hi Ketan

How did you create your help plug-in? Using PDE or another tool?
Does it have a MANIFEST.MF file?

How are you adding in the help plug-in? Are you putting it into the
plugins directory or the dropins directory or exporting it using the PDE?

In general, I have seen comments from people stating that they have
dropped plug-ins into dropins and sometimes they are picked up, and
sometimes they aren't and then 'magically' they are. For example, see
this eclipse.platform thread from July:
http://dev.eclipse.org/newslists/news.eclipse.platform/msg76 369.html

Ed Merks wrote:
"Yes, I ran into a weird problem where I changed the version of a plugin
from 2.4.0 to 2.4.1 and it caused the plugins to fail to resolve for
mysterious reasons and my efforts to clear the configuration made a
mess; eclipse would start, but Java projects weren't recognized as Java
projects anymore. I'm not sure what the proper way to force a clean
revisiting of all the dependencies. I've heard someone say -clean does
nothing for p2, but that might just be an ugly rumor. "

You could try using the -debug flag to get more details about what
Eclipse is doing as it is starting.

I haven't done any more iterative tests since my last posting. I did get
a help plug-in to appear when I removed the version portion of the
plug-in's directory (so that it was like com.blah.doc and not
com.blah.doc_1.0.9). But I could not get a repeatable experiment yet to
submit a bug or pinpoint the behavior.

Hope this helps,
Lee Anne

Ketan Padegaonkar wrote:
> I'm facing a similar issue, I'm packaging the help in a 3.4 based
> product, and my help plugin does not seem to contribute to the help at all.
>
> Did you get to resolve this issue ?
>
> -- Ketan
>

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Re: Help plugin functions in 3.3, but not in 3.4 [message #22202 is a reply to message #21276]

Mon, 15 September 2008 18:27

Ketan Padegaonkar

Messages: 873
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

Lee Anne wrote:
> Hi Ketan
>
> How did you create your help plug-in? Using PDE or another tool?
> Does it have a MANIFEST.MF file?
>
> How are you adding in the help plug-in? Are you putting it into the
> plugins directory or the dropins directory or exporting it using the PDE?

We're building an RCP app, and all stuff lives in plugins, we used the
standard pde templates to create the plugin, and later customized it to
our needs (all of the help and TOC is auto generated out of XML)

The manifest looks like:
Manifest-Version: 1.0
Bundle-ManifestVersion: 2
Bundle-Name: Twist Help Plug-in
Bundle-SymbolicName: com.thoughtworks.twist.help; singleton:=true
Bundle-Version: 1.0.0.qualifier
Bundle-Vendor: http://thoughtworks.com/twist
Bundle-RequiredExecutionEnvironment: J2SE-1.5

The plugin.xml looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?eclipse version="3.2"?>
<plugin>
<extension point="org.eclipse.help.toc">
<toc file="toc.xml" primary="true />
</extension>
</plugin>

-- Ketan

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