In this article we will create a feature project & update site for custom eclipse plugin. We will also explore steps to publish plugin to eclipse marketplace. We will use the eclipse plugin that we created in earlier article. Here is the reference to that article for your reference.
Develop simple useful eclipse plugin to Scan java source | Good example for beginners
Concepts before publishing your plugin
You have your plugin project code ready & tested. But to get that plugin built & published to others to users, there are few more steps that needs to be executed. Here are few concepts before publishing plugins.
- Feature project
- Plugin is an extendable and sharable unit.
- Feature is a collection or group of plugins which form a unique feature.
- Feature also contains detailed description of plugins, copyright information & license agreement which are important while sharing plugins to others.
- Update site
- Update site is a way to organize different features into categories.
- Built update site contains install-able artifacts for all features & it’s plugins.
- This update site can be shared with other users through some shared location or online location & they can directly use this update site to install the plugin into their eclipse.
Steps for feature & update site project creation
Go through these slides for detailed steps about –
- Create feature project with eclipse plugin from earlier article.
- Create update site for above feature project.
- Build update site & install the plugin into eclipse using update site.
Publish it online & then to eclipse marketplace
- Now that you have update site project ready & built, you can put the project directory online on your website at specific URL. Here is one of the example for Subversive
- Once you have your website URL ready with update site project, you can make it available in Eclipse market place. There is a procedure you have to follow & your update site needs to get approved. Approval/Moderation process generally takes 24 hours but might vary. Refer Eclipse Marketplace – An App Store for the Eclipse Ecosystem
- At an high level, after login to market place you have to go to “Add Content” > “Add a new Solution listing”. Here you will get a submission form with detailed information about plugin including update site URL, version, supported eclipse release, Java version, Screenshots etc. Once you fill & submit, it goes to moderation as given in above point.
- Once your plugin update site is approved on eclipse market place, anyone anywhere with eclipse installed, can find your plugin directly from their eclipse > Help > Eclipse Marketplace