Eclipse IDE

Specification
Installation
- Windows
- Linux
Configuration

For a professional Java Development Environment you need an IDE (Integrated Development Environment):

An IDE … is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of a source code editor, build automation tools and a debugger.

Eclipse, IntelliJ and NetBeans are the most used IDEs.

In this tutorial you will install Eclipse for JEE developers (version focused on webapp developers).

Specification

Homepage: http://www.eclipse.org/
Download: http://eclipse.org/downloads/
Version: Eclipse Kepler (4.3.1) SR1, Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers
File(s):
- Windows: eclipse-jee-kepler-SR1-win32.zip
- Linux: eclipse-jee-kepler-SR1-linux-gtk.tar.gz (245 MB)

Installation

Windows

Unzip ZIP-file to an appropriate folder (C:\Program Files)
Rename unpacked folder “eclipse” to “Eclipse_Kepler”
Create a desktop shortcut or quick launch icon to the executable “eclipse.exe” in the unpacked folder

Linux

It is recommended to install it not system wide (e.g. in “/usr/local/bin”), but per user in the user’s home. Otherwise problems with some plugins may appear (e.g. after installing m2eclipse other plugins disappeared…):

$ cd /home/ralf/
$ mkdir Programs
$ cd Programs
$ tar xvfz /home/ralf/Downloads/eclipse-jee-kepler-SR1-linux-gtk.tar.gz
$ mv eclipse/ Eclipse_Kepler

Configuration

Startup Parameters

Change start parameters in C:\Program Files\Eclipse_Kepler\eclipse.ini or /home/<user>/Programs/Eclipse_Kepler/eclipse.ini.

Note: Xmx and XX params must be appropriate to your available memory. If Eclipse does not start, down tune them.

Windows

-showsplash
org.eclipse.platform
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize
256M
-vm
C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_13\bin\javaw.exe
-framework
plugins\org.eclipse.osgi_3.4.3.R34x_v20081215-1030.jar
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-Xmx700m
-XX:MaxPermSize=690M

Linux

-startup
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.201.R35x_v20090715.jar
--launcher.library
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.gtk.linux.x86_1.0.200.v20090520
-product
org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product
-showsplash
org.eclipse.platform
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize
256m
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-XX:MaxPermSize=690m
-Xms40m
-Xmx700m

Workspaces

Start Eclipse
In Workspace Launcher point the “Workspace:”
field to a new Workspace-folder like “C:\Documents and Settings<username>\My Documents\DEV<companyname>” (Windows) or /home/<username>/DEV/<companyname> (Linux). Better would be a very short path for the workspace directory (to avoid later problems if your project has a very deep folder hierarchy/packages), e.g. “D:\WORKSPACES<companyname>” (Windows). Don’t check “Use this as default…” (so it will be easier to switch between different workspaces later)
Close “Welcome” tab.

Basic Preference Settings

Window - Preferences:
  General: Show heap status
  General - Editors - Text Editors: Show line numbers
  General - Editors - Text Editors - Spelling - Dictionaries: Encoding: UTF-8
  General - Network Connections: Manual proxy configuration
    HTTP proxy: <company_proxy_address>, Port: <company_proxy_port>
    Use this proxy server for SSL
    No proxy for: add internal addresses
    Enable proxy authentication: <username>/<password>
  General - Workspace: Text file encoding: Other: UTF-8
    Java - Code Style - Formatter - Java Conventions [built-in] \
      -> Use Sun Java Code Conventions 

Proxy Settings

Problem: Eclipse 3.5 (Galileo) has problems using authenticated NTML proxy.
Solution: The Apache httpclient implementation should be disabled because it doesn’t work well with NTMLv2 proxies. For NTLMv2 Proxies, that require user name and password for access the workaround is to Disable the ECF httpclient provider. Provide the NTLMv2 proxy authentication info (proxyhost, domain, username, and password)

Edit eclipse.ini and append the following properties:

-Dorg.eclipse.ecf.provider.filetransfer.excludeContributors=\
   org.eclipse.ecf.provider.filetransfer.httpclient
-Dhttp.proxyPort=8080
-Dhttp.proxyHost=myproxy
-Dhttp.proxyUser=mydomain\myusername
-Dhttp.proxyPassword=mypassword
-Dhttp.nonProxyHosts=localhost|127.0.0.1