Eclipse Plugin Installation and Windows User Access Control

I make eclipse Plugins and I sell them to developers using Eclipse. Most of the visitors to my web site is not Eclipse experts. One of my key challenges is getting them to successfully install and try my software. It sounds simple, but Eclipse plugin installation is somewhat complex and error-prone process.

The safest-to-install a plugin in Eclipse are by using the Update Manager as opposed to using the Dropins fold Er or manually copying files. It is safer because Eclipse performs more checks to ensure everything are in order. For example, it can check the-all the dependencies is met.

Lately, I got several reports from the users who failed to install my plugin using the Update Manager. After some and with the assistance of some devoted users, I located a major issue: installing Eclipse Plugins On Windows Vista & 7 with User Access Control (UAC) on, fails if Eclipse was installed in the program Files folder.

It is a very common scenario:many users be already running Windows 7, the UAC is on by default and the Programs Files fo Lder is where the most of the applications was installed, especially custom Eclipse distros that come with fancy installers. It's a frustrating issue because the plugin installation appearsto being complete: it won't issue any error mes Sage and, after restarting the platform, it'll even show up properly in the installation Details box. However, the plugins and features JARs is not copies, hence the plugin is not installed.

There is several possible work arounds for this issue: (starting from the easiest)

• Before the installation, start Eclipse with "Run as Administrator" option.
• Turn off the pesky UAC (for the installation or, better yet, altogether).
• Install Eclipse in a different folder. Eclipse doesn ' t has the to is in the program Files folder.
• Switch to Linux or MAC.

Clearly, the by-handling it is bogus and should are fixed. This problem have been around since the days of Vista and Eclipse 3.3. I understand that installing a plugin in this case was an issue, so the least Eclipse should does is fail the process and not Mislead the non-suspecting user. If you agree, you might want to vote the This bug (there is several bugs on this topic).

PS. If you ' re looking-useful tips on installing Eclipse plugins, check out this article. It was written for Galileo and still applies to Helios.

PS2. I know, I wrote an entire article on Eclipse plugins installation and never once mentioned P2. So, there, I mentioned it.

From http://blog.zvikico.com/2010/08/eclipse-plugin-installation-and-windows-user-access-control.html

The Java Zone is brought-to-you-partnership with Zeroturnaround. Check out this 8-step guide to see how can increase your productivity by skipping slow application redeploys and by IM Plementing application profiling, as you code!

Eclipse Plugin Installation and Windows User Access Control