Create Eclipse Game Plug-ins, Part 4: Packaging, testing, and publishing

While most users regard Eclipse as an integrated development environment for building java™ applications, it's actually more fundamental. Eclipse is a framework for building plug-ins that allows you to extend its functionality to solve almost any problem-just use a set of APIs and out-of-the-box libraries that are available. In this four-part "create Eclipse Game Plug-in" tutorial series, you will address one of the most pressing problems that most programmers encounter every day: How to take time out to play a fast video game without switching applications, and make it less obvious. The tutorial will develop a simple game that reads bugs into the view and explodes them. The game will run as a plug-in in Eclipse, which demonstrates how to write the Eclipse API, how to use the Standard Widget Toolkit, the Open Graphics Library, and lightweight Java Games L Ibrary. Part 4 shows how to build and test the plug-in using an automated process, and finally package it for release.

Before you start

This series is intended for developers interested in building Eclipse game Plug-ins using OpenGL and the lightweight Java Games Library (LWJGL). Part 4 is the final installment of this series, explaining how to use the automation process to build and unit test Plug-ins, and how to package them for release.

About this series

In this four-part series, we describe the basic technologies, tools, and libraries used to create a fully feature-complete Eclipse plug-in that will provide graphics using the Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) and the OpenGL library. Part 1th describes how to build a framework for simple video games that can be started and played within Eclipse by creating plug-ins. The 2nd part, based on the basic framework created in part 1th, starts with OpenGL to add the actual visual elements. Part 3rd adds the actual game element, allowing users to interact with the graphic created in part 2nd.

About this tutorial

In this tutorial, we combine all the things we've developed together, test them, and prepare to publish. Specifically, we will:

Create a JUnit test case to unit test the plug-in.

Create an Eclipse attribute project to manage the packaging of plug-ins.

Develop an automated build and test process using the build support provided by the Plug-in Development Environment (PDE).

Prerequisite conditions

This tutorial assumes that the reader has basic knowledge of Java syntax and coding and Eclipse plug-in programming, as shown in part 1th of this series. You also need to know how to use JUnit for unit testing and Apache Ant scripts. The knowledge of graphic programming can be useful, but not necessary. No knowledge of OpenGL is required.

System Requirements

The following tools are required:

Eclipse Eclipse is the framework for creating plug-ins for part 1th. Now continue to build the game plug-in with Eclipse. Please download the Eclipse V3.2 M3 or later. Eclipse SWT SWT is an Eclipse part package that is used to make windows that are donated by IBM to Eclipse. Please download the SWT 3.2 M3 or above version. Eclipse OpenGL needs to use OpenGL libraries to create shapes, and so on. Please download the experimental ORG.ECLIPSE.OPENGL binding, version 0.5 for SWT 3.2. The Eclipse sample plug-in using OpenGL downloads a sample plug-in with one view using OpenGL. The source code in this plugin will be used as the framework for building your own custom OpenGL settings. Java Technology Eclipse and all of its plug-ins require Java technology. Please download Java from Sun Microsystems or IBM. The Eclipse Test Framework This package provides support for automated testing of plug-ins. It can be obtained from eclipse.org and added to the Eclipse SDK. Info-zip This utility is used by automated build scripts on platforms that do not have native zip/unzip commands. Download it from the info-zip.

Overview and Settings

In the 3rd part, we have completed the plugin writing. Now, you want to unit test, build, and package it for release. First, you will develop unit tests for plug-ins with the help of the JUnit framework. This will help you familiarize yourself with the Eclipse's JUnit support. Next, you will export the plug-in to the Eclipse IDE so you can start playing the shooting game on the sidelines of your work. In order to manage and update plug-ins using Eclipse's Configuration Manager, we will create an attribute for it. Also learn about other options for building and publishing plug-ins. Finally, you will develop an automated build and test process that allows you to complete the build and test without manual intervention.

Install the required additional software

In addition to all the software required for the systems that were installed in the previous sections, the Eclipse Automation testing Framework (Org.eclipse.test) needs to be installed, and the Info-zip utility may also be required. Both can be downloaded free of charge from the location listed in system requirements.