Simplifies installation of Eclipse plug-ins using equinox P2

Installing Eclipse and its plug-ins with the new features of Equinox P2

Introduction: This article explores the new features of Equinox P2, which was first unveiled in Eclipse V3.4. It focuses on the defects of the Update Manager user interface (UI) in earlier versions of Eclipse and demonstrates what new improvements have been made to the Equinox P2 framework. Specifically, this article demonstrates how to install Eclipse and its plug-ins using the new features of the Equinox P2 framework.

The plug-in update device has been completely rewritten in Eclipse V3.4, and it now replaces the original update manager with the Equinox P2 framework. Equinox P2 is a new, very advanced configuration system for installing, searching, and managing Eclipse installations, and is easier to use than the previous update manager. This article reviews the shortcomings of the previous update manager and explains the new features of the Equinox P2 for installing and updating the Eclipse plug-in.

Plug-in installation issues prior to Eclipse V3.4

Installing the Eclipse plug-in is cumbersome before Eclipse V3.4. In fact, it's so complicated that only advanced users can install new plug-ins. There are two ways to install plug-ins before: manual downloads and a graphical user interface (GUI).

Manual Download and installation

The manual download method is that you must download the plugin manually, then unzip some files to the features folder, and extract some other files to the Plugins folder. The features and plugins folders themselves also contain some default plug-ins. As a result, these folders contain a large number of files. Therefore, after you install a custom plug-in, you cannot tell which plug-ins are installed by you and which are Eclipse-brought. If you migrate to a new version of Eclipse, you must look for the features and plugins folders, find your own custom plug-ins, and then copy them to the new installation.

This is complicated enough, but you must also use the parameter-clean to restart Eclipse to truly complete the plug-in installation. Many times, we forget to use the-clean parameter and then wonder why the installed plugin did not appear.

GUI Installation

GUI installation is stronger than manual installation. In fact, this method needs to be clicked more than 15 times to install a plugin, and many sites provide a tutorial page with pictures to help users properly use the GUI installation. This GUI is not explained in detail, as the light used to interpret it will increase the length of this article by one fold. But to be sure, the entire process of installing plug-ins is quite confusing before Eclipse V3.4.

Install the Eclipse V3.4 plugin manually

The Dropins folder in Eclipse V3.4 (shown in Figure 1) is equivalent to the manual process in previous versions of Eclipse, but it is much simpler.

Figure 1. Dropins folder