Using the Eclipse Wizard for rapid development

Entry

This article demonstrates how to use the wizard to add a new file to an existing Eclipse project. The Eclipse Wizard is an excellent way to define a repeatable file type template when the built-in templates are not functional. After reading this article, you should be able to implement your own wizards in Eclipse to create a new file.

To get the most out of this article, you must be familiar with how to build Java™ programming language classes, and you should also be familiar with inheriting and using interfaces. You should be able to start eclipse, but this article assumes that you are not proficient in eclipse.

Eclipse Wizard Overview

I love the many features of the Eclipse IDE. One of them is scalability. You can easily customize the IDE by adding plug-ins that provide functionality, including wizards that automatically create classes, interfaces, projects, and other resources. This feature is important for large organizations where plug-ins can be streamlined and distributed based on the Eclipse IDE, enabling many people to automatically take advantage of functionality.

In any enterprise, having a team build an application in the same style can provide many advantages. If the application is built in a consistent style, the application will be easier to maintain. Consistency can help reduce errors. In addition, because applications are built in the same style, team members can more easily complete one project after another.

The ability to create custom wizards for the Eclipse framework enables organizations to build enterprise-specific wizards that provide the opportunity for the team to create applications that use consistent best practices.

Create a new wizard

The custom wizards built in this article are located in the Eclipse's plug-in project. It's easy to start creating a custom wizard, thanks to other wizards that give you early help in writing code. In the next step, you will use the Plug-in Project Wizard to create the beginning of the plug-in.

To build a new plug-in project, follow these steps:

Select File > New > Project to select the Projects Wizard.

Under Plug-in Development, select Plug-in Project as follows:

Click Next to advance to the next step.

Figure 1. Select Plug-in Project

Add project name (in this article, the name is Examplewizard (not so creative), as shown in Figure 2. If there are no special reasons, use the default location. Click Next.

Figure 2. New Plug-in Project