An Eclipse plugin client for ariatemplates/editor-backend.

Current state

You can launch an Eclipse application with the plugin using an external backend (see procedure below) and use it to edit files with .tpl and .tml extensions, using Aria Templates syntax.

File system layout

• README.md: this current file
• .gitignore: Git related file
• package.json: npm package definition, to be able to embed the backend server and use other npm/Node.js tools
• node_modules: contains the npm modules listed in package.json
• statics: folder containing some resources for development
• Gruntfile.js: Grunt entry point, to run development tasks
• build: resources to export the product as a package (different formats supported)
• bin: folder containing the build of the plugin

Code:

• src: the sources of the Eclipse plugin
• build.properties, plugin.xml, META-INF: Eclipse plugin definition
• .project, .classpath, .settings: Eclipse project definition/configuration

Versioning

To ignore:

• bin: generated content (from the sources)
• node_modules: generated from package.json

To version: everything else.

Installation

For the time being, there is no publicly available package.

This means you will need to follow the contribution guide steps to install everything that is necessary to build yourself a package.

Contribute

First of all: READ CAREFULLY THE DOCS.

Please have a look at the documentation of the documentation too (we follow the same rules as for the backend project).

Environment

This is the required environment — software and configuration — you will need to work on the project.

• Eclipse IDE — 3.6 minimum / Preferably choose Java EE bundle
  • Plugin: PDE — this is the tool used to develop Eclipse plugins, features and so on.
  • Bundle: Google GSON from Orbit repository — this is a dependency of the project
  • In general, every other dependencies of the plugin should be installed if not already present. Please check the content of the file META-INF/MANIFEST.MF, property Require-Bundle.
• Java SE — 6 minimum
• Node.js & npm, please refer to the backend documentation which explains well how to do it
• Git (Windows package)

Tested on Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit SP1.

Setup

After cloning the repository

git clone https://github.com/ariatemplates/editor-frontend-eclipse.git

you will have to do some setup.

These are the things to do:

• install the development tools and dependencies, using npm
• import the Eclipse project into your workspace to work on the plugin
• optionally, if you want to use an external installation of the backend server, install it globally

Tools & dependencies

We are mainly using npm/Node.js tools, so run the following command in this folder:

npm install

This will install a local version of the backend server inside the project, which can then be used by the plugin at runtime. This local installation is also required to export the plugin with an embedded backend.

This will also install Grunt and grunt tasks, used to automate some development tasks. Those tasks are described below in this document.

Eclipse project

Import the Eclipse project into your workspace:

1. Menu: File ⇨ Import...
2. Choose item Existing Projects into Workspace (under category General)
3. In Select root directory input field put the path to this current folder
4. In Projects list, check AT Editor
5. You are free to set some other settings, then validate by clicking the button Finish

External backend

To use an external version of the backend, run this command:

npm install -g git+https://github.com/ariatemplates/editor-backend#version/x.x.x # Replace x.x.x by the version you want

Build

Please refer to the detailed documentation in build.

Try

For now the plugin works only with an external backend

1. Launch the external backend : run command editor-backend from anywhere and keep the shell running
2. Launch the Eclipse application
   1. Open the Eclipse Plugin project
   2. Launch the project as an Eclipse application
      1. Select the project and open the main menu Run or use the contextual menu of the project
         • select Run As to run it normally
         • select Debug As to run it in debug mode
      2. Choose Eclipse Application

Development

Please refer to the subfolders of the project for details about corresponding modules specific development: every folder contains its own documentation and is likely to give some paths for contribution.

Also, please refer to the GitHub issue, which constitute a kind of backlog.