Import project does not work for ADF examples or other existing projects (IEP-760)

[bs-eng]

Hello!

I have been programming on a project in ESP-ADF for the last few years. So far I was able to take the project with after upgrading to a higher version of ADF/IDF.

Now I updated to version ADFV2.4.1 which includes by default IDFv4.4.2
I order to do so I needed to throw out my complete eclipse and ADF/IDF setup as something went very wrong with the upgrade as usual. So I decided for a clean install. (yes, I removed also all hidden setup/config files of eclipse as well as of espressif SDK).

My install:
Operating System: windows 10
Java Runtime Version: 14.0.2+12-46
Eclipse Version: 4.24.0.v20220607-0700
Eclipse CDT Version: 10.7.0.202204131742
IDF Eclipse Plugin Version: 2.6.0.202208110735
fatal: not a git repository: ../.git/modules/esp-idf
WARNING: Git version unavailable, reading from source
ESP-IDF v4.4.2
Python set for IDF_PYTHON_ENV: Python 3.8.3rc1

(Git is installed and running fine - I dont know why the plugin does not recognize it when listing installed tools - bt this is not the point of this posting.)

First test: create new IDF project from an example project, build and run it.
=> I chose hello-world and it compiles and runs just fine.

Second test: import an ADF example project
=> I chose the pipeline_bt_sink example

• import gives the first issues already: every subfolder is recognized as a seperate nested project => as this is not the case I choose to import only the top level project
• then setting launch target => does not work because eclipse does not show any launch targets in the drop down list (as was the case with the IDF example project before)
• so I create a new launch target => that does not get listed/recognized (meaning the drop down never shows it)

Third test: create and ADF example project
=> I chose again the pipeline_bt_sink example

• copy the example project into a folder of name pipeline_bt_sink
• create new IDF project and choosing as location the folder pipeline_bt_sink
• launch target is populated
• build works
• flash/run works fine
• when checking what the software does on the board, I notice that no subfolders have been compiled/included in the project
• upon second build there a plenty of errors about not found symbols and missing include paths

EDIT: I noticed that when using the "List installed tools" command in the menu, it tells me that not all tools are installed. However they are and examples compile just fine. Here is the list of installed tools when executing the command manually in an ESP-IDF enabled shell (Win10):

• xtensa-esp32-elf: Toolchain for Xtensa (ESP32) based on GCC
  • esp-2021r2-patch3-8.4.0 (recommended, installed)
• xtensa-esp32s2-elf: Toolchain for Xtensa (ESP32-S2) based on GCC
  • esp-2021r2-patch3-8.4.0 (recommended, installed)
• xtensa-esp32s3-elf: Toolchain for Xtensa (ESP32-S3) based on GCC
  • esp-2021r2-patch3-8.4.0 (recommended, installed)
• xtensa-clang: LLVM for Xtensa (ESP32, ESP32-S2) based on clang (optional)
  • 12.0.1-d9341b81fc (recommended, installed)
• riscv32-esp-elf: Toolchain for 32-bit RISC-V based on GCC
  • esp-2021r2-patch3-8.4.0 (recommended, installed)
• esp32ulp-elf: Toolchain for ESP32 ULP coprocessor
  • 2.28.51-esp-20191205 (recommended, installed)
• esp32s2ulp-elf: Toolchain for ESP32-S2 and ESP32-S3 ULP coprocessors
  • 2.28.51-esp-20191205 (recommended, installed)
• cmake: CMake build system
  • 3.23.1 (recommended, installed)
• openocd-esp32: OpenOCD for ESP32
  • v0.11.0-esp32-20220706 (recommended, installed)
• ninja: Ninja build system
  • 1.10.2 (recommended, installed)
• idf-exe: IDF wrapper tool for Windows
  • 1.0.3 (recommended, installed)
• ccache: Ccache (compiler cache)
  • 4.3 (recommended, installed)
• dfu-util: dfu-util (Device Firmware Upgrade Utilities)
  • 0.9 (recommended, installed)

Additionally I noticed that automatically all IDF components are copied into the project as empty folders upon build. So there appears a new folder "esp_idf_components" in the project which contains all idf components folders (without the actual code and include files).

Question
Is this a bug in the espressif plugin or are ADF projects somehow not supported or am I missing something?
What would be the (new) recommended way to import existing code as a project?

Thanks!
JR

[kolipakakondal]

Hello,

Sorry for the delay in response.

I have configured esp-adf in espressif-ide and imported the same example, and I didn't face any challenges in importing and building. I have a made quick video on this https://youtu.be/ajR2bJJ-Erw

In a nutshell:

1. Import using "File > New > Import > Existing IDF Project"
2. Run Install Tools and provide esp-idf directory path from the cloned esp-adf directory
3. Configure ADF_PATH in the eclipse build preferences
4. Select ADF_PATH and click on Edit and Click Ok without changing any value(There is a bug in CDT that is appending a null value before the path hence we need to click on editor and save it.)
5. Select the right target and click on the build

[kolipakakondal]

I've added this to the documentation so that others could also benefit, please find it here

[bs-eng]

Hi Kondal!
Thanks for looking into it!

Indeed it solved the issue of importing. For me it was new that the standard Eclipse Import function now works - before there used to be an explicit menu item "Import existing Espressif ESP32 project"

The only thing that remains is that menu item "Espressif > ESP-IDF Tools Manager > List installed tools" claims that not all tools are installed. Just thought I mention it, in case it is not meant to behave like that. For me it makes no difference as long as the toolchain works.

Thanks a bunch!
Cheers
JR

[kolipakakondal]

Good to know that it's working!

xtensa-esp32-elf: Toolchain for Xtensa (ESP32) based on GCC
esp-2021r2-patch3-8.4.0 (recommended, installed)
xtensa-esp32s2-elf: Toolchain for Xtensa (ESP32-S2) based on GCC
esp-2021r2-patch3-8.4.0 (recommended, installed)
xtensa-esp32s3-elf: Toolchain for Xtensa (ESP32-S3) based on GCC
esp-2021r2-patch3-8.4.0 (recommended, installed)
xtensa-clang: LLVM for Xtensa (ESP32, ESP32-S2) based on clang (optional)
12.0.1-d9341b81fc (recommended, installed)
riscv32-esp-elf: Toolchain for 32-bit RISC-V based on GCC
esp-2021r2-patch3-8.4.0 (recommended, installed)
esp32ulp-elf: Toolchain for ESP32 ULP coprocessor
2.28.51-esp-20191205 (recommended, installed)
esp32s2ulp-elf: Toolchain for ESP32-S2 and ESP32-S3 ULP coprocessors
2.28.51-esp-20191205 (recommended, installed)
cmake: CMake build system
3.23.1 (recommended, installed)
openocd-esp32: OpenOCD for ESP32
v0.11.0-esp32-20220706 (recommended, installed)
ninja: Ninja build system
1.10.2 (recommended, installed)
idf-exe: IDF wrapper tool for Windows
1.0.3 (recommended, installed)
ccache: Ccache (compiler cache)
4.3 (recommended, installed)
dfu-util: dfu-util (Device Firmware Upgrade Utilities)
0.9 (recommended, installed)

Everything shows it's installed. Did I miss anything here?

Additionally I noticed that automatically all IDF components are copied into the project as empty folders upon build. So there appears a new folder "esp_idf_components" in the project which contains all idf components folders (without the actual code and include files).

I have added some info here on why esp_idf_components are added to the project. Please check.

(Git is installed and running fine - I dont know why the plugin does not recognize it when listing installed tools - bt this is not the point of this posting.)

I will take a note of this. From the functional perspective, we could ignore this!

[bs-eng]

Thank you so much for adding the outcome already in the official docu!

FYI: the message that not everything is installed occurs only when checking from the menu:

Then the message is - even though IDF-PATH is set:

The list I posted originally I got from invoking the check manually from the command line.

Cheers
JR

[kolipakakondal]

Closing this issue as the original issue of importing and building ESP-ADF example is working fine, will track the erroneous tools message prompt issue separately, and the fix will be provided in the next release.