Laurie Williams, Dright Ho, and Sarah Smith
CSC 326 - Software Engineering
Department of Computer Science
North Carolina State University

Back to Software Engineering Tutorials

The base functionality of Eclipse can be extended through the use of plug-ins. These plug-ins can add functionality to Eclipse like modeling, UML, XML, metrics, reliability reports, and other information. The Eclipse web site has a list of links to many popular plug-in repositories. Check out the Installing Plug-ins in Eclipse Environment tutorial for further details.

Eclipse has two main components for displaying information about a project. These are editors and views.

4.1 Editors
Editors are a way for a user to change information in a project. An editor may contain text or objects that can be changed and manipulated. Editors mostly contain the code being developed during a project, like Java code. A different editor may be opened depending on the file type selected. The editor or application that is opened when a file is selected can be modified in Window > Preferences > Workbench > File Associations.

4.2 Views
Views show a representation of a single task in the Eclipse environment. For example the Navigator view shows the hierarchal file structure of every project open in the Eclipse workbench, and allows a file to be opened. Any number of views can be opened in the workbench at one time. To open a view that is not displayed in the workbench select Window > Show View..> Other.. for a complete list of views.

4.3 Moving Editors and Views
Editors and views can be moved around on the workbench to create a custom layout. To move an editor or a view, select the tab with the name of the file or view being moved. If you can add the file or view to a stack of files or views a is displayed. If you can move the file or view beside an editor or view a black arrow is shown with the new location of the file or view outlined in the workspace. A view may not be stacked in an editor location and an editor may not be stacked in a view location.

Perspectives show all functionality associated with a large task, for example the Java Perspective is associated with creating a Java application. Each perspective has a default layout with views and editors appropriate for that task. If the views and editors are moved within a perspective, Eclipse will remember the new layout.

5.1 Opening a Perspective
A perspective is opened by selecting the Window > Open Perspective..> Other.. for a complete list of perspectives, or the icon can be selected in the tab located in the upper right of the screen. In Eclipse there are 8 perspectives, but other perspectives may be listed when plug-ins are added. A description of the 8 perspectives are listed below:

5.1.1 CVS Repository Exploring : provides tools for the user to connect to and explore a CVS repository.
5.1.2 Debug : provides tools for the user to create breakpoints in code, and step through the code to view values of variables at a given point in time in order to debug mistakes in the code base.
5.1.3 Java : provides tools for the user to easily create and explore a Java project
5.1.4 Java Browsing : provides tools for the user to quickly move between Java projects, packages, types, and members of all Java projects open in the workbench.
5.1.5 Java Type Hierarchy : provides tools for the user to quickly view the Java type hierarchy of files in a Java project
5.1.6 Plug-in Development : provides tools for a user to create an Eclipse plug-in
5.1.7 Resource : provides general editing tools for the user to create a basic project. This is the default perspective.
5.1.8 Team Synchronizing : provides tools for teams to synchronize their code base through a CVS repository or other means.

5.2 Views in a Perspective
Each perspective has a default layout of views that are most commonly used for the task that the perspective supports; however, each perspective has other views that may provide helpful functionality to the perspective.

5.3 Switching Between Perspectives
All perspectives that have been opened, remain easily accessible through the perspective tab at the upper right of the workbench. A user can change perspective by clicking on the icon associated with the perspective they wish to change too.

5.4 Closing Perspectives
To close a perspective, right click on the icon associated with the perspective that you wish to close and select Close from the context menu.

9.1 There are four ways to create a Java Class. First, select the package you wish to create the class in.

9.1.1 Select File > New > Class

9.1.2 Select the arrow of the button in the upper left of the toolbar. Select Class,

9.1.3 Right click on a package in the Package Explorer view in the Java Perspective, and select Class, or

9.1.4 Click on the arrow of the icon in the toolbar. Select Class.

9.2 Check to make sure that you are creating the Class in the proper package. Give the class a name.

9.2.1 Use the Browse button to search for a super class if your new class should inherit from another class.

9.2.2 Use the Add button to add interfaces the new class should extend.

9.2.3 Check the public static void main(String [] args) checkbox if the class you are creating starts the application.

9.2.4 Check the Inherit abstract methods checkbox if you would like to inherit abstract methods from a super class or interface.

9.3 Click Finish. The new class will be open in the editor.

There are several ways to run a program.

11.1 If the program has never been run before, you need to create run configuration for the program.

11.1.1 Select Run > Run..

11.1.2 Click the arrow on the icon in the tool bar and select Run..

11.1.3 Right click on the project you wish to run. Select Run > Java Application or Run > Run..

11.2 Select Java Application, then click the New button at the bottom left of the screen. This creates a new run configuration. Give the setting a name. If the project is not specified, you can Browse for it. To find the main class in the project, select the Search button.

11.3 If there are any command line arguments, enter them in the Program arguments text box under the Arguments tab.

11.4 You can add jar files to the classpath under the Classpath tab.

11.5 Click Run to run the program.

11.6 If you have already created a run configuration, you can select the configuration by name by selecting the arrow on the icon in the tool bar. Just pressing the green button will run the last configuration launched by Eclipse.

Following computer science tradition, you will now write a simple HelloWorld application using Eclipse. We will call our application Greeter, and it will be able to say hello in several different languages. The diagram below describes the classes and their relationships in this example.

Language Greeting German guten Morgen Spanish hola French bonjour Italian ciao

For this exercise create a Greeter program that can say hello in three different languages. You can just print the hello statements to System.out. Show the application to your TA for credit.

• About Eclipse and the Eclipse Foundation
• Eclipse Plug-ins
• Using Perspectives in the Eclipse UI - Dave Springgay
• Eclipse Platform Technical Overview - Object Technology International, Inc.
• Eclipse Project FAQ
• Workbench User Guide
• Java Development User Guide
• Exercise Solution