| Java, Eclipse and Web programming Tutorials |
Version 0.4
Copyright © 2008 - 2010 Lars Vogel
03.02.2010
| Revision History | ||
|---|---|---|
| Revision 0.1 | 30.11.2008 | Lars Vogel |
| Created Article | ||
| Revision 0.2 | 20.04.2009 | Lars Vogel |
| Added links to Eclipse RCP and Eclipse Plugin development | ||
| Revision 0.3 | 25.05.2009 | Lars Vogel |
| feature.xml described | ||
| Revision 0.4 | 03.02.2010 | Lars Vogel |
| Fixed missing part | ||
Eclipse Feature Project
This article describes the basic steps on how to create an Eclipse feature project.
This article assumes that you are already familiar with using the Eclipse IDE.
This articles mainly exists because I need the description of how to create a feature in several articles. Instead of describing it several times I write it here once and link to it. But please note that feature project by itself are not very useful. Features are used in the update manager and the build process.
Table of Contents
A feature project is basically a list of plugins and other features which can be understood as a logical separate unit.
Eclipse uses feature projects for the updates manager and for the build process. You can also supply a software license which a feature
The following description will focus on the creation of features, the general concept of developing Eclipse Plugins or Eclipse RCP application is described in Eclipse RCP tutorial and Eclipse Plugin Development .
The following will explain how to create an Eclipse feature project.
Create a Eclipse RCP application "de.vogella.featuretest.testplugin". Use the "RCP application with a view" as template.
Create a feature project "de.vogella.featuretest.feature" via File ->New -> Other. Select the following entry.



In your new project you have now a file feature.xml. Select this file to get an editor to maintain the properties. For example change the name of your feature to the project name "de.vogella.featuretest.feature".

The tab "Plug-ins" allows you to change the plugins which are in the feature.

Thank you for practicing with this tutorial.
Please note that I maintain this website in my private time. If you like the information I'm providing please help me by donating.For questions and discussion around this article please use the www.vogella.de Google Group. Also if you note an error in this article please post the error and if possible the correction to the Group.
I believe the following is a very good guideline for asking questions in general and also for the Google group How To Ask Questions The Smart Way.
http://wiki.eclipse.org/Equinox_p2 The Eclipse p2 update wiki