Tricks in testing Eclipse update sites

[Marshall Schor <ms...@schor.com>]

 I had to learn some tricks by trial/error and googling to test the eclipse
update site builds.  Here they are, for Eclipse 3.5.2 (may be similar for other
levels).

Not doing these tricks causes strange errors when installing software - often
during "provisioning".

The most reliable way:  Assume you have a test-eclipse installation

* build a new eclipse update site
* erase the old test-eclipse installation (rm -r its top level directory)
* unzip a fresh version into a new test-eclipse directory
* delete any previous workspace used with it

Then launch, and install the software.

Another way: how to re-install software in an existing Eclipse, without removing
it, perhaps because you're testing a new version:
* use menu Help -> install new software -> show installed software; pick the
thing you want to re-install, and select "uninstall".
* NOTE: My 3.5.2 installation appears to do nothing, but it's preparing the
uninstall (faulty use of modal menus, etc.).  Just wait...
* after about 10 seconds, a pop-up asks for confirmation, click ok to proceed
* NOTE: again, no screen indicates anything is being done (but you might see
some status flying by in the corner of the main Eclipse window).
* after some more time, another pop-up asks to restart Eclipse, say yes.

* Now, shut down Eclipse, and finish the uninstall by hand:
* first, go to the plugins directory, and remove the old versions of the plugins
of what you uninstalled
* 2nd, go to the top level Eclipse directory, and find the file artifacts.xml. 
Edit this file, finding and removing all stanzas that refer to the artifacts
that were uninstalled.  Save this file.

Now, a reinstall works (for me).

-Marshall Schor

Re: Tricks in testing Eclipse update sites

[Marshall Schor <ms...@schor.com>]

 an improvement, below

On 8/5/2010 3:05 PM, Marshall Schor wrote:
>  I had to learn some tricks by trial/error and googling to test the eclipse
> update site builds.  Here they are, for Eclipse 3.5.2 (may be similar for other
> levels).
>
> Not doing these tricks causes strange errors when installing software - often
> during "provisioning".
>
> The most reliable way:  Assume you have a test-eclipse installation
>
> * build a new eclipse update site
> * erase the old test-eclipse installation (rm -r its top level directory)
> * unzip a fresh version into a new test-eclipse directory
> * delete any previous workspace used with it
>
> Then launch, and install the software.
>
> Another way: how to re-install software in an existing Eclipse, without removing
> it, perhaps because you're testing a new version:
> * use menu Help -> install new software -> show installed software; pick the
> thing you want to re-install, and select "uninstall".
> * NOTE: My 3.5.2 installation appears to do nothing, but it's preparing the
> uninstall (faulty use of modal menus, etc.).  Just wait...
> * after about 10 seconds, a pop-up asks for confirmation, click ok to proceed
> * NOTE: again, no screen indicates anything is being done (but you might see
> some status flying by in the corner of the main Eclipse window).
> * after some more time, another pop-up asks to restart Eclipse, say yes.
>
> * Now, shut down Eclipse, and finish the uninstall by hand:
> * first, go to the plugins directory, and remove the old versions of the plugins
> of what you uninstalled

I found in some cases, I needed also to go to the features/ and remove the
uninstalled plugins.

> * 2nd, go to the top level Eclipse directory, and find the file artifacts.xml. 
> Edit this file, finding and removing all stanzas that refer to the artifacts
> that were uninstalled.  Save this file.

Here's a way to use the Eclipse editor to do this.  Start Eclipse, open some
temp project, add a file "linked to a file in the file system" and link it to
the artifacts.xml file.

Then, select the file in the Eclipse view, and click on menu -> Search, and use
a regular expression search to find the stanzas.  Click on replace, give the
empty string as the replacement, and click "Preview" - and check the results are
what you want.

The regular expression can be something like:

(?s)<artifact [^>]*?org\.eclipse\.uima*?</artifact>

In English,  turn on multi-line matching for ".", look for the start of an
artifact stanza that has org.eclipse.uima and scan to the first ending
</artifact> tag.

When I do this, I use another eclipse instance :-)  -Marshall
> Now, a reinstall works (for me).
>
> -Marshall Schor
>
>