Plug-ins Tab

When testing your plug-in, you have the ability to manage and hand-select the list of plug-ins that you want to launch with on the Plug-ins Tab of the launch configuration.

Plug-in Selection Options

The Launch with all workspace and enabled external plug-ins option is the default setting. With this option, the plug-ins that constitute the runtime Eclipse application you are launching are all the workspace plug-ins and all the plug-ins that are explicitly checked on the Window > Preferences... > Plug-in Development > Target Platform preference page. This option requires very little maintenance; since, your list of plug-ins is maintained by PDE and updated prior to every launch as you create or delete plug-ins in the workspace. This option is recommended when the Program to Run setting on the Main tab of the launch configuration is set to the default product or default application of your target.

The Use features in the workspace is an advanced option that requires a special setup. It should only be used when you want to test feature lifecycles and leave Update Manager in control of your startup sequence. Refer to the Tips and Trips section for details how to set up your workspace for this option.

The Choose plug-ins and fragments from the list option is typically used when you are testing an RCP application that uses a subset of the plug-ins from the workspace and target. This setting requires more maintenance than the other two options; since, you have to make sure the list of selected plug-ins is up-to-date when you add or remove a plug-in from the workspace. There are several buttons available to help you select plug-ins including an Add Required Plug-ins button. The Add Required Plug-ins button should be used often to make sure the subset of plug-ins you have selected is complete.

Please note that if a workspace plug-in has the same ID as a target plug-in, the workspace plug-in is used in place of its target counterpart. This behavior applies to all three plug-in selection options described above; however, it can be overridden by choosing the third option and deselecting a workspace plug-in and selecting its target counterpart.

Validate Plug-in Set

The Validate Plug-in Set functionality, which can be invoked via the button located at the bottom right corner of the Plug-ins tab, analyzes the selected set of plug-ins to find launching startup problems. For instance, missing dependencies, unsatisfied execution environments, incompatible platform filters are a few of the potential problems that may prevent your plug-in from running.

By checking the Validate plug-in dependencies automatically prior to launching option, PDE will run the Validate Plug-in Set function prior to every launch. If problems are found, a dialog showing the error comes up for you to examine and you have the option to continue the launch without correcting the problems or canceling the launch to rectify the issues. Otherwise, if no problems are found, the launch proceeds as normal.