Eclipse: introduction, plugins September 25, 2008

Recommended plugins:

AnyEdit Tools
Update site: http://andrei.gmxhome.de/eclipse/
A bunch of useful and indispensable tools for Eclipse

Regex Util
Update site: http://regex-util.sourceforge.net/update/
Additional view for testing regular expressions

WebTools Project
Update site: http://download.eclipse.org/webtools/updates/
A platform for web tools. Contains a nice XML editor with XML Schema support as well as HTML/CSS/JavaScript editors that I personally don’t like for many reasons.

WebTools Project’s XML editor provides code completion based on XML Schema or DTD. Which means that to get code completion working for XSL, for example, all you have to do is set xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" in the root element of any XMXL file. This will enable code assist and validation of elements from the xsl namespace. You can even create your own schema and use it. However there is a very unpleasant bug/feature which the developers are not going to fix: if both DTD and Schema are set for an xml file, the editor will try to take code assist prompts from DTD, entirely ignoring the Schema. That is, while editing xsl files that have DOCTYPE you won’t have any code prompts; to make them work you would have to temporarily comment out DOCTYPE. Or use the XML editor from Spket IDE which is less convenient than WebTools.

DBViewer Plugin
Update site: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/zigen/home/plugin/dbviewer/
SQL client for the majority of modern databases (including MySQL). Can show/edit table structure, display table entries by page and has a nice SQL query editor that includes code assist for SQL structures and data of your database (that is, it will show table and field names from the database).

Azzurri Clay
Update site: http://www.azzurri.co.jp/eclipse/plugins
DB design. Allows creating logical diagrams with table structure and connections and then generate SQL queries for a specific DB engine. Core version is free, Pro version requires payment.

Aptana Studio
Update site: http://update.aptana.com/update/studio/3.2/
Web IDE. Doesn’t really need explaining, the website has lots of documentation and screencasts. I only use the HTML and CSS editors of this plugin.

Spket IDE
Update site: http://spket.com/update/
IDE for working with JavaScript and XML. I use it for its first-rate JavaScript editor that understands modern patterns and has advanced code assist. If only it had refactoring :-) As for drawbacks, I can mention lacking certain JavaScript core functions and methods (such as setTimeout, Element.innerHTML, etc.) and absence of documentation (apart from code assist) for core objects and methods.

Eclipse Colorer
Syntax highlighter for 150+ programming languages including Parser. I recommend installing version 0.8.0 which is not available on the update site.

Remote System Explorer (RSE)
Update site: http://download.eclipse.org/releases/ganymede/
Plugin for working with remote servers via FTP/SSH/Telnet. Allows editing files directly on the FTP/SSH server by locally saving file change history and the file itself (so it can easily be restored). Available in the standard Ganymede repository (see ...). I recommend using it instead of Aptana’s FTP plugin which has problems with editing files using editors other than those that come with Aptana.

Additional materials:

— Screencast (QuickTime, 188 MB)