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Useful Eclipse Plugins

Last modified by Kieran Kelleher on 2011/07/25 18:02

Introduction

The functionality of Eclipse can be extended with more plugins and these are often free and sometimes open source. They can usually be installed the same way as you first installed WOLips. Simply get the appropriate update "Update URL" for the plugin (or sometimes a selection of plugins are available from the author), create a remote update site and install. The remote update site URL can usually be found somewhere in the documentation and often is more convenient that downloading the files and installing from HD.

Of course, if you are reading this, it goes without saying that WOLips is the most useful plugin of all! 

Useful Plugins

Name

Details

EGit

Eclipse plugin for git version control
http://www.eclipse.org/egit/download/

Update Site:

  • http://download.eclipse.org/egit/updates

    Do you want to use git for local private branching of your subversion working copy, or perhaps you want to use git locally on a project that is maintained in a remote subversion repository? Then don't use the git-svn tool, instead use the git+svn protocol to transparently use git on your local svn working copies. Happy local branching!

Subclipse

Essential Subversion client
http://subclipse.tigris.org/

Update Site:

AspectJ Development Tools (AJDT) for Eclipse

Easily apply AspectJ pointcuts in your code using this Eclipse Plugin. AspectJ itself is already included in the plugin, so you don;t need to download or install it separately.
What Can I do with AspectJ?
Simplistic Analogy: CSS styles select certain HTML elements and apply styles.
AspectJ pointcut statements select blocks of code in your project and apply custom logic before, after or instead of those methods.

AspectJ pointcuts select certain blocks of code (typically methods and constructors)
in your code and allow you to "intercept" execution at the "joinpoints" before and after those blocks of code execute and dynamically insert logic to inspect
the current caller (in some cases), the method being called, the arguments being passed. You can log out trace information, make assertions on the method
arguments, modify method behavior, etc. In development AspectJ is useful for Tracing, Profiling and Logging, Pre- and Post- Conditions checking, Contract Enforcement and Configuration Management.

One use case might be where you want to trace program flow. See this example.
Learn More:
http://www.eclipse.org/ajdt/gettingstarted.php

Update Sites:
Choose the update site on this page that matches the version of Eclipse you are using:
http://www.eclipse.org/ajdt/downloads/

Jaspersoft Studio

JasperReports report editor plug-in. Check for updates every month since this is a new product under active development.
http://jasperstudio.sourceforge.net/updates/site.xml
 

Information
JasperReports Version Compatibility

Make sure you go to Jaspersoft Studio preferences in Eclipse preferences and select the current version of JasperReports that you are using for your project. It is easy to check the current version of JasperReports in Wonder by looking at the version in the JasperReports jar inside ERJasperReports/Libraries/.

Turning on the Show compatability warning dialog checkbox might also be a good idea.


Zen Coding

Zen Coding is an editor plugin for high-speed HTML, XML, XSL (or any other structured code format) coding and editing.
Just watch this demo video, and you will be convinced that you must have this plug-in!

https://github.com/sergeche/eclipse-zencoding

Update Site:

JSEclipse

QuickREx

AnyEdit

AnyEdit plugin adds several new tools to the context menu of text- based Eclipse editors, to Eclipse main menu and editor toolbar.
http://andrei.gmxhome.de/eclipse/
AnyEdit contributes also Import/Export working sets wizards.
AnyEdit also allows you to automatically remove trailing whitespaces and/or perform tabs<->spaces conversion on a "save" action in all text-based Eclipse editors, and can show whitespace in text editors.

JD-Eclipse

On the fly decompilation of .class files - useful for debugging.
http://java.decompiler.free.fr/?q=jdeclipse
Update Sites:
http://java.decompiler.free.fr/jd-eclipse/update

Jadclipse

On the fly decompilation of .class files - useful for debugging.
http://jadclipse.sourceforge.net/
Works in association with pre-installed jad executable
Update Sites:
Eclipse 3.2: http://webobjects.mdimension.com/jadclipse/3.2
Eclipse 3.3: http://webobjects.mdimension.com/jadclipse/3.3
Eclipse 3.4: http://webobjects.mdimension.com/jadclipse/3.4

FindBugs

Finds bugs via static analysis.
Update Site: http://findbugs.cs.umd.edu/eclipse

Metrics

Analyzes code and can identify problem areas where complexity is too high (long methods, too many parameters, too much indentation, etc.)
Update Site: http://metrics.sourceforge.net/

PMD

Static code analysis, finds problems in your code
Update Site: http://pmd.sf.net/eclipse

TestNG

Unit testing
Update Site: http://beust.com/eclipse

CheckStyle

Checks your code is consistent with a customisable set of coding rules
Update Site: http://eclipse-cs.sourceforge.net/update

Color Themes

JIRA Connector

Integrates JIRA bug tracking into Eclipse Mylyn task management 
http://update.atlassian.com/atlassian-eclipse-plugin/e3.6