## Appendix B. Eclipse Plug-in Development integration

Eclipse PDE “provides comprehensive OSGi tooling, which makes it an ideal environment for component programming, not just Eclipse plug-in development”. In fact, Eclipse IDE is built on top of OSGi and uses at its core the Equinox OSGi implementation. Moreover, all the Eclipse plug-ins are OSGi bundles. This makes Eclipse with PDE a very attractive tool for creating OSGi bundles. While Gemini Blueprint artifacts can be integrated as normal libraries, through Spring IDE, Gemini Blueprint can be installed as a target platform ready to be used with PDE.

The following steps illustrate how to install Spring IDE extension for OSGi and how to use it in your project. Please see Spring IDE installation page for information on its requirement and install process.

1. Set Up Nightly Update Site

   At the moment, the OSGi extension is available only on Spring-IDE nightly builds update site. Add it to the Eclipse configuration by opening the software update menu:

   and create a new update site pointing to `http://www.springide.org/updatesite_nightly`

2. Select Spring IDE OSGi extension

   After using the nightly update site and performing the update, Eclipse will show the search results. Unfold the Extension menu and select `Spring IDE OSGi Extension`:

   and proceed with the instalation.

3. Select Gemini Blueprint Target Platform

   Once the plug-in has been installed, Gemini Blueprint can be selected as a PDE target platform. Select Window/Preferences/Plug-in Development and then Target Platform.

   Select the Gemini Blueprint version that you desire from the Pre-defined Target (1) drop box and press Load Target (2). Eclipse will load the target and all bundles defined by it - this includes Gemini Blueprint bundles and all of its dependencies (SLF4J is used for logging). The configuration can be customised appropriately by removing and adding bundles.

   In its current form, the plug-in offers two predefined targets - one for the stable released versions and one for the SNAPSHOT/nightly Gemini Blueprint jars. The latter does not contain any jars as it is expected for the user to download them manually. Simply locate the path where the plug-ins should be located (3), enter that folder and do a

       mvn install

   The latest Gemini Blueprint SNAPSHOT will be downloaded along with all of its dependencies. Simply click on the reload button (4) and Eclipse will pick up the bundles.

4. Select PDE Perspective

   Once the installation is completed just select the PDE perspective:

   and the Gemini Blueprint and its dependencies should be available in the plug-ins view:

Prev | Home | Next
Appendix A. Security Integration | Sponsored by SpringSource | Appendix C. Useful OSGi tips