Installing Aptana plugin in J!Code... There must be an easier way :)

[torkil]

Just read the dev blog post on the SoC projects for 2007, and decided to give JCode a go! Bear in mind I have never used Eclipse or EasyEclipse before, but by reading the forums I have gathered that JCode is a sort of EasyEclipse, so I made the assumption that I was running EasyEclipse.

The Aptana plugin seems to be a recommended addon by some Joomla programmers here on the forums, so I decided to give that a go as well, but installing it was a bit of a hassle. Here is a "log" of what I had to do in case some other unexperienced noob should try the same stunt. If someone knows an easier way or what I am doing wrong, please share.

I'm trying to follow the instructions on this page, which explains step by step how to use update.aptana.com as a remote site to install the Aptana plugin into JCode:
http://www.aptana.com/docs/index.php/Pl ... figuration

Connecting to the update site works fine, but when at the screen where I select features to install, I get an error when I click on Aptana, saying:
QuantumDB (3.0.3) requires plug-in "org.eclipse.jdt.ui"

Viewing error details gives me two error messages:
QuantumDB (3.0.3) requires plug-in "org.eclipse.jdt.ui"
Eclipse Tools (3.2.1) requires plug-in "org.eclipse.jdt.core"

From what I could gather from the documentation, this meant that I needed the Eclipse Java Development Tools which should contain both these plug-ins. This error is not a problem if you are running pure EasyEclipse, I have tested that too.

So I went to the EasyEclipse plugins page and found the Eclipse Java Development Tools plugin there for download. I'm on a mac so I downloaded the dmg-file and installed that successfully using the standard installer. Except that this did not install the plugin into JCode, it only ended up in my Macintosh HD/Library/EasyEclipse-folder.

So next thing I do is adding the EasyEclipse folder to my Extension Locations. I do this by opening Help > Software Updates > Manage configuration. Then right click JCode studio for Joomla and select Add > Extension Location. By doing so I am prompted to restart JCode. Being an obedient newbie, I agree to restart. By checking the plugins things now seem to be fine. Hooraah!

So when I now go back and repeat the steps required to install Aptana, I get no error messages. I accept the Licence agreement and click finish to start the installation. This seems to take a while. I recon it is a big plugin and drink some coffee while I wait.

Then I get a Verification popup saying that I'm about to install an unsigned feature. "This feature has not been digitally signed. Feature name: Aptana web development tools, com.aptana.ide.feature_0.2.9.17048". *sigh*. Oh well... install anyways! But no, a new error:

"Unable to complete action for feature "Aptana web development tools" due to errors." Error details gives me a long list of "unable to create file" errors. So looking through the Aptana forum it seems as if it's EasyEclipse that does not have the correct file privileges one some folders. More precicely: /Application/JCode/Contents/MacOS/plugins and the /features folder on the same level.

After fixing the folder privileges the installation works fine and I get Aptana up and running... Finally

So: Is there an easier way to install Eclipse Java Development Tools maybe? Installing Aptana was easy enough once the Eclipse JDT was in place and the mentioned folders were writeable.

[ianmac]

This is perhaps true...  The J!Code that is available for download off the Joomla! Forge is an old version.  We should have a new one out soon...  we're just waiting for various people to have time to package it and release it.  The newer version is based on Europa and will hopefully handle this better.

Ian

[torkil]

Awww 

Oh well, I think I will test EasyEclipse for the time being then.

[torkil]

By the way: Where can I stay updated on the progression of J!Code now that the SoC has ended? Would this forum be the place to hang out? Seems like a promising project that I'd love to help out testing.

[ianmac]

Probably looking: http://groups.google.ca/group/joomla-ide?lnk=sg

would be your best bet to stay up to date.  I would imagine a note would be posted there once it is released.

You can grab the plugin now if you want from http://www.ianmaclennan.org/jeclipse/or ... _1.0.0.jar

Ian

[Comenius]

What's the best way to install this into an existing Eclipse?

Also, isn't Apatna completely separate?  Confused...

[ianmac]

Installing what?  The JEclipse plugin?  All you do is copy the file into your plugins directory.

Ian

[Comenius]

Yes, Ian, that was it.   

As I've seen a number of plugins use the internal Eclipse updater I wasn't sure if that was also how JEclipse was best installed.

[ianmac]

We don't have an update site, so it has to be done this way at this point.

Ian

[Comenius]

Hi Ian,

Using Eclipse 3.3.1.1 (the latest PDT all in one package from the Eclipse.org website) I dropped the entire org.joomla.eclipse.joomlaextension_1.0.0 folder into my eclipse\plugins folder and restarted Eclipse. 

Perhaps I don't know how to find it but it doesn't seem to be active.  It doesn't show up in New.. or Show View... or Open Perspective or even under Software Updates -> Manage Configuration.

Any advice? 

[ianmac]

It relies on PHPEclipse which may not play nicely with PDT.

Ian

[madsamurai]

Probably looking: http://groups.google.ca/group/joomla-ide?lnk=sg

would be your best bet to stay up to date.  I would imagine a note would be posted there once it is released.

You can grab the plugin now if you want from http://www.ianmaclennan.org/jeclipse/or ... _1.0.0.jar

Ian

Hi Ian, love what you're doing with this, now that I'm figuring it out. Had a couple questions:
1) this file seems to be more up-to-date than the files on fraud's site. Is that correct? They're both labeled the same version. Looking at his source, it was packaged with a beta release of J1.5. Does yours include the same release or a more recent one?
2) assuming yours is more recent, is the org.joomla.eclipse.jeclipse.feature_1.0.0.jar in fraud's binary distro still required?
and 3) I would love to help out with this, but I don't know java for squat. Do you guys need beta-testers or anything like that? I like where it's going and will be using it pretty much constantly here, so if there's something I can do please let me know.

Thanks!

[torkil]

I'm very interested in looking into this too. If there is a newer version available than what's on the forge and on Ian's website, I'd be more than happy to participate in testing. Not much action in the Joomla IDE Google Group either... is the project dead? Are there anyone using it?

For the time being I am using Coda, by Panic, when writing code here. Not exactly made especially for Joomla Developers, but it has some nice features that I have come to love

[ianmac]

Who is Fraud and where is his distro? I'm not familiar with that one.

Not a lot of work has happened on J!Code, though I've been trying to create a new wizard.

Ian

[madsamurai]

Who is Fraud and where is his distro? I'm not familiar with that one.

Should've said Fuad, not Fraud (lack of sleep leads to dyslexia)... his distro is the one everyone was throwing around in the "Building the Ship" thread ( http://www.kleq.web.ugm.ac.id/images/joomlaeclipse/ ). I assumed you were expanding on that, but mahaps I was wrong. either way, yours is better I think.

I'm sorry to hear the project has slowed down. Like I said, if there's anything I can do to help out, please let me know. I have started a collection of code snippets as I work, and I'll make those available at some point.
What eclipse plugins do I need to help out on the plugin itself? I saw some plugin development stuff on the eclipse list, but I'm primarily a php/javascript guy so I'm not sure I've added all I need to work on java projects... I don't really know much about java, but it keeps coming up, so I might as well start learning my way around it.

What you've done so far is pretty handy stuff. There are some small issues in the wizards, but I've been able to find ways to work around them. They just need a little finessing I think. I'd love to see a wizard for a 'new template project', and I'd love to see code completion for joomla framework stuff.

Thanks again,
Chad

[torkil]

What would be really sweet, is something like Propel, to auto-create the backend of your component for you

I think it is used by Symfony.